CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Retired California theater producer and drama professor George Kovach is the stepson the late Cecelia ”Cilka” Klein who was the subject of a recent Holocaust sex and romance novel by an Australian novelist named Heather Morris, who wrote an earlier sex and romance novel set during the Holocaust titled The Tattooist of Auschwitz. In Morris’ sequel to her bestselling first novel, titled Cilka’s Journey, she focused on Cecelia Klein, and Kovach found the portrayal of his Jewish stepmother highly objectionable.
So he decided to tell his own story about the real ”Cilka” in a novel that he and his wife co-wrote, titled Redemption. The novel has been completed and Kovach and his wife are currently searching for a publisher in New York.
In recent email he told me: “Although this book is about real people and events, it is not just another novel ‘based on a true story.’ The heroine and hero are two people I knew intimately, loved, and respected immensely. They are, in fact, my stepmother and my father. This is the story of their sufferings, their courage, and their love and devotion for each other. It is based on my conversations with them over a period of years and on my father’s written memoirs of his time in the Soviet gulag.”
Kovach explained that there is a reason for Redemption that goes beyond simply wanting to tell their remarkable story, sharing: “My stepmother, Cecilia Klein-Kovacova, has already been represented in two global best-sellers [by a non-Jewish writer from Australia.] Both claimed to be ‘based on a true story.’ However, in these books, my stepmother does many things that were impossible, or simply absurd, for a prisoner to do in Auschwitz or the Gulag. The fabrication of this so-called ‘true’ character from rumor, selective recollections, and an author’s lurid fantasies is deeply offensive to my stepmother’s memory. I protested this false representation of my stepmother and my protest ignited a controversy on three continents. That story will be found in the ‘afterword’ at the end of the novel.”
“My wife and I searched for a way to redeem my stepmother’s character and tarnished reputation, to show the woman we knew and loved,” he added, noting: “Because we are writers, we decided the best way would be to have her tell her own story as we heard it.”
‘Redemption is the story of his stepmother’s journey from the hell of a Nazi concentration camp to a new hell in the Siberian gulag, he said. It is also the story of how his stepmother and his father met and fell in love, as he put it in his email to me “in the last place on earth you would think genuine love between two people could blossom and thrive, a place of physical torture, hopelessness, and gross brutality.”
‘And yet, Cecilia Klein and Ivan Kovach found each other and enduring love in this horrendous place,” Kovach added. ” Was it love at first sight? Perhaps. The eternal attraction between a man and a woman touches the soul in a way that transcends the degradation of humanity. I know this to be true because when I spent time with them, I saw the depth of their mutual devotion and care for each other. It inspired me and I hope it will inspire our readers.”.
An ”epilogue” at the end of the book also briefly deals with what happened to Celia and Ivan after their release from the Gulag, he said.
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Dan Bloom is a freelance writer and inveterate web surfer based in Chiayi City, Taiwan. He may be contacted via dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com