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Imagine surviving the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp for three long years.
Imagine losing a mother and sister to the gas chambers and typhoid fever that ravaged the barracks and not knowing the whereabouts of the father, who had also become a prisoner of Adolf Hitler’s regime.
And then, one day, find you’re free.
Only to have that freedom stolen from her again.
This is the story of Cecilia Kleinprotagonist of Cilka’s Journey (Planet of Books), by the New Zealand author Heather Morris🇧🇷 Inspired by real events, the book tells the story of young Cilka, as she prefers to be called, who, after being released from Auschwitzin 1945, is accused of having worked for the Nazis who held her prisoner and sentenced by the Soviets to a sentence of 15 years of forced labor in a gulag in Siberia.
Morris learned about Cilka’s story through Lale Sokolov, central character of his first bestseller, The Auschwitz Tattoo Artist🇧🇷 To tell her story, however, the writer cannot rely on the physical connection she had with Lale, since the real Cecilia Klein died in 2004, aged 78. “Another challenge was not having access to anyone who has lived in a gulag to have their personal experiences first hand. I had to learn from a Moscow researcher what life was like in a Siberian gulag”, said the writer in an interview with CLAUDIA🇧🇷 “To combat the anguish of this material, I visited Kosice, Slovakia and spent time with Cilka’s friends and neighbors, who shared memories and stories of her. That’s how she came to life and I got to write about the incredible, courageous young woman who grew into a loving, compassionate woman.”
During her years in Siberia, Cilka lived with several other women: other prisoners with whom she shared the barracks where she lived, brigade leaders, nurses and doctors. Despite the harsh living conditions and the desperation for survival, they all have a great strength of spirit, which becomes even greater when they put aside disagreements and unite. Morris believes it is precisely this union that helped them survive the cold Soviet fields. “The friendships they shared would certainly lead them to cling to every last grain of hope that they would leave prison.” In addition, the desire to see the family, especially the children, and the sense of injustice of having been deprived for committing small infractions would also be “a driving force for wanting to see the sun rise the next day.”
It is impossible, moreover, to read Cilka’s Journey without being outraged by the reason that would justify his imprisonment in Siberia. Raped by a Nazi commander, Cilka ends up accused of having intentionally offered sexual services to the officers and collaborating with the regime, in exchange for not being sent to be executed in the gas chamber. But the Soviets aren’t the only ones to doubt rape. After the publication of her book, Heather Morris was criticized by historians and Klein’s family, who claim that it is impossible for the young Jewish woman to have had any kind of relationship with her executioners, consensual or not, since the soldiers, in theory, followed O Rassenschande (a concept of Nazi racial policy that condemned miscegenation) and that the presence of Jews in existing brothels in the camps was prohibited.
For Heather, it is absurd to believe that there were no cases of sexual violence in the concentration camps, they were just covered up by the silence of the parties involved. “There was the shame that these women would carry for the rest of their lives, being able to be discriminated against by their communities. That’s why it’s only now, when these women are in their nineties, that we hear about the sexual abuse they suffered during the Holocaust,” she laments.
For your next book, Stories of Hope, still not scheduled for release in Brazil, the New Zealander has collected reports from people who found hope in tragic and traumatic events in life. “Hope is the last thing that dies. We all cling to it until our last breath. It is worth sharing, celebrating. It’s what unites us as human beings,” she says, adding that she finds strength and inspiration in hearing such stories. And she recommends: making yourself vulnerable by sharing pain, trauma and guilt or being willing to listen to those who want to talk is an enriching experience for both parties that everyone should try.
The book Cilka’s Journey can be purchased here🇧🇷
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