The Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly

NOTE: Names in italics are real people.  Kasia and Zuzanna Kuzmerick are based on real sisters who were in the camp.

Characters
Caroline Ferriday American, former actress	Kasia Kuzmerick Polish teenager	Dr. Herta Oberheuser German doctor
Eliza Ferriday - mother Roger Fortier – Consul General Betty Merchant – friend Pia – secretary Paul Rodierre – actor, wife Rena Leena – daughter Ravensbruck Rabbits Committee 1957-58 Serge – Russian cook Janina Grabowski – brought to mother’s Paris apartment in 1947	Halina – mother Adalbert – father, ran postal center Zuzanna – sister, doctor Nadia Watroba – friend Pietrik Bakoski – friend, then husband; in AK (home army), hid Nadia and mother Luiza – sister Halina – Kasia and Pietrik’s daughter Janina Grabowski “Wiola” – resistance Lennart Fleischer – Halina sketched him before war to protect father Marthe – living with father at end of war	Mutti – Mother Anton – father, broke law by listening to foreign broadcasts and reading foreign papers Heinz – butcher, employed and raped Herta Pipi – friend at camp BDM – League of German Girls, female branch of Nazi youth Arrested, tried to commit suicide, sentenced to 20 years, served 5, able to practice medicine after released
	Ravensbruck Concentration Camp
	Ravensbruck Rabbits: Kasia Zuzanna Luiza Janina Halina – organized infirmary, drew portraits of Germans	Herta Fritz Fischer – medical school classmate, left camp and went to work at front (died in 2003, served 15 years in prison) Dr. Karl Gebhardt Elizabeth Marschall - nurse Vilmer Hartman Dorothea Binz – guard (all hung after trials)

 For Discussion:

1. What did you think about Halina drawing the Nazi’s portraits in order to help her family?  How would this seem to Kasia when she was in the resistance?
2. Did you understand Kasia’s guilt over her mother being arrested when she was bringing her a sandwich at her job?
3. Discuss Fritz Fischer and his decision to leave the concentration camp where he was safe and go to work at the front where he was in danger.    Contrast Fritz’s decision all the while predicting that Germany was losing the war with Herta who thought she was working for the greater good of Germany.
4. What do you think happened to Halina?  The only clue was when Commandant Suhren referred to “the incident…” (end of Chapter 20).
5. Why do you think Herta was awarded the War Merit Cross?  
6. What was the tradition of over-flowing a glass of champagne when Paul then dabbed the liquid behind Caroline’s and his ears (end of Chapter One).  What did this mean?
7. At the end of Chapter 37, Kasia reflected, “I’d survived Ravensbruck.  How could ordinary life be harder than that?”   Was is asking too much for her to be able to adjust given the guilt she felt about her mother as well as everything she had been through?  How do you think confronting Herta will help her?
8. Discuss the various characters and the following:
1. Caroline’s decision to help Paul and Rena find their baby.
2. Caroline’s consistent refusal of Paul after the war.
3. Did you feel any sympathy for Herta when she finally ran away from the camp and then tried to commit suicide?
4. Herta cutting herself to relieve stress (Chapter 20).
5. Herta was convicted and sent to prison, but was released early in 1952 and allowed to practice medicine.  Also, the two nurses were hung.  Why were Herta and Fritz not given the same punishment?
9. Discuss Wallis Simpson’s remark that, “the world has grown weary of all that death and destruction” (Chapter 38).
10. Discuss your reading experience.   Did you enjoy the story?  How did you deal with reading such upsetting events?

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First Semester Success, 2nd Edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available as an ebook and hard copy from amazon.com and as a hard copy from wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.