The Nine

By Gwen Strauss

Book Overview

" A] narrative of unfathomable courage" --Wall Street Journal

The Nine follows the true story of the author's great aunt H l ne Podliasky, who led a band of nine female resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced labor camp and made a ten-day journey across the front lines of WWII from Germany back to Paris.

The nine women were all under thirty when they joined the resistance. They smuggled arms through Europe, harbored parachuting agents, coordinated communications between regional sectors, trekked escape routes to Spain and hid Jewish children in scattered apartments. They were arrested by French police, interrogated and tortured by the Gestapo. They were subjected to a series of French prisons and deported to Germany. The group formed along the way, meeting at different points, in prison, in transit, and at Ravensbr ck. By the time they were enslaved at the labor camp in Leipzig, they were a close-knit group of friends. During the final days of the war, forced onto a death march, the nine chose their moment and made a daring escape. Drawing on incredible research, this powerful, heart-stopping narrative by Gwen Strauss is a moving tribute to the power of humanity and friendship in the darkest of times.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250853567
• ISBN13: 9781250853561
• Release Date: September 2022
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

With reservation

I could not finish this book, after reading so many other books on the Holocaust --this was just a bridge too far. It puzzles me that so many camp prisoners were willing to work for the Nazi machinery which only prolonged the war, just to save themselves at the expense of those who would continue to die in the war. I hope I would have the courage to refuse such assignments, as did the brave Russian girls who refused to make ammunition that would kill their own countrymen. The description of cruelty inflicted by the guards made me stop reading. After a while, enough is enough. I imagine I would have taken off running, just to be shot in the back and end the misery.

Such Strong Women!

This is such an interesting historical look at a band of 9 of the bravest, strong women I have read about who survived the horrors of being arrested for resistance against the Nazis and subsequently tortured and sent to the camps before making a break for it during the last death march and making it to freedom. I am glad I was able to know just from the title that they would all survive because there are harrowing times listed in this book. I am in awe about these women and am really glad I got the chance to read this book. Yes, it is fairly graphic at times, but that it to be expected when reading about the Nazis and their camps and exterminations of so many good people that they deemed not worthy to live. This was a well written and well researched book with the author going into much detail, not only about the run to freedom, but the lives of these nine women and how they grew up to be the women that were able to survive and go on living even after the horrors they experienced. I definitely recommend this book if you want to learn more about this time in history.