The Girls of the Glimmer Factory by Jennifer Coburn

 

My thoughts

This is the second historical by this author. Cradles of the Reich was a heartbreaking story based on facts as is this book. 

This book was so well researched and takes you inside a Jewish ghetto camp where humans were treated like animals. Starved and many horrors facing them daily. It's heartbreaking to know these things happened and very possibly could happen again. 

Hannah and Hilde had been best friends in younger years. Hannah was Jewish and Hilde a German. 

Hannah and her grandfather/Opa were sent to Theresienstadt. Her grandpa thought they bought a cottage by the lake. It was a ghetto camp for the Jews. Hannah's parents, brother, and grandmother, had fled before they could be taken from their home. Hannah was sick with smallpox and could not go so her grandpa took care of her. 

Hilde was a German who thought the Jews were awful and dirty. The soul reason for all that was wrong with Germany. That was what she had been taught and she believed it. She had no empathy for the Jewish people. She was a very smug young lady. She didn't have high standards or morals either. She did whatever it took to get what she wanted. 

Hannah and many Jews were in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Many worked in the glimmer factory. Everyone had a job. They had to have to survive. This place was horrible but the prisoners did the best with what they had. Many very smart and talented people were here. From musicians to teachers. They entertained and did what they could to teach the younger children. 

Not many of the hundreds of thousands sent to this camp lived. Some did though and went on to tell the world what really happened here. Despite the propaganda film made the truth would be told. 

This book is so well researched and at the end you can read exactly what the author did to gain the information used in this novel. The people she spoke with. The places she visited. I love a well researched novel and this one is exceptionally done. 

This book is so heartbreaking and open. It made me shed many many tears. It is very hard to believe that not that long ago these things happened. Let us please remember and not let it happen again.

Thank you #NetGalley, #SourcebooksLandmark, for this ARC. 

Five big stars.

About

From the author of Cradles of the Reich comes a poignant and inspiring tale of resistance, friendship, and the dangers of propaganda, based on the real story of Theresienstadt, for fans of The Forest of Vanishing Stars and The German Wife.

Hannah longs for the days when she used to be free, but now, she is a Jewish prisoner at Theresienstadt, a model ghetto where the Nazis plan to make a propaganda film to convince the world that the Jewish people are living well in the camps. But Hannah will do anything to show the world the truth. Along with other young resistance members, they vow to disrupt the filming and derail the increasingly frequent deportations to death camps in the east.

Hilde is a true believer in the Nazi cause, working in the Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. Though they're losing the war, Hilde hasn't lost faith. She can't stop the Allied bombings, but she can help the party create a documentary that will renew confidence in Hitler's plans for Jewish containment. When the filming of Hitler Gives a City to the Jews faces production problems due to resistance, Hilde finds herself in a position to finally make a name for herself. And when she recognizes Hannah, an old childhood friend, she knows she can use their friendship to get the film back on track.