Lilac Girls tells the story of the Ravensbruck Rabbits, a group of Polish teenagers imprisoned at the Nazi concentration camp for women. The Rabbits are subjected to a series of gruesome experiments: Nazi doctors cut into leg bones, muscles, and nerves and deliberately infected the patients with virulent bacteria and foreign objects such as glass and wood. Some of the patients died, some were executed, and the rest suffered permanent physical damage.
The story is told by three narrators. Caroline Ferriday is a socialite, former Broadway actress, and volunteer at the French Embassy in New York City.
Kasia Kuzmerick is a Polish teenager arrested as an underground courier and sent to Ravensbruck, a "reeducation" camp for women.
Herta Oberheuser is an ambitious but professionally frustrated doctor who answers an ad for a medical position at the camp.
Both Caroline and Herta are real persons. Kasia is loosely based on one of the Rabbits.
Author Martha Hill Kelly was inspired to write the book after learning about Caroline Ferriday's love of lilacs and touring her home in Bethlehem Connecticut. During the tour, Kelly learned about the Rabbits and how Caroline helped them get reparations as well as treatment in the United States after the war.
Unfortunately, Kelly does the real Caroline a disservice by adding a fictional romance with a French actor. Kelly wanted to give Caroline more of a personal connection to France and to dramatize events happening there. It was unnecessary and actually weakened Caroline's story. Her involvement with the Rabbits seems to come more from wanting a distraction from her romantic problems than a sincere effort to help the women.
I doubt the real Caroline Ferriday was so shallow.
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