A beautiful 16 year old girl is sent to Auschwitz where the commandant turns her into a sex slave. When the prisoners are set free she is charged and found guilty of voluntary involvement with the enemy and sentenced to 15 years in Siberia where she continues to be starved and abused.

She helps the other prisoners in her hut. She also works as an aide in the infirmary until she finally becomes friends with a young woman doctor who helps her get a better job in the hospital. Her jobs make it possible for her to sneak food into the hut at night to help her friends survive.

This book uncovers so many of the ugly truths of life in the Concentration Camps and we learn what life is also like in the Siberian Gulags. It is amazing that anyone was able to survive.

The subject of the book is hard to read but one that will inform you, sadden you and have you cheering for Cilka as her solid sense of survival pushes her through those hard years. In this day and time when many doubt that concentration camps even existed. This book gives you an inside view of what those that were able to survive had to endure. I highly recommend the book.

Heather Morris is a brilliant writer and her research was really impresssive. I would like to read more of her books and will definitely recommend this one to other readers.

Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read and review this book.

#Cilka’sJourney#NetGalley#

Oh Cilka ❤️

I fell in love with the characters of Gita, Lale & Cilka during The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and as soon as I saw this on Goodreads I dropped what I was doing to read this,

This book is filled with so much raw, emotional pain. Cilka is a absolute warrior I can’t work out after everything she was exposed to in Auschwitz that her freedom still isn’t hers. Charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp to serve here sentence.

I found myself amazed that I have no knowledge of what happened to people after they survived concentration camps, despite there being a lot of information out there about the Holocaust and what the prisoners were subjected too, you don’t read what happens afterwards,

One girls story about courage, strength and determination to survive. I sobbed like a baby at the ending,


Thank you NetGalley for a ARC edition of this, 5 out of 5 stars

An incredible story of strength and courage in impossible situations. As a 16 year old, Cilka is forced to become the mistress of an SS soldier...or be sent to the gas chambers. When the camp is liberated by the Russians, Cilka finds that her horrors are not over. Convicted of collaboration with the Germans, Cilka is sent to the Gulags of Siberia for 15 years. This book relates what happens to her there and how (of if) she can retain her humanity and feel hope instead of despair.

The author has done exhaustive research and brings to life what some history books gloss over. So, while this book is a novel, the reader can be assured that it is based on facts. Like other war novels and books that are extremely readable, the reader can sometimes feel the sense of hopelessness that these victims experience. That is a testament to the author.

I received a complimentary e-book copy of this book from Zaffre through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to Heather Morris, Zaffre, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Please read "The Tattooist of Auschwitz (#1)" before this book as it will help in understanding the flow of this book. It can technically stand-alone, but I think that it would be more enjoyable to read them in tandem.

I really liked the Silka and her fellow prisoners at the Russian Gulag in Siberia. I had NO idea that prisoners were released from concentration camps almost directly to the gulags. The crimes also seemed ridiculous and just created for prisoner labor. The prose was very good as it had interesting character and a strong, but horrifying storyline. I really liked the characters and wanted to know more. Hopefully, Heather Morris will write more books, PLEASE!.

Again, I am reading another WWII book which seems to be my favorite time period lately!! However, this is a powerful and well-written book - DEFINITE RECOMMEND!!!

First line: Cilka stares at the soldier standing in front of her, part of the army that has entered the camp.

Summary: Sixteen year old Cilka Klein was sent to Auschwitz along with her family. One of the head SS officers of the camp notices her and moves her away from the other women. Over the three years she is kept in barracks 25 until the day the camp is liberated by the Russian forces. Upon their arrival she is arrested and charged with collaborating with the enemy. She is sentenced to fifteen years in a Siberian gulag.

When she arrives at the prison she finds a world that she has unfortunately become very familiar with. The forced labor and brutal conditions of the camp are not new to her. She makes friends with several of her fellow inmates but when she catches the attention of the female doctor her luck begins to change. With her work in the hospital she finds a way to make amends for the guilt about her past and maybe even start to feel love again.

My Thoughts: The Tattooist of Auschwitz was such a heartbreaking story. But I was beyond shocked by the story of Cilka. She was forced into a Russian prison after suffering for years in a concentration camp because she was raped for three years. It makes no sense. The poor girl is stronger than I can imagine I could ever be. I really cared about what happened to Cilka while reading her story. She did so much good in a terrible place. If only there were more people like her.

I never even considered that things like this happened to some of the survivors. It is sad that the “liberators” were nearly as cruel as the Nazis. Her time in the gulag is unbelievable. I know that the author did lots of research and she does a great job of bringing it to life. People need to know these things in order to try and stop them from happening again.

I felt like this was much better put together than the first book. It was not nearly as choppy.

