WHAT I'M READING -- THE GIRL IN THE STRIPED DRESS

 Actually I haven't been reading a lot lately.  I really want to get back into it.  But I haven't been able to get into a book the way I got into this one.  This is one of the best books I've ever read.  I literally could not put it down.  I walked around the house reading it...  kitchen, yard, bathroom, bedroom.  I finished it in three days.  Unheard of for me.

THE GIRL IN THE STRIPED DRESS:  A COMPLETELY HEARTBREAKING AND GRIPPING WORLD WAR 2 PAGE-TURNER BASED ON A TRUE STORY by Ellie Midwood

I had been watching some WW2 videos on YouTube (I watch a lot of history videos) and wanted a book about that time period to read.  This came up on my Kindle recommendations, so I decided to read it.  But once I started, I couldn't stop.  I would say "Just one more chapter" and it would be hours later when I looked up and I had read three or four chapters.  Let me tell you about it.  This is from the Amazon web site.

Auschwitz, 1942: This unforgettable novel, based on a true story, brings to life history’s most powerful tale of forbidden love. Set within the barbed wire of Auschwitz, a man and a woman fall in love against unimaginable odds. What happens next will restore your faith in humanity, and make you believe in hope even where hope should not exist.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he whispered, pressing a note into her hand. Her entire body trembled when she read it: I am in love with you.

Helena steps off the cattle train onto the frozen grounds of Auschwitz. She has twenty-four hours to live. Scheduled to be killed tomorrow, she is not even tattooed with a prison number. As the snow falls around her, she shivers, knowing that she has been sentenced to death for a crime she didn’t commit.

When a gray-clad officer marches towards Helena and pulls her away, she fears the worst. Instead, he tells her that it’s one of the guard’s birthdays and orders her to serenade him.

Inside the SS barracks the air is warm, thick with cigarette smoke and boisterous conversation. After she sings to the guard, Franz, he presses a piece of cake into her hands––the first thing she has eaten in days. On the spot, he orders her life to be saved, forever changing the course of her fate.

What follows is a love story that was forbidden, that should have been impossible, and yet saved both of their lives––and hundreds of others––in more ways than one.

The most confusing part of the book is when it goes back and forth between a current trial and the memories of the past.  Both are interesting though and it doesn't take long to figure out which is which.  This is an amazing story and the fact that it is true makes it even better.  Of course some of it is fictionalized since no one was actually there for parts of it.

I read another person's review of this book and she said this is a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome.  I agree.  Can you really fall in love with your prisoner or with your captor?  Especially under these circumstances.  Or is it great gratitude for saving your life?  You be the judge of that.

It is a book that I highly recommend anyone who is interested in World War Two.

Now I am off to find another book to read.  I certainly have enough of them!  See you all later.

Kathy