I was lucky enough to be given this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest review. And it is amazing. It follows Cilka Klein as she goes from Auchwitz to Vorkyta Gulags in Siberia where she continues to endure hardships that one can only begin to fathom. Her resilience, bravery, and incredible will to live is demonstrated time and time again throughout this story. It’s a story that will anger you, crush you, and bring you to tears. Highly recommend so much- so well written and pays respected homage to the real Cilka Klein.

Heartbreaking story of an awful era in human history. Amazing what the mind and spirit can endure. This is a follow up to the Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Heart wrenching yet the story must never, ever be forgotten. Cilka will never be forgotten thanks to this fabulous author.
Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.

This is a stirring tribute to a valiant survivor of Auschwitz and the Soviet Gulag. Cilka was inspired by a young woman who survived her sexual abuse in Auschwitz, but was considered a collaborator and sentenced to a long term in a frightening, brutal prison in the Siberian Gulag. It is certainly a novel that will be treasured by those who enjoyed “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”.

It is not easy to read, because of the constant brutality coupled with the extraordinary skill of the author who brings each scene to life. Yet, she persisted and she survived. Cilka was able to withstand the brutality because of her determination to stay alive and her mentoring by the prison doctor. It was she who recognized Cilka ‘s extraordinary intelligence and ability and trained her to work in the hospital as a nurse.

Cilka’s courage and humanity are rewarded by her ability to stay alive and keep the people she loved safe.
I certainly recommend this to any group involved in Holocaust studies, or that of the Gulags of the Soviet Union. I know this will be a book club favorite as soon as it is released. It is beautifully written, combining Cilka’s experience in Auschwitz and in prison.

I thank Netgalley for giving me this moving experience.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader copy! Copy provided in exchange for an honest review. Heather Morris has a way of writing about tragedy that draws the reader in and protects them, while still being true to the gruesome reality her characters find themselves in. An important follow up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz and hopefully will be on summer reading lists for young people for years to come. Read with caution if abuse/rape is a sensitive topic for you!

Oh, my dear Cilka. Three years in Auschwitz where, as a young and pretty 16-year-old woman, you are subjected to the sexual advances of the higher-ranking Nazis. And, then, when the war is over and the camp is liberated by the Russians, you are accused of collaboration and sentenced to 15 years in Vorkuta Gulag, a labor camp in the coldest place on Earth. Siberia, 160km North of the Arctic Circle. To have endured what you had to endure at Auschwitz, and then to be punished for it! How can you go on?

For her, the answer is simple. She will live! She will not give in! She will be good in the midst of bad, the likes of which the world has never known. When offered a job out of the excruciating cold, she asks if her friend could have the job instead. She plots and schemes to find a way to get a friend and her baby out of the camp and free. She brings extra food from the hospital for the women in her "hut", even the ones who are difficult and who treat her badly. And when the day comes that Cilka, herself, can walk away from all this horror, she wonders if there isn't someone more deserving.

An endearing life in the midst of the worst possible circumstances. Read it! And then never forget.

I read this EARC courtesy of Net Galley and St. Martin's Press, pub date 10/01/19

When Cilka is transferred from a concentration camp to a Siberian work camp, she is only 16 years old and has already went through things that any person would struggle to deal with. She is assigned to a hut and builds a family from the women that she is surrounded by. She feels like she must hide her past from these women since she was kept by the enemy at her past camp and feels that they will hate her because of it. Despite all odds being against her, she is able to rise up with the help of a Dr that she becomes close to and learns to provide nursing care for many different populations and facets. She is initially trained on the ward and then moves onto obstetrics, surgery, and running the ambulance. The sheer strength of Cilka is astounding and I love that this is based on a true story.

Beautiful, heartbreaking, all of the emotions one could feel while reading a superb novel, I felt them. I am so glad the author decided to write a follow up to the Tattoist for her readers to enjoy. This book definitely lived up to her previous one. The things this young girl had to endure and experience really will make you open up your eyes to all the blessins we have in this world today. I encourage everyone to read this book!

Thank you to netgalley.com for the opportunity to read the book before publication. We first met Cilka in The Tatooist of Auschwitz. While you can certainly read this book as a stand alone, I highly recommend reading The Tatooist of Auschwitz first.

Auschwitz-Birkenau has been liberated by the Russians, but not all prisoners are free. Any prisoner convicted of consorting with the Nazis is sent to a gulag in Russia. Cilka managed to stay alive in Auschwitz and she pays dearly for it. Sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a Russian prisoner camp her nightmare continues. Keep in mind that Cilka is Jewish And has lost her family at the hands of the Nazis.

Life, if you can call it that, in the Russian prison is hard and dangerous. Women are raped by other prisoners regularly and judged by their female counterparts who are also prisoners, often for crimes as insignificant as stealing a loaf of bread. Cilka is assigned to work in the hospital where conditions are somewhat better and certainly better than the mines.

Regardless of her own situation Cilka remains a kind and compassionate young woman who befriends and assists other prisoners both in the hospital and in the hut to which she is assigned. She lives with the guilt of surviving Auschwitz and the loss of her family in the concentration camps. She does not trust anyone in the camp to share her story with although one doctor suspects where she was transported from and what she has undergone and does everything she can to gain Cilka’s trust.

I had no idea that when the Russians liberated the concentration camps they could and would subject the Jews and other prisoners to a fresh new hell. Cilka’s Journey is beautifully written. You can feel her despair, resolve and sadness. It is brought to its end almost perfectly. Be sure to read the epilogue.

