Why a Booktrail?
Destination: Krakow Departure Time: 1939
An unique insight into the Polish occupation under the Nazis..
Kommandant’s Girl
What you need to know before your trail
19 year old Emma Bau is recently married when her world is shattered with the rumble of Nazi tanks entering her native Poland. Her husband has to disappear and starts working with the resistance in the country whilst Emma is forced into the the city’s decrepit, dirty and overcrowded Jewish ghetto. But one day she too is smuggled into the resistance where she is given a new identity and a dangerous new challenge – she is invited to join Kommandant Richwalder, a high-ranking Nazi official as his assistant.
Caught in a trap between duty and love, she has to compromise her safety and that of her family to help her husband, the cause and the very future of Poland itself.
Travel Guide
Sukennice cloth market
From the beginning the mood is one of sombre distrust and anguished one. A woman is hurrying across the square in front of the Sukennice cloth market in Krakow, trying to remain invisible and avoiding all eye contact. Then we find out ‘ The Germans have attacked’
The war and the occupation create a dark, sombre, bleak view of the human face of war. The woman, the Jews forced to lie, beg and hide in order to survive. Pregnant women, men suspected of illegal activity are forced from their homes, which become the residences of the Nazi soldiers.
The ghetto
The ghetto where Emma’s family lives is miserable, a symbol of poverty and extreme sufferance. Food is a rationed luxury. Emma escapes from this world, thrown into a Christian world of wealth and then inside the resistance. but her world changes once again.
Nazi HQ – Wawel Castle
The ultimate destination in war – the inside of the Nazi HQ where the secrets she will need to rescue her friends and family are contained. But where she works with torture and death everyday in those Nazi faces. The fear, the absolute terror inside must not show on her face or in her actions. One false move could end it all.
The real background to this was the Krakow resistance which the author wanted to explore. A journey listening to an old couple on a tram who had lived through this time, plus her own intrinsic knowledge of Krakow itself allowed her to see the city through new eyes and what she found, in places, hidden in full view of its inhabitants was a very intriguing past.
Streetview Maps
A) Sukennice cloth market
D) Wawel Castle
Booktrailer Review
Susan @thebooktrailer
For the sheer story and determination to tell a story that has not really been told before, in a unique way and in a new setting – Poland, I think this book is really worth a read. I knew nothing of the Polish resistance and the ghettos as described in this book and oh! when when Emma did what she had to do. The lying, the cheating to save yourself and your family.
There was an interesting angle also done by writing the emotions and feelings of the Nazi Kommandant of the title. He knew of what was going on in the ghettos and the camps of course but it was the emotional side to him, the interaction with Emma on one hand and his officers on the other which really got to me. There’s also a story to find out about him and it is also poignant.
The angle of the Polish people and the resistance in Poland was unique and nicely done. I felt involved with the anguish and fear of what happened to each and every one of them. The end was ‘neat’ but I didn’t mind as I’d been through quite an emotional experience getting there.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information:
Twitter: @PamJenoff
Facebook: /PamJenoffauthor
Web: pamjenoff.com
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