Read: Yes
Difficulty: III
Length: IV
Notable: New York Times Bestseller
Genre: Fiction – Historical Fiction
Quick Review: Based on a gut wrenching true story, Lilac Girls follows three women impacted by WWII and somehow involved with the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp.
I was a little hesitant about this novel. It could have gone either way from the description. Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly is an impressive historical fiction novel following three women’s complicated journeys during and after WWII.
Three women of varying ages tell their stories in alternating chapters. Caroline, an American working at the French consulate in New York, is in her late thirties when the war breaks out. Kasia is a teenager experiencing love for the first time when the Germans invade her country, Poland, putting their headquarters in her hometown before she is arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Herta is a young doctor and staunch supporter of the Nazi cause, but blinded by the propaganda, she doesn’t see the truth until she begins working at a concentration camp.
Ravensbruck was the only female concentration camp during Hitler’s reign. A group of Polish women from the camp were medically experimented on forever changing their lives. Their legs were mutilated. These women became known as The Rabbits because they hopped around the camp and they were the Nazi test rabbits. Several died from the experiments. Lilac Girls centers around these events.
Caroline (a real woman) helps from the US by sending care packages to orphans and helping the families she can in the US. She ends up in Paris as the war is winding down where she finds out about the Ravensbruck Rabbits through her advocacy work. Kasia (a composite of several real women) was a survivor of Ravensbruck and the cruel experiments. Herta (a real woman) is a German doctor. Due to Nazi regulations, she had a difficult time finding work as a doctor, so she took a position at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. The characters are all very complex and strong women. They each have their own motivations personal and environmental, which pushed them into the lives, decisions, and actions they made for themselves. They were flawed and survivors. Reflecting humanity: it’s complicated.
I would describe more, but the plot is complex and very intertwined. If I say too much, I will be giving a lot of things away. Although if you’re a history buff like I am, you’ll probably already know a lot of the facts because Hall Kelly does a very good job researching the history, women, and everything in between. Do remember this is historical fiction, so a lot of things have been changed to make it an engaging work.
It is incredibly well written. Each woman has her own style, thought process, and narrative. There were a few grammatical mistakes throughout, but they do not impede the reading in the slightest. There are a great deal of feminist themes, which I appreciated. Hall Kelly explores the often overlooked Anti-Semitic attitudes the US had during the time. I found the supporting characters to be more relatable than the main characters, but they were not placed in the difficult situations the main characters found themselves in. At times, the anti-semitism was nauseating, but that is exactly how it should be.
I found Lilac Girls to be an impressive novel exploring lesser known experiences of WWII. Though it is not a light read, it’s the perfect book to dive into over a summer vacation because you’ll want to invest some time in it.
Memorable Quotes:
“No one said they were selling items taken from the Jews, but we all knew.”
“”Somewhere in the corner of our hearts, we are always twenty.””
“Why does a woman’s women’s voice so often not command the respect it deserves?”
Title: Lilac Girls
Author: Martha Hall Kelly
Publisher: Ballantine Books (Random House/Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9781101883082
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