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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Cilka’s Journey is a story that will change your life. I didn’t think I could be more astounded and moved than I was after I finished The Tattooist of Auschwitz but I was.
The horror and tragedy that Cilka faced daily for 15 years, starting at age 16, will tear you apart as you read. You will find yourself angry at humanity but then have your faith in humanity restored just as quickly.
Cilka’s Journey is book two but can be read as a standalone.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, through NetGalley. Any and All opinions expressed above are entirely my own.
Well researched, thought provoking and poignant.
“What you are doing, Cilka, is the only form of resistance you have–staying alive.” ~from Cilka’s Journey
In 1974 when I was twenty-two I met a woman who had come from Russia after World War II. I was new in town and not even half her age. In the morning when she saw my husband had left for work she would run across the street to my door. She asked why I did not have children yet, whispering that I should ask my husband–he’ll know what to do. And she puzzled over my husband’s job as an assistant pastor, asking “why two priests?”
One day, in broken English, Nadya told me that when she was a teenager she volunteered to go to a German work farm in her father’s stead. She told me she never could have children and thought that she had been sterilized at that camp. When the war ended she was given the choice of three places to go and she chose New Jersey in America. On the ship, she met a man who had also been in a camp and had no family left and they married. She could not read English or drive. I am now surprised she even told me this much of her story.
I was ignorant of the details of modern history at that time. I knew about Nazi Germany and the concentration camps from books I had read such as Anne Frank’s Diary. Still, I had little appreciation of the horror Nadya had endured. I later realized that Nadya was perhaps was Polish or from another country taken over by the Nazis and not Russian. That the work farm was a prison camp. That she had no family or home to return to after the war.
We are surrounded by people with stories that they keep to themselves for many reasons. Sometimes because the stories are too painful to speak. Perhaps they don’t have the words to express their experience. Sometimes people fear that their past will bring judgment from those who weren’t there.
When Heather Morris talked with Lale Sokolov, listening to his story that would become her best-selling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz, he told her that Cilka Klein saved his life. Morris knew she had to learn about Cilka and write her story. How did this teenager survive years in prison camps? Not only survive but have the strength to help others survive?
The people Morris interviewed gave conflicting stories about Cilka’s character. She was a collaborator. She slept with the Nazis for favors. She helped them, saved them, sacrificed for others. Which was the real Cilka?
Cilka was only sixteen in 1942 when the Nazis rounded up Slovakian Jews and she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was young and beautiful and soon slated to become a sex slave.
At the end of WWII, Russia rounded up people they feared had collaborated or spied for the Nazis and sent them to Siberia. Cilka had ‘slept with the enemy’ and knew several languages. Deemed an enemy of the state, she was sent to a prisoner camp near the Arctic Circle where mistreated prisoners mined coal by hand.
In Cilka’s Journey, Morris recreates life in the Gulag interspersed with flashbacks revealing Celia’s life before and during WWII. The book is filled with memorable characters, women who have lost everything and yet strive for a sense of order, community, and even beauty. They bond over the hope represented by a baby and forgive each other’s frailties.
“History never gives up its secrets easily,” Morris writes, but Cilka’s story needed to be told. It is the story of a girl cast into the unimaginable, not once but twice in her young life. And it is the story of courage, the pragmatism needed to survive, the shame of survivor’s guilt, and the empathy that spurs personal sacrifices to help another.
Lale never forgot Cilka. Thanks to Morris, neither will we.
I received an ARC through Bookish First in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
I received a free electronic copy of this historical novel from Netgalley, Heather Morris, Bonnier Books UK, and St. Martin’s Press. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read Cilka’s Journey of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am so pleased to recommend this novel to friends and family. Heather Morris is an awesome author, bringing us indelible histories to add to our memory banks. It is only by understanding our history that we can avoid repeating it.
Cilka’s Journey is a hard book to absorb, as are most WWII survivor stories based on historical fact, as this is. The human spirit is unstoppable in some, and those are the people we read about. Most of us are fairly certain we are not unstoppable. Simply surviving both Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and the Soviet Gulag at Vorkuta would be rare enough to be considered a miracle. Cilka managed to do it – with warmth and class. I was completely wrapped up in her story from beginning to end. She was a remarkable woman, and her journey is a story well told.
Heather Morris shares with us in her afterward research notes and interview stories. The parts of this journey that touch your heart are based on the reality of Cilka’s life. That feels good. She was a stalwart survivalist of the best kind. I can’t wait to read The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and anything else Heather Morris has written.
Having read and enjoyed The Tattoist of Aushwitz, I knew Cillka’s Journey would be a very worthwhile read. I was not disappointed.
The author continues the story of Cillka who was incarcerated in Aushwitz-Birkenau at 16 years of age. Sadly, her battle for survival continues in Vortuka prison camp in Siberia.
Although this is a work of fiction, it is based on the realities that hundreds of thousands of political prisoners experienced until their release was ordered by Khrushchev in the 50’s.
Highly recommended.
Based on the life of a real person, CILKA’S JOURNEY is intense, horrifying, and compelling. Sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, in 1942, when she was 16, she faced unspeakable horrors as she fought for her survival. When the camp is liberated by the Russians, the horrors she endured and survived are held against her and she is sentenced to a gulag for 15 years as a conspirator. What fresh horrors await her and how can she survive more time in conditions so horrible? Cilka struggles to survive, again, while also dealing with her own guilt and shame for the part she played while in Auschwitz-Birkenau, as well as her guilt in being the only one in her family to make it out alive. While in the prison, Cilka finds her place working in the hospital, and finds friends and respect, and, finally, a bit of hope. It makes you question how any of this could have happened and marvel at the resilience of those that are subjected to such cruelty.
