From the author of the multi-million copy bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz comes a new novel based on a riveting true story of love and resilience. Her beauty saved her — and condemned her. Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women … Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival.
When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she really have a choice? And where do the lines of morality lie for Cilka, who was send to Auschwitz when she was still a child?
In Siberia, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when 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 when she begins to tentatively form bonds and relationships in this harsh, new reality, Cilka finds that despite everything that has happened to her, there is room in her heart for love.
From child to woman, from woman to healer, Cilka’s journey illuminates the resilience of the human spirit—and the will we have to survive.
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At only 16 years old, Cilka Klein was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, where she clung to life for three years. Cilka’s beauty and distinctive hair catch the eye of a senior officer, Commander Schwarzhuber. As a child, she becomes a pawn to powerful men and realizes her only chance of survival is to do as she’s told.
Upon Cilka’s release from the Nazis, she is charged with colluding with the enemy by her Russian liberators. After three years of watching her people, and even family, being murdered, Cilka is sent to another place of imprisonment – the Vorkuta Gulag in Siberia. In this new confinement, she quickly learns that not much is different, with unwanted attention from both men and guards. However, she finds friendship and purpose in the hospital ward – and even a possible spark of romance.
Cilka’s Journey – from the best-selling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz Heather Morris – continues Cilka Klein’s story of survival, the strength of character, and bravery through some of the worst times of human history. It reveals the atrocities committed against women in particular and explores themes of shame and sexual violence which are still relevant today. This work of historical fiction will open your eyes to the realities women in these camps faced and the resiliency of the will to live.
It’s unthinkable that a survivor of the horrors of Auschwitz should suffer the further injustice of a sentence in a Russian gulag, but that was Cilka’s reality.
This book centers on Cilka’s time in that gulag, though there are flashbacks to her time in Auschwitz. At the beginning I wondered just how depressing this novel would get, but two things kept the darkness from becoming overwhelming: Cilka’s enduring hopeful spirit and the author’s sensitive handling of the women’s abuse.
Cilka’s compassion for and understanding of others (even when they judged her harshly) made her a highly sympathetic character, and it was interesting to read about the various medical jobs she did.
Unfortunately, the ending felt rushed, and since the love story wasn’t developed at all until almost the very end, I couldn’t get invested in it. Also, I was left wondering about Cilka’s life after the end of the novel. I wish the author’s note had at least mentioned whether she continued using her medical skills.
I hadn’t read The Tattooist of Auschwitz, but this worked fine as a standalone.
My review is based on an ARC of this book.
What would you be willing to do to survive? Is there ever any behavior that a person does to survive that is unacceptable to society? These are just two straightforward questions that Cilka’s Journey will have you contemplating. This book will stir emotions in your head and your heart, leaving you questioning how people can be so incredibly cruel on the one hand and so unbelievingly kind and selfless on the other side.
“Everyone affected by war, captivity, or oppression react differently- and away from it, people might try to guess how they would act, or react, in the circumstances. But they do not really know.”
Cilka’s Journey is a companion novel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz but can be read as a standalone book. Although I have not read The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I had no trouble following the story. Ms. Morris has done an exceptional job in writing and researching this novel. Although Cilka’s Journey is based on a true story, Ms. Morris has admittedly taken some liberties to fill in the blanks. I would highly recommend that you read Note from Heather Morris, The Additional Information and Vorkuta-the White Hell, (Afterward by Owen Matthews) sections at the end of the book. They give a great deal of insight into the history of this period and the depth of Heather Morris’s writing.
The main emphasis of this book follows the period after the main character, Cecilia Klein “Cilka,” is “liberated” from Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp by the Russians, where she has spent three years. Ms. Morris also gives us snippets of the time Cilka spent in Auschwitz that are dispersed throughout the book. We sometimes forget about what happened to the people who not only had to endure the incredible inhumane atrocities inflicted upon them by Nazism but then to have similar atrocities inflicted upon them by the Stalin regime. Unfortunately, under the harsh leadership of Stalin, Cilka is sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor- her crime, staying alive.
