Lilac Girls - Martha Hall Kelly

Ballantine Books, April 5, 2016.

Three Stars

Lilac Girls follows three women as they experience very different circumstances during World War II. Based on a real woman with the same name, Caroline Ferriday is an American socialite who works at the French consulate, when Hitler invades Poland in 1939. Meanwhile, Kasia is a Polish teenager who risks her life working as a courier for the underground resistance movement in her home country. Finally, Herta is an ambitious young German doctor who is willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead in the male-dominated Nazi regime. When Kasia is sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp for women, she crosses paths with both Herta and Caroline in unforgettable ways.

While Caroline was a real woman, Kasia is based on the many young women in Ravensbruck who smuggled information to the outside world, leading to the conviction of their captors for crimes against humanity. The women were known as “rabbits”, because they were the subject of horrific medical experiments. Herta is also a compilation of Nazi historical record, illustrating the shocking acts the Nazis were willing to commit in the name of science.

It can be emotionally exhausting to read another story of the Holocaust – there are so many tragic tales, and yet each is unique and necessary to hear. Much of this novel is painful to read, and yet we need to keep talking about it in order to prevent repetition of these atrocious crimes. While I sometimes felt that the writing was lacking something – some spark to hold my attention – I still feel like this is an important book to read. Most interesting was the focus on the aftermath of the war, and the power of resilience and survival.

Caroline’s character at first seems flighty and insubstantial, as she was busy planning fundraiser balls while Kasia was held captive, starved and tortured. However, Caroline used her social status to raise large amounts of money to help the Ravensbruck “rabbits” and to bring French orphans to America during the war. Jumping from Caroline to Kasia to Herta was often disconcerting because their motivations were so different – the alternating narratives were difficult to sink into, but each character was unique.

Martha Hall Kelly undertook extensive historical research for this novel, as evidenced by the text and also by the author’s note at the end of the book. Her notes are comprehensive, with much more information available on her website. It is clear that Kelly is passionate about her subject, and it shows throughout Lilac Girls.

I received this novel from Ballantine Books in exchange for an honest review.