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A Sisterhood of Survival, Recollection and Redemption

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2018

Lilac Girls is one of the most moving Holocaust novels this reviewer has ever read. The story covers a twenty year period from 1939-1959. Kelly's exhaustive archival research, interviews of concentration camp survivors and visits to sites in the US, Poland, Germany and France make her work more one of fact than of fiction. At first the reader meets Caroline Ferriday, who really lived as a socialite, Broadway actress, charity worker and volunteer at the NY French consulate. Then, there are the Polish Kusmerick sisters, based on real sisters from Lublin, who were interred at the all women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück, Germany. There they and 72 other inmates were subjected to hedonistic and debilitating operations and injections performed by Nazi physicians. Many of these inmates could no longer walk erect, but were reduced to hopping for which they were dubbed "the Rabbits of Ravensbrück". They suffered and while some succomed, others survived to give testomony to their ordeal. Finally, and perhaps most strikingly, there is Herta Oberhauser, one of the real Nazi doctors who performs these "experimental procedures" on the inmates. After the war, Dr Oberhauser was captured, tried at the doctors' trial in Nuremburg and incarcerated. With great mastery, the author intertwines the lives of all of these female characters as though she were plaiting a neat braid in which the ends unite in a satisfying whole. These are charcters and expriences that resonate with the reader, long after the last page is read.

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sharmie

Yawn

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2018

Ridiculous and implausible. I know it’s based on a true story but the writer took such unnecessary liberties with the characters, who, I’m sure were infinitely more human and 3-dimensional than written about in this book. Why fictiionalize it? My mother in law recommended it to me. I should have known. The writing is clunky and old fashioned. I know I demand a lot from a writer and I understand that taste is subjective. This is just trash dressed up in ww2 and the story of the camps deserves better. There are maybe hundreds of better books on the subject. But if you like it, great. Maybe read something like “Music and Silence” and compare. Btw, all seven of my uncles and my father both served in that war. It’s not as though I don’t honor the sacrifices made.

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From the United States

A Sisterhood of Survival, Recollection and Redemption

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2018

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167 people found this helpful

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sharmie

Yawn

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2018

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85 people found this helpful

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Letty

Was not enjoying myself— couldn’t finish it

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2018

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After the positive reviews, I was sure I’d love this book— especially because I really like WW2 stories. But I’m sorry to say that I hated this book. I was so uncomfortable that I couldn’t finish it, which is something I’ve done only a handful of times (not finish a book I start reading). I thought the writing was poor and I simply was not enjoying myself. The storylines were not interesting to me, and I honestly could not stomach the torture scenes.

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SassyPants

Beautiful Lilacs

Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2017

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A wonderful and heartbreaking historical fiction novel about WWII and the Ravensbruck camp for women. Many of the characters are real people while others are based on real people. This is a gorgeous story of hope and perseverance. It is also a story about evil and it is painful to read at times. The world has apparently not learned much from the horrors of concentration camps, as we continue to hate and hurt each other.

The story is told by three narrators with chapters alternating among them. It takes place between 1939 and 1959. Caroline Ferriday, a real person, is a New York socialite who once acted on the stage. She is trying to do good by working for an organization that helps French orphans. She desperately wants a family of her own. She is not very bright when it comes to love as she has an affair with a married French actor. Dr. Herta Oberheuser lives in Germany and is a gifted surgeon. However, because she is a woman she is relegated to a dermatology practice. Her life is pretty crappy in other ways as well. She jumps at an opportunity to work at Ravensbruck reformation camp for women. She is fully indoctrinated into the Hitler way of thinking. Kasia Kuzmerick is a Polish teen who is working for the resistance. She and her sister Zuzanna, their mother, and some close friends are captured and sent to Ravensbruck. The girls, along with 72 other Polish women are subject to horrific medical experiments. They are nicknamed the Rabbits. The story follows the trajectory of these women and the ways their lives intersect. Caroline is eventually alerted to the plight of the Rabbits and she works to raise money to have them brought to the US for medical treatment in an effort to reverse the trauma done to them. The book also includes the Nuremberg Trials and the fate of Dr. Oberheuser.

