The Unloved

In 1943, in the model concentration camp at Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, which the Nazis used to show international observers their "humane" treatment of the Jews, 17-year-old Perla has managed to escape the regular deportations to the death camps of Poland by offering her sexual favors to, among others, the Jewish head of the Council of Elders, who removes her card from the central registry whenever he knows a deportation list is being prepared. In this weirdly normal world where cafes are crowded and soccer matches are held, the specter of disappearance and death cause Perla and her friends to ruminate on the meaning of human existence, including love, hate, sex, integrity, generational relationships, and more. Lustig (Dita Daxova, LJ 7/79), himself a survivor of several camps, including Theresienstadt, revised and expanded this work since its 1985 publication.