“We have a report on you, Cecilia Klein. It says that you in fact stayed alive by prostituting yourself to the enemy.”
Ms. Morris has been meticulous in her writing, and there were many times I felt as if I was in the infamous Vorkuta Gulag located in Siberia. Reading about the gruesome and heinous conditions these women endured at times was difficult, but so compelling it was hard for me to put the book down. The lengths these women went through to survive in these conditions is beyond my imagination. Even though Cilka’s story is decades old, it holds an essential place in the modern world. Cilka is a hero in my eyes. Cilka’s Journey is not just a book for women of all ages to enjoy but also a book for all the men in their lives. Despite the horrific events the author describes in detail, this book is about survival, hope, friendship, and love. I highly recommend this book!
** Please note the quotes in my review are subject to change once the book is published**
*** I kindly received this galley by way of NetGalley/publisher/author. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. ***
Cilka’s Journey: A Novel by Heather Morris
Follow up novel to: The Tattooist of Auschwitz
October 1, 2019
St Martin’s Press
Historical fiction
320 pages
Rating: 4/5
8/14/19-8/24/19
I received a digital copy of this ARC from NetGalley and St Martin’s Press in exchange for an unbiased review.
This is a follow up novel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz. It is not a sequel but more of a companion read which makes it a stand alone story. The first novel shines light on the unimaginable “job” as tattooist that a prisoner accepts as a means for survival in Auschwitz concentration camp. In Cilka’s Journey, we learn of another unenviable “job” in order to survive the atrocities of Auschwitz.
This book is based on the life and survival of Cecilia “Cilka” Klein during her time at the Auschwitz concentration camp and the years that follow. Her story is revealed through alternating chapters from her initial experience in Auschwitz where she meets Lale “The Tattooist” and Gita. She is sent there with her older sister Magda until many of the prisoners are released in 1945.
As many are released, it is just the beginning of more years of hard labor and struggling to survive for Cilka. She was accused of being a spy and working for the Nazis at Auschwitz and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. In July 1945, she was transferred with many others to Montelupich Prison in Krakow and eventually endeding up in Vorkuta Gulag, Siberia.
There are often moments when Cilka wonders if surviving Auschwitz was encouraging only to remain a prisoner. She is reluctant to share her reason for being sentenced not wanting to be judged for her actions to survive. Once again, Cilka uses her courage and resilience to do whatever she needs to do to survive. Often, it meant she was allowed to move into “jobs” which kept her from working in the mine. Although she tries to avoid the attention of being placed to work in the hospital, Cilka eases some tension by sneaking leftover food from patients into her block.
Cilka becomes very useful in the hospital where they offer to train her as a nurse. She develops relationships with the other nurses and Dr Yelena Georgiyevna who help to protect her. After upsetting Dr Gleb Vitalyevich for “interfering” with his orders, she is sent to spend time in the “hole” as a punishment. Once she survives the isolation and humiliation of being in the “hole” she is provided another opportunity to work with Dr Yelena’s colleague, Dr Petre Davitovich, in the maternity ward.
Being in the nursery provides Cilka another view of the cruel inhuman treatment of the prisoners. Although she tries to “stay under the radar” Cilka can’t help but to question many of the practices to which she finds deplorable. She is able to stir up concern amongst the staff to make changes to improve the living conditions and treatment of the mothers and babies.
Cilka’s Journey is one of survival and empowerment. She endures 10 years and is released 5 years early where she finds the need to start her life over again. She no longer has the structure of working at the hospital and protecting the other women. Cilka must decide how to start a new life once again.
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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2929856655
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“I just want to live. I need to feel the pain I wake up with every morning knowing I am alive, and my family aren’t. This pain is my punishment for surviving and I need to feel it, live it.”
Auschwitz-Birkenau is being liberated and Cilka is ready to be free. Instead she is sent to the Russian Gulag in Siberia for sleeping with the Nazis. Sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
I taught Holocaust for many years and heard survivors/their families speak about the horrors they saw and went through. Never knew that so many were imprisoned again after the camps were liberated. Something that is obviously not talked about.
