Amazon.com: Prague in Danger: The Years of German Occupation, 1939-45: Memories and History, Terror and Resistance, Theater and Jazz, Film and Poetry, Politics and War: Peter Demetz: Books

From Publishers Weekly
Demetz (The Air Show at Brescia, 1909) takes a creative approach to this account of wartime Prague, as another subtitle indicates: Memories and History, Terror and Resistance, Theater and Jazz, Film and Poetry, Politics and War. Interspersing political and cultural history with snippets of memoir of his own wartime experiences and those of other Czechs, Demetz, whose mother was Jewish, focuses on politics and culture to explain how the Nazis ruled his home country and how the Czechs tried to hang on to their vivid prewar cultural life. Without avoiding the issue of collaboration with the Nazis, Demetz takes great pride in Czech resistance, both political and cultural, such as honoring the late president Masaryk on Hitler's birthday, on April 20. Demetz also focuses on individuals like Milena Jesenska, Kafka's onetime lover turned political writer, who was sent to Bergen-Belsen for helping Jews and others escape from Czechoslovakia . This history is both vivid and compelling, especially Demetz's personal stories. Some of those passages, particularly how a young Demetz dealt with romance and sex in a country ravaged by war, are achingly beautiful. (Apr.)
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Review

"Prague in Danger is a compulsive read, and very finely done. There is by now a mass of more or less analytical commentary on the Protectorate, and of course we have powerful memoirs and personal testimony. But I haven't seen the two genres combined in this way, and with such great sensitivity to the interplay of public and private.

"Demetz conveys very poignantly, and with sharp insight, just what it was like to live day to day in occupied Prague, and moreover to live right at the intersection of the Czech, Jewish and German spheres. He embodies exactly what was destroyed by Nazi thuggery and then by Czech vengefulness. I enjoyed too the forays into cultural history--of jazz or film, for example, or about Orten and Jesenska; and I hope that they can be appreciated, even by those who know nothing of the background, as conveying a flavour of the period and place.

"The politics are likewise depicted with a sure touch and sound judgment, as well as with an eye for the unfamiliar vignette, even in the case of the best-known episodes. Demetz's book should sharpen many readers' sense of the peculiar tragedy of the very last phase of the old multicultural Prague whose downfall he chronicles." —Robert Evans, Regius Professor of History, Oxford University

Praise for Prague in Black and Gold:

“A rich and intricate story . . . [Demetz] deftly tells the legends of the city’s origin . . . He deliberately avoids the sanitized and prettified guidebook approach to Prague in favor of a more somber register which acknowledges that conflicts were never far beneath the surface and could explode in the most brutal forms.” —R.J.W. Evans, The New York Review of Books

“[Demetz] writes with the ease and authority of a man showing us his old neighborhood. He seems to be on speaking terms with the many poets, chroniclers, rabbis, and clerics who lived and wrote in Prague, and allows us to read history through their lives and words . . . Reading Demetz is more like taking a graduate course with a master teacher: You know you are in the hands of an authority.”—Helen Epstein, The Boston Sunday Globe

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Product Details

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (April 15, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374281262
ISBN-13: 978-0374281267
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #624,812 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#18 in Books > History > Europe > Central Europe
#27 in Books > History > Europe > Slovakia
#64 in Books > History > Europe > Czech Republic

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Hitler never hesitated about his ultimate intent to create new "living space" (Lebensraum) for his nation in the east and to smash the liberal state of Czechoslovakia on his way. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
old town square, national theater, protectorate government

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Nazi Party, Czechoslovak Republic, Communist Party, Soviet Union, First Republic, Wenceslas Square, National Solidarity, Vltava River, President H�cha, Franz Kafka, New York, Czechoslovak Army, Czech Fascists, Munich Conference, Emanuel Moravec, Sudeten Germans, World War, Office of the Reichsprotektor, Charles Square, Prague German, Social Democrats, Aunt Irma, Max Brod, Foreign Office

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	97% buy the item featured on this page: Prague in Danger: The Years of German Occupation, 1939-45: Memories and History, Terror and Resistance, Theater and Jazz, Film and Poetry, Politics and War 5.0 out of 5 stars (2) $19.00
	2% buy Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion 5.0 out of 5 stars (2) $10.17
	1% buy Prague Then and Now (Then & Now Thunder Bay) 4.3 out of 5 stars (6) $9.98

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5.0 out of 5 stars An Insider's View of the Nazi Absorption of Czechoslovakia, June 17, 2009

By	Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Prague in Danger: The Years of German Occupation, 1939-45: Memories and History, Terror and Resistance, Theater and Jazz, Film and Poetry, Politics and War (Paperback)

This is quite an unique study of the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia in general, and Prague in particular, in that the author, a renown Yale professor of Germanic studies, lived through the events he describes as a child and young man. For those who have visited Prague, a truly remarkable city, it is nothing short of a miracle that so much of its pre-war architecture has survived until today in the Czech Republic. One bonus of the book is the author fills us in on the combined Czech-Jewish-German dimensions of the pre-way city [including Kafka of course]. Fortunately, the Allies did little damage to Prague, for it never was a central target. So much of the terrain the author describes still remains.

So the book proceeds on several tracks simultaneously. The primary focus are the historical events stemming from the Munich fiasco and the return of the Sudenten Germans to Germany, and the eventual "agreement" whereby the entire country became a German protectorate in 1939. In this regard, the author discusses resistance groups, anti-Jewish laws that were imposed, the German effort to subplant Czech cultural life, Reinhard Heydrich during his period as Protector until he was killed by British commandos (leading to the horrendous destruction of Lidice), Heyrich's successor Karl H. Frank, and the Prague uprisings at the end of the war and the displacement of the German authorities. In addition, the author educates us about one of the most fascinating places I visited in the Czech Republic, the former concentration camp at Terezin, where he lost his mother and several of his relatives were imprisoned. We hear relatively little about these historical episodes, and this important book helps restore the balance.

The other track, implemented through discrete sections inserted into the main text, is the author's own life and experiences. The reader really can begin to understand the effectiveness of German control of the country during this period from his own experiences. It is somewhat chilling stuff to read. The author also has first-hand experience with the de-Germanization retributory actions taken after the war and how one unfortunate result was to destroy much of Prague's important German language culture and university education. On a happier note, the author also recounts Prague jazz and movies during the war; interestingly, Goebbels in 1944 tried to shift most German film production to Prague due to the damage done to UFA by Allied bombing.

So, there is much important central European history included in the book. The author also has contributed an excellent 19 page bibliography, though most sources (as is to be expected) are in German and Czech, as well as an extensive index. To understand today we must understand the past, as the historians tell us. This excellent book helps us do just that.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Peril in Prague, May 24, 2008

By	Christian Schlect (Yakima, Washington/USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

A selective history, interwoven with personal reminisces by the author, of a great European city under the thumb of the Nazis. Highly recommended.

Peter Demetz is both a cultural scholar and a witness. His compelling personal story, as a youthful civilian in and around wartime Prague, unfolds in scattered places throughout this book in beautiful, truthful, and understated prose.

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