Book review – Page 6 – Finding My Wings

A delicate balance in historical fiction

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (Ballantine Books, 2016)
In 40 words or less: Ravensbrück and the medical experimentation there are among the lesser known atrocities of WWII. Kelly’s book tells of the female doctor charged with doing these experiments and an American socialite who supported the Free French and brought the “rabbits” of Ravensbrück to the US in 1958.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Locale: New York, Paris, Poland, Germany
Time: 1939 – 59
Read this for a skilled portrayal of the horrific and little-told events of Ravensbrück during WWII.

Caroline Ferriday was an exotic creature in New York on the brink of WWII. A socialite and former actress, she was a true francophile, volunteering her efforts to aid French citizens seeking entry to the US and orphaned children sheltered in French convents. In Lilac Girls, Martha Hall Kelly aptly captures her vivacity and generosity of spirit, as well as the differences between her and many of the other upper-class young women in New York at that time.

The selflessness of Ferriday is contrasted in the other real women portrayed in Lilac Girls. The Ravensbrück labor camp was a model facility for the Nazis. Primarily populated by Polish political prisoners, it quickly became a showpiece for the Red Cross and the laboratory for horrific experimentation into the effects of untreated wounds and infections. Herta Oberheuser was completing her medical training as the war broke out and was the only woman doctor assigned to the medical staff at Ravensbrück. Initially assigned to minor ailments, she wanted to use her surgical training. Already set apart from the male doctors, she was the perfect choice for a clandestine project to infect and maim healthy young women to simulate battlefield infections and wounds. Over 70 young Polish women became test “rabbits”, intentionally untreated and reinfected to see the course these injuries and illness would take.

Herta Oberheuser was joined in her mistreatment of prisoners by a sadistic matron-like figure and an assistant out to get her. Wherever possible, Kelly has used actual names and information, made possible by the extenisve recorkeeping of the Nazi regime. After the war, Dr. Oberhauser was one of few women brought before the Nuremberg tribunal. Found guilty, she excaped execution and was imprisoned, only to be released after about 5 years.

Although the names of many of the “rabbits” are known, Kelly chose to create fictional women and in doing so provides rich backstories and intricate relationships among the sisters she has highlighted. The complex mix between real and fictional characters begs the reader to search out more about the people and Ravensbrück.

There is a vast continuum of titles that fall under the historical fiction genre. Historical figures make cameo appearances in fictional stories, and well-reasearched narratives have augmented dialogue to move actual events forward. In telling the stories of Ravensbrück and of the hardships of the Free French, Martha Hall Kelly has broadened the understanding of those beyond the Jews who were subjugated and often killed by the Nazis. If fault lies in the telling of the story, it is the conflation of Caroline Ferriday’s deeds with a love story involving her with a fictional French actor. This thread is a major element in the novel though it does not seem to have any historical basis. It does enrich the reader’s connection to Caroline and provides a view into what did occur in France during and immediately after the war. I would have preferred to see Caroline’s strength shown on her own.

Many readers I know have no interest in reading any more books, fiction or nonfiction, on the Holocaust. Though the events portrayed are horrific, there is benefit to reading the lesser-known stories. Martha Hall Kelly has done a great service by bringing to light the tragedy of Ravensbrück. And Caroline Ferriday should not be relegated only to archives.

A Pop-Up City and Women Helped Win WWII

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan (William Morrow, 2007)
In 40 words or less: In 1943, part of the Tennessee Valley was transformed into a top secret factory town to support the Manhattan Project. Denise Kiernan’s narrative captures the little-known story of the women, predominantly non-scientists, who were responsible for the machinery that created the fuel for the atomic bomb.
Genre: Narrative history
Locale: Oak Ridge, TN
Time: 1943 – 45
Read this to learn about an extraordinary military and social experiment that created a 70,000 resident city from scratch for a single purpose.

