CILKA'S JOURNEY - Heather Morris

I am definitely developing empathy for the survivors of WWII and the years after when there was still was prisoners, victims from Stalin. I received this on Kindle from Net Galley for the purpose of review.

Heather Morris who is the author writes a insightful novel based on true survivor and the power of love.

Cilka's was first a prisoner in Auschwitz thus she was tattooed with her prisoner number. She works out a deal to not end up in gas chamber by playing the game of cooperation with guards. Problem when she is declared an enemy of the state. That arrest lands her in Siberia. Now Siberia is in the Arctic Circle and stays cold and ALL the time. That alone for this Florida girl, would be awful.
Cilka makes every effort to hide that fact from her bunkmates. She feels they will not even like her and her treatment will be worse if they learn of her years in Auschwitz. But as if that is not bad enough there is one fireplace in Hut 29, no indoor plumbing, a trustee who watches every move in the hut. Wake up 5:30, breakfast consists of warm gruel and bread...Not much to go work in the camp until dinner. The method of minimizing persons in this camp was starvation, cold and very hard labor. They were not as brutal as Auschwitz. Dinner is no better than breakfast.
The hut is cramped with women who have hurts and fears that makes the hut a insecure place to be.
Cilka is a women who always looks out for others. She meets Josie and you soon find Cilka's character and care for others. The hut is all women but there are unwanted visits by the men prisoners as well as guards. Cilka tries to Josie who is only 16. Cilka herself maybe 20.

You will want to read this and especially if you have a high schooler who knows little or nothing about WWII and the atrocities there. Our American history is being minimized and demonized but the United States has always been the protection of friends and even our enemies if it involves inhumane treatment. Our teens, college students and others need the truth.

You will learn much and see amazing protection of Cilka.

Story of 16 year old Jewish girl, surviving Auschwitz-Birkenau. Then going to prison, heartbreaking what all these people were put thru, what this poor girl did to survive. Excellent story of human, love, compassion and survival.

I loved reading this incredibly emotional story of Cilka's life in captivity during the WWII. Cilka was a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz trying to endure the horrors around her in the bravest way that a young girl could. She was then sentenced to a work camp in Siberia, where her bravery and intelligence set her apart from other prisoners, and allowed her certain privileges. Haunted by her past, Cilka chose to always be loyal to her fellow suffers, and elevate their well being over her own.

The story, written in a back and forth in time manner, and is a pleasure to read. This book will appeal to history buffs, but one doesn't have to have a thorough grasp of WWII (like myself!) to enjoy Cilka's Journey.

Heather Morris has crafted this book from facts obtained by extensive research on prison life in Siberia. This research is documented at the end of the book, and brings life to Cilka's story.

I recommend Cilka's Journey!

Cilka's Journey by author Heather Morris is a remarkable story about a young girl taken to a concentration camp in 1942. Cilka faces many challenges over the years confronting death and terror on a daily basis. By the author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz comes another page turning 5 Star book!

Oh my. This book was hard to read. It was graphic and honest and dirty. I could not stop reading because I needed to cheer on Celia. I needed to know what happened to her and my heart broke for her in those pages. It was hard to read because it is a true story.

This is not a happy go lucky love story this is a survivors story. A woman who did what she had to do to live. So strong and so brave. It is a reminder to me that my life is good and I am blessed.

Ok the writing. Heather Morris is a genius. She weaves you a story that you can’t put down. Her storytelling is lovely to read, it flows nicely and is easy to understand. This is my second book by this author and I will now read anything she puts out.