FYI: This is a sequel to The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Receiving the email that this book was available to read probably made my whole year. I absolutely loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka's Journey matched this love.

We remember Cilka as the friend of Lane and Gita's who definitely saves Lane's life by getting him his job back as the tattooist. If you were like me, you were left wondering what had happened to this selfless girl.

Cilka's Journey is what happened after Auschwitz. But don't be fooled this is no fairytale. Cilka's story is one to remember based on the compassion she shows, the endurance she has, and the fight to not only make this better but to not give up hope.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Author Heather Morris for this ARC!

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Cecilia “Cilka” Klein, upon her release from Auschwitz at the end of WWII, was taken to Siberia by the Russians where she spent the rest of her precious youth under the same horrible conditions.

In Siberia, Cilka gets a job in the infirmary where she proves herself to be a quick learner. This allows her certain freedoms and privileges which she always shares with her hut mates. It’s when she passes on a chance to leave this brutal camp to allow a friend to be released in her place that I start to believe the writer has gone overboard on Cilka’s unselfishness. Morris goes on a little too long with Cilka’s generosity, and the story begins to become a bit of a fairy tale. She all but wears a halo.

While the story’s characters are a composite of several figures, young Cilka is formed from the memory of a girl known by Lale Sokolov, the Tattooist of Auschwitz. This reviewer gives three and a half stars to this tale thinking it could have been better with some edits.

My thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for an ARC for my review.

WOW is all I can say. Another hit by Heather Morris. I did not think she would be able to top her last novel :The Tattooist of Auschwitz" but she did! This is the type of historical novel that I love. Where they do not go out of character to describe the history or the scene. Her writing style is wonderful where I just want to keep turning the page. This will be a book that I am going to read again! I loved how it is a stand alone book but also a "spin-off" from her last novel. The cover is great too. It made me want to read it before I even knew who the author was or the story itself. I highly recommend this book!

This is Cilka Klein’s story, who we met in the excellent The Tattooist of Auschwitz. As Auschwitz is being liberated in 1945, 18 year old Cilka assumes she will be freed. But after surviving the horrors of the concentration camp, she is sentenced to 15 years in Siberia at the Vorkuta Gulag. She is charged as a Nazi collaborator although her “crime” was doing what she had to do to survive which included being used and abused by a high ranking officer. A far cry from “sleeping with the enemy.” Her guilt and shame over what occurred while in the concentration camp leads Cilka to care more about helping others in the Gulag than herself including protecting a young woman she meets while being transported to this new prison. Cilka is able to work as a nurse in the hospital and demonstrates continued bravery and selflessness. This riveting book places the reader in this horrible setting where you can feel the suffering. Like the first book, this is a story of courage, love and the will to survive. Unforgettable.

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

Like many others, I was fascinated by Heather Morris’ book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz about Lale Sokolov. During their time together, Mr. Sokolov told Heather Morris that Cilka Klein “was the bravest person” he ever met and said she was the person who saved his life. In their conversations Ms. Morris learned that Cilka, a very beautiful young girl of 16, was imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and only survived by allowing herself to be repeatedly raped by two senior SS officers. The first part of her story is mentioned in The Tattooist of Auschwitz. In the epilogue the author states she received many inquiries as to what happened to Cilka. This novel is the answer to that question. While one would not need to read The Tattooist of Auschwitz prior to reading this book, I think would be helpful.

This novel starts right after Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp is liberated by the Soviets. Cilka is immediately convicted, without a trial, of working with the enemy, as a prostitute and additionally as a spy . Her punishment is to be further imprisoned for fifteen years in the coldest place on earth, Vorkuta Gulag.

Cilka is a fascinating character. She is smart, loyal, and generous. She is befriended by a kind female physician, who allows Cilka to train as a nurse. Cilka is able to improve the condition of the nursery, and is a comfort to many people. She is brave and often entered dangerous situations as a member of the ambulance crew. Cilka was human too, often entering into dark periods because of the hopelessness she often found herself in. She lives with the guilt of her time at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Heather Morris has done a fantastic job of historical research to show us the horrendous conditions of the Vorkuta Gulag, where Trustees ruled in gangs, raped as many women prisoners as they pleased, and tormented the staff.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book that will be released on October 1, 2019. 5 stars.

I feel bad for giving this only three stars but I want to be honest. The book is obviously about Cilka, a young woman who survived Auschwitz Concentration Camp by sleeping with the enemy. After the war, Cilka is taken to a Siberian prison camp. With all of the foreign names and places, it is a little difficult to keep up with. It is a sad, depressing story. That is not the author’s fault- it definitely needs to be told but it makes the story hard to read. I wanted it to end but I couldn’t put it down. Cilka has a lot of horrible things happen to her but she also has some things happen that make no sense. I’ve read several others about the atrocities that happened during this time period but, for me it was the most difficult story to get through. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest opinion.

