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Jun 20, 2020maipenrai rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
When I discovered this book was written by the author of the "Tattooist of Auschwitz", I read this book with trepidation... These were my feelings about that book: ( Heartbreaking, of course... Great story of finding a reason to stay alive. If only the facts were researched. The probability of the interactions between the two main characters and the events of the story happening as written were as likely as that of surviving Auschwitz... If you are going to write about the Holocaust, do it honorably. ) This book does not turn Auschwitz into a love nest and seems more accurate in its description of life in the Nazi and Russian camps. Cilka's journey is all the more heartbreaking because after Auschwitz she is sentenced to a gulag in Siberia because of "co-operating with the Nazis". She has a prominent SS officer as a lover and in turn lives in relative luxury at the concentration camp. She has her own room and bed in a block were people who are going to the gas chamber the next day are gathered together. She screams at the prisoners to get on the trucks for termination - the excuse is always that a Nazi is about to beat a straggler. The rationale is that she did this in order to survive. The ultimate question is how much do you work on behalf of the Nazis and still retain your soul even if your body survives?? The book seems to justify her behavior because she lives. We all might have done the same.... But does make this choice a moral one? Cilka works hard at the gulag to redeem herself. You will have to decide if her Auschwitz behavior was acceptable and whether she atones sufficiently for her behavior. Kristi & Abby Tabby