While working on another project, Denise Kiernan saw a 1944 photo of women working in front of large machines in Oak Ridge, TN. James Edward Westcott, a government photographer, documented the building and operations of the Clinton Engineer Works (CEW), the “business” portion of the city built for the war effort in the Tennessee Valley.

Out of nowhere, government officials evicted families from their homes and farms with often less than 2 weeks to move and limited compensation. Kiernan details the massive physical labor involved in building a city from nothing and the lengths required to provide labor to meet needs from construction, manufacturing, quality assurance, human resources, commissaries, medical clinics and everything else for an “instant city” of almost 70,000. But it wasn’t all work, the community had bowling alleys, tennis courts, and movie theaters. Hard to imagine that those inside never talked about their work with their co-workers and neighbors, and those outside the gates knew nothing at all.

Focusing on a number of women whose letters and interviews give flavor to the history, Kiernan parses the hierarchical society that was built. The workers came from those that were displaced, people that worked the cotton fields and coal miners from Pennsylvania and West Virgina. Women educated as scientists often worked in administrative positions while lesser educated men supervised. Both because it was accepted and to placate the political figures in Tennessee, discrimination against African Americans was particularly egregious. While other married workers were provided housing options for the family, African American husbands and wives were separated and lived in single-gender huts. Their children were not permitted, in part because a separate school system would have been required.

Secrecy was of the utmost importance. Any infractions were severely punished, often with summary dismissal. The lack of information about the undertaking created great resentment in Knoxville, the nearest large community. People could not understand how train and truckloads of material continuously entered the facility but nothing ever came out.

Interwoven with the accounts of the growing community and its work is information about the raw material, Tubealloy, that was THE SECRET. The layers of secrecy surrounding the decisions and those involved is seen in the shadowy information available even seventy years later. The key figures of the Manhattan Project periodically are mentioned early on. Those living and working at CEW were completely unaware of the scope or magnitude of the combined effort.

Key to bringing this project to life are the photographs of Ed Westcott, whose sole responsibility was to provide a photographic record of the entire project. He alone had access to everything from the operating facilities to the hospital to the garbage collection trucks. His work is maintained in the National Archive and on a website, The Photography of Ed Westcott.

In my view, there is magic in uncovering untold history. If you have ever wondered how the US pulled off the development of the atomic bomb, here it is. And the story that is told about the women and men who operated in total secrecy “to help end the war” really is important in understanding the war being fought on the homefront in the later stages of WWII.

A Welcome Escape to England on the Brink

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson (Random House, 2016)
In 40 words or less: A young schoolteacher arrives in Rye as the townspeople reconcile to the inevitability of WWI. Simonson paints an engaging portrait of Sussex society and the class and gender stereotypes against which the characters rail.
Genre: Historical fiction
Locale: England, France
Time: 1914-15
Read this to travel back in time. Simonson’s attention to detail in setting, character, and story make this a terrific novel to read and share.

Beatrice Nash traveled the world with her father, a writer and educator, learning from him and running their household. After his death, Beatrice is placed in the guardianship of distant relatives. When she spurns the offer of marriage encouraged by her relatives, she must set out on her own and secures a position as the Latin instructor in the Sussex village of Rye.

Even before alighting from the train, Beatrice is introduced fellow resident of Rye. One by one, the reader meets the local residents – from the gentry to the Roma travelers that work the annual harvest. the gentry to the Roma travelers that work the annual harvest. Agatha Kent is her champion and sounding board, ensuring the stability of her position and introducing her throughout the community.

Married but childless, Agatha and her husband have parented their two nephews, Daniel a poet, and Hugh on the verge of completing his surgical studies. As World War I threatens, each prepares for the future. After the invasion of Belguim, the village bands together to resettle refugees. Beatrice does her part and then some, despite her limited means. Simonson’s array of village residents play a part in all the community locales from the fields to the school to the vicarage, providing a wonderful sense of place.

The latter section of the book takes a number of Rye’s men to the front in France. The descriptions are suitably grim and homefront conflicts resurface, disproving that all men are equal in the trenches.

