Book Review – Lovely Green Eyes by Arnost Lustig

Lustig's Novel Explores Survival Instinct, Trauma and Memory

Jun 3, 2009

Holocaust literature at its most poignant and frightening, Lovely Green Eyes takes the reader on a harrowing journey from Auschwitz to a military brothel.

At the end of WWII, Hanka Kaundersova is fifteen years old and Jewish. After losing her family to the gas chambers at Auschwitz, Hanka takes advantage of her Aryan looks to disguise herself and get selected for work at a military brothel in Poland. In Lovely Green Eyes, Arnost Lustig tells her captivating story of survival, endurance and redemption.

Hanka Wonders Whether Wanting to Survive is a Sin

Hanka, nicknamed Skinny after she begins work at the brothel, has light auburn hair and lovely green eyes. These features are what save her from the gas chambers at Auschwitz. And she does not hesitate for one second to deny her Jewish culture and exchange life in the brothel for immediate death. But throughout her ordeal, Hanka will continue to wonder if her desire to live is a sin.

Lustig examines this same question again and again, in conversations with some of the other prostitutes, in Hanka’s private thoughts and later, in an extended confession she makes to a rabbi after her escape. Lustig’s intricate exploration of Hanka’s survivor’s guilt is careful not to come to any hasty conclusions and leaves this question open-ended for readers to contemplate.

Lustig’s novel is also quite daring in its attempt to delve deep into the Nazi social imaginary. During her 21 days at the brothel, Hanka is selected to “service” two different officers. Her extended encounters with these men, who would kill her on the spot if they realized who she really was, provides Lustig the opportunity to explore what it means to believe you are a part of a superior race.

And in response, Lustig grants us a glimpse of the other side of that understanding. To be faced with an individual who believes you are less than human. Having spent time at Auschwitz before being selected for the brothel, Hanka is well-aware of Hitler’s Final Solution policy – the planned extermination of the entire Jewish population.

Lustig doesn’t shy away from these concepts, difficult as they may be. But through this demanding juxtaposition, he exposes the brokenness and psychosis in the Nazi philosophy.

Lustig’s Preoccupation with Foresight, Trauma and Memory

Page two of the novel tells the reader that Hanka will escape the brothel at the end of the war, but this does nothing to diminish the horror of the story which follows. This narrative trick gives the reader a sense of Lustig’s preoccupation with foresight, trauma and memory.

As Hanka struggles with each of these experiences, so must the reader. This complex invitation to participate in Hanka’s psychological turmoil is what elevates the novel from a difficult but poignant story to a truly exceptional offering of Holocaust literature.

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