The Kommandant's Girl
by Pam Jenoff
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Book Summary Information
Author: Pam JenoffEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-01
ISBN: 0778323420
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Mira
Book Reviews of The Kommandant's Girl
Book Review: "The surprise of who or what might be around the corner, it's what keeps us going."
Summary: 4 Stars
Eighteen year-old Emma Gershmann, meets Jacob Bau while she is working at Krakow University as a librarian. The two almost immediately strike-up a conversation, which is unusual for Emma, a quiet young women from an Orthodox Jewish home. But Jacob looks kind and honest, and obviously possesses a lively sense of humor. He is pursuing studies in physics, but his real passion is politics, and he is involved in many activist's groups. He has written several articles about "Germany's unfettered dominance" over its neighbors." Jacob is the son of prominent socialist Maximilian Bau. "Emma was surprised that a student from a wealthy secular family would be interested in her, the daughter of a poor Orthodox baker." However, Jacob never seems to notice the differences in their class status. He is apparently falling in love with this fair-haired blue-eyed Jewess. He asks to court the lovely young woman, and they wed shortly after gaining permission. The couple had only been married for three weeks when the Nazis invade Poland.
Jews were obliged to take part in forced labor almost immediately after the conquest. In November 1939, all Jews 12 years or older were required to wear identifying armbands. All Kraków, synagogues were ordered closed and their relics and valuables turned over to the Nazi authorities. The Kraków Ghetto was formally established in 1941. Fifteen thousand Jews were displaced from their homes and crammed into an area previously inhabited by 3,000 people who used to live in a district consisting of 30 streets, 320 residential buildings, and 3,167 rooms. As a result, one apartment was allocated to every four Jewish families, and many less fortunate lived on the street.
Young leftists, including Jacob Bau, who had undertaken the publication of an underground newsletter, joined forces with other Zionist to form a local branch of the Jewish Fighting Organization and organize resistance in the ghetto, supported by the Polish underground. The group carried out a variety of resistance activities including the bombing of the Cyganeria cafe, a gathering place of Nazi officers.
Jacob disappears soon after the formation of the ghetto, after explaining to Emma that he has a moral obligation to fight their oppressors. She remains behind with her parents as the situation worsens on a daily basis, i.e., poverty, starvation, typhus, homelessness, Nazi violence and random murders. She begins work in a ghetto orphanage where she meets other young activists who work with Jacob. Marta Nederman, one of these people, becomes Emma's close friend and introduces her to other like-minded people.
Jacob has Emma smuggled out of the ghetto and finds a place for her in a small village near Krakow with Krysia Smok, his Catholic aunt by marriage. Krysia is a member of Krakow's social elite, despite her waning years, and is a warm, welcoming woman who loves her nephew by marriage. Emma is given a new name, Anna Lipowski, and a new history. She is now an orphan from Gdansk and a Catholic. Krysia has also taken in a little boy, three year-old Lukasz, the only remaining descendant of Rabbi Iszakowicz, the great rabbi of Lublin. Emma is to pose as the child's older sister and protect him with her life.
Krysia, as a doyenne of Krakow society, believes that the best way to hide from the Nazis is to act normally, right underneath their noses. Therefore she invites a small group to a dinner party, including Nazis, Polish sympathizers, and the charismatic Kommandant Georg Richwalder, second in command to Nazi Governor-General of Poland, Hans Frank. Emma/Anna is terrified, but Krysia reassures her, coaches her for her role, and makes the young woman a beautiful dress for the occasion. Richwalder is a striking man. Anna knows she should hate him on sight, but nevertheless is drawn to him. Unfortunately the Kommandant is also drawn to Anna, and he asks her to work as his special assistant in Nazi headquarters. The underground encourages her to take the job in order to spy for them But the situation between the Nazi and the Jewess becomes much more complex. Ann finds herself awake at night, racked by guilt.
I found this novel to be riveting. Not only does it portray Jewish life in Krakow before and during the Holocaust, but it also deals with Jewish guilt...survivor guilt. Written in a first person narrative, Emma/Anna tells her story. She is a very human, yet a flawed character, quite sympathetic and well developed, as are many of the novels other personages. However, she becomes strong and resilient as the plot progresses. The emotional growth she experiences, moving from a sheltered Jewish girl to a more worldly professional woman, working for both a Nazi Kommandant, in the belly of the beast, and also for the resistance, is part of what makes this book so special. As for Kommandant Richwalder, he frequently comes across as a sympathetic figure, and the reader, just like Anna, must continually bear in mind that the man is a Nazi, who perpetrates, although from afar, the worst of war crimes. "The Kommandant considers himself a gentleman, a man of music, art and culture. In his twisted way of thinking, service to the Reich is something noble and patriotic, and the Jewish question is an ugliness to be tolerated from afar. He has sequestered himself in Wawel (Castle), ruling his dominion from a great height, shielding himself from the killing. From where he sits the ghetto is just a neighborhood where Jews are forced to live." Right! He only has to sign a piece of paper to end millions of lives, he doesn't need to shoot Jewish children, add gas to the chambers, or stoke the crematorium fires.
I so enjoyed, "The Kommandants Girl," (if one can enjoy, a book like this), that I am reading the sequel. "The Diplomat's Wife." Highly recommended!
Jana Perskie
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