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A review by katiegilley
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
4.0
“Father loved the fact that a lilac only blossoms after a harsh winter.”
I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read Lilac Girls! This was my second effort with it – the first was right after my third baby was born and some of the storylines were too emotional for me as my body raged with hormones, despite reading tons of WWII fiction over the years. This was a powerful story of survival, family, and friendship. It includes storylines about a woman living in New York at the French Consulate and working to get the French people out of the country, a Polish teenager working for the Resistance and who ends up in Ravenbrück, and a female doctor who works at Ravensbück and performed heinous experiments on the political prisoners.
In the last several years, I’ve started looking for novels with storylines from the German perspective. I’m endlessly fascinated with the German mind at that time – how everyday citizens were able to justify their country’s actions (or not) and how their own pain and fear made it easier for Hitler to carry out his mission. The author cleverly introduced us to the German doctor before she went to work at the camp, which gave us some insight on her ability to do that work: she desperately wanted to be a surgeon her entire life and working at Ravensbrück would be her only opportunity given her sex and the times. That time period was heartbreaking in so many ways.
I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read Lilac Girls! This was my second effort with it – the first was right after my third baby was born and some of the storylines were too emotional for me as my body raged with hormones, despite reading tons of WWII fiction over the years. This was a powerful story of survival, family, and friendship. It includes storylines about a woman living in New York at the French Consulate and working to get the French people out of the country, a Polish teenager working for the Resistance and who ends up in Ravenbrück, and a female doctor who works at Ravensbück and performed heinous experiments on the political prisoners.
In the last several years, I’ve started looking for novels with storylines from the German perspective. I’m endlessly fascinated with the German mind at that time – how everyday citizens were able to justify their country’s actions (or not) and how their own pain and fear made it easier for Hitler to carry out his mission. The author cleverly introduced us to the German doctor before she went to work at the camp, which gave us some insight on her ability to do that work: she desperately wanted to be a surgeon her entire life and working at Ravensbrück would be her only opportunity given her sex and the times. That time period was heartbreaking in so many ways.