Lilac
Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly, is based on true events that took place during
World War II. Two of the main characters
are actual historic figures ~ Caroline Ferriday was an American socialite who
was involved in assisting refugees, raising funds and sending relief packages
to war-torn France, and Herta Oberheuser was a Nazi physician at Ravensbrück,
the women’s concentration camp. The
third main character, Kasia, is a fictional young Polish teen whose short-lived
time in the Resistance landed her at Ravensbrück.
Herta,
the Nazi doctor, was hired to perform experiments in the form of horrific
surgeries all in the name of “research.”
Kasia became a victim of Herta’s surgery, which left her with horrible
deformities in her legs.
The characters don't come together until the final few pages of this novel, and Caroline's contribution to saving the young women deformed by the events at Ravensbrück is not well defined.
I
really wanted to like this book, but I was left with a feeling of something
missing. I wanted more background about
the actual events. As I read this book,
I found myself researching certain events so I could better understand and
clarify the events described by the author.
Read: April 25, 2017
3 Stars
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