peterp3's review against another edition
5.0
Superbly researched, and very well written. The intertwined biographies of nine women who found themselves interned together in a Nazi concentration camp, and how their friendship enabled them to escape together from their ‘death March’ at the end of the war. And the final couple of chapters are particularly poignant, tracing their histories after the war, and showing very clearly how returning safely to Paris was not in fact a happy-ever-after ending.
lindsaymay92's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.75
leviscleaner's review
5.0
Een erg mooi boek dat goed laat zien wat verzetsvrouwen meemaakten! Het is zeker een aanrader.
lindasdarby's review against another edition
I couldn't finish this. While the story itself is interesting unfortunately the writing is confusing and the story is jumping all over the place with tenses and also point of view of each person.
irene_book_journey's review against another edition
4.0
The true story about these nine woman, what they did while being part of the resistance, how they got captured to the nazi camps. And how they tried to sabotage the German army even from inside the camps.
This story about their fights, friendship and survival is powerful and interesting.
This story about their fights, friendship and survival is powerful and interesting.
bookishnicole's review against another edition
4.0
I can't lie, this book was hard to get through and that wasn't because of the author or the writing but because the story was just that hard to read.
The author did an amazing job of bringing to life the realities of the world that these amazing women had to be strong in.
What was touching wad the authors personal connection to the story. I think it not only helped create a a strong bond between them, but for the reader to really get invested in the tale. I also appreciated how the photos of each of the women were included. They had their own chapter dedicated to their lives before their escape from the camp and what their lives looked like afterward.
I would advise mentally fortifying yourself before going into this book, but it is a worthwhile endeavor should you chose. The stories of the Nine are important to be preserved. There are so many from history that felt their tales were not worthwhile, and so we are losing these acts of heroism to history. Honor and preserve their memory by giving this a shot
The author did an amazing job of bringing to life the realities of the world that these amazing women had to be strong in.
What was touching wad the authors personal connection to the story. I think it not only helped create a a strong bond between them, but for the reader to really get invested in the tale. I also appreciated how the photos of each of the women were included. They had their own chapter dedicated to their lives before their escape from the camp and what their lives looked like afterward.
I would advise mentally fortifying yourself before going into this book, but it is a worthwhile endeavor should you chose. The stories of the Nine are important to be preserved. There are so many from history that felt their tales were not worthwhile, and so we are losing these acts of heroism to history. Honor and preserve their memory by giving this a shot
55_sallymander's review against another edition
5.0
THE NINE by Gwen Strauss
The Nine is about 9 women who banded together in friendship during World War 2, who planned and escaped captivity from the Nazis. The author has done extensive research on all nine of the women, one of which was her great-aunt Helene Podliasky. Most of the women had nicknames, which they are all referred to in the book. Helene's nickname was Christine.
The Nine:
Christine
Zara
Nicole
Lon
Guigui
Zinka
Josee
Jacky
Mena
The women were of different nationalities, most were arrested in Paris. Most were members of the Resistance, spies, fighting for freedom against oppression for all peoples.
Some of the women knew each other before they were arrested, most were non-Jewish. Several of the women were tortured before being sent on towards the Nazi concentration camps. One woman was very pregnant when arrested, she gave birth in a French prison, her baby was smuggled out and was raised for the remaining war years, by other family members.
The nine women were on the death marches near the end of World War II when they saw an opportunity and used it to escape guaranteed death. Several of the women were fluent in several languages and were able to convince the local officials of the towns they passed through that they were simply a group of French girls who had been factory workers, who were anxious to return home to Paris.
Author Gwen Strauss has done extensive research into the backgrounds and lives of all nine of the women. It is a courageous story of hope and devotion to one another. Highly recommend it, it gives you a look at a different side of the war, the women who fought so selflessly for the war effort and were punished to the breaking point for their beliefs.
Much gratitude to #stmartinspress for the complimentary copy of #thenine, I was under no obligation to post a review.
The Nine is about 9 women who banded together in friendship during World War 2, who planned and escaped captivity from the Nazis. The author has done extensive research on all nine of the women, one of which was her great-aunt Helene Podliasky. Most of the women had nicknames, which they are all referred to in the book. Helene's nickname was Christine.
The Nine:
Christine
Zara
Nicole
Lon
Guigui
Zinka
Josee
Jacky
Mena
The women were of different nationalities, most were arrested in Paris. Most were members of the Resistance, spies, fighting for freedom against oppression for all peoples.
Some of the women knew each other before they were arrested, most were non-Jewish. Several of the women were tortured before being sent on towards the Nazi concentration camps. One woman was very pregnant when arrested, she gave birth in a French prison, her baby was smuggled out and was raised for the remaining war years, by other family members.
The nine women were on the death marches near the end of World War II when they saw an opportunity and used it to escape guaranteed death. Several of the women were fluent in several languages and were able to convince the local officials of the towns they passed through that they were simply a group of French girls who had been factory workers, who were anxious to return home to Paris.
Author Gwen Strauss has done extensive research into the backgrounds and lives of all nine of the women. It is a courageous story of hope and devotion to one another. Highly recommend it, it gives you a look at a different side of the war, the women who fought so selflessly for the war effort and were punished to the breaking point for their beliefs.
Much gratitude to #stmartinspress for the complimentary copy of #thenine, I was under no obligation to post a review.
lsimmons031's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.0
achoward's review against another edition
5.0
How do people withstand the most horrific abuses performed by a nation led by a madman?
