Cilka's Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz #2) by Heather Morris
Genre: Historical, Historical Fiction
Read: 4th October 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 1st October 2019)
★★★ 3 stars
While CILKA'S JOURNEY is a sequel to "The Tattooist of Auschwitz", it is also a completely separate story in its own right and can be read as a standalone. It is poignant and it is heartbreaking when you think of what women like Cilka went through. Although we can empathise, we can never truly comprehend or understand having never lived through those harrowing times ourselves.
CILKA'S JOURNEY came about when Heather Morris was talking to Lale Sokolov about his time in Auschwitz.
"Did I tell you about Cilka?"
"No, Lale, you didn't. Who was Cilka?"
"She was the bravest person I ever met. Not the bravest girl; the bravest person."
"And?"
"She saved my life. She was beautiful, tiny little thing, and she saved my life."
And so the premise, the story, of CILKA'S JOURNEY was born.
Cilka was sent to Auschwitz in Birkenau from her home in Czechoslovakia on 23rd April 1942. At just 16 years old she is soon forced to become a sex slave to one of the camp's Commandants and put in charge of Block 25, the barracks housing the sick, weak and emaciated women on their way to the gas chambers. It was a task she hated but in Auschwitz, you did what you could to survive. It was here she met Lale Sokolov, the camp's tattooist, who fell in love with her best friend Gita, as their numbers are tattooed again and again to ensure they never fade.
In January 1945, the Soviet army liberated the camp and set the remaining survivors free. Having nowhere to go, Cilka remained with some of the others until they were strong enough to leave. In the following weeks, those who remain are questioned by the Soviet officers. When Cilka is questioned, she is faced with the truth twisted into something more. She is accused of prostituting herself to the Nazi's and as she speaks several languages, she is also charged as a spy reporting on and sleeping with the enemy. Her punishment is sentenced to a Siberian prison camp for 15 years hard labour.
The journey to Siberia is long and fraught with a resignation of what's to come. Some do not make it to the camp, their bodies removed at various stops along the way, discarded like trash. Upon arrival at the camp, Cilka knows the horrors of what's to come. The hosing, the shaving, the shame. She whispers advice to her new friend Josie - Be invisible, don't stand out...but whatever they dish out to you, just take it. Cilka knows what will happen if you don't. Once again, the women are lined up and paraded for the officers to choose as their own. Cilka has exchanged one prison for another. And she is just 19 years old.
The story alternates between Cilka's time in Siberia to the flashbacks of her time in Auschwitz. From one prison to another, we witness the horrors she endures in both places. But her resistance is strong as she does what she can to stay alive. Through it all, Cilka suffers immense guilt having survived where others have not and yet she continues to persevere. What resilience! I'm not sure I could have remained as strong as she did but I guess needs must and you really DO what you can to survive.
It is because of her acumen and intelligence that she becomes a nurse, tending to the ill in the camp - caring for them under brutal conditions in Siberia's harsh and bitter cold. But through it all she finds a way to assuage her guilt to compensate for the terrible things she was forced to do in Auschwitz.
An obviously extraordinary young woman, CILKA'S JOURNEY is a fictionalised account of Cilka, a real woman who touched the life of Lale Sokolov, befriending him in "The Tattooist of Auschwitz". She was a resilient and brave young woman who left her mark on those whose lives she touched.
CILKA'S JOURNEY is harrowing in parts but also a beautiful story of hope. The reader is drawn in and feels Cilka's pain and suffering for all she endured. Some scenes are graphic in nature due to the horrifying time of the Holocaust.
I do have a few complaints though. I felt the chapters were far too long and drawn out, making it difficult to put down at a moment's notice and then picking up again where you left off. I read on my Kindle app and 55 minutes to a chapter is far too long. Some of the story I felt were drawn out as well and as much as I love to immerse myself in time in a story, I don't particularly want to feel as if I am reading an historical essay where factual account reads more like a textbook that an historical novel.
However, CILKA'S JOURNEY is a compelling, albeit harrowing, read. I am glad that Cilka survived the atrocities she was faced with and went on to live a long and happy life for some 50 years with the man she loved.
I would like to thank #HeatherMorris, #NetGalley and #Zaffre for an ARC of #CilkasJourney in exchange for an honest review.
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