World War I in many ways delineates the end of the European aristocracy. Helen Simonson rich descriptions and deft hand with character development turn the written page into theater. Simonson captured the changing roles of women, particularly as the men leave for war. Beatrice, Daniel, and Hugh each wrestle with personal relationships that are key to their characters and to the progression of the plot. The Summer Before the War is a rich and fulfilling novel. With it and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson has established herself as an author to add to your personal watch list.

Incredible heroism in wartime Warsaw in two versions

Irena’s Children by Tilar J. Mazzeo (Gallery Books, 2016)
In 40 words or less: Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker, developed an extensive network that saved 2,500 Jewish children and countless adults, under the eyes of the Nazis. An extraordinary narrative look at the individuals and their actions from interviews, diaries and documents.
Genre: Nonfiction
Locale: Warsaw, Poland
Time: World War II; limited material through her death in 2008
Read this for an intimate look at Irena Sendler, and those she recruited, their extraordinary actions and the obstacles they overcame. Not a canonization, this book portrays Irena and others as people with personal motivations and failings.

Irena’s Children by Tilar J. Mazzeo, adapted by Mary Cronk Farrell (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2016)
In 40 words or less: Pulling no punches, the Young Readers Edition focuses on the events in Warsaw during the war and the actions Irena Sendler took to save thousands of lives.
Genre: Nonfiction
Locale: Warsaw, Poland
Time: World War II
Read this for a clear narrative of Irena Sendler’s life and actions from 1939 through 1944. Note, while the language and presentation are suitable for readers 10 and older, adult guidance is strongly recommended because of the disturbing information presented.

Please bear with me. Neither these books nor the author fits the mold of usual Holocaust histories or biographies, if there is such a thing. Tillar Mazzeo is a cultural historian and professor, brought to the reading public through her books about Madame Cliquot (champagne) and the history of Chanel No. 5, arguably the world’s most famous perfume. Her path to writing about Irena Sendler was far from obvious.

In 2009, Mazzeo visited family posted to Krakow, Poland, with the State Department. She noticed a wide expanse of open parkland adjacent to a forested area near the international school where her sister worked. Mazzeo wondered why the land was left to go wild. Her sister told her the trains to Auschwitz traveled through there and it remains a reminder, coming to life on November 1 when the local citizens come with candles and flowers to memorialize all those lost. Offered the chance to visit Auschwitz, Mazzeo declined, but when her sister told her about Irena Sendler a few years later she decided it was important for her story to be told.

Within the last decade, Sendler’s extraordinary actions to save approximately 2,500 Jewish children and countless other persons persecuted by the Nazis in Poland during World War II have become better known. Though recognized at Yad Vashem in 1965, her story was little known previously for many reasons – she sought no recognition, Poland came under Soviet control after World War II, her actions and motivations were not consistent with Poland’s government’s interests, she wanted a “regular” life, and she was a woman.

Irena Sendler was a young social worker in Warsaw when the Germans invaded on September 1, 1939. The daughter of a doctor who died as a consequence of tending patients in the most difficult circumstances, she became a dedicated Socialist, pursuing her principles through the university and in her profession. Her circle included a mix of social action-oriented Catholics, Socialists and Jews, doctors, nurses and other social workers among them, who became the foundation of an extensive lifesaving and resistance network.

Irena Sendler and her compatriots took advantage of the extensive system the Polish/German government to provide false documentation and secure medication for those in the Ghetto. Sendler took complete responsibility for maintaining information on each of the children taken from their parents and placed in homes, orphanages and other locations. Through a combination of extensive planning, lucky breaks and many people looking the other way, Irena Sendler avoided arrest until late in 1943. As the lynchpin of the network, her capture endangered the safety of the resistance network and all the identity information about the children. Her escape on the day slated for her execution was purchased by the resistance.