This book is so well done. Hats off to Martha Hall Kelly for thorough research and deep respect for her narrators! As I mentioned earlier, this book is hard to read. And it should be hard to read. I was not familiar with the Rabbits, though I did know that medical experiments were done on prisoners. I learned a lot and this book gave me a lot to think about. I consider this to be on par with The Nightingale and All The Light We Cannot See, which are excellent in my opinion.

18 people found this helpful

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Kay Stevens

A Great Story that is a Testament to the Human Spirit

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2018

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This is a great story overall, although it certainly has some flaws. The principal one that I found was the character Caroline Ferriday in the way that she is portrayed. She seems to lack the depth of her real life counterpart who came to the aid of not only many French orphans but the poor imprisoned Polish women who history may have forgotten if not for her efforts. The story’s real strength is in these characters; those who are referred to as the rabbits. These girls and women were victims of hideous and brutal experiments done on them by Nazi doctors in the Ravensbruck Concentration camp and were called the rabbits because they hopped due to their disfiguring surgeries and due to the way they were treated- like experimental animals. Two of the main characters who are the hapless victims of these horrific experiments are Kasia and Zuzanna.They are sisters and their love for each other helps them to survive this ghastly experience.

Despite, the story sometimes getting bogged down by the snobbery of high society and a love story between Caroline and a French actor that really doesn’t serve the plot in any meaningful way, this story is a compelling read with much to say about the resilience of the human spirit to endure...despite evil all around and to even ultimately triumph! The ending was particularly powerful when the tables are turned and the prisoner finally gets the chance to confront her captor. it is a poignant story which will keep you engaged with many twists and turns of the plot and will enlighten you about a period in the world’s history which can never be forgotten!

64 people found this helpful

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Carol Schmidt

Cover and Title Deceptive

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2018

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The title Lilac Girls is very bothersome to me. These were women with the exception of a couple under 18. The book is about their horrors - not get-togethers in gardens. I understand the title was based on the gardens, but am disappointed that it is used as the title along with the pic of arm-in-arm women. That is far from the focus of the book. What were the publishers thinking? I have to guess they were thinking "what will sell." The romance of Caroline could have been pared down - a little too much chic lit for my taste, especially given the sheer horror of the experiences of the other women. It was a very tough read but a story that needed to be told. I give it 3 stars with very mixed feelings.

