Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

Writing style is all over the place and hard to follow. He jumps back and forth in time and mixes stories and facts in an odd way that is best described as choppy.

The book is a collection of essays on Czech literary and other topics. These are interspersed with autobiographic segments describing the author's and his parent's life in Brno, Prague, Berlin and the Sudetenland in the 1930s and 1940's. To better distinguish essays from autobiographic segments the latter are printed in italics throughout the volume. As reflected in the essays, the author's main interest and expertise appears to lie in the activity and writings of Jewish-Bohemian journalists between the two world wars. Essays that deal with other topics, such as the "Heydrichiada", are for the most part rehashes of information that is readily available elsewhere (Wikipedia, for example).
The author's writing style is often condescending and sarcastic. He mentions in the Preface of the book that his Farrar, Straus and Giroux editor, Ms Sifton, kept reminding him "of the expectations of his American readership". I, for one, am disappointed in the author's narrative and style. The book contains much trifling chatter. Thus, the author informs us on page 7 (I have heard the story countless times) that Adolf Hitler was addicted to watching a movie every night and that generally it was a B Western and on pp.42-3 that (and that was new to me) German-Bohemian girls and women in Prague wore hefty shoes and no make-up while Czech girls were well turned out, wearing high heels and expensive stockings. Nor did I care for derogatory superlatives such as (p.235) "The German troops...fought with medieval brutality" or (p.170) "celebrations...with Teutonic pomp". Some of the information is clearly erroneous. An example, though trivial, is the author's statement that the No.14 tram line runs to Branik. That has never been the case. The No.14 runs on the opposite side of town.
Although the author does not elsewhere in the book withold location names this changes when it comes to his May 1945, end-of-German-power, heroics in the Sudetenland. He does not reveal the name of the "little town in the valley" (p.223) which he almost single-handedly cleansed of German "potbellied" policemen (p.234).