I was eager to read this book which continues Cilka’s journey after being released from Birkenau. After 3 years in hell, she was determined by the Russians to have aided the enemy and sentenced to 15 years to a gulag in Siberia - another hell! Sadly, I felt pretty much the same about Cilka’s Journey as I did about The Tattooist of Auschwitz. The books both have gotten so many good reviews, but for me the writing style just didn’t portray the horrors of what really went on. Told in third person, the book did not come alive for me and was more like a report of day to day events. I wanted to feel what Cilka felt when food and clothing were so inadequate, when the temperatures were so bitter, when she was forced to perform sexual favors, when she found herself falling in love with little hope of a life with him. I loved how a community was formed inside the barracks and the concern the women had for one another. I wanted to know more about Josie, Hannah, Elena and the others. I loved how Cilka had a strong sense that she would survive and how she cared for her housemates. Her beauty again got her special treatment and I think that was carried a bit too far and became somewhat unbelievable. I realize that she was smart, caring and capable, but to receive training as a nurse and eventually be allowed housing with the nurses while still a prisoner, was a stretch! And the ending was just too full of coincidences. Who doesn’t like a good ending? But this one was too contrived to be believable.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz book #2

This novel proclaims to be based on a true love story. Cilka whose real name is Cecilia Kovacoca was 16 in 1942 when she entered Auschwitz and was forced to become the commandant’s sex slave. On liberation, still only 19, she was charged as a collaborator by the Russians and sent to the Siberian gulags. In her new prison Cilka faced new and familiar challenges and confronted terror and death daily. She also found love.

“Cilka’s Journey” is based on research woven into a fictionalized story. The author states this is not a biography or an authoritative record of historical events but simply traces her heartbreaking journey through hell. The account particularly centers on the treatment of women in Vorkuta Gulag and the maltreatment and violence the men also had to endure. Brutality, rape and undernourishment were the ways of everyday life. Daily, force labor and the extreme cold awaited them to succumb.

Although this is the second novel in the series, “Cilka’s Journey” can easily work as a standalone. Throughout we have flashbacks skillfully weaved in spanning from 1939-1945 giving us enough background about Cilka’s past and also filling the gaps for those who have not read book #1.

Since I read very few books about the Russian Gulags I much appreciated the notes from Heather Morris and additional history on Vorkuta in the afterword by Owen Matthews. These chapters at the end of the book clarify what is factual to what was enhanced to suit the author’s narrative in order to make a most captivating story.

Thousands of prisoners were interned for all kinds of reasons and thousands died in the Gulags during the time Stalin was in power. After his death and a power struggle Khrushchev emerged victorious and denounced Stalin’s purges and ushered a less repressive regime, thousands of prisoners were pardon and sent free, Cilka’s and the man she had fallen in love with were among them.

I did not find this novel to have a depressing story but rather one that showcase resilience and hope. This is a well-written, well researched story hard to put down.

A powerful story of a women who survived a concentration camp and the gulag. Based on a true story, this is both a powerful statement to her bravery and a chilling reminder of what people suffered. The writing, as in the author's Tatooist of Auschwitz, provides just the right tone and truly brings these stories to life.

Chilka's Journey is another in the field that reminds us of the atrocities of concentration camps of WWII. I wasn't sure I wanted to read it until several pages in. Then Chilka became real to me as she became real on the page. The reader follows Chilka through the author's skillful ability to let us feel what is happening to Chilka. There is hatred, debasement, and horrifying moments, but, there is love, and hope and the message that if we can withstand it, we can overcome it.

I received a free ARC of Cilka's Journey from NetGalley in exchange for an impartial review.

Heather Morris' Cilka's Journey is a fictionalized account of a real woman, Cecilia Klein, who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz/Birkenau. There she met Gita and Lale, the major characters in Morris' The Tattooist of Auschwitz. While imprisoned in Auschwitz, Cilka becomes the sex slave of a German officer and is also assigned the horrendous task of supervising a barracks of women whose next, inevitable stop is the gas chamber. Overwhelming guilt and a strong survival sense become Cilka's emotional foundation.

At the conclusion of the war, Cilka is interrogated by the Russians and sent to a gulag for colluding with the enemy. Her sentence of fifteen years means that there is no possibility of returning home to find any family members. While traveling in an overcrowded cattle car, Cilka makes friends with a younger woman, Josie; Cilka becomes Josie's protector and, in a way, her reason to continue living. Because of their physical attractiveness, Cilka and Josie are taken to a special barracks where they are available sexually to the prisoner trustees. Within all the horrors of that, Cilka and Josie are viewed as special so they are protected from multiple rapists by their individual rapists. Additionally, there are the horrors of inadequate clothing, little food, and harsh, freezing working conditions. Luckily, Cilka eventually is assigned to working in the hospital where a kind doctor becomes her friend. Cilka's elevated position allows her to bring extra food to her barracks mates.

