09/18/2026
✏️🇨🇿Remembering Arnošt Lustig✏️🇨🇿
The Embassy of the Czech Republic commemorated the 100th anniversary of the birth of acclaimed Czech Jewish writer, Holocaust survivor, journalist, and professor Arnošt Lustig with a special screening of Diamonds of the Night (Démanty noci), director Jan Němec’s powerful 1964 film based on Lustig’s autobiographical story Darkness Casts No Shadow.
Head of the Cultural Department Markéta Vohralíková opened the evening, reflecting on Lustig’s enduring legacy: “This evening is…an opportunity not simply to remember Arnošt’s extraordinary life, but to ensure that the values at the heart of his work continue to speak to new generations.”
Following the screening, former Washington Post film critic Desson Thomson offered a personal reflection on the film, his memories of Arnošt Lustig, and the lasting impact of Lustig’s writing.
Thomson spoke about how his own experience of the film has evolved since he first saw it at the age of 19. “This makes you sit with the images and find new things,” he observed. He also shared fascinating details about the making of the film, including the physical demands placed on the cinematographer, who ran alongside the actors during some of the film’s most intense sequences, and noted that the two young lead actors were themselves children of Holocaust survivors.
He further discussed the autobiographical roots of the story, which drew upon Lustig’s own extraordinary wartime experience of escaping from a transport carrying prisoners toward Dachau.
For Thomson, however, the evening was also deeply personal. He first met Lustig at while studying at American University in Washington, DC, where he eagerly enrolled in Lustig’s class and went on to take many more.
“Over the years we developed a friendship because I just started taking all of his courses,” Thomson recalled. “He was such an intoxicating storyteller. He wasn’t just a storyteller; he had stories to tell.”
Thank you to Desson Thomson and to everyone who joined us for this special evening celebrating the life, work, and enduring legacy of Arnošt Lustig.
