"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 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 ...
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"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 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?"--Publisher of regular-sized printing.
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Add this copy of Cilka's Journey to cart. $6.52, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Center Point.
Add this copy of Cilka's Journey (Center Point Large Print) to cart. $24.60, very good condition, Sold by The Maryland Book Bank rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from baltimore, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Center Point.
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.
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