Annabell Lackner, Grade 12
UWCEA Arusha Campus
Heather Morris, the award-winning author of the 2019 bestseller Cilka’s journey, is a native of New Zealand and trained screenplay writer. The novel is the sequel of the before published The Tattooist of Auschwitz, a touching story based upon holocaust survivor Lale Sokolov’s narrations. Both novels are based upon real stories, thematising the tragic destinies of innocent Jewish children in the Second World War. Having heard a lot about Cilka in Lale’s testimonies, Morris started digging deeper and uncovered the secret of the girl’s survival.
Cilka, an astonishingly beautiful, rebellious and strong-willed girl from a Jewish family in Czechoslovakia, was deported to the concentration camp Auschwitz during the Second World War. Falling victim to her outstanding appearance, the 16-year-old became the mistress of senior officer Schwarzenhuber, the most powerful man in the camp. While having to endure his constant rape and being placed in the death block to oversee the final hours before the execution of the weak and ill, Cilka was able to survive the unhuman conditions until the liberation by the Russians three years later. Finally free again, she is arrested for “sleeping with the enemy”, and brought to a working camp in Siberia where her history should repeat itself.
This tragic story touches the reader profoundly and successfully recreates the identity of the “tiny, fragile” women, only kept alive by her incredible courage and her willpower to survive. A truly remarkable passage is when she confesses her origin and crime charge for the first time to a new Russian friend, Yelena. By confessing to Yelena the reason for her repeated imprisonment, Cilka expresses doubts about her innocence. Morris addresses here with great skill the question of compliance vs complicity in the holocaust, questioning if enduring acceptance is acceptable or just a sign of complicity and guilt. Simultaneously, the author tackles a controversial feminist topic, rape, where the victim is punished for not resisting the perpetrator. Through all that, she makes her novel not only an authentic memoir of the holocaust, but she also gives the destiny of many a voice through the emotional story of an individual. Additionally, she weaves in contemporary issues and demonstrates the timelessness of certain problems, a characteristic of the novel that will keep the audience interested now and in the future.
This truly touching story has the power to open the eyes of the public for the war crimes of the past, as the story of individuals like Cilka make the precarious topic more accessible and digestible for ordinary people. At the same time, facts and figures are humanised and they illustrate the cruelties of the war in a manner that allows to slowly educate the masses on the fatal history. In a fight against human ignorance and forgetting, Morris made a successful attempt to preserve these heritages so that crimes like this will never happen again.
Bibliography:
“Cilka’s Journey.” Heather Morris, www.heathermorrisauthor.com/cilkas-journey/. Accessed 26 July 2022.
Cilka, an astonishingly beautiful, rebellious and strong-willed girl from a Jewish family in Czechoslovakia, was deported to the concentration camp Auschwitz during the Second World War. Falling victim to her outstanding appearance, the 16-year-old became the mistress of senior officer Schwarzenhuber, the most powerful man in the camp. While having to endure his constant rape and being placed in the death block to oversee the final hours before the execution of the weak and ill, Cilka was able to survive the unhuman conditions until the liberation by the Russians three years later. Finally free again, she is arrested for “sleeping with the enemy”, and brought to a working camp in Siberia where her history should repeat itself.
This tragic story touches the reader profoundly and successfully recreates the identity of the “tiny, fragile” women, only kept alive by her incredible courage and her willpower to survive. A truly remarkable passage is when she confesses her origin and crime charge for the first time to a new Russian friend, Yelena. By confessing to Yelena the reason for her repeated imprisonment, Cilka expresses doubts about her innocence. Morris addresses here with great skill the question of compliance vs complicity in the holocaust, questioning if enduring acceptance is acceptable or just a sign of complicity and guilt. Simultaneously, the author tackles a controversial feminist topic, rape, where the victim is punished for not resisting the perpetrator. Through all that, she makes her novel not only an authentic memoir of the holocaust, but she also gives the destiny of many a voice through the emotional story of an individual. Additionally, she weaves in contemporary issues and demonstrates the timelessness of certain problems, a characteristic of the novel that will keep the audience interested now and in the future.
This truly touching story has the power to open the eyes of the public for the war crimes of the past, as the story of individuals like Cilka make the precarious topic more accessible and digestible for ordinary people. At the same time, facts and figures are humanised and they illustrate the cruelties of the war in a manner that allows to slowly educate the masses on the fatal history. In a fight against human ignorance and forgetting, Morris made a successful attempt to preserve these heritages so that crimes like this will never happen again.
Bibliography:
“Cilka’s Journey.” Heather Morris, www.heathermorrisauthor.com/cilkas-journey/. Accessed 26 July 2022.
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