Lilac Girls

The soldier Kasia is caring for turns out to be Pietrik. The other nurses help change Pietrik out of his uniform. She discovers that once the Russians liberated the Majdanek concentration camp, the Red Army pressed Pietrik into service. Zuzanna and Papa help move Pietrik to Kasia’s room. It takes long weeks for Pietrik to speak. After his head injury, Pietrik takes a long time to come back to himself. He is eventually healthy enough to drive ambulances and take on other jobs. Pietrik does not romance Kasia and she does not push him. One day, while Pietrik is driving the ambulance, Kasia pushes him to talk about the war. He tells her that he secreted Nadia and her mother to several safe apartments before they were caught.

Felka continues to return to Nadia’s old home and they find her out in the rain. Kasia dries Felka’s fur and continues to try and get Pietrik to open up. Pietrik tells Kasia that he lives with the guilt of getting Luiza, Kasia, Zuzanna, and Halina captured every day. He tells Kasia that without her, he would not want to be alive. On the day of the memorial at Lublin Castle, Kasia attends to leave flowers for everyone she has lost. She sees Pietrik and instead of leaving him alone as he requested, she stands by him. Eventually, when she turns to leave, a crying Pietrik holds her close. Pietrik kisses Kasia’s hand, numb from the cold, and tucks their hands into his warm pocket.

Kasia marries Pietrik in the postal center in 1946. She wears a pink dress that Marthe has sewn for her. It is a bittersweet day as Felka passes away that morning on the step of Nadia’s old home. They bury her in Nadia’s old blanket and everyone cries. The wedding also requires a blessing by the mother of the bride. Although Marthe prepares a long one, Kasia has Zuzanna do it. The Polish Workers’ Party gets stronger by the day and as they discourage weddings, only a few dear friends manage to attend the wedding. Kasia lets Marthe be the one to replace her veil with a cap, a Polish tradition. 

After, Kasia finds Pietrik in her father’s office, brooding. He thinks he is a coward, getting married and feasting while his fellow underground officials are persecuted. Kasia pulls her father’s gun from Pietrik’s hand and puts it away. Instead of returning to the festivities like he encourages her to, Kasia stays in the dark with Pietrik. 

In 1947, the Doctors Trial at Nuremberg begins. Gebhardt’s testimony condemns both Fritz and Oberheuser. Binz, Marschall, and Vilmer are all given the death sentence and hanged. A Rabbit takes the stand and identifies Herta; Herta is astounded that anyone knows her identity. She does not recognize any of them. Herta’s prized War Merit Cross damns her; they know she earned it for her participation in the sulfonamide experiments. Fritz is the only openly repentant doctor. They are all found guilty. Gebhardt is sentenced to death by hanging, Fritz to a lifetime in jail, and Herta to 20 years in prison.

Herta is still loyal to Hitler and is glad that he killed himself so he wouldn’t have to see the results of the trial. Herta is unable to imagine not being able to practice medicine for all those years. Once she reaches her prison, she begins her letter writing campaign. 

Kasia gives birth to a baby girl on March 25, 1947. She is both overjoyed and sorrowful; Kasia is unable to stop grieving her mother’s absence. Pietrik and her father begin calling the baby Halina, and even though Kasia wanted to call her “Hope,” she soon gives in as well. Kasia fears that the baby’s name will damn her to her namesake’s fate.  

In 1947, after Caroline arranges for Paul and Rena to pick up their child, she stays in Paris for months, volunteering for different causes. She eventually volunteers at a coat donation drive and there, she meets an old woman who donates her deceased granddaughter’s unworn coat. Caroline does what she can for everyone she meets; she listens to their stories and feels for all of them. She sees Paul and realizes that it has been almost two years since she’d seen him last. Caroline has not read any of Paul’s letters over the years. He is miserable and heartbroken; he asks her if they’ll ever be together again, if Caroline has found someone else. Paul calls Caroline unfeeling and she snaps back at him, angry at his infidelity and abandonment. Paul wraps Caroline in his coat and hugs her. He tells Caroline that he will return to New York with her and that “it will be like before” (334). 

Caroline knows things will never be the same again. She urges him to stay in Paris for his daughter, to be there for her even if Rena would rather he not be. Paul tells Caroline he loves her and thinks she’s making a terrible mistake. In the months that follow, Caroline distracts herself with more volunteering. They help place displaced women from the war. One day, an injured woman by the name of Janina Grabowski is brought to their home. Warsaw has crumbled since the war, with ineffective leadership and no infrastructure. Caroline and her mother call for their personal doctor to come see to Janina.