Cilka's Journey: The Sunday Times bestselling sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz now a major SKY TV series

Cilka’s Journey is the second book in ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ trilogy series written by Heather Morris, a woman fast becoming my favourite and highly recommended author. Cilka Klein arrived in Auschwitz in 1942, a small girl of just sixteen years of age. She would remain in this camp and in Auschwitz Birkenau for the next three years, surviving regular ‘selections’ and therefore the gas chambers for all this time. On the 27th of January 1945, the Russian Army liberated the camp, with many survivors saved. However, this was only the beginning of a nightmare for the young, Cilka. During her three years in the camp, a high ranking Nazi officer named Schwarzhuber had taken a shine to Cilka and had ensconced her in a private room within Hut 25. In this hut, Cilka watched helplessly as women from the rest of the building were regularly taken to the gas chamber and to their deaths. This was a fate she even witnessed her mother suffer at the hands of these evil monsters! What saved the life of the girl were the almost constant night-time visits by this same Nazi, who regularly came to her room and raped her. Cilka did not complain about this or offer any resistance to this evil man, as to do so would surely result in her being taken to the gas chamber and executed herself, so enduring these constant rapes actually kept Cilka alive for all this time. When the Russians arrived, the authorities interviewed all the survivors. However, when it came to Cilka, they were extremely harsh with her, not believing that she was not a willing participant in these acts of rape. Unbelievably, this resulted in her imprisonment again, but this time at the hands of the Russians, whom she originally considered were her saviours. After waiting a few months, she arrives in court and is accused of “collaborating with the enemy.” This results in her being found guilty and sentenced to serve ten years of hard labour in ‘Vorkuta,’ a Siberian Gulag situated only a few miles from the Arctic Circle. Lale Sokolov, (from The Tattooist of Auschwitz,) once told the author of this book that Cilka Klein was the bravest girl he had ever known, and that she had saved his life on numerous occasions. This is Cilka’s wonderful story of her life in the Gulag, and how she survived against the odds. I cannot recommend this story highly enough. It is an absolute page turner, a tear jerker, and a must read.

Heather Morris follows up her tearjerking story of love and survival, 'The Tatooist of Auschwitz', with another heart-rending semi-true tale showing the best and worst of humanity. We met the character Cilka in the first novel, where she was an important supporting character - a teenaged camp inmate who was forced to act as the concubine for the camp's commandant. In this sequel, she is the main character, and we follow her from the concentration camp to another prison - a Soviet gulag in the Arctic where she is sentenced to 15 years hard labour for collaboration. The sheer injustice of her situation is breathtaking - after years of horrendous abuse, she is punished for simply having done what she had to in order to avoid being killed. It's not some crazy fiction - Cilka was a real person and she really was imprisoned for this reason. The other women around her are being brutally punished for similar non-crimes, like wanting to marry someone from another country, or being related to the wrong person. The gulag is a fascinating though horrible world with its own code of conduct and politics. It is less utterly depraved than Auschwitz - which is very faint praise indeed. But the fact the prisoners have a degree more freedom and a degree less fear gives more opportunity for stories to develop. Cilka gradually makes some friends and finds meaningful work in the prison hospital, but she is damaged by her experiences and her courageous nature mean she is not as good at keeping her head down as she tries to be. It's impossible not to root for Cilka and want her to succeed, and there are many likeable supporting characters as well. It's not a cheerful read - but you wouldn't expect it to be. It is however life-affirming and a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the goodness in human nature, as well as a depiction of the results of the worst inhumanity. If you are likely to be upset by a story featuring violence, including sexual violence, and descriptions of horrible treatment of human beings then you might want to steer clear. All in all it's a well written book with a strong emotional punch and sheds light another shameful episode in human history.

I really enjoyed this book, which seems a strange thing to write. I had read the Tattooist of Auschwitz about a year before, so when I saw this on offer, I bought it too. I worthwhile story to tell. I was unaware of the horrors people like Cilka had experienced after being "freed". A strong, survivor.

This was my second reading six years later. It’s hard to know what to feel for Cilka after her role in Auschwitz, but Morris paints her in a positive and sympathetic light. I found it interesting when - on this occasion - I took the time to read the epilogue, and discovered that Morris didn’t actually meet Cilka. She wrote this book on bits of evidence she had collated, on Lale’s words about Cilka (which will naturally be biased as she saved Lale’s life as opposed to loading him on a death cart - as she did with so many others). Morris had embellished other areas of her narrative on evidence she found of the Gulag in Vorkuta. Nevertheless, it was an interesting read and fascinating to learn about Vorkuta and Gulag. Was Cilka undeserving to go there in the end? That would be a marvellous debate for an essay. With bits of evidence lacking, we will never know the whole story.

Cilka's Journey book 2 The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris broke my heart whilst reading about how she fought bravely everyday to survive and she never thought of herself only about helping others. Cilka was incarcerated in Auschwitz at the tender age of just sixteen and was subjected to being raped by two high class SS Officers and after being liberated Cilka is pronouced as a collaborator for having slept with German Officers and sent to a Soviet Gulag camp at Vorkuta in Siberia to serve her sentence of fifteen years. Rape is likened to a weapon of war and oppression. The first thing Cilka saw when she arrived at Auschwitz were the words erected over the gates 'Work brings freedom.' And on her arrival at the Soviet Gulag camp she saw another sign with the words 'Work in the USSR is a matter of honour and glory.' Also another sign saying 'With an Iron Fist, We Will Lead Humanity to Happiness.' In this hell on earth Cilka finds her true love with Alexandr a messenger for the hospital she works in where she has compassion for all her patients. Cilka survived by having hope and courage because without hope there is only meaningless suffering.

Fabulous read and heartbreaking at the same time, to imagine this actually happened itself is incredible, you cannot imagine humans can do this to fellow human

Beautifully written

This story is heartbreaking but is one that needed to be told. Cilka Klein suffered, and yet survived, two separate horrific ordeals. First at the hands of the Nazis, and then further imprisonment by the Russians, ironically after they had liberated Auschwitz. How humans can treat one another like this is unimaginable but it did happen, and 'only' in the last 100 years. We might complain about the state of our 21st century lives but when you've read this - and I urge you to - you'll realise you've got very little to complain about. This book is the 2nd in the trilogy after the equally harrowing The Tattooist of Auschwitz. You must read that one before diving into this one.