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A review by book_concierge
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
4.0
Audiobook performed by Sasha Pick
From the Book Jacket - When ferrying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet Rose Justice is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbruck, the notorious women’s concentration camp. There, she meets an unforgettable group of women, including a once glamorous French novelist whose Jewish husband and three young sons have been killed; a resilient young Polish girl who has been used as a human guinea pig by Nazi doctors; and a female fighter pilot and military ace for the Soviet air force.
My Reactions
The book started out slowly for me but really picked up once Rose had been captured and the focus shifted to her experiences in Ravensbruck. Rose is young and a little self-centered, but she’s only eighteen when the novel begins, and she has led a relatively sheltered (and privileged) life. While she has begun to awaken to the realities of the war she is still unprepared for the deprivations and dehumanizing treatment of the camp.
I liked how Wein showed the women banding together and forming “families” – with a designated “mother” – who looked out for one another. Many of these women showed true compassion, ingenuity, selflessness, generosity and great courage. That they were able to ever find any joy or humor in their situation is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
Make no mistake, however, there are horrific scenes in this book, and some readers will have a very difficult time reading them, albeit this is a young adult novel and not as graphic as an adult novel might be. I have read other novels and memoirs dealing with life in concentration camps, as well as seen movies (both fictionalized and documentary films). The material isn’t new to me, but I still found myself shocked and unnerved by some of the depictions. I suppose that’s a good thing; much better to be disturbed than unmoved by such atrocities.
Thousands of women were interred by Germany in “work camps” during World War II. Many of these civilian prisoners had been part of their native country’s resistance forces. But Ravensbruck was not simply a labor camp. The things that happened there (and in other concentration camps) are too horrific to contemplate, and yet we must look upon those atrocities to learn from history, to try to understand the depths to which humans can sink, to celebrate the courage of those who resisted, and to honor the memory of those who lost their lives.
The audiobook is capably performed by Sasha Pick. She has a wide repertoire of voices to use for the many female characters, and I was easily able to keep them straight. I did think her voice for the young Polish girl, Roza, was irritatingly high-pitched and shrill.
From the Book Jacket - When ferrying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet Rose Justice is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbruck, the notorious women’s concentration camp. There, she meets an unforgettable group of women, including a once glamorous French novelist whose Jewish husband and three young sons have been killed; a resilient young Polish girl who has been used as a human guinea pig by Nazi doctors; and a female fighter pilot and military ace for the Soviet air force.
My Reactions
The book started out slowly for me but really picked up once Rose had been captured and the focus shifted to her experiences in Ravensbruck. Rose is young and a little self-centered, but she’s only eighteen when the novel begins, and she has led a relatively sheltered (and privileged) life. While she has begun to awaken to the realities of the war she is still unprepared for the deprivations and dehumanizing treatment of the camp.
I liked how Wein showed the women banding together and forming “families” – with a designated “mother” – who looked out for one another. Many of these women showed true compassion, ingenuity, selflessness, generosity and great courage. That they were able to ever find any joy or humor in their situation is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
Make no mistake, however, there are horrific scenes in this book, and some readers will have a very difficult time reading them, albeit this is a young adult novel and not as graphic as an adult novel might be. I have read other novels and memoirs dealing with life in concentration camps, as well as seen movies (both fictionalized and documentary films). The material isn’t new to me, but I still found myself shocked and unnerved by some of the depictions. I suppose that’s a good thing; much better to be disturbed than unmoved by such atrocities.
Thousands of women were interred by Germany in “work camps” during World War II. Many of these civilian prisoners had been part of their native country’s resistance forces. But Ravensbruck was not simply a labor camp. The things that happened there (and in other concentration camps) are too horrific to contemplate, and yet we must look upon those atrocities to learn from history, to try to understand the depths to which humans can sink, to celebrate the courage of those who resisted, and to honor the memory of those who lost their lives.
The audiobook is capably performed by Sasha Pick. She has a wide repertoire of voices to use for the many female characters, and I was easily able to keep them straight. I did think her voice for the young Polish girl, Roza, was irritatingly high-pitched and shrill.