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Arnošt Lustig

Arnošt Lustig was born on December 21, 1926 in Prague and passed away on February 26, 2011. He wrote novels, stories and dramas whose most frequented topic was the holocaust. His books belong in the so-called second wave of the wartime prose in which the authors tended to focus on the human psyche and how an individual can relate to the times they live in rather than on anything else.

In the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, he was forced to leave the country. At that time he emigrated to Yugoslavia, later he lived in Israel and, in 1970, settled in the USA, where he lectured on film making, literature and screenplay writing at the American University in Washington,D.C. Here he was appointed a professor. Not until 1989 he returned to live – on and off – in Prague, and in the mid 1990s he became the editor- in - chief of the Czech mutation of Playboy magazine, and as late as 2003 he settled in Bohemia for good.

The Crystal Touch of Arnošt Lustig, a Czech writer and publicist of international renown, is seen by the gallery as a symbol of courage and hope, two features that doubtless characterize this literary personality.

The hand imprint of Arnošt Lustig was made in Terezín, the place he was deported to back in 1942. Later he was to know more concentration camps: Auschwitz and Buchenwald. In 1945, he, as if by miracle, escaped from a death transport from Buchenwald to Dachau. Even though the Nazi liquidated nearly all of his family, which naturally had a profound effect on him, he would not lose his lifelong verve nad contagious optimism.

Arnošt Lustig wished for his Crystal Touch to denote hope and that orange color is used for this creation. The essence of his crystal exhibit is, thus, an orange gate, as a symbol of the divide between the good and the bad, with a touch of thirst for life and hope for a happy life. Around his crystal palm hand there is an engraving of a quotation of his that he wished to form a part of the creation.