63 pages • 2 hours read
Martha Hall KellyLilac Girls
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 1, Chapters 19-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1
Part 1, Chapter 19 Summary: “Kasia”
The chapter follows Kasia through 1942 and 1943. She screams when she sees her leg, black sutures straining to hold the skin of her leg together. The nurses inject her and put her to sleep. Zuzanna inspects the wound and says that they must have removed bone and muscle. Kasia is operated on three more times, each time bringing higher fevers and more pain. Kasia continues to wait for her mother to come; she does not. Regina teaches them all English while Janina becomes their French teacher. One day, they begin talking about writing secret letters to their families, coded in their own acidic urine. They are thrown out of the hospital one day after Janina makes a comment about how tired she is of being there. Zuzanna, who has been released earlier, hurries towards them and begins to help them all towards Block 31, an international block. Prisoners can now receive food packages from home.
Kasia discovers that Luiza and Alfreda are both dead. The camp has rallied itself around the Rabbits, with more than 50 Polish girls having been operated upon, and have formed a group called the Mury—The Walls. No one has seen Halina since the girls were first operated upon. Kasia refuses to believe it and rages at Zuzanna for not finding their mother. Kasia falls into a deep depression after she realizes that her mother is not coming back. At dinner every day, numbers of prisoners are called out and marked by the guards to be executed. There is a rumor that soon the guards will begin executing the Rabbits to hide their crime. A guard reads out the numbers of a few Rabbits.
Regina gives Zuzanna her spoon and bowl—a priceless gift. She gives Kasia her English phrase book and assigns them homework. The girls gather around Regina, doing her hair, cleaning off her clothes, and painting her lips with beet juice. After she is forced to leave, the girls share her soup. The four Rabbits, including Regina, cried “Long Live Poland” before they died. Kasia regains her anger and resolves to do something about it. Kasia begins to enact her plan to write secret letters in urine. She sends her first secret letter to her papa.
Part 1, Chapter 20 Summary: “Herta”
The chapter follows Herta during Christmas of 1943. Life at Ravensbrück has become more difficult as the Allies continue to bomb Britain. Without Halina’s help, Herta has to mind the hospital every moment of the day. They celebrate Yuletide with beer and luxuries that most Germans do not have. Suhren previously protested the sulfa operations on the Rabbits, but Gebhardt, Hitler’s personal doctor, pushed for them to continue. The Rabbits gave Binz a manifesto, demanding that all future operations be stopped; the protest has gotten the attention of Berlin, and Gebhardt orders that no more Rabbits shall be brought to the shooting wall. Suhren is convinced that the security at Ravensbrück is perfect and that no information about the Rabbits will be leaked. Herta is unconvinced.
Part 1, Chapter 21 Summary: “Caroline”
Caroline spends that same Christmas of 1943 selling war bonds at Grand Central Terminal. With most men at war, women composed of a large portion of the workforce. Caroline has not heard from Paul in months and she worries for his safety. Caroline has also begun to hear about exterminations of Jewish, Slavic, and Romani peoples occurring at the concentration camps. At church, Caroline reads the last letter she received from Paul. She notices that David Stockwell stares at her from across the hall. After the sermon ends, she greets Betty, David, and Sally. Sally will be having triplets. Caroline pulls David aside and he assumes that she does so to appeal to his affections. Caroline has been calling David, urging him to speak to someone about loosening immigration quotas. David’s position at the State Department places him in a position of power, however.
Caroline urges David to do the right thing, to try and convince someone to accept the refugees turning up on America’s shores every day. David promises to try and speak to someone. When they turn back to the others, they discover that Sally’s water has broken.
Part 1, Chapter 22 Summary: “Kasia”
Christmas for Kasia is an especially grim one; Zuzanna has begun to waste away. Many Russian women in the bunks, who were doctors and nurses captured on the battlefield, help the Rabbits. The girls and women sing Polish Christmas songs and Kasia spends most days remembering her memories. An old electrician, named Fenstermacher, always removes his hat and bows to the girls when he enters. He has smuggled them a sugar cube and headache medicine in the past. Better than all that, however, Fenstermacher sings for the girls in French. He makes up songs composed of the day’s newspaper headlines; he brought the girls “at great risk to himself, a gift more precious than gold. News of hope” (231).
That day, the women discover that the British have been successfully bombing Berlin. Fenstermacher leaves a pair of hand-knitted blue socks for Zuzanna before he goes. After, Kasia receives a package from her papa. In it, she finds half of a poppy-seed cake, a tube of toothpaste, Halina’s hand stitched kitchen towel, and a spool of red thread. The thread is a signal, a sign that Papa had understood Kasia’s secret letter. For the first time in a long time, Kasia does not feel so alone.
