- Arnost Lustig was born in Prague in 1926. He had completed 7 grades when the Nazis prohibited all Jewish children from attending school. In 1942, he was sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp. Two years later, he was transferred to Auschwitz and then to Buchenwald. In the spring of 1945, he escaped a train carrying him to his death in Dachau, when an American fighter-bomber dive-bombed the engine thinking it a military transport. He managed to get back to Prague and took part in the anti-Nazi uprising in May 1945. After the war, Lustig studied journalism at Charles University and worked for Radio Prague. Lustig left Prague during the Soviet occupation in 1968. He has been in the United States since 1970 and is now a Professor of Literature at the American University in Washington, DC.
- IMDb mini biography by: biography from "The Unloved"
- SpouseVera Weislitzova (her death, 2 children)
- He and his family came to the United States in 1970 after the Soviets invaded Czech. He became a visiting writer at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. In 1973, he became a professor at American University in Washington D.C.
- He returned to Prague after retired from American University in 2004. He had a close friendship with Vaclav Havel.
- His book, "A Prayer for Katerina Horovitzova, was awarded the literary prize by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. He was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize in 2008 by the Franz Kafka Society and the city of Prague, Czech.
- He is survived by his son, Josef, and daughter, Eva.
- His mother and sister survived the Holocaust but the rest of his family were killed along with six million others. He covered the Arab-Israeli Wai in 1948 in Israel while he met and married his wife, Vera Weislitzova, who wrote the poetry collection, "Daughter of Olga and Leo," about her family's fate during the Holocaust.
- [on film adaptations of his books] In the case of Dita Saxová (1968), I think the book was better; the screen adaptation of Diamonds of the Night (1964) is as good as the book; in Transport z ráje (1963) the movie sometimes goes beyond the book.
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