The portrayal of a created family in the barracks is very well-done. The humanity the female inmates show to each other under the most degrading, hopeless conditions becomes the core of who Cilka and the others are. Cilka takes enormous risks to help Josie and others; sometimes her self-sacrifice, however, appears rather unlikely and a little too saint-like. It is Cilka's survivor's guilt that causes her to risk her life trying to save others and to pass on opportunities that would make her life easier.

Morris takes a Holocaust horror story and extends it through imprisonment during Stalin's reign of terror. This exposes a new level of what it means to be a victim and what it means to be a survivor.
#NetGalley #Cilka'sJourney

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. I was excited to see the book available for review. I read The Tattoist of Auschwitz and loved it. While Cilka’s Journey is a sequel to The Tattoist of Auschwitz , it actually can stand alone all on its own. Overall I enjoyed the story and the book. Cilka was forced as a Jew to go to Auschwitz-Birkenau. And there, she was forced to do things just to survive. Ultimately this puts her in a position of being forced to spend another 10 years in the gulag. While different than the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, it was another set of horrors to survive through.
I would recommend the book. I enjoyed the book and it was difficult to put down but I felt like there were some things that were contradictory or didn’t connect. Hannah would threatened Cilka and hold Cilka’s past as a threat to get drugs but then later it’s like she is a great person. Elena is a bully but then she is not. The book doesn’t really touch on why the change in character. Beyond that I am glad I read it. I learned a lot-and extra information at the end of the book was very informative.

What happens when you write a story of what happens after Auschwitz?
As we all know or are familiar with, WWII was a horrendous time in history that everyone should know and read about. History does NOT need to repeat itself and what better way than to read and familiarize ourselves with history. Unfortunately, not a lot has been written about what happened to some of the prisoners After. And in Cilka's case, her fight against evil wasn't over. She was sent to a Soviet Gulag. A working camp. After staying alive through Auschwitz (which was a war in itself). Still a prisoner, but she had to work long hours under horrific conditions. Her fight was to stay alive. That was how she was going to win.

This time in history has always held a special interest to me. To see the fight in these women and men and love they had for their fellow prisoners absolutely astounds me. While they were taken away from everything they knew, they still fought in their own way. And there was no wrong way in these people's case.

I read this book before The Tattooist of Auschwitz and feel it's 100% a standalone. I'm sure reading The Tattooist will only enhance your experience of this book, but it's not needed. We get enough background of Cilka's past that we get to understand where she came from and what she went through. And it's not pretty. But she is one to survive and love and be selfless in a time when she needed to only really worry about herself. You will feel for her and her bunkmates. Even when you shouldn't. You will understand their actions. The characters come alive right off the page and I could feel the light and the darkness and cold right along with them. And it wasn't pretty. It literally chills you to the bone when you read about their experiences.

This story was mostly true, but there are some part Ms Morris had to take liberties with making this a historical fiction. If you read the afterword and the author's notes, I have a feeling this book will hit you that much harder. Just don't read it before you read the actual book. There will be lots of spoilers.

A wonderfully written story of love, survival, friendship and the ultimate fight. The human spirit is stronger than you can even imagine. And this story shows it. Cilka is my hero and was to many around her as well. I hope she felt and saw that in her life. 4.5 stars

Heather Morris tells a story that is both difficult to read, but also shows the triumph of human strength and generosity. Cilka Klein—a real women who survived Hitler's regime in Aushwitz-Birkenau —only experience the horrors of Stalin's Vorkuta Gulag endures the worst of both regimes.

Morris tells Cilka's story, the good and the bad, as she shows readers the internal struggles that haunt Cilka as she strives to find her place in the harsh societies she must endure. As much as I enjoyed the story, I really appreciated the afterword and author notes Morris shares with her readers on her research for the book, and her thoughtful reflections on how these experiences impacted tens of thousands of people into the late 1950's.

If you loved the Tattooist of Auschwitz you will love Cilka's Journey! Another great novel based on the true story of a young girl. Such a deep and moving story that Heather Morris wrote beautifully. There are lots of books out there that tell the story of what happened inside of the concentration camps, but not so much as the survivor's stories after they are liberated. You don't necessarily have to read the Tattooist of Auschwitz first, but personally I recommend it. Cilka's Journey was a wonderful story that you should definitely add to the top of your reading list!