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Silver Medal Winner of the International Book Award contest Readers' Favorite in the Historical Fiction category (2017) This story is dedicated to all the victims of sexual slavery in German concentration camps, who had to endure inhumane suffering under the Nazi regime. For many years after the atrocities had been committed, both sides – the abusers and the abused – still vehemently denied certain aspects of the Holocaust, and even the victims refused to admit the ugly truth about their incarceration, some out of fear, some out of shame, until several women decided to break an unofficial oath of silence, and brought their stories to life. This book is based on one of those stories. Emilia is a young Jewish woman, whose life slowly turns into a nightmare as she finds herself facing a dreadful to secure her family’s very existence by offering herself to one of the men who had put her behind the walls with barbed wire, or perish together with the least fortunate ones. Only, the Krakow ghetto and her very first abuser pale in comparison to what is yet to come, as she’s being sent to a place that soon will turn into her own personal hell and that will scar her for life… Book one in "Women and the Holocaust" series. Also in the same "No Woman's Land" (book 2) "Auschwitz Syndrome (book 3)
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Emilia is a smart woman growing up in Germany in the 1930's who would do anything for her family. Her parents and three brothers were forced out of their home. Then forced out of another after she tried everything she could to keep them there. She gave away their family heirloom jewelry and even her own body. Nothing kept her and her mom from having to go to the camps.
I admire Emilia so very much. She was constantly shoved into hardships that I couldn't even imagine and still found a way to be determined to keep her family safe. This story made me cry, both happy and sad. But it was one of the greatest journeys a character has taken me on and I loved it from start to finish!