Lilac Girls

Herta stays at Ravensbrück after she discovers that her father has passed away and that her mother will need care. One night, Herta walks in on Halina sketching Binz in the bookbindery. Halina is paid in bread for her sketches. Herta speaks with Halina for a while, interrogating the latter on her background. When Herta discovers that Halina is a nurse, Herta reassigns her to Block One and to the Revier hospital. Halina asks if her daughters can come with her, but Herta dodges the question. Herta does not tell Halina that the food in Block One “did not contain the drug they put in the regular soup to kill the prisoners’ sex drive and cease menses” (156). After Halina begins working at the hospital, it begins to run far more efficiently.

Halina and Herta begin working closely together. They write mandated condolence cards together to send to the families of deceased prisoners, Halina binds books, and they both coordinate the schedules of the hospital. Halina asks Herta to post a letter to Lennart Fleischer for her, and Herta says that she will consider it. Then, Irma gets hurt after one of the kitchens collapses. Herta lets Halina out of the camp to assist her. Halina gives orders but Binz and Herta both listen to her. Halina uses her clothes to make a tourniquet for Irma and soon they carry her back to camp. On the way back to camp, Halina pauses, considering escape but eventually follows Herta back to the camp.

A while later, Herta finds a Polish record and makes Halina teach her how to foxtrot. They dance perfectly together and Herta brushes a lock of hair from Halina’s face. Nurse Marschall catches them and seems resolved to enact revenge for their previous slights against her; she is furious that a Polish prisoner filled her role in the hospital and that Halina was called to assist Herta instead of her.

Roger tells Caroline that Paul and Rena have been arrested. Caroline’s day gets more hectic, however, as she finds out that her best friend, Betty Stockwell, just had a son. Caroline swallows down her jealousy and brings Betty a bouquet of tulips. They talk about Caroline’s prospects and about Paul’s current situation. Betty encourages Caroline to forget about Paul and find a husband. Caroline is furious at Betty and they part ways. Later that week, Caroline discovers that the consulate can no longer fund her comfort boxes to the French orphanages. Not wanting to ask her mother for help, Caroline heads to Snyder and Goodrich Antiques and sells off some oyster forks emblazoned with the Woolsey family crest. Caroline tells the story of the Woolsey loving cup in German and softens Mr. Snyder to her cause. The cup is a gift from a young corporal whom Eliza Woolsey, Caroline’s great-grandmother, had nursed back to health. After hearing this, Mr. Snyder buys the forks. Mr. Snyder makes an anti-Semitic comment as he pays Caroline and she rebukes and shames him. Despite this, “fifty parentless French children” (173) would now receive aid.

Binz sends Kasia to the bunker for two weeks for her insubordination. Despite this, Kasia continues to write coded letters to her father to no avail. She gets increasingly angry and begins imagining ways to get revenge on the Germans. The next spring, Halina visits her daughters and they play a game called “What I’d Bring Down Beauty Road” (174). In a morbid game they made up, the children imagine the funniest they’d bring down the road if they are forced to walk down to the shooting wall. Halina brings them bread and Luiza tells her about how fast she can knit now. Janina, whose hair continued to be shaved down, would bring heels; Zuzanna would bring Polish chocolates; Luiza her knitting; and Kasia her mattress. Halina says she would bring a bouquet of flowers, hand them to the guards, and shout “Long live Poland” (176) before she was killed. The women quiet at the sobering thought. Halina has been sneaking hair dye to the older women so that they can escape selections and heart stimulants for the weak. After hugging Kasia, Halina is forced to leave.

All the girls are brought into a part of the hospital next morning, including: Kasia, Zuzanna, Luiza, Janina, and new girls named Regina and Alfreda. Eventually, a nurse named Gerda enters the room and begins taking the girls out one by one to operate on them. Kasia feels her mother’s presence at night tucking her in and kissing her on the forehead. Halina leaves before Kasia can reach for her. The next morning, Kasia wakes up to find that most of the girls have casts or bandages on their legs. Everyone cries out for water, but none ever comes. Janina manages to stand and comfort all the girls; she delivers their one bedpan to them.

Luiza wakes Kasia in the night and they speak about the past. Luiza tells that Pietrik had made her promise not to tell, but that he loves Kasia. All the girls run high fevers and when Dr. Oberheuser finally enters the room, she ignores them when they plead for answers. Oberheuser only reacts when Kasia asks for her mother Halina. Herta Oberheuser tells Kasia that they will only be moving Luiza. The girls do not see Luiza again for months. The hospital staff ignores them. One day, the girls receive a gift of food thrown in through the window by a fellow prisoner. The camp has begun to call them the Rabbits. It is not till weeks later that Gerda returns to remove their casts. Kasia sees the doctors and nurses recoil at the sight of her mangled leg and pushes up to look at it herself.

Herta continues to support the Reich in 1942. She has scrapbooks dedicated to Germany’s war successes. Commandant Suhren, a man that Herta prefers to his predecessor, has replaced Koegel. Suhren throws himself a party and Herta attends. While there, Herta chats with Fritz; they have been going out together regularly. Fritz tells Herta that he will be leaving Ravensbrück; he no longer believes in causing such suffering. Fritz warns Herta that there have been rumors going around the camp that she is romantic with her assistant nurse Halina. Herta also discovers that she has been recommended for the War Merit Cross, an award created by Hitler himself.

The next morning, Herta hides Halina’s engagement ring, the one that she has taken to wearing. When she arrives at the hospital, Herta gets ready to insert foreign objects into the wounds to “stimulate battlefront injuries” (191). After Fritz’s departure, Herta receives permission to conduct the operations herself. She is pleased by the opportunity. The next morning, Herta takes her time to get to the Revier, trusting that Halina will be able to run the hospital. Halina is not there however, and Herta finds Binz to demand answers. Binz tells Herta that she will need a new assistant.

Caroline has continued to track the transports of people to concentration camps all throughout Poland and Germany. Pearl Harbor has changed the rules of the war and the consulate continues to scramble to do what it can to help. Roger tells Caroline that Paul is among a group of men taken to Natzweiler-Struthof on the Vosges Mountains. Caroline tries to get more information about the permanent concentration camp but discovers that Washington has officially broken off any and all diplomatic relations with France. The embassy and the consulate officially close. Rena Rodierre is listed as deceased from typhus on a list of Auschwitz prisoners.

Caroline continues to sell family heirlooms to Snyder and Goodrich; she uses the money to keep her French Families Fund afloat. Caroline attends the Vanderbilts’ party and helps do the tally for the bridge teams’ scores. She has a back and forth with Jinx, Pru, Kipper, and Betty. Jinx makes snide comments about the state of Caroline’s finances, her father’s death, and her mother’s charity. Jinx and Kipper are expected to win but with Caroline’s help, Pru and Betty are declared the winners. Betty declares that they are playing for Caroline’s French Families Fund. Caroline leaves, pleased that she has mended things with Betty, but even more glad that she no longer feels “any lingering allegiances to New York Society” (206).