Catalogue of Czech Television Programmes
Hedy Margolius-Kovalys fate is a story that sounds stranger than fiction.Hedy Blochová was born in Prague into the Jewish family of the cofounder of the well-known Koh-i-noor factory. She married Rudolf Margolius, a lawyer. Soon after the wedding the young couple and the whole Margolius family were deported to the ghetto in Lodz. After spending a couple of years there, they were all taken to Osvietim concentration camp. There the family was parted. Hedy was lucky enough to be taken to a labour camp after a few months and was finally made to join the Death March. She managed to escape the guards and thus saved her life.However, her fight for survival continued. Hedy roamed around Prague, where none of her former friends were willing to put her up. Only her optimistic and active nature helped her survive these disappointments.Her husband had also gone through much at several concentration camps, after the liberation he returned to Prague and they were reunited. His dreadful experiences became the impulse to his leanings towards the communist ideology and he joined the communist party. After the communist coup of 1948 he was made Minister of Trade, during the purges of the 1950s he became one of the victims of the Rudolf Slánský trials. He was sentenced to death and executed for crimes he had never committed. Hedy Margolius became the widow of a traitor to the people, as did many others. Humiliation and everlasting discrimination followed. She was remarried to Pavel Kovaly and worked on book translations under the cover of his name ( Chandler and other authors) but the difficulties of life drove her into exile after the country was occupied by the Warsaw Pact troops in 1968. She only returned to the Czech Republic in 1989. In the documentary film titled Hitler, Stalin and I she tells the story of her life. With a back-ground of rare archive shots the film becomes a riveting picture of the twentieth century and the two totalitarian regimes that crushed most countries of Europe and influenced the fates of their inhabitants.
SD | 56' | © 2001
director(s): Helena Třeštíková
producer(s): Czech Television, Helena Třeštíková
scriptwriter(s): Helena Třeštíková
director of photography: Vlastimil Hamerník
rights available: TV, Video, Internet
original language: Czech
subtitles available: English
other data: Festival Award
Special Commendation (Adult Education Category) Japan Prize 2002