Arnošt Lustig: Prayer for Kateřina Horowitz

Katerina Horovitz is a very beautiful, courageous teenage girl who declares on the ramp after getting off the train in the extermination camp that she doesn't want to die. Herman Cohen, a wealthy Jewish merchant, sees her and takes her in and begs for her rescue. But they both fall victim to the Nazis' cynical game. But Katerina Horovitz fights to the end. This story was supposedly written by Arnošt Lustig in just twelve days and was based on a real event. Lustig tended to rewrite or expand his books, perhaps in order not to be forgotten and to say as much as possible. A Prayer for Katherine Horovitz is one of the few books he hardly edited afterwards. It is based on a real event that happened to Italian Jews and on the story of a Polish dancer who defied her fate at the last moment before the gas chamber. The book has received both film and theatre adaptations. Directed by Hana Kofrankova, the cast includes: Rudolf Pellar and Jan Teplý.