Devil's Workshop

AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks

To Jaroslav Formánek and Anneke Hudalla, who sent me on my first reporting trip to Terezín. To Jan Horníček, the town mayor, and Vojtěch Blodig, historian of the Ghetto Museum, for their time and patience, with apologies for my failure to write about demons realistically. To Edgar de Bruin, who was part of this story from the beginning, for his enthusiasm and advice. To Dora Kaprálová, without whose encouragement and ideas I would probably never have written this book. To Adéla Kovácsová for the first and Zuzana Jürgens for the last careful and critical reading. To Tereza Říčanová for The Book of Goats. To Stephan Krull for inspiring conversations. To Míša Stoilová for orientation in the language of our friends. And to Sjarhej, Arina, and Maryjka, who showed me where the devil had his workshop.

Notes

The author of the poem ‘Kill the President,’ on page 90, is Slavomir Adamovich. The villagers’ testimonies, on pages 127 and 128, come from a collection documenting the Ostplan massacres, compiled by Ales Adamovich, Yanka Bryl, and Vladimir Kolesnik, Ya iz ognennoy derevni … (Minsk: Mastackaja litaratura, 1975); Czech translation, Václav Židlický, Moje ves lehla popelem … (Prague: Naše vojsko, 1981).

Jáchym Topol

Berlin, DAAD, 2009