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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Hope as the Key to Survival
Hope is a pervasive theme throughout the entirety of Kelly’s Lilac Girls. Hope functions as a beacon in a dark time that allows the women to continue forward, to come unstuck. Kasia’s description of their time in post-invasion Lublin describes the war best: “After that, we were like flies stuck in honey, alive but not really living” (65). This space between life and death keeps them in a perpetual uncertainty and unknowing. Not only are they unsure of their fates, but also the fortunes of their countries and the world are unknown. The war places these women on the constant edge of the unfamiliar; they become aware that the people in power could rip their lives from them in an instant. Hope functions as a catalyst for each of the different women.
Hope manifests for Kasia and Suzanna as an individual named Herr Fenstermacher. The old electrician visits them at the bunkers and sings while he works:
But not just any songs. His own songs, made up of the newspaper headlines of the day. Yes, we knew about some war events just by listening to the distant thud of bombs to our south. But Herr Fenstermacher brought us, at great risk to himself, a gift more precious than gold. News of hope. The name Fenstermacher means ‘window maker’ in German, and he was our window to the world (231).
Although Fenstermacher is unable to help them directly, he is kind to them, and brings them news of them world. The news of the war provides Kasia and Zuzanna with “a gift more precious than gold,” that of hope. Hope is a promise of a better future. When Kasia gives birth to her daughter, she wants to name her something for the future rather than the past. Papa and Pietrik, however, begin calling the baby Halina, and Kasia eventually relents. Kasia is unable to move past her mother’s death. While Papa and Pietrik believe that the name is a kind memorial, a way to keep the first Halina with them, Kasia is only able to see her mother in her daughter from then on. Kasia once again loses control over her narrative and she continues to feel that she “should have named her Hope” (326).
Caroline’s need for hope propels her forward. While at church, Caroline reads Paul’s letter; her hope is different from Kasia’s, more connected with a religious faith and collective capacity for change: “Saint Thomas was our life raft of hope. Kneeling there in that great church, the air perfumed with frankincense, the magnificent stone altarpiece behind the altar, I felt the world might just untangle itself after all” (223). That gives her hope for a future together with him. This faith instills a courage in her, and she begins to fight even harder for what he believes in, to pool her resources and make a difference.
For Herta Oberheuser, hope comes in the form of career advancement. Herta’s medical career and financial security is the only way that she can escape from her uncle Heinz’s sexual assaults. During the assaults, Herta “review[s] the bone of the hand” (76) to keep herself from crying. Herta blames herself for her victimhood:
Why wasn’t I home researching new jobs? It was my own fault I was stuck there, trapped by Heinz, fearing he would reveal our secret. I should have told on him years before, but Tante Ilsa would never have paid for my schooling if she’d known (75).
Although Herta’s decision to stay at Ravensbrück is unconscionable, her job the very antithesis of what a doctor should strive to be, it is the stability and power of her position that she has always hoped for. The position that will ultimately rob Herta of her medical license was once her saving grace, her only hope in what could have been a lifetime of assault.
Hope acts as a lifeline and propels the three primary women into separate and distinct directions, yet they nonetheless share a similar experience with hope.
Community and Solidarity Between Women
Community is an important theme throughout Lilac Girls. The women in the novel are forced to find support and solidarity from the people around them. The clearest examples of support in the novel are the women at Ravensbrück who rally around the Rabbits. Anise puts herself at risk to throw food in through the window of the hospital for the girls. Kasia cannot help but wonder at all the food after so long without: “It all showered down around me on my bed. Two carrots and an apple. A square of cheese and a sugar cube. Such heavenly rain” (184). The women who rally around the Rabbits call themselves “the Walls” (210) and continue to help hide them under the bunkers, bring them food, and protest the inhumane treatment they faced.
The communities of women who aid the Rabbits are also the only reason that Kasia and Zuzanna manage to escape. The night that the Swedish Red Cross arrive, the sisters are caught by Binz and Herta who identify them as Rabbits; they are marked for execution when the lights go off:
The Russian girls turned them off. Szura flipped the switch at the transformer station once they heard Suhren was coming for the Rabbits. The whole electrical grid is down, and they’ll not turn it back on until morning (253).
This gives Kasia and Zuzanna the chance to escape onto the bus. Community does not only save the lives of the sisters but also many others. That same night, a prisoner runs a package to the bus; it is a newborn baby that the women have smuggled out of the camp and into safety.
The theme of community and solidarity is reflected not only in Caroline but also in her mother. Both become New York socialites in order to raise money for charitable causes that otherwise may not have received any aid. While Caroline undoubtedly spearheads most of the movements, without the community of socialites and group of purses behind her, it would have undoubtedly been a great deal harder for her to efficiently effect change. While Kasia and the women who rallied around the Rabbits at the camp reflect a microcosm of community, the mass of Americans who respond to the article in the Saturday Review is an international act of solidarity on a wider scale. Kelly displays how community, big or small, is vital in upholding peace, justice, and hope; the Allied forces and United Nations are merely a reflection of the grassroots groups who support each other.
Forgiveness as a Selfish Act
Forgiveness is an overarching theme in Lilac Girls, one that takes a different form from character to character, and it is presented as the idea that forgiveness can be an entirely selfish act. Commonly understood to be a merciful act accepted by the forgiven, Kelly flips the narrative of what most people tend to think about forgiveness. The reader primarily learns about this different, selfish form of forgiveness through Kasia. Kasia first comes into contact with idea of forgiveness after they reach Ravensbrück and her mother tells her: “Don’t waste your energy on the hate. That will kill you sure as anything. Focus on keeping your strength. You’re resourceful. Find a way to outsmart them” (147).
The notion that hatred for her abusers will kill Kasia “sure as” the Nazis or their weapons is an interesting one. Kasia’s rage and need for revenge begins when she witnesses the death of her Math teacher, Mrs. Mikelsky. Kasia is forced to move her body and as she does, she thinks:
I took hold of both of Mrs. Mikelsky’s wrists and dragged her, still warm, across the snow, exhaling the white fog of my breath like a plow horse. The horror of it. The hate grew black in my chest. How could I live without revenge? (152).
Revenge and rage become a deep well in Kasia that she draws on when she has nothing left to carry her onwards. Kasia holds onto the rage for years after Matka passes away; she has nothing to remind her of her mother besides the pain and bitterness. Kasia is so consumed by her anger and inability to forgive that she begins to hurt herself and the people around her. Kasia is unable to look at her daughter without seeing her mother and she cannot be intimate with Pietrik. Kasia cannot be vulnerable with the man she loves most.
Kasia pushes everyone away, unable to forgive or accept the past; she remains “like flies stuck in honey, alive but not really living” (65) even after the war is over. Marthe tells Kasia, “You have a choice. To wallow in the unfairness of it all or rise above it. Fix it. Let other people in” (345). Forgiveness thus becomes a tool to better Kasia’s life, not as a way to help the forgiven. By forgiving and accepting the past, Kasia will be able to let go of the rage, the anger at the injustice and unfairness, and find room for other emotions. The psychiatrist at Mount Sinai hospital tells Kasia as much when she says: “Look, Mrs. Bakoski, you’ll make no progress until you get to the bottom of that anger. And I would embrace the sympathy people give you. You need all the help you can get” (380).
Kasia’s anger does not allow her to be vulnerable with those around her. However, after confronting Herta at the clinic, she is finally able to move forward. Kasia forgives the past for her own good; she also finally forgives herself for getting them captured. Kasia accepts what happens and is able to walk away from Herta and her trauma, “leaving the door ajar, no longer craving the vibration of the slam” (423).