There are many books about soldiers surviving what were basically death camps when they were taken prisoner, about well planned and executed escapes, about spies hanging on, in hiding, while an entire militarized police force look for them.
The Nine has all of that, and more. It's the story of nine women, resistance fighters in WWII, captured and interrogated by French police before being sent off to Germany for interrogation by the Gestapo and ultimately imprisoned at a work camp.
The primary focus is on the author's great aunt Hélène Podliasky, who ultimately became the de facto leader of the group as they met one another in their journey from freedom to prison and back to freedom again.
Where this book shines comes after all of that - after the beatings, the torture, the forced work, and all manner of atrocities. As Germany was facing defeat, some of the camps, including the one housing The Nine, were sent on forced marches, to move prisoners from outlying areas about to be overrun, to prisons closer to what was left in German hands. During their march, they took a chance and fled the march, running into the forest, heading for France.
This journey, free of guards and the wire of prisons, wasn't any easier than that. Along the way, they found both people willing to help them, and people who had no interest in doing so, preferring to turn them in. They also found those who wanted to use them for their own ends - soldiers, for instance, who thought the Allies would look more favorably on them if they were found assisting a group of former prisoners.
The author is a poet, and it shows. It's a fantastic piece of narrative nonfiction, although I would say that if you're just dipping your toes into the water of the cruelest parts of WWII, or if you're just learning about it, you might want to start with a broader history first, to understand the whole of the war, then narrow to the final days of the European theater before reading this. Doing so will better inform the reader about that particular point in the war, and how the engineered system developed by the German leadership was breaking down.
Much like Night (Elie Wiesel, another must-read), The Nine captures the sense of how it was to live with daily atrocities, and how people came through them.
Highly recommended - a five star read.
Thanks to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy
Pub date: May 4, 2021
There are many books about soldiers surviving what were basically death camps when they were taken prisoner, about well planned and executed escapes, about spies hanging on, in hiding, while an entire militarized police force look for them.
The Nine has all of that, and more. It's the story of nine women, resistance fighters in WWII, captured and interrogated by French police before being sent off to Germany for interrogation by the Gestapo and ultimately imprisoned at a work camp.
The primary focus is on the author's great aunt Hélène Podliasky, who ultimately became the de facto leader of the group as they met one another in their journey from freedom to prison and back to freedom again.
Where this book shines comes after all of that - after the beatings, the torture, the forced work, and all manner of atrocities. As Germany was facing defeat, some of the camps, including the one housing The Nine, were sent on forced marches, to move prisoners from outlying areas about to be overrun, to prisons closer to what was left in German hands. During their march, they took a chance and fled the march, running into the forest, heading for France.
This journey, free of guards and the wire of prisons, wasn't any easier than that. Along the way, they found both people willing to help them, and people who had no interest in doing so, preferring to turn them in. They also found those who wanted to use them for their own ends - soldiers, for instance, who thought the Allies would look more favorably on them if they were found assisting a group of former prisoners.
The author is a poet, and it shows. It's a fantastic piece of narrative nonfiction, although I would say that if you're just dipping your toes into the water of the cruelest parts of WWII, or if you're just learning about it, you might want to start with a broader history first, to understand the whole of the war, then narrow to the final days of the European theater before reading this. Doing so will better inform the reader about that particular point in the war, and how the engineered system developed by the German leadership was breaking down.
Much like Night (Elie Wiesel, another must-read), The Nine captures the sense of how it was to live with daily atrocities, and how people came through them.
Highly recommended - a five star read.
Thanks to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy
Pub date: May 4, 2021
adamsw216's review against another edition
4.0
The Nine is the story of nine incredible women who were part of the French Resistance during World War II, caught, imprisoned in a concentration camp, and escaped from the Nazis to survive the war. I highly recommend learning more about this story as another important piece of history that should not be forgotten.
Author Gwen Strauss weaves the story together by juxtaposing the background information of each individual woman with the narrative story of their life in the concentration camp and eventual escape. The result feels a little cumbersome, but I think it works well enough. Additionally, Strauss readily admits that she has had to make some inferences at the edges of what facts she was able to gather. I presume a vast majority of the dialogue presented in the narrative parts of the story are of her own invention based on the few notes and letters the women wrote after the war, recounting their story. Also, Strauss has this strange habit of repeating statements that were just given a few sentences back several times throughout the text. That being said, Strauss' contributions to the narrative seem are minimal enough to allow the feel of the story to accentuate the facts, and not the other way around. I also did appreciate the parts of the story that included details of the author's journey to ascertain interviews and documents that allowed her to write this book. If anything, I wish there was more of this, because sometimes it seems a little unclear where she found certain facts. This is a worthwhile read.
Author Gwen Strauss weaves the story together by juxtaposing the background information of each individual woman with the narrative story of their life in the concentration camp and eventual escape. The result feels a little cumbersome, but I think it works well enough. Additionally, Strauss readily admits that she has had to make some inferences at the edges of what facts she was able to gather. I presume a vast majority of the dialogue presented in the narrative parts of the story are of her own invention based on the few notes and letters the women wrote after the war, recounting their story. Also, Strauss has this strange habit of repeating statements that were just given a few sentences back several times throughout the text. That being said, Strauss' contributions to the narrative seem are minimal enough to allow the feel of the story to accentuate the facts, and not the other way around. I also did appreciate the parts of the story that included details of the author's journey to ascertain interviews and documents that allowed her to write this book. If anything, I wish there was more of this, because sometimes it seems a little unclear where she found certain facts. This is a worthwhile read.