Synopsis

In Victoria’s War, Hamilton gives voice to the courageous Polish women who were kidnapped into the real-life Nazi slave labor operation during WWII. Inspired by true stories, this lost chapter of history won’t soon be forgotten.

POLAND, 1939: Nineteen-year-old Victoria Darski is eager to move away to college: her bags are packed and her train ticket is in hand. But instead of boarding a train to the University of Warsaw, she finds her world turned upside down when World War II breaks out. Victoria’s father is sent to a raging battlefront, and the Darski women must face the cruelty of the invaders alone. When Victoria decides to go to a resistance meeting with her best friend, Sylvia, they are captured by human traffickers targeting Polish teenagers. Sylvia is sent to work in a brothel, and Victoria is transported by cattle car to Berlin, where she is auctioned off as a slave.

GERMANY, 1941: Twenty-year-old Etta Tod is at Mercy Hospital about to undergo involuntary sterilization because of the Fuhrer’s mandate to eliminate hereditary deafness. Etta, an artist, silently critiques the propaganda poster on the waiting room wall while her mother tries to convince her she should be glad to get rid of her monthlies. Etta is the daughter of the German shopkeepers who buy Victoria at auction in Berlin.

The stories of Victoria and Etta intertwine in the bakery’s attic where Victoria is held—the same place where Etta has hidden her anti-Nazi paintings. The two women form a quick and enduring bond. But when they’re caught stealing bread from the bakery and smuggling it to a nearby work camp, everything changes.

Praise

“Victoria’s War is a compelling story of a young Polish woman caught in the vise of the German invasion of Poland at the opening salvo of World War II. Written in an engaging literary style that captures the textures of Polish life, Catherine Hamilton’s gripping novel is a must read!”  — Dr. Richard C. Lukas, author of Did the Children Cry? and The Forgotten Holocaust

“Some stories that need to be told are never told. They languish in a limbo of forgotten stories that should never have been forgotten. Catherine Hamilton’s novel Victoria’s War resurrects one of these stories. In language intimate and natural and yet touched by the poetry of truth, Hamilton tells the story of a young girl who is the victim of war. Too often, we think only of the men who go to war, do heroic things. We forget the other victims and heroes of war, the women like Victoria in this brilliant novel.”  — John Guzlowski, author of the award-winning Echoes of Tattered Tongues

Review

What an intriguing read!  In the past, I did not delve into history and what happened during various wars or what influenced people and countries.  This book focuses on the Polish women that were enslaved by Germany and forced to work in camps, factories, or as prostitutes for the Germans.  We know a lot about what happened to the Jewish population, but not much is made known about others that were enslaved and killed just because one man did not like them.

The book focuses primarily on two young women and their relationship with each other.  Victoria was all set to attend college when her plans were dashed by the war and German soldiers.  Etta is a deaf-mute in Germany that is a talented artist but is scorned by her mother because of her disabilities.  These two women come together when Victoria is purchased by an SS officer for his parent’s bakery to assist in cleaning and whatever else they want her to do in order to stay alive.

Leading up to her life in the bakery, we follow Victoria and other women through a train ride to Berlin in cramped quarters, living in a shed at the mercy of the German officers, and other events that shape their hopes and dreams for the future.  All of this because they were Catholic, Polish, Gypsies, or Serbian.  Men took what they wanted and did not care about these women or their lives.

Once at the bakery, Etta seems something in Victoria and reaches out to her in friendship, but in secret.  Had either of Etta’s parents known what she was doing they would have probably beaten Etta and killed Victoria.  Etta’s mother, Frau Tod, is fully brainwashed by the Nazi party and believes that her daughter is less because she cannot hear or speak.  Her father and brother are not the same way, but they have their own issues.  Despite everything, Etta feels a kinship with Victoria especially since Etta does not hold the same beliefs as the Nazi Party.  In fact, I think you could call her a sympathizer.  They work together to assist those being held in camps to hopefully survive.

This story, while fiction, is based on facts and I challenge anyone reading this book to walk away from it without heartache for what these people endured during the war.  Their will to survive and do whatever they had to do to stay alive and perhaps even work against the Germans to regain their freedom.  There are several heart-stopping moments and this book tore at my beliefs and my soul.  There is so much I could tell you about this book but do not want to spoil it for any reader.

We give this book 5 paws up.

About the Author

CATHERINE A. HAMILTON is a freelance writer of Polish descent whose articles and poems have appeared in magazines and newspapers including the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, The Oregonian, the Catholic Sentinel, the Dziennik Związkowy (the oldest Polish newspaper in America), and the Polish American Journal. She is the author of the chapter about Katherine Graczyk in Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation, edited by Richard C. Lukas. Victoria’s War, her first novel, will be published in 2020 by Plain View Press. She actively publishes and blogs on her website.  Hamilton lives in the Northwest with her husband.

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