Lou Jacobs's review Aug 21, 2019 · edit
it was amazing

A tour de force testament to the unbreakable human spirit. Cecilia "Cilka" Klein has endured unbearable hardships , humiliation , and serial rape to survive the horror of the Auschwitz - Birkenau
Concentration Camp .... all starting at the tender age of sixteen years old. Due to her natural beauty she was selected to service several highly placed Nazi leaders. When the Soviets liberated the camp in 1945 she was rewarded by being sentenced to 15 years in the notorious Siberian Gulag of Vorkuta ...
for the preposterous crime of collaborating with the enemy. Where once again she quickly drew the unwanted attention of both guards and lecherous trustees.
Although this novel is considered to be a sequel to the highly acclaimed: The Tattoist of Auschwitz
(which I did not read) it can certainly be read and appreciated as a standalone ... with the necessary backstory being seamlessly provided.
Thankfully, Cilka catches the attention of a kindly and devoted female physician ... she is taken under the wing of the doctor and nurses and is virtually trained as a nurse. Cilka is able to apply her skills and compassion to helping the ill of the camp. She shines not only in the ward, but also in the OR and even on ambulance runs. Nonetheless she continues to persevere in the face of repeated rapes, starvation, the extremes in weather and the constant everyday brutality of camp life. Hope is quickly realized as an unattainable illusion.
Heather Morris astounds with a moving, dark and treacherous narrative, that continually tugs at the heartstrings of any breathing mortal. This gem is based upon a true story in which we witness the remarkable journey of Cilka ... from child to woman and woman to healer. Morris hits home with the following statement: " Everyone affected by war, captivity, or oppression reacts differently - and away from it, people might try to guess how they would act, or react, in the circumstances . But, they do not really know."
Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Heather Morris for providing an Uncorrected Proof of this masterpiece in exchange for an honest review. Please excuse me ... while I immediately go download a copy of The Tattoosist of Auschwitz.

Heather Morris has done it again! I was so happy to receive an ARC from Netgalley for Cilka's Journey. After devouring The Tattooist of Auschwitz I couldn't wait to read the sequel. Cilka is described by Lale as the strongest person he has ever met, and I agree. After reading this book I feel like I know her. Her story is unbelievably sad yet inspiring as she survives the unimaginable. I highly recommend Cilka's Journey!

Many thanks to St. Martins Press, Heather Morris and #NetGalley for this advanced copy of the book Cilka’s Journey which is due to be published on October 1st 2019. What follows is my unbiased review.

I was approached by the publisher and asked if I was interested in reading this book because I have read a number of books that focus on stories from WW2. It is the second book by author Heather Morris to focus on some of these stories and I am very thankful that she has done her part to make sure these stories are not lost over time. While I have not yet read her first book The Tatooist Of Auschwitz, it is sitting in my ‘to be read’ pile and I will hopefully get to it soon. It did not affect my understanding of this second book and the author did fill in details which connected the two.

This book is written in the format of a novel but the author extensively researched the character and the locations involved. As Cilka was no longer living at the time of writing Morris did not have actual access to her thoughts. Cilke first came to her attention through the words of Lale (The Tattooist of Auschwitz). To quote: “Did I tell you about Cilka?” “No, Lale, you didn’t. Who was Cilka?” “She was the bravest person I ever met. Not the bravest girl, the bravest person.” “And?” “She saved my life. She was beautiful tiny little thing, and she saved my life.” This was only the first of many conversations the author shared with Lale in which stories were told abut Cilka. She was sixteen years old when she was interned in Auschwitz and she was chosen by Nazi officers to be their sex slave and the be the block leader for the infamous barrack where women were sent for their last night before death. Resistance on her part would have led to her death. She chose to live. Documentation from survivors abut her shows that people had mixed feelings about her – some thinking she was terrible while others had only good to say. The author explained very well in the book why this might have happened. At the time Cilka was waiting for her liberation thinking that her hell was finally over, the Russian soldiers determined that what she had done was a “crime” and sentenced her to thirty years hard labour in the Russian Gulag of Vorkuta – probably the coldest place on earth. Life their was extremely hard and once again Cilka had no choice but to do what she could to survive. The story includes flashbacks to Cilka’s time in Auschwitz. As a result of what she experienced there, Cilka dealt with significant survivor guilt and at times questioned whether she deserved any future. She did however, use the skills that she had learned in her short lifetime which drew her to the attention of a doctor in the Gulag who saw her potential and enabled her to take advantage of educational opportunities and access to better food and warmth among other things. This allowed her to survive when she otherwise might have died.

I have not read a lot about the Gulags before, so this book was an eye opener for me. Life was a little easier than it had been at Auschwitz but not much. Even in such horrible circumstances though, relationships developed among the inmates and a sense of family was developed. The will to survive was ever present.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in either the history of the war or the time period afterwards. I think it would make an excellent novel for a book club study. I am very thankful that I was given a chance to read it and learn some of Cilka’s story.


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

I was SO excited when I saw this book come across in Netgalley. I just finished the first novel "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" a few weeks ago and fell in love with all the characters. I find this so incredible that a lot of this book is a true story; what a strong and resilient woman who loved life, her friends and to help others. I wish she was alive to tell us her story firsthand but this book was so well written & I loved every second of it.