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June J. McInerney

Devastingly Real, but Uplifting

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2018

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It’s been a while. After three Nor’easter’s, two minor snow storms, a nasty sinus infection, struggling with writing yet another novel, and a recently devasting death in the family later… I still hadn’t whittled down my “Books-to-Be-Read-this-Month” stack. It wasn’t until this past holiday weekend when I finally said, “To hell with it all!” and picked out a novel at random, tuned out this world, and entered the saner literary one…
A world that, both unfortunately and unfortunately, turned out to be not so much sane, but more disturbingly bizarre with its stark realities than, and reflective of, the actual one I had left.
To paraphrase the character Sophia in The Golden Girls: Picture this. Nazi Germany. 1939.
In Lilac Girls, a compelling first novel by Martha Hall Kelly, Kasia, a teenager from Lublin, Poland, is rounded up, along with Helina, her mother, and Zuzanna, her sister, by German soldiers. Within minutes, they are imprisoned in the bowels of Lublin Castle. Three days later, the women find themselves being shipped by train to Furstenberg where they are incarcerated in Ravensbrück, the largest concentration camp for women in Germany. Kasia and her sister become part of a group known as “Rabbits”. One, because they are experimental lupin (French for rabbits) in a heinous plan devised by Hitler’s henchmen– Herring, Himmler, and Goebbels to find a “cure” for war injuries – and two, because after undergoing grotesquely cruel, inhuman operations, they could do nothing more than hop and hobble around the camp.
A little-known figure in history, Caroline Ferriday, a former Broadway actress and member of the elite New York City society, works as an attaché in the French embassy. As the author relates in the first person, Ferriday’s multi-faceted story is fascinating; steeped in the guts and glory of the war era coupled with the difficulties and uncertainties of finding -- and keeping – true love and friendship. Richly written and crafted in true documentary fictional style, Ferriday’s narration unfolds throughout the course of the war until her life entwines with that of Kasia and Zuzanna. And, eventually, comes to grips with Herta Oberheuser, the only woman physician actually allowed on Ravensbrück’s medical staff. And, truth be told, one of the most cruelly insensitive historic fictional characters I have met in a long time.
The author, as related in her endnotes, spent more then three years immersed in ferreting out and writing about details of Ferriday’s life and, now, because of this historical novel, her enduring legacy. Character descriptions, both imagined and real based upon letters, diaries, and archival records, as well as personal journeys to Poland, Paris, and German – not to mention Ferriday’s now historical home (“The Hay”) in Bethlehem, Connecticut – are more than true-to-life. They are real in the narration because Kelly has brought them back to life with considerable skill and consummate empathy. Which made reading about them not only enjoyable, but elucidating, enlightening and, more importantly, in the face-paced, exciting – and quite satisfactory – denouement, uplifting.
Perhaps Lilac Girls was the wrong novel choice to read when lone and forlorn (still am, a bit, I guess) from coping through the trials and tribulations of March. But Kelly, who has found her exceptionally gifted literally talent and voice, offers a powerful anecdote by relating, through fiction, not only the boundless bravery and fortitude of the Rabbits, but the kindness of Caroline Ferriday who through her hard work, generosity, and gentle compassion, helped them recover from what could have been devastatingly lasting effects of their own trials and tribulations.
Which proves just about anything in real-life, however disturbingly horrific – albeit couched in fiction – can be overcome. And that, as April finally bounds into Spring, is giving me and, hopefully, you, renewed hope.
Enjoy the read!

7 people found this helpful

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Marisa Martin

I had high hopes...

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2017

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This was not as good as I expected it to be. The story has so much potential. The description of Ravensbruck, the women and the events there were fascinating to read, and I very much appreciate that aspect of the novel. Caroline Ferriday seems like such an interesting subject to write about. I honestly didn't like the relationship between Caroline and Paul; I felt too much attention was given to the relationship in a manner that often made Caroline seem a little petty. Since the relationship with Paul Rodierre was the fictional element brought into the protagonist's life, it may have done her a slight injustice. There was too much detail and dialogue that concentrated on trivial events in comparison with the real events which are the heart of the novel.

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P. Blevins

wonderful read

Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2021

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Lilac Girls is by Marth Hall Kelly. This is a different novel of World War II. It takes three young ladies from different areas of the country and takes their stories which at one point they all were involved with the Nazis and their stories cross.
Caroline Ferriday was a New York socialite who volunteered at the French consulate collecting needed supplies and money for French orphans in France and for those who showed up at the consulate for help. She loves a French actor, Paul Rodierre who she met through the consulate. He had come to them to see about getting a visa for his wife, Rene, who was still in France. Carol’s help came to an end for the orphans in France when the Nazis declared war on Poland.
Kasia Kuzmerick was a Polish teenager whose crush on a young man she had known for a long time, Pietrik Bakoski, led her to become a courier for the underground despite warnings from her friend Nadia. While on a mission, she spent a few minutes too long helping a Jewish girl look like a Catholic girl and was followed back to her job at a cinema. Waiting in the ticket booth was Pietrik and his little sister Luiza. Kasia’s sister Zuzanna, a doctor, who had come to make sure Kasia made it to work was also in the ticket booth. Before she could open, the Nazis burst into the booth and arrested all four of them. As they were being taken away, Matka, Kasia and Zuzanna’s mother who had brought Kasia her lunch, insisted on going with the girls. All of them, except Pietrik soon found themselves in Ravensbruck, the only women’s camp in the camp system.
Herta Oberheuser was a new German Doctor who wanted to make her mark on the medical profession. She saw an ad in a newspaper stating the government was looking for a female doctor to work in a new reeducation center, Ravensbruck. Once hired there, she is trapped in the male-dominated medical corps at Ravensbruck. Here, she is forced to do things she wouldn’t ordinarily do both to survive and to impress the worldly doctors she met so they might help her move upward in her profession. again.
Ravensbruck brings all the characters directs their fates. This book describes the activities of the prisoners and guards and doctors at Ravensbruck in their totality and without blinders. Would they survive?
Though the book is fiction, it does have many references to the law and justice. It contains some true instances and true characters.