Mazzeo’s research and writing and Farrell’s adaptation are both strong additions to the canon of Holocaust literature. While it is at times difficult to keep track of the many individuals involved in the rescues, in hiding, and providing assistance, those details provide a sense of the magnitude of the undertaking. So why two versions? The original version delves deeply into the personal life and motivations of Irena Sendler. Her personal and family relationships were complicated. At times she ignored her family to their detriment while attending to her network. It also contains extensive footnotes documenting the narrative.

The Young Reader Edition focuses on the events and actions of Irena Sendler and her network. Since it is intended for those with less knowledge or exposure to the history, there is context and background provided. The language, while appropriate to the audience, is far from juvenile. This version would be ideal for intergenerational book groups. While it includes a great deal about many aspects of Sendler’s life, there are personal relationships and familial issues that are omitted. While they may have influenced her choices, they do not change what she did.

I read both and I would recommend both wholeheartedly.

Afghani Women Showing Their Strength

The Pearl that Broke its Shell by Nadia Hashimi (Harper Collins, 2014)
In 40 words or less: Two young Afghani women, separated by four generations, struggle to find their rightful places in their families and society.
Genre: Historical fiction
Locale: Afghanistan
Time: Early 20th and early 21st centuries
Read this to better understand the historical issues for women in Afghanistan, regardless of who is in power.

“I was a little girl and then I wasn’t. I was a bacha posh and then I wasn’t. I was a daughter and then I wasn’t. I was a mother and then I wasn’t.” Rahima at 15

At every turn, the women of The Pearl that Broke its Shell consider their naseeb or destiny. Nadia Hashimi novel reminds the reader how difficult it is for someone to break out of a preselected gender role where power and control are asserted physically and an ingrained belief in fate can quash any measure of independence.

Nadia Hashimi’s life experience is about as far from that of her character’s as one could get. Born in the U.S., she wrote this, her first novel, while a pediatric emergency physician in Washington, DC. Hashimi tells the tortured story of life in Afghanistan through the voices of Shekiba, a young girl orphaned in the early 20th century, and Rahima, her great-great-granddaughter born about a century later.

The world of Afghan women is dictated by strict societal norms. Arranged marriage at a very young age to someone chosen by male elders; bearing and raising children (preferably male); cooking and maintaining the collective home along with sisters-in-law and, possibly, other wives; bowing to the will of her husband, mother-in-law, and any senior wives. The wives are dependent upon one another for assistance and companionship, sharing family stories among themselves and with their girl children. And they are their sole source of knowledge about marriage, childbearing, and childcare since they often marry at thirteen or even earlier.

Shekiba was the only daughter of the outcast son in a large family that lived off the land. Maimed after a cooking accident, her father protected and educated her. After all of her immediate family succumbs to cholera, she is grudgingly taken in by her uncles, and grandmother and their families, becoming the house servant. She is tall and strong, so when the opportunity arises to better the family position, she is given to the ruler as a guard for his large harem. When it’s discovered that a man has entered the harem, her life changes yet again. All seemingly well before the age of twenty. And her life was just beginning.

Rahima is the third of five daughters, hearing the family stories from her unmarried great-aunt. Her father is often gone, a warring clansman for the ruler of the local area. Much of his pay is in opium, making life for his family even more difficult. Too often families prohibit girls from attending school or leaving their homes out of concern for interaction with local boys. Some families with only girls engage in a “wink-wink” subterfuge, dressing a girl as a boy to enable her/him to be educated, to take care of tasks such as going to the market, and possibly doing odd jobs to augment the family’s earnings. Rahima becomes one of such girls, a bacha posh, the existence of such a status indicating its acceptance. But before she even reaches puberty, she and her two older sisters are given in marriage to the ruler and his brothers to enrich her father’s family.

In The Pearl that Broke its Shell, juxtaposing the lives of individuals a century apart reminds the reader that despite the strides taken to improve the lot of women in Afghanistan, the tribal culture remains repressive and often dangerous. By creating brave and vivid female characters, Hashimi raised the awareness of the plight of many Afghani women in a way that news articles rarely do. This was a wonderful discussion book for a group I led earlier this week.

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