Part 1, Chapter 23 Summary: “Herta”
Herta wakes on a day in 1944 frazzled and frustrated. Originally built to house 7,000 prisoners, Ravensbrück now housed over 45,000. Americans have landed in France, the camp is overrun with disease, and Rabbits are hidden in the crowded blocks, given the numbers of other women to better keep them safe. Vilmer Hartman, a psychologist Herta went to medical school with, is visiting the camp. Herta brings Vilmer to view three newly built blocks. Vilmer’s job is to “cull those mentally unable to work” (236). Herta informs the reader that Vilmer conducts research on the chosen patients before having them murdered.
Herta has been forced on dates with Dr. Winkelmann; the rumors around Herta and Halina worried those in charge, and they hoped to expose her to more male company. After Halina’s death, Herta “took to [her] bed for several days. Acute anxiety” (237). Herta has been cutting herself as well. Vilmer suggests that Herta be transferred, but she refuses to go. She believes that Suhren will protect her should Germany lose the war. A few months later, Suhren calls Herta to his office to discuss the information leak about the Rabbits. The only person named has been Gebhardt and the Polish government has condemned him to death. Herta pushes Suhren to get rid of the Rabbits and he orders her to ensure that every single one of them is found and disposed of.
Part 1, Chapter 24 Summary: “Caroline”
This chapter follows Caroline in the years 1944 and 1945. In August, Roger calls Caroline and informs her that American and Free French troops are on the outskirts of Paris. The consulate opens back up as the Germans surrender and cede France. The war continues to drag on. One day, Caroline receives a letter from Paul. He is at the Hôtel Lutetia and both Caroline and her mother resolve to leave for Paris the very next day.
Part 1, Chapters 19-24 Analysis
In this section of the novel, the women fully entrench themselves in what they believe is the right thing they do. Despite overwhelming odds, they must overcome both inner and outer turmoil to better their circumstances. This is especially true in Kasia’s case. After the operations and her long periods of purposefully halted recovery and the deaths of Luiza, Alfreda, and her mother, Kasia falls into a depression:
I had always found good things to think about and Polish optimism to fall back on, but once Matka was gone, I could not pull myself out of the darkness. I felt like a fish I read about when I was a child, the African mudskipper. Each year when the drought came, it burrowed deep into the mud and lived there for weeks, neither dead nor alive, waiting for the rains to come and bring it back to life (212).
Kasia falls into a stasis, lingering between life and death. Although she often thinks of death and even wishes to join her mother, her inability to walk prevents her from carrying out any suicide plans she may have. When Regina’s number is called and she is executed, however, Kasia’s anger and resolve are renewed. Kasia thinks to herself: “After that, I could no longer just be angry and not act. Would we be the next to go to the wall? Who would be left to tell the world? Even if it got me killed, I would launch my plan” (215). This anger fuels Kasia and she sends her secret coded letters to her papa; she lists the names of every woman who is forced under the knife and shares the treacheries the doctors have committed at the camp.
Herta digs her heels into the dirt and stands firm in similar ways, even though for different reasons. While Kasia vows to do what she can to save and remember those who have been murders, even if the cost is her own life, Herta wishes to do the very opposite. Herta speaks to Suhren and urges him to get rid of any traces of the Rabbits; she knows if any information leaks, she will be the one to pay the price. At the thought of transferring out of Ravensbrück to avoid any penalties she might pay for the inhumane torture, Herta thinks: “It was sickening. Such weakness. Had all Germans turned to jelly overnight?” (239). Instead of admitting any wrongdoing, Herta bears down, willing to bury any remaining morals or ethics to shape the world into the image of what she thinks it should be. When Suhren gives Herta permission to find and kill the Rabbits, she thinks that “it was about time” (241).
Caroline devotes herself to the war effort. She not only spends her times selling war bonds, but she also swallows her pride and appeals to David for help. David attempts to make Caroline his mistress; while the blow to her ego is a big one, she remains focused on the bigger picture. David accuses Caroline of pushing for the United States to grant more visas only so Paul can escape France; Caroline ignores the dig. Instead, Caroline pushes harder for what she believes to be right. She shames David into doing the right thing, saying: “Foreigners? Half this country just got here a generation ago. How can you just let people die, David?” (227). David relents and promises to see what he can do.
These women draw their lines clearly in the sand. Although they might have had similarities in the past, the capacity to lead comparable lives, their circumstances and choices have placed them in completely different tracks, all of which are bound inextricably with the war.