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readinginmagnolia

More like two points of view than three

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2017

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This read was for a book club discussion and I found it to be a compelling read. The story follows three strong intelligent females from different backgrounds through the events of World War II.

Catherine, a New York socialite, who has dedicated her life to service and charity, supported by her mother but not always by her peers or so-called friends who have more frivolous pursuits in mind. Kassia, a Polish teenager who has a crush on her best friend, and aspires to be a part of the underground resistance but is quickly caught and ends up in a most horrifying concentration camp. Herta, a German girl who has a medical degree, but as a woman will never be treated as a doctor or equal by her colleagues, but still buys into the Nazi propaganda and uses it to justify her actions.

This was definitely not a light read and clearly the author did her homework. There are tons of great reviews for this book and I do not regret reading it. However, I did have some issues with it and I’d like to address those. These issues should not really keep a reader from reading the book. They were just personal observances. Due to unforeseen circumstances in my personal life, I read this book in one day starting at 7 AM and finishing at 11:30 PM. As such, I found the book a longer read than it needed to be. There were several spots that could have been edited out and the story would have been just as complete and compelling. A good editor needed to scrap some things, for example, what was the point of Kassia coming upon Nadia at the concentration camp? Maybe there was a subtle point but it could have been left out. More is not better.

Unlike some others, I quite enjoyed the relationship/friendship between Catherine and Paul until the point she started ignoring his letters. Then she ignored more of his letters, then she ignored even more of his letters but he kept writing. This started to get a little tedious and at this point I felt like she was acting a little childish and a little too much like the romance novel heroines that I eschew, which compels me at this point to say that for the most part, the heroines in this novel are all very strong females with a lot to admire, something that is sadly lacking in a lot of the books that I read.

Herta, what can I say about this character, who is actually based on a real person as well (Catherine was also a real person). My problem with the portrayal of Herta in the book is that I felt like it was misleading. I went into this book without any forewarning of the fact that two of these women were real people in history and the third was based on an amalgamation of certain women as well. Based on the first three chapters, each told from the point of view of one of these three women, I thought I was going to be reading the rest of the story in the same manner, told from three different perspectives that probably would join or merge at some point. I was wrong.

I felt quite a kinship with Herta in the beginning, with her struggles in her family and her struggles to be taken seriously as a woman in her career, and I even overlooked her “drinking the Nazi kool-aid”, so to speak, since I definitely understand being influenced/fed extreme ideas at such a young age. That kind of hatred is taught or learned but some of us grow to be adults and realize that it’s not the only way and vastly change our opinions as we actually experience more of the world around us. I kept waiting for Herta to understand until suddenly I didn’t.

There was suddenly a big gap in the narrative and the chapters no longer switched back and forth between the three women. There would be two chapters for Kassia and two chapters for Catherine, back and forth but nothing for Herta. At first, I was relieved to realize that the author was not going to force Herta’s point of view on me any longer, but as I started getting closer to the end of the story, I started to feel like that was a cop out. If the author was going to commit to telling Herta’s point of view, that this story was supposed to be from the point of view of three different women, then she should have continued in that vein even if it was off-putting. I felt like I missed a huge part of the story and a huge part of what motivated one of the main characters.

In the end, I felt like I was sold on a book from three points of view but I only received two.

Note for triggers: While I do not remember any foul language in this book, I would note a trigger for rape. There is a dubious consent scene earlier in the book as well as an incestuous rape scene. Since this is a book about a female in a terror of a concentration camp in WWII, I think it could go without saying that there is quite a bit of violence, death, gore and other atrocities mentioned but I will say it. They are not gratuitous scenes for the sake of themselves, only presented in a manner to make the reader understand the level of terror this situation instilled, and in my opinion, necessary to the telling of the story.

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