My Rating: 4 stars
When I read The Tattooist of Auschwitz last year, I was blown away by Lale and Gita's incredible story and the harrowing ordeal they endured during their 3 years at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. As I mentioned in my review of that book, stories about the Holocaust continue to be extremely important given the world we live in – whether through fictionalized or non-fiction accounts, these are stories that absolutely need to be told, no matter how difficult and heartbreaking it may be to hear such unthinkable atrocities being recounted. With Cilka's Journey, the sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris gives us the story of Cecilia "Cilka" Klein, a woman we first met during Lale's recounting of his story, whom he described as "the bravest person [he] ever met" and whom he credited with saving his life. When she was just sixteen years old, Cilka was forcibly separated from her family and sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp where, on the first day, she was immediately singled out for her beauty. In order to stay alive, Cilka had no choice but to endure repeated sexual abuse from the Commandant (and other men in power), but what weighed on her soul the most was the role she was forced into -- the unspeakable role of being the one to send hundreds of women to their horrific deaths in the camp's gas chambers. After suffering 3 years of pain and torture, freedom finally comes when the camp is liberated, but unfathomably not for Cilka, as she ends up being charged as a collaborator for "sleeping with the enemy" and sentenced to 15 years in a Siberian prison camp. In the gulags, Cilka encounters horrors both new and familiar, once again finding herself at the center of unwanted attention despite her best efforts to go unnoticed. Placed under such circumstances, Cilka must reach within herself to find the strength to not only survive, but also help others in the process. In a narrative that jumps back and forth in time, between memories of her time at Auschwitz and the realities of her present situation, Cilka shows her remarkable will to endure and confront the daily terrors with courage.
Through Cilka's story, Morris once again presents us with an impactful tale of survival, resilience, and true love's ability to overcome hardship. For someone so young to have to endure so much, it was heart-rending to read, yet at the same time, it humbled me and reminded me how much there truly is to be grateful for. The Author's Note at the end of the book as well as the Afterword give keen insight into Cilka's real-life story and the conditions those interned in the camps were subjected to — both these narratives supplement the story and should not be missed. I'm keeping this review deliberately short, as this book is a necessary read as well as a timely one and it is my hope that more people will read it. Thank you to Heather Morris for bringing us Cilka's story as well as that of Lale and Gita and helping us better understand this important piece of our society's history.
Received ARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley and direct from publisher.
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