Cilka's Journey

The next morning, Cilka walks with Josie to the hospital to defend herself. She waits outside for Josie to fetch Yelena, but when Yelena doesn’t show up, Cilka returns to the hut and falls asleep. She wakes up to a slap across her head from a female guard, who demands to know why she is there and forces her to pile all the bedding and mattresses in the middle of the hut. In an attempt to protect Josie, Cilka claims that the sheet with the Russian writing is hers. She explains that the writing is of the names of medications that she is trying to learn. The female guard sentences Cilka to solitary confinement in a small cell where she can’t stand up or stretch out. The cell also has a window that lets in the winter weather. Cilka wears only her underclothes and shivers uncontrollably. When she sleeps, she has nightmares, seeing images of her mother and the other women in Auschwitz. Against all odds, Cilka survives the harsh treatment and is returned to Hut 29, where Josie rocks her and apologizes, and Hannah threatens Cilka once again that she will expose Cilka’s past unless Cilka accedes to her demands.

When Yelena treats Cilka at the hospital the next day, she offers Cilka a new job working with her colleague in the maternity ward, then tasks Alexandr with taking her back to the hut. As they walk together, Cilka and Alexandr talk, and she discovers he’s from Czechoslovakia, too. The next day, Yelena takes Cilka to the maternity ward and introduces her to Petre Davitovich, whom Yelena trained with in Georgia. Petre then explains Cilka’s duties and takes her to a woman in labor named Nita. Cilka wipes Nita’s face and helps deliver a baby girl. She suggests Gita as a name, and Nita agrees. Nita is transferred to the nursery, and a nurse named Tatiana shows Cilka how to clean up after the birth and prepare for the next patient. A few hours later, Cilka meets the other maternity nurses and learns she is the only nurse who is also a prisoner. Back at the hut that evening, Josie apologizes again for getting Cilka in trouble and says she is her dearest friend.

Flashback to Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1942. Cilka stands in Block 25, watching the weary women file into the block. She recognizes her mother and helps her into Cilka’s room and bed. Cilka tries to help her mother eat, but she refuses, saying Cilka needs it more than she does. Cilka then tries to find Schwarzhuber to ask him to transfer her mother to another block, but her mother wants to have this one night together. Cilka tells her mother that Magda is still alive, and her mother says she doesn’t know what happened to Cilka’s father after they were separated. Mother and daughter embrace and stay that way through the night. At sunrise, SS officers command all the women to leave the block. Cilka stops an officer from hitting her mother with a stick. Her mother climbs into the truck, and Cilka sinks to the ground as she watches the truck move toward the gas chamber.

Cilka takes a new mother to the nursery after her delivery. She enters the building to see three women caring for 20 babies and toddlers. The new mother banters with the caregivers as Cilka absorbs the chaotic scene, noting the lack of proper care given to the children. Irina, one of the caregivers, tells Cilka that mothers sleep in the dormitory next door until their child turns two. Then the women are sent back to the regular huts. Once a baby is four weeks, the mother leaves the baby in the nursery and returns to work. The new mother goes to the dorm after naming her baby Josie at Cilka’s suggestion. Cilka notices a baby lying on the floor with a fever. The caregivers say the baby has been like that for several days. Cilka returns to the maternity ward and tells Petre about the nursery’s condition; he says they’ll discuss it later.

Several weeks pass, and the weather begins to warm. Petre talks to Cilka about the nursery on a slow day in the maternity ward. They go to the nursery together, and Irina introduces herself and explains they only feed the babies that seem strong. Petre examines the sick babies and sees they are starving. He takes seven of them back to the maternity ward and orders milk for them and for Yelena to come. Cilka takes notes as Petre dictates the condition of each baby. When Yelena arrives, she helps assess the babies. Their mothers arrive after work, and the doctors show them how to feed their babies to prevent overfeeding. Cilka and Tatiana stay with the mothers overnight to continue helping them.

The management of the nursery changes so the babies can receive better care. Cilka reports to the nursery weekly to see if any children need medical attention. One night, Cilka asks Josie if she’s not meant to be a mother but to help them, and Josie blurts out that she’s pregnant.

Cilka moves to Josie and examines her belly, guessing that she is about five months along in her pregnancy. The next day, Cilka tells Antonina about Josie, and she is displeased by the news and tells Josie to continue working. The women of Hut 29 celebrate with Josie and begin making baby clothes. A week later, Vadim visits Josie, who tells him she’s pregnant. He becomes angry, and Josie demands he leave the hut. Boris tells Cilka that he would be happy if she got pregnant, but she doubts she ever will because of all her body has been through. The other women comfort and support Josie, but she becomes moodier over the next several weeks. She is particularly upset about Vadim’s reaction. One night, Cilka wakes to find Josie’s bed empty. She and Elena find Josie naked on the ground and take her back to the hut, where the women work to warm Josie and encourage her to keep going. In the morning, Cilka takes Josie to the hospital, where she’s allowed to rest.

When Petre asks what’s ailing Josie, his kindness compels Cilka to tell him about the previous night, and Petre arranges for Josie to return to the hospital daily for observation until her baby is born. Josie works in the maternity ward, comforting the women and beginning to look forward to her delivery. She goes into labor on Hanukkah and delivers a baby girl at midnight, naming her Natia Cilka. The following day, Cilka takes Josie and Natia to the nursery, determined to find a way to keep them together after their two years in the nursery. Without the daily stress of caring for Josie, Cilka finds her thoughts turning to Alexandr and how she would like to see him again. The next day, Josie’s bed in Hut 29 is taken by a 16-year-old named Anastasia, who was arrested for stealing food because she was starving. The authorities tortured her for the names of her accomplices, leaving her face covered in bruises. Cilka views her as another defiant woman the Soviets must subdue through suffering.

Cilka tells the women in the hut that Natia and Josie are doing well. Hannah makes innuendos about Cilka’s past, but the women don’t react other than to defend Cilka and tell Hannah to be quiet. Olga asks if they can visit Josie, and Elena says the women might see them during their Sunday walks in the summer.

Typhoid soon sweeps through the camp, so the hospital creates a new ward for those infected. Because Cilka has previously been exposed to the disease without getting infected, she is assigned to work in the infectious ward.

Flashback to Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1943. After her mother’s death, Cilka spends less time in the main compound but continues trying to keep an eye on Magda. One day, Gita takes Cilka to Magda’s block; she’s worried because Magda has been lying down all day. A girl named Dana suddenly runs from the block screaming. Cilka and Gita catch her, and she explains that Magda had typhoid but hid it from Cilka. The women go to Magda’s body. Cilka expresses her emotions briefly and then goes numb, as she often does. She closes her sister’s eyes and leaves the block.

In Vorkuta, Cilka works in the infectious ward, feeling cursed to be back in a place where the dying lie on the floor awaiting their fate. She helps a nurse named Sonya to cool a woman’s fever. As the patient improves, Sonya moves to other patients. Once the woman’s fever has broken, Cilka proceeds to other patients to repeat the process. By the end of the day, she has seen six patients die and 14 more brought in. Cilka works on this ward for months to save as many prisoners as possible. Spring arrives, and the number of new cases decreases dramatically. Yelena visits Cilka and asks where she’d like to work next. She tells Cilka that Gleb has transferred out of the camp, so Cilka says she’d like to return to the general ward with Yelena.