Heather Morris has done an amazing job researching the historical details and weaving them into an account that was compelling and heartbreaking. This is a sequel to THE TATOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ, but can be read as a stand-alone novel, which is good, since this is the first novel I have read by Morris. This is one not to miss, whether or not you have read THE TATOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ.
#CilkasJourney #StMartinsPress #HeatherMorris
Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris is an amazing book. This is the first book I have read by this author and it will not be the last. I loved reading this book and didn’t want to put it down. Ms. Morris wrote a traumatic, sad but true story which drew me right in, making me forget the world around me and did not let me go until I turned the last page. This was a real page turner. This is a story of courage, survival and love. Even though this book is fiction it is definitely based on extensive research by the author. Morris makes you feel everything the characters are going through she shows you the pain, the brutality that these women had to endure. I did not read the Tattooist of Auschwitz but I was able to read Chilka’s Journey without any problem as a standalone. Ms. Morris is a great storyteller that keeps you interested and involved throughout the story. I highly recommend this fictional story based on real facts, in fact at the end of the book the author notes what is fact and what is fiction. This book will stay with you a long time.
I read this novel without putting it down. Wow, what an upsetting, sad, traumatic and true story. I’d forgotten that The Tattoist of Auschwitz was a true story, as is Cilka’s Journey. While this is not as historically accurate as the former novel, it is still based on a real life person and her brutal but unforgettable story. Cilka, a beautiful 16 year old of Czech origin, is sent to the camp, only to be handpicked as the sexual partner of two SS officers. In exchange for repeated rapes she is allowed to live and to enjoy some comforts. After the war she is again imprisioned, this time by the Soviets and sent to a prison in Siberia. She is again subjected to brutal rapes and maltreatment. She survives due to her wits and strength, and the kindness of female doctor, who picks her to help in the hospital and train as a nurse. The novel is heavy on brutality, making it very hard to read at times. It is also a story of friendships forged despite unthinkable conditions and ultimately love and the triumph of the human spirit. While the author takes some liberties in dramatizing the story, she is is clearly based on extensive research, making it highly worthwhile reading.
First introduced in The Tattooist of Auschwitz (5 stars), Cilka Klein was just 16 years old when she was transported to Auschwitz against her will. Three years later, she was liberated from the internment camp only to find herself unfairly sentenced to 15 years of hard labor at Vorkuta Gulag in Siberia for allegedly sleeping with the enemy and being a spy.
Alternating between the past at Auschwitz (aka the same timeline as Tattooist) and the present at Vorkuta, both of Cilka’s realities were hell on earth as she went from “one cruel, inhuman place to another.” While reading Tattooist, I was intrigued by Cilka’s character so I was excited when I heard about the sequel. Her circumstances were absolutely heartbreaking but like Lale, she learned that “finding a little hope in the darkness is not a weakness.” If you loved Tattooist as much as I did, then I would highly recommend reading this account of Cilka’s experiences. If you haven’t, then it would also read just fine as a standalone.
Location: Auschwitz in Poland, Korkuta in Siberia and Kosice, Czechoslovakia
I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
Started this review off by saying that I won this arc copy in a goodreads giveaway. In return for my honest review and thoughts. I am so happy that I won this book. And got the opportunity to read it before it comes out. I highly recommend this book. To read this brave woman story. The way the author Heather Morris tells Cika story is beautiful and made my heartache for this woman. The way she carries her strength and her love for others. To be honest any book that Heather Morris puts out I will be buying.
I enjoy the way she writes and tells stories.
About Book: The war is over. But Cika isn’t free she is sent to another prison for a crime she didn’t do. She was forced to want she had to do to be brave. The women this brave woman looks after is amazing. She keeps her secret of where she came from and what happened to her from the ladies she thinks of as family. HIGHLY Recommend this book. This book will have a special place in my heart…
Cilka‘s Journey by Heather Morris is Historical Fiction based on fact. When I first started reading this book I thought when does this woman’s torture end. Will I be able to finish reading this book? My next thought was if she could endure the daily persecution by Nazi Socialists and by Soviet Socialists surely I can read about her life. What kind of people treat others in this manner and how are they given the power to do such atrocities? Gulag residents had lives of nightmares, constant fear, horror, degradation, deprivation and depravity. It is a heartbreaking story but then the story changes. A pervasive evil surrounds her but Cilka endures and more. A woman who thinks she cannot love, seems to love everyone even her enemies. It becomes a story of hope because of one person who touched and changed so many lives. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history because of the factual details in the story, notes and the afterword. For everyone else the portrayal of a life well lived.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book.
After reading The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I knew I just had to read Cilka’s Journey. Cilka was taken to Auschwitz when she was just 16 years old. She saw horrible things there, but also had to participate in terrible events just to stay alive. When the Russians liberated the prison camp, they decided that Cilka was a spy for Germany, and she was sent to a gulag in Siberia. The story describes what Cilka did at that gulag, and how she was determined to survive. The characters within the book are all great too. I had a lump in my throat many times as I read what she had to endure. Great writing–wonderful research.
Excellent Book. I could not put this book down. Everyone should read this book.
Slow moving
It completes the story of Cilka
It drew me in right away and made me feel for all these women locked up and feeling hopeless..Cilka never gave up!
Although This book explains a lot more more of what went on in Auschwitz, the story is about Cilkas life in the Russian gulag.
A very moving story, based on a real person.
Having visited Auschwitz, I’m interested in books like this. It’s an ok book but nowhere near as good as “The Tattooist of Auschwitz.”
Great sequel to the “Tattooist of Auschwitz”.
I read The Tattooist of Auschwitz and decided to read Cilka’s Journey. The enormity of what any one person could endure is in this book. Well written and heart wrenching. The truth of what happened drains you.