Cilka’s Journey is an incredible account of one brave young woman who survived the horrors and inhumanity of Auschwitz and the notorious Vorkuta Gulag. It’s extremely difficult to even imagine anyone living through such a monstrous daily life, let alone surviving it. We all have read about these nightmarish times during and after WWII. Those memories are hidden in the recesses of the tortured and Heather Morris has done her research and has written a novel describing unthinkable savagery. Five Stars. Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Villa was sixteen when she first entered Auschwitz. She was there for almost three years. The things she had to endure while there are horrifying and unbelievable. She had two choices live or die. Later it was determined that she was a war criminal and sentenced to fifteen years in Siberia. There she also had two choices, live or die. She was able to find a friendly female doctor who trained her in nursing and surgical procedures. She also helped another doctor in the maternity ward. There she delivered babies.
The winters were unbearable with forty below temperatures and snow almost all year round. She was able to make friends with the women in her hut. Women that became family.
A remarkable story of a brave woman. Whose strength and endurance and courage helped her survive the horrific conditions of a death camp.
Extraordinary!!

What a great read! I couldn’t tear myself away once I began reading. Heather Morris does a wonderful job of really connecting the reader to Cilka and bringing us all along on her journey through such a heartbreaking time in our history. Although it’s not a necessity to read The Tattoist of Auschwitz before Cilka’s story, what a wonderful feeling it was to have snippets of their journey sprinkled in throughout the book from a new prospective. I highly recommend Cilka’s Journey to anyone who finds themselves yearning to read about the survivors of such a powerful period in history.

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris


Have you read yet The Tatooist of Auschwitz? It's the story of Lale and Gita Sokolov's survival in Auschwitz. Of course, to survive many other people needed to be trusted and included. One of those people involved with Lale and Gita was Cilka. Cilka was just a teenager and she was beautiful so of course she attracted the attention of the commandant. Cilka was made his mistress and given unbelievable power over the other female prisoners. But, when you are in her position, you do what you need to do to survive. These things you do are not easily forgotten.

When the war was over and the camp liberated by the Russians Cilka's journey was not over. She was accused of collaborating with the enemy and forced to exchange one prison for another, she is sent to Siberia along with anyone else the Russians didn't trust.

But Cilka already knows how to survive. You dig deep. And even though she is once again forced to be someone's mistress and work and live in a cold that can only be imagined she knows she has brains and spunk and heart and you keep your head down. A female doctor in the camp sees this and takes Cilka into her world of healing, however that can happen in a place like this. Healing can happen in many ways. Cilka forms friendships, shows heart and compassion to the sick and injured and eventually she discovers she has even more strength than she ever knew.

The Tatooist of Auschwitz is a true story and so is Cilka's

Heather Morris’s Cilka’s Journey is an insightful novel that deals with an issue little explored in fiction: the treatment of women in the Soviet Gulag. While Cilka’s Journey may be fiction, it is based on conversations with Lale Sokolov (the tattooist of Auschwitz) about Cilka, from others who knew her, and the authors impressive research. Cilka, a Czechoslovakian, was sent to Aushwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp for being a Jew. At liberation, she was wrongly convicted of working with the enemy. She was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor and sent directly to the Soviet gulag in Siberia. She was fortunate to obtain work duty in a hospital under a brilliant doctor who was willing to share her knowledge, give her training, and opportunities. She and the other women in her prison “hut” battled for trust, hope, and survival. At the Gulag, she again finds herself in survival mode over ethics. She does what she has to do in order to live. I found myself fully immersed in this story, a subject I had very little knowledge of. Two weeks later, I’m still processing the story. Rich in history and woven with a mix of real-life and imagined incidents and characters, the story gives history a human face to the awful treatment of those imprisoned at the Gulag. The author did an excellent job of taking history and writing a novel that tells a dark tale, yet honors Cilka, and making it readable. This is a story that tells of a remarkable journey and needs to be read.
Note: I have not read The Tattooist of Auschwitz which this is a follow-up to. Many have said to read that first, but I feel that Cilka’s Journey can be read as a stand-alone. I most definitely will read The Tattooist of Auschwitz in the near future, since Cilka’s Journey was an incredible read.