Cilka’s Journey was devastating, heartbreaking and hopeful all at once. Just to imagine that someone that suffered so much at such a young age and was then imprisoned for surviving is just beyond awful. I’m so glad Heather Morris wrote the follow up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz so we could know what happened to Cilka. Her story, like so many others deserved to be heard and known. The story was well-written with occasional flashbacks to the concentration camp from her current time in the prison camp. I couldn’t stop reading because I needed to know how it ended.

Dare I say that I enjoyed “Cilka’s Journey”? It seems almost barbaric to enjoy reading about the pain, deprivation, horrors, and tortures that were inflicted upon Cilka and her friends. Yet this book transported me to another place, another time, where no one should have ever gone. Clearly written as a captivating story, this tale of lives lost and lives of survivors made me really care about the characters and kept me thinking about them even when I had to put the book down. It does not mince words or smooth over what these brave women had to face as punishment for their perceived wrong doings, which, in reality, were nothing more than living life and surviving in difficult times. Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced read copy. I highly recommend this book, as I recommend its predecessor, “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”.

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris is a powerful story that is inspired by the true to life experiences of Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor Cilka Klein. Readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz will remember being introduced to Cilka who was a close friend of Gita, the titular character's love interest. In an afterword by the author, Lale, the individual whose story is recounted in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, describes Cilka as the bravest person that he has ever known, and Ms Morris certainly brings this courage and unimaginable strength to life in the telling of Cilka's story.

Cilka Klein is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau when she is only sixteen, and her distinctive beauty serves to both save and condemn her. In order to ensure her survival, Cilka submits to sexual relationships with Nazi senior officers while at the women's concentration camp. After three years of enduring repeated rapes and other unfathomable injustices, she is sentenced to serve time at Vorkuta-Gulag, a Siberian prison, for the crime of consorting with the enemy. Once again, Cilka suffers deplorable conditions, but is able to find a small measure of humanity and purpose while working as a nurse-in-training.

This is a difficult read insofar as we are forced to confront the inhumanity of a period in history that is almost unfathomable in the fact that we are reading about the lives of real people rather than fictitious constructs. Ms Morris has truly brought history to life and, essentially, has given those who suffered the atrocities a face. I believe that this novel, as well as The Tattooist of Auschwitz, should be mandatory reading, not only for students, but for everyone. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

Wow!! Such an amazing, heartfelt, courageous story.. I read the tattooist of Auschwitz and first heard of Cilka in Lale and Gitas story.. I was beyond excited to read this and this story completely blew me away. I cannot imagine how anyone survived the holocaust and the aftermath and it brings to life how horrible and evil the reign of Hitler and the aftermath truly was. It breaks my heart they had to endure this.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, tells the story of Lale the tattooist and the horrors he endures in Auschwitz. Cilka was introduced in the Tattooist. She was taken to be a mistress of the Nazi's and then she was convicted of being a collaborator and sent to Serbia. Cilka's Journey tells her story of survival. I loved Cilka and I liked her story. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

Difficult to read this book especially knowing that much of it is based on actual events. To think of the horrors that people lived through during that time period is gut wrenching. It is a well written very descriptive and realistic story. I did not read the previous book, and feel it might be beneficial to have read it first in order to get a better background on the character.
I received this book as a complimentary copy for an unbiased review. The opinions expressed are my own.

Well written story that brings many emotions up. I can’t comprehend a life life this. I am always encouraged and motivated by a book that shows how someone makes it to the other side of such a horrible situation. I am thankful to have read this book.
I received an advanced copy from netgalley and am thankful to the publisher, netgalley, and the author for the opportunity to read Clika Journey.

Cilka's Journey is the beautifully written chronicle of a young woman's survival. Cilka somehow perseveres, doing what she must to stay alive first in a Nazi death camp, and then in a Russian gulag, without losing her humanity.

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley for my honest opinion.

Wow. What a great book. Cilka was a real person and most of the story is based on the facts discovered while the author was writing another book.

It was well written and I was immediately drawn into the story. It is so hard to believe that these things happened but Cilka was strong and did what she needed to do to survive Auschwitz and prison after that.

This is a follow up to the The Tattooist of Auschwitz involving the character Cilka, based on a real person. Although I hadn't read the previous book, I will definitely read it now although it is not necessary as this book stands alone. Cilka was a survivor of Auschwitz when she was 16. She stayed alive by being the "mistress" of a Nazi commandant. She does whatever she has to to stay alive and survive. After the camp is liberated, she is convicted of collaboration with the Nazis and is sentenced to 15 years in a Siberian prison camp. She has to learn again how to stay alive and try to carve out a life for herself. She becomes a nurse at the camp and meets people who will change her life forever. This is an excellent book and I found myself cheering for Cilka one minute and crying for her another. Please read the author's note and Afterword that is included at the end of the book. It has a wealth of information about Cilka and her life after the prison camp and the history of the prison camps. I can not recommend this book highly enough.

I had read the first book in this series and was very excited to see a sequel. Honestly, I did enjoy the book, but maybe I should have read the first one closer to the second book. This book is well written and does a great job of explaining Cilka's life after the concentration camp. I cannot believe the horrors that people were exposed to during that time. The author uses great imagery and dialogue to make you become invested in their lives.

This was a solid 5-star book for me. I loved the writing style of Heather Morris and I really felt like I was in that harsh time frame. I would recommend this book especially after reading "The Tattooist of Auschwitz'. I laughed in parts but also cried. I want Cilka to win after all the hardship she had to endure. Heather Morris and St. Martin Press will be added to my go-to author and publisher to read.