Helpful Score: 1
One to add to my list of favorite books! Martha Hall Kelly has a bright future ahead of her as an author. She did the research and kept it true no matter how painful. She made the three main women's stories come to life. Will not leave any hints in the review to ruin the storyline. But it's a must read. I am interested in reading more about the "rabbits".
Dawn B. (stargazingbookworm) -
Helpful Score: 1
This was a difficult book to read but I'm so glad that I did and that I know their stories. A novel based on real people makes it more intense and more precious than I can even express in words.
It shows you all the angles, heartache and courage of the Holocaust and just how important it was for the survivors to tell this story. Their strength brings the horror that none of us can imagine right into our hands to bear witness, so that no one forgets what happened.
Get it, read it - you won't regret it.
It shows you all the angles, heartache and courage of the Holocaust and just how important it was for the survivors to tell this story. Their strength brings the horror that none of us can imagine right into our hands to bear witness, so that no one forgets what happened.
Get it, read it - you won't regret it.
It's always hard to read about the Holocaust, and this book was no exception. It focuses on the lives of three women: Caroline Ferriday, Kasia Kuzmerick, and Herta Oberheuser. It is equal parts riveting and horrifying. Caroline is a well-to-do society member who uses her influence to help those affected by the war. Kasia is a Polish teenager who ends up sent to Ravensbruck, the Nazi concentration camp for women. Herta is a young doctor who applies to work at Ravensbruck so she can practice her surgical skills, no matter what is being asked of her. The author did an excellent job at bringing these characters to life, even attempting to add a layer of humanity to Herta Oberheuser, who left my blood running cold. In her notes, the author mentions the years of research she spent on writing this book, and it shows. If you want to learn more about the Ravensbruck Rabbits (the women who were subjected to cruel medical experimentation), this is a good work of fiction to do so. Just prepare yourself.
Caroline Ferriday, Kasia Kuzmerick & Herta Oberheuser. Three women whose lives intertwine eventually. Caroline Ferriday is a socialite in New York, whose work involves sending care packages to French children in France who are suffering from the effects of Word War II. Kasia Kuzmerick is a teenager in Poland who is plucked from her life doing underground work against Hitler to be put in a camp for women called Ravensbruck. Herta Oberheuser is a German medical student who wants to study surgery.
These characters are written so vibrantly. Two of them are actual true people, Caroline & Herta. Martha Hall Kelly definitely brought these characters to your heart and you feel all of the heartache and joys that these women experience.
These characters are written so vibrantly. Two of them are actual true people, Caroline & Herta. Martha Hall Kelly definitely brought these characters to your heart and you feel all of the heartache and joys that these women experience.
For anyone who studies the Holocaust, this novel, which recounts the medical experimentation that took place at Ravensbruck, the all-female concentration camp, is a must-read. It follows the lives of Caroline Ferraday, a New York socialite who volunteers at the French consulate in New York, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager who gets ensnared in the Polish Resistance, and Herta Oberheuser, a German medical doctor, who performs experiments on the prisoners at Ravensbruck, following orders of the Nazi regime. The details in the book are horrifying, yet true. This is another Holocaust story that must be told and remembered, so that it never happens again.
This book is based on the real lives of an American socialite, a doctor who performed terrible operations in a concentration camp during WWII, and the women upon who she operated. Excellent read.
Started out good but went down hill in the last quarter of the book. Amazing true story of women in Nazi occupied Poland and Germany. The book centers around three characters and I kept waiting for the moment they were all going to meet up but their connections were not what I expected. I think the book could have been a bit shorter but I would say it is definitely worth a read.
Carol F. (cactusflowerwomen) reviewed Lilac Girls (Woolsey-Ferriday, Bk 1) on + 628 more book reviews
I have read many books about the holocaust, but this definitely goes with those at the top of the list. Fascinating, impossible to put down. About Ravensbruck concentration Camp and The "Rabbits", the women who were used as guinea pigs and operated on with grueling outcomes, about the sulfanimide experiments that were done to some of the prisoners. Rich with historical detail, though fictional based on true events and people. The rape of Poland by both the Russians and the Germans was horrific.
What an incredible story! Caroline Ferriday was an activist par none. The author does a wonderful job of documenting her life and experiences. Caroline campaigned tirelessly to help others orphans, women, other displaced persons but her work on behalf of the Polish women experimented on in Ravensbruck touched the hearts of many Americans. The author touches on her personal life as well including her lover, Paul, a famous French actor. Yes, the conversations were the author's own imagination but I believe that conversations much like them must have taken place.
Kasia Kuzmerick is no doubt a blend of the Polish women the author met and researched as she prepared to write this novel even though she and her sister Zuzanna are based on two women with backgrounds like these characters. Their lives were marred by their experiences with the Nazis and living in the women's concentration camp of Ravensbruck.
Herta Oberheuser is a doctor who worked at Ravensbruck. She wanted to become a surgeon but because she was female was certified only in dermitology. Her job at the camp led her directions she never believed she would go but times being what they were she did what she was told to do operating and experimenting on healthy women as she was directed. Herta , as many of the doctors who worked with her, learned to fence off their emotions and ethics to meet the demands of the Nazis.
What did I like most about this book? The fact that so many characters were people who actually lived lives such as these. The emotional and personal lives the author gives a more complete picture of who these people might have been. The discussion by the author of the research and travels she did to write this novel. And, now I want to go to Bethlehem to see the lilacs that Caroline's family nourished for myself.
Kasia Kuzmerick is no doubt a blend of the Polish women the author met and researched as she prepared to write this novel even though she and her sister Zuzanna are based on two women with backgrounds like these characters. Their lives were marred by their experiences with the Nazis and living in the women's concentration camp of Ravensbruck.
Herta Oberheuser is a doctor who worked at Ravensbruck. She wanted to become a surgeon but because she was female was certified only in dermitology. Her job at the camp led her directions she never believed she would go but times being what they were she did what she was told to do operating and experimenting on healthy women as she was directed. Herta , as many of the doctors who worked with her, learned to fence off their emotions and ethics to meet the demands of the Nazis.
What did I like most about this book? The fact that so many characters were people who actually lived lives such as these. The emotional and personal lives the author gives a more complete picture of who these people might have been. The discussion by the author of the research and travels she did to write this novel. And, now I want to go to Bethlehem to see the lilacs that Caroline's family nourished for myself.
A very worthwhile read. Loved it.
This is a well-written and intriguing story but it was too difficult for me to read about the appalling atrocities that the Nazis committed.
very good
