Cilka's Journey

I was late reading The Tattooist of Auschwitz so by the time I read that Heather Morris book, everyone was already talking about Cilka's Journey. Both books were extremely well-written  and easy to read, if that can be said about a Holocaust novel. But where Tattooist was and continues to be the most hopeful Holocaust novel that I've read, Cilka's Journey was much more gut-wrenching. Where Tattooist is a story of hope and love, Cilka's Journey is a story about bravery and the will to live.

Cilka is a more minor character in The Tattooist of Auschwitz. She becomes one of the good friends of Gita. This is Cilka's story after she is liberated from Auschwitz. I had no idea that someone who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz for 3 years might have gone on to sentenced to years of being locked up at a Gulag in Siberia.

I knew nothing of the post-WW II Siberia or Siberian Gulags. I must have not read anything from the blurb of Cilka's Journey so I really didn't know what this novel was going to be about.

Cilka's Journey could be read as a standalone book since enough recollections are a part of this book to make the backstory from Tattooist not completely necessary. But I'm glad I read them in order. As with the first book, the author's note at the end of the book really clinched the book for me. I highly recommend them both.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

This is a very difficult book review to write. Not because The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is a Holocaust book. Rather, this is probably one of the most hopeful Holocaust books that I've ever read. I just don't want to give too much of it away.

The title character, Lale, is a Slovakian Jew who volunteered to leave his family, thinking it might save them, and get taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Because he spoke many languages, he was selected to become a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Lale always considered himself a flirter. He learned how to treat women from his mother and his sister. He used those skills, as well as kindness and compassion, to face the worst of humanity. His acts improved the lives of many of the prisoners he came in contact with.

This Holocaust novel is a love story and humanity in the midst of a death camp. What's especially lovely is that it's based on a true story.