Lilac Girls

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly     496 pages

Debut novelist Martha Hall Kelly spent 10 years researching and five years writing this haunting novel of three women as Hitler begins his mad march across Europe. It is based on the true story of an American philanthropist; a Polish woman incarcerated at Ravensbruck, the female-only Nazi concentration camp; and the only female doctor in that hellhole. “The story is told from three points of view: the victim, the hero, and the villain, together creating a complex picture of an unimaginable time in history” I cannot remember what review I read this sentence in, but it was powerful enough to warrant my writing it down.  The novel begins in 1939 and ends in 1959.

We first meet the heroine. Hundreds, thousands, of people are fleeing France in advance of what they fear will happen: Hitler. Former actress and Broadway start Caroline Ferriday is now a humanitarian, doing her best to help as a volunteer at the French consulate in New York. One of the people who needs her help is French actor Paul Rodierre. Caroline spends her own money sending care packages to French children.

Next we meet the victim, Polish teenager Kasia Kuzmerick. Kasia works with underground, delivering messages. It’s very dangerous work. She is caught and sent to Ravenbruck, where she become one of the “Ravenbruck Rabbits,” women who were subjected to the Nazi SS leader Goerring’s medical experiments. The author was candid about what happened to these women, but did not go into such depth as to make this reader give up on the story. I had a basic knowledge of the experiments happening, but didn’t know any of the details.

Herta Oberheuser is the villain. An ambitious young doctor, she answer an ad in the paper for a government medical position and winds up performing horrendous atrocities on the Ravensbruck ladies. Herta is the most difficult character to understand. In 1939, she is eager to work in medicine, but as the war drags on, she seems almost eager to perform the experiments.

I found the shifting of point of view easy to follow. Well, except that the author did a great job leaving this reader hanging at the end of each section. I was sad to reach the conclusion of Lilac Girls.  I wanted to keep reading about Caroline, Kasia, and Herta. I did, however, read somewhere that Hall Kelly is writing a prequel to this story. I personally can’t wait to get my hands on it. I literally flew through all 496 pages of this book in two days.

I give Lilac Girls 6 out of 5 stars; the highest rating in Julie’s world.