Cilka’s Journey

by Heather Morris Book 2 in the Tattooist of Auschwitz series.

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In 1942, sixteen-year-old Cilka Klein is deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where sexual coercion and the attention of senior SS officers place her in a position that other prisoners may misread as privilege. She survives the camp, but liberation does not bring freedom: Soviet authorities accuse her of collaboration and sentence her to fifteen years in Vorkuta, a labour camp above the Arctic Circle.

At Vorkuta, Cilka endures hunger, violence and another system of arbitrary power. Her intelligence and compassion lead to work in the camp hospital, where she learns nursing and tries to protect fellow prisoners. Through friendships with other women and her growing attachment to Alexandr, the novel explores the consequences of survival, the stigma imposed on victims and the possibility of rebuilding a life after repeated imprisonment.