The Lost Girls of Paris

The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff   384 pages

From the author of “The Orphan Train” and several other novels come another story set in the World War II era, Pam Jenoff.  She takes another small, forgotten true story from the war and creates a real-page turner that often left me breathless.

The story opens in 1946, Manhattan. Cutting through Grand Central Station on morning, Grace Healey stumbles upon an abandoned suitcase, battered and worn.  No one seems to be around to claim it. Grace takes it upon herself to open it, looking for some sort of identification. There is a word, Trigg, scrawled on the side. In addition to the normal items that would be contained in a suitcase, Grace finds the photographs of twelve young women who appear to be in their very late teens or early twenties. The only identifying marks on the photos are first names, which Grace assumes are the women’s names.

Then the story jumps back to London, 1943. Eleanor is heading up a division of Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British operations organization designed to conduct espionage, sabotage and aid the local resistance movements in occupied Europe.

Eleanor’s job is to recruit and train young women to go undercover in France to transmit radio correspondence between London and France, particularly in the outskirts of Paris. Eleanor has selected twelve young women for the job.

The story weaves back and forth between Grace, determined to learn who the women are and what happened to them, and Eleanor has the group’s leader, and one of the girls, Marie.

I was disappointed that readers only get to know Marie intimately and another operative, Josie, superficially. Some of the other girls’ names were mentioned, but not all. I understand that it would have been too confusing, and too lengthy, to try to write about all twelve. Still, it was a wonderful read, compelling, and each story reached toward its climax, I found myself gasping at twists I didn’t expect. I want to give  “The Lost Girls of Paris” 5 out of 5 stars, but the lack of information about the other ten girls forces me to give this novel 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Annelies

Anneliesby David R. Gillham     416 pages

In David R. Gillham’s new novel, after “City of Women,” he asks the question: What if Anne Frank had survived the Holocaust?

A single answer would not be possible, since had this been true, there are a million possibilities. Every time I think about that question, my mind hums with scenarios.

In this work, Gillham spends a little over the first half of the book reimagining the Frank’s family life in Amsterdam. He gives us a fictional account of the family’s interaction and takes a long look at their life they had while they were in hiding in secret rooms of her father’s business. The fear they felt was palpable. When the family is betrayed, my heart broke again for those who endured the Nazi brutality. Readers get to tag along as the family of four, and their friends, endure the cattle cars that took them to their living hells.

The second third of the story takes place after Anne is reunited with her father, Otto (the only true survivor of the atrocities). Anne is seventeen and very angry. This section of the book takes place mostly in 1946 as Anne, Otto, Otto’s new bride, and the friends who hid them try to adjust to life after the war.

Anne is very sensitive to and conscious of the number tattooed on her forearm. She covers it with powder and long sleeves. It’s hard to watch Anne as she feels the guilt for having survived when her mother and sister did not.

Through it all, Anne writes.  She writes before the Nazis arrest and deport her family to the concentration camps. She writes when she returns to the liberated Amsterdam. The betrayal that she feels when she learns that the thin sheets of paper she had been writing before the arrest and been found and saved by one of those who tried to protect her family.

Then the story jumps to 1961. Readers get a small glimpse into her life, but mostly that section is Anne answering fan letters from young girls.

I was extremely disappointed in this novel. I expected Gillham to imagine the adult Anne and what she may have done with her life. Instead, most readers’ basic knowledge of Anne’s history is rehashed. The writing and plot are well done, but since Gillham didn’t deliver on his promise, “Annelies” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Second Winter

The Second Winter by Craig Larsen    416 pages

I have read a lot of World War II novels, but Craig Larsen’s is one of the most realistically brutal that I have encountered. It’s a great read with a lot going on. Larsen has adapted wonderfully Guy de Maupassant's 1884 short story, “The Necklace.”

The story opens in East Berlin in August 1969. Angela Schmidt is a violinist, who, along with other members of an un-named orchestra, are returning to West Berlin. Their bus is searched. It’s an intense scene that sets up this powerful novel. Angela’s nerves are testd as she is smuggling a diamond necklace that bears the Romanov crest along with some photographs that had belonged to her father. Angela’s story comes up now and again throughout the story, but in all honesty, that part could have been left out.

Then the story moves to Poland where a teenage girl, Polina, is taken by the Nazi’s and forced into prostitution. The story shifts again to the main protagonist, Fredrik Gregersen. It’s now the second winter, a harsh winter with brutally cold temperatures, heavy snows and howling winds of the Nazi’s occupation of Denmark. I swear sometimes I could feel how cold it was.

Fredrik is a farmer who is barely getting by. He lives on a farm with his son and daughter. Life is brutal, made even more so by the Nazis. In addition to eeking out survival on her farm, Fredrik is involved in transporting Jewish refugees out of country. During one such event, an Old Jewish man is forced to leave a bag filled with jewels.

This is as far as I’m going to go with the plot as I’m afraid I might give it away if I haven’t already. I enjoyed this novel a lot. I wish there had been a list of characters as there were many and sometimes I had to refer back to previous chapters in order to keep them all straight.  But Polina, the young girl who appears in the beginning and the end, offers a searing portrait of what life was like under the Nazi occupation.

The Second Winter receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Branded By The Pink Triangle

Branded By The Pink Triangle  by Ken Setterington        
  155 pages

This is an account of the gay men who were persecuted and sent to concentration camps under the Nazi regime.  Written for children, the book tones down some of the suffering but seems to be a pretty accurate portrayal of some of the men’s lives.  The books gives a lot of general facts but also chronicles what happened to six different men, specifically.  Because the suffering of this group of people was largely ignored by the general community until recently, many people who survived didn’t feel comfortable coming forward after the war.  By the time the general public began acknowledging the tragedy in the homosexual community, many survivors had died from other causes, so many people’s stories were lost.  Overall, this was a good book that gave a lot of information.  Teen and preteen readers who want to know more about World War II and this aspect of the concentration camps will want to read this book.