I wasn’t a huge fan of The Tattooist of Auschwitz for a few reasons (embellishments, lack of clarity on whether it was fact or fiction, lack of research in some areas etc), but I wanted to give Cilka’s Journey a try as I wanted to know more about the woman who had found herself in such a difficult position in such a terrible place in Auschwitz at the young age of 16. I finished this novel feeling the same way I felt with the first: unfinished, slightly discontent, but also feeling guilty about not feeling better about the novel.

Cilka Klein arrives in Auschwitz at the age of 16 and survives three years of the hell that it was, enduring the “special treatment” of rape and assault by camp commanders. After Auschwitz is liberated she is tried and convicted to 15 years of hard labor by a Soviet court, her crime being that she slept with the enemy. Cilka then goes on to survive 10 years of the Vorkuta gulag in Siberia, where she ends up meeting her future husband. After their release they spend the remaining 5 decades of their life together in (then) Czechoslovakia. This novel however only really depicts Cilka’s life in the gulag, with some flashbacks to Auschwitz, and a few others to her life before WW2.

There are so many parts of Cilka’s story that need to be told (her role in Auschwitz and why she did what she had to do to survive, the fact that rape is used as a weapon in war, Stalin’s gulags and purges etc), but in order to give readers a real, detailed overview of the horrors that everyday people were forced to survive I feel that one 400 or so page novel just can’t do it. In Cilka’s Journey we see the world she is forced to live in through her eyes, we see the conditions of the gulag and the set up through her eyes, but there is not enough information provided on exactly how, where, why, and who. Criminal trusties appear, but how did they get there in the first place? What happened to Cilka’s friends after her release? How do the doctors and nurses get there and where do they go next? How are the prisoners convicted in the first place (Cilka’s trial is barely depicted, there are more pages on her journey to Vorkuta than on the conviction). And so on. I feel like I needed more, rather than a sort of passing overview.

We MUST talk about the gulags and the way they caused generations of trauma that is still very visible today (my stepfather’s parents and grandparents were ripped from their homes and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia, and that time spent there is still visible generations later). And we just talk about how women were sent to Siberia and how they survived the camps. But there is so much more to tell. Maybe I am asking too much from one book, but maybe I am just not content with the mix of fact and fiction, and feel like this novel would be better as a TV series, in the same way that I thought The Tattooist of Auschwitz would too.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

Cilka’s Journey, the sequel to Tattooist os Auschwitz, is as impactful and haunting as the first book. Cilka’s story of her internment in the concentration camp and then confinement in Siberia is heart wrenching. The fortitude of the human spirit is the catalyst of the story. Based on a true story we follow Cilka through flashbacks while in Siberia to her time existing in the concentration camp in the only manner she could to survive. Her will to survive wavered at times but she never gave up hope. I loved the story but felt at times the flashbacks disrupted the flow of the “journey”. Thank you so much Netgalley for the opportunity to read this story.

Wow! I enjoyed this book as much as I did The Tattooist of Auschwitz! Great book, wonderful story, well written and I will recommend it highly!

As I thought it would be.....this book is FABULOUS. Thank you thank you for allowing me to review this. Heather Morris is an incredible author, bringing important parts of history to the forefront of our lives. And Cilka's Journey is an important piece of history. You can be SURE I'll be raving about this book all over Bookstagram and Goodreads!

Morris' The Tattooist of Auschwitz was very good and based on true stories. Cilka's Journey is the same and is also very good. The story picks up after the liberation of the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau when Cilka is sentenced by the Soviet liberators to 15 years in one of Stalin's labor/death gulags in Siberia. From one concentration/death camp to another - for doing what she needed to do to survive as a beautiful 16 year-old Jew. Just as powerful as Morris' Tattooist, the dialog is well written and the story well developed.

Cilka's Journey is the story of a young Jewish girl that is singled out for her looks in German concentration camps for her looks. This allows her to survive when so many women she comes into contact die, but it results in her being sentenced to the Gulag in Siberia at the end of World War II for being perceived as helping the Nazis. There really isn't any part of her experiences that isn't heartbreaking, and yet despite her shame and anguish she does what for many would be unthinkable - continue to get up every day and live, and hope that by showing concern and compassion for others that someone, anyone, will look at her and see a good person. And there are people that do, that become friends, but unfortunately for Cilka they aren't people that can end her time in the labor camp. This was a beautiful story that once again is a reminder to me that even when I face my own personal battles there are people out there that have dealt with so much worse and survived and even thrived.