Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris is the latest novel from the author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Cilka Klein was a character in Tattooist, and her story is based on the real life of Cecília Kováčová. I have not read the previous book, but I was still able to dive seamlessly into Cilka’s Journey.
History’s accounts of the Holocaust can make it seem that once the gates to the camps opened and the survivors were liberated, the war was over. But that was not the case for all, particularly those considered Nazi collaborators because of what they had to do to survive.
Cilka was one of those people. Her beauty gave her an advantage of sorts when the Nazis singled her out for their own purposes. She was given marginally better treatment to keep her appealing, but it came at great cost.
When Cilka was freed by Russian soldiers, she was tried as a collaborator and sentenced to hard labor in a Siberian prison camp. Her troubles were not even close to over. Not only did she need to stay sane and healthy under horrible conditions, but she also had to conceal her past from her fellow prisoners who could see her as a traitor.
Synopsis:
Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices her beauty. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival.
After liberation, Cilka is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to Siberia, where she meets a kind female doctor. Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions.
Confronting death and terror daily, Cilka discovers a strength she never knew she had and begins to tentatively form bonds and relationships in this harsh, new reality.
My Review:
This was a heart-wrenching and compelling account of the horrors of Russian gulags and the complexities surrounding survival in untenable situations. It’s also a reminder that everyone has a story and nothing is as black and white as it seems to be. Cilka’s Journey was a five-star read for me. I recommend it to anyone interested in history, particularly that of World War II and its aftermath as well as stories about people able to dig deep into reserves of strength against seemingly insurmountable odds.
I received this Advanced Reader Copy of Cilka’s Journey from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
