Under A Cruel Star Chapter Summaries

In Under A Cruel Star, Heda Margolius Kovaly recounts her life through the Holocaust up to the invasion of Prague by the Russians where she discovers the horrors of human nature and the two emotions, fear and hope, that influence how people react when put in situations like Heda’s. Many lessons can be taken from her book which explain why humanity was like it was and still is and how to change. “Now I had to cope with a worse enemy, human fear and indifference” (Page 28). If one thing I was able to confirm from this book, was the ever standing truth that human are hopeless. The urge to give into the selfish side of human nature can be seen throughout history and in everyday life. Humans become mindless drones only aware of themselves. The …show more content…
People who had taken advantage of the innocence during war time began to despise the “real victims of the Occupations” because of the guilt and fear they felt (Page 52). Even when the fighting was taking place in Prague and Heda had volunteered with the Red Cross and was assisting a German soldier, a fellow nurse had scolded her for helping the enemy. Heda realized for the first time the affects war had on her people; she refers to this moment as her “first frightening glimpse of the devastation, the deep corrosion that the war had inflicted upon us. It had divided people like the slash of a knife, and that wound would take a long time to heal” (Page 43). When it is peace time and everything is seemingly good, and it is easy for humans to show compassion towards one another but when war or other similarly traumatizing events take place, naturally humans will let their fear or lust control them. The hard truth is that everyone can be a Nazis because they are human. On the other hand, people can be a Heda; there are always a few who defy their humanistic side and …show more content…
Throughout the Holocaust, it still amazes the world today how few there were to speak out against the Nazis. Not only in the case of the Holocaust but in other events in history, the lack of courage is horrendous. In her book, Heda describes words as a force which can bring those in charge to their knees: “It is astounding how terrified such men of action are of words. No act is too sordid for them to carry out, no act disturbs their sleep, so long as it is not called by its proper name, so long as it is not put into words. In this lies the great power of words, which are the only weapons of the defenseless” (Page 169). Words can accomplish what in some cases action cannot. Heda also makes mention that “truth alone does not prevail. When it clashes with power, truth often loses. It prevails only when people are strong enough to defend it” (Page 182). In other words, people must speak the truth and be ready to defend it if they want