Cilka Klein you will never be forgotten! She risked her life, courage, strength and even found love under brutal conditions.
This book is a MUST read!! I now need to read The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press/Publishing and Heather Morris for allowing me the opportunity to read this phenomenal book! One I will never forget.
If you like historical fiction, you will appreciate everything this novel has to offer. I have not read anything that based on the Soviet gulags of Siberia, and it was brutal. Heather Morris’s novel is based on Cilka Klein, a Czechoslovakian Jew who was imprisoned in Auschwitz and transferred to Siberia by the Russians at the end of the war, as a political prisoner. She survived the brutality of Auschwitz only to be sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in the gulags.
At times this story is difficult to read, with the horrific conditions, the back breaking labor, that even women were expected to perform, the lack of food and adequate clothing during the brutal winters. She lives with other women in their dormitories and toil with them during the long days.
This is an extremely well researched book, that is a wonderful history lesson into an era that isn’t as well known as the Nazi camps, as least not to me.
Her characters are well developed and some likable and others, not so much. She demonstrates how women are able to survive the worst conditions, but with support, can make a home.
I received this ARC for my honest review, and honestly, I was awed by it. I thank #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for the opportunity to read this fabulous book.
If you loved the Tattooist of Auschwitz you will love Cilka’s Journey! Another great novel based on the true story of a young girl. Such a deep and moving story that Heather Morris wrote beautifully. There are lots of books out there that tell the story of what happened inside of the concentration camps, but not so much as the survivor’s stories after they are liberated. You don’t necessarily have to read the Tattooist of Auschwitz first, but personally I recommend it. Cilka’s Journey was a wonderful story that you should definitely add to the top of your reading list!
“Staying Alive”
Heather Morris’s Cilka’s Journey is an insightful novel that deals with an issue little explored in fiction: the treatment of women in the Soviet Gulag. While Cilka’s Journey may be fiction, it is based on conversations with Lale Sokolov (the tattooist of Auschwitz) about Cilka, from others who knew her, and the authors impressive research. Cilka, a Czechoslovakian, was sent to Aushwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp for being a Jew. At liberation, she was wrongly convicted of working with the enemy. She was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor and sent directly to the Soviet gulag in Siberia. She was fortunate to obtain work duty in a hospital under a brilliant doctor who was willing to share her knowledge, give her training, and opportunities. She and the other women in her prison “hut” battled for trust, hope, and survival. At the Gulag, she again finds herself in survival mode over ethics. She does what she has to do in order to live. I found myself fully immersed in this story, a subject I had very little knowledge of. Two weeks later, I’m still processing the story. Rich in history and woven with a mix of real-life and imagined incidents and characters, the story gives history a human face to the awful treatment of those imprisoned at the Gulag. The author did an excellent job of taking history and writing a novel that tells a dark tale, yet honors Cilka, and making it readable. This is a story that tells of a remarkable journey and needs to be read.
Note: I have not read The Tattooist of Auschwitz which this is a follow-up to. Many have said to read that first, but I feel that Cilka’s Journey can be read as a stand-alone. I most definitely will read The Tattooist of Auschwitz in the near future, since Cilka’s Journey was an incredible read.
I couldn’t put this down. Hard to read some things but such a wonderfully written book of Cilkas story. This is the story of Cilka that survived the concentration camp only to be sent to a prison. This author is so good at taking history and incorporating it into a book that we can’t get enough of. I highly recommend reading it. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC.
At 10:50 a.m. I received an email inviting me to read an advanced copy of Heather Morris’ sequel to the Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka’s Journey. At 11:00 p.m., I finished it. Pretty sure that’s never happened before. Good. Book.
I had not read The Tattooist prior to reading this (though it will be delivered today) and it is not necessary to have read it to enjoy Cilka’s Journey. This is a beautifully written, very readable account of Cilka Klein’s story after Auschwitz. Yes, all books from this horrific part of human history are about loss and survival, but this one is also about relationships and the human condition.
The characters came alive and were consistently written all the way through. The story flowed like water and I couldn’t put it down. I really appreciated the additional history included at the end. This is why I read historical fiction.