Title: The Girls Of The Glimmer Factory
Author: Jennifer Coburn
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Genre: General Fiction, Historical Fiction, Womens Fiction
Release Date: 28th January 2025
BLURB
Hannah longs for the days when she used to be free, but now, she is a Jewish prisoner at Theresienstadt, a model ghetto where the Nazis plan to make a propaganda film to convince the world that the Jewish people are living well in the camps. But Hannah will do anything to show the world the truth. Along with other young resistance members, they vow to disrupt the filming and derail the increasingly frequent deportations to death camps in the east.
Hilde is a true believer in the Nazi cause, working in the Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. Though they're losing the war, Hilde hasn't lost faith