Author: Heather Morris

Cilka was mentioned a few times in the book The Tattooist of Auschwitz. She was a good friend of Gita who eventually married the tattooist. She was taken from the general population and put in charge of the women who would be sent to the gas chambers the following day. She was repeatedly raped by a couple of SS officers and did what she had to do to survive. At one point she used her connections to get the tattooist back his job and in doing so likely saved his life.

After surviving three years at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Cilka was convicted of “sleeping with the enemy” and sentence to 15 years of hard labour at a Siberian prison camp where the conditions were almost as bad as they had been at the concentration camp. I can’t imagine how she forced herself to keep going day after day and year after year.

How do you truly rate these horrendous stories that emerge from the Second World War and the struggles of Nazi-occupied territories?

Goodreads Rating: * * *