I am passionate about World War II history. My first novel is about Poland because it’s where the war began. I was shocked when I learned that no other countries immediately came to the defense of Poland. That was due to the unprovoked surprise attack by Germany on September 1, 1939.

I am not the only one who has wondered time and again why Jewish, Christian and those not in alignment with Hitler’s ideology were not rescued from concentration camps in Europe before so many were murdered, tortured, starved and/or maimed. No one to my knowledge has adequately answered that question.

Here is what Kasia, a main character in Lilac Girls wrote about prisoners and survivors of the war being left without help during, and even after the war ended:

“The summer the year that Zuzanna and I came home to Lublin I tried to stay optimistic, but it was hard. Once I learned what had happened during our almost four years at Ravensbruck, I couldn’t understand why the world had never come to our aid. First with Hitler’s invasion in 1939 from the west, then with the Soviet invasion the same month from the east. Though these invasions had caused Britain and France to declare war on Germany, not one Allied soldier had been sent to help us fight. Our first reports of Auschwitz, sent to the Western world by our Polish underground at great risk, had received no response either. Our reports of thousands of our Polish officers murdered in the forests near Katyn, Pietrik’s father possibly among them, were ignored by the world as well.

So when this world rejoiced at Japan’s surrender and the war was officially over, I did not rejoice. The war continued for us, just under a new dictator, Stalin. Though it was not fully apparent right away, Stalin’s hand was already over us. Many of the leaders of the Polish resistance, several of them Pietrik’s friends, were taken and eventually murdered by the Red Army and the NKVD, Stalin’s brutal law enforcement agency. The NKVD were the nice people in charge of ferreting out “enemies of the people.” They executed tens of thousands of Polish political prisoners and sent thousands more to the gulags. Instead of a fresh start, Poland got new forms of injustice.”   Chapter 31, p333-334, KASIA, 1945 Lilac Girls   Copyright© 2016 by Martha Hall Kelly

Lilac Girls is based on the true story of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp prisoners during World War II. It was an all-woman camp between 1939 and 1945, having a majority of Polish prisoners. Many of the women endured monstrous medical experimentation that either killed them immediately or horribly disabled them for whatever life they had left. Kasia and Zuzanna in the novel are based on two Polish sisters who just barely survived Ravensbruck. Kasia is based on the real-life Nina Iwanska and Zuzanna is based on her sister, Krystyna Iwanska.

This book is electrifying–horrifying in its graphic detail. My thinking is that if concentration camp prisoners could endure the tortures and wish to share their stories, then I can at least do them the honor of reading about them. I will admit that I did not read this all in one sitting. I would read as much as I could endure, put the book down and come back a bit later for another dose of abject reality. I felt compelled to know what happened to the three main characters: Kasia, Caroline and Herta. I think you will want to know too. Martha Hall Kelly has written a fascinating novel based on fact.

Linda has written two novels set against the backdrop of the Second World War. With Love From Poland and The Journal. Find out more: LindaLeePublications.com