Maya's Dance

1939, Maya Schulze is thirteen and she lives with her mother Rosa and stepfather Franz and grandmother Omi in Brno Czechoslovakia, her stepfather assures the ladies they are safe and despite the bad news on the radio. By 1943, the family have had their business and grandmother’s apartment taken and are told they must report to a school and are send to a work camp called Sawin, fourteen kilometres from Chelim and in Eastern Poland.

On arrival, men, women and the elderly are separated, and Maya and her mother Rosa stay together. Their given two meagre meals twice a day and are made to work building drainage ditches in swampy land and so the Germans can grow wheat. Teodor Ondyt is the commandant of the camp, and he's a bully and a narcissist.

Maya tries to stay hopeful, she studied three forms of dance before the war, she still finds the energy to dance, and it makes her feel free and it's something that can’t be taken from her. Jan Novak is a member of the Polish Guard and he was studying to be an engineer before the war started and he’s assigned to the camp to oversee the building of the drainage channels, he notices Maya dancing and they develop feelings for each other.

Maya lives for their stolen moments together, Jan makes her heart and soul sing. Jan knows everyone’s days in the camp are numbered, he works out a way for Maya to escape and promises he will find her when the war is over and that’s easier said than done.

The story has a dual timeline and is told from the two main characters points of view Maya and Kate and it’s extremely easy to follow.

1995, Kate Young is an English journalist, she’s been working in Sydney, Australia for six months when she's sent to cover the ceremony for 50th anniversary of the Holocaust and here she meets Maya, and she asks Kate to help her find Jan and she has no idea where to start. Maya has dementia and it’s getting worse, at times Maya lives in her own world, and Kate has to sort fact from fiction and try to locate Jan Novak and it turns out to be a very common name in Poland.

I received a copy of Maya’s Dance by Helen Signy, from Simon & Schuster Australia and in exchange for an honest review. The author was inspired to write her book after hearing about a Jewish teenager who escaped Sawin Concentration Camp, she fell in love with a Polish engineer, he hid her and she lived undercover.

The well written and thoroughly researched narrative is a story about war, love, hardship, survival, friendship, dementia and how it affected Holocaust survivors in different ways. Four stars, the important message I got from this book is dance like no one is watching, live and enjoy life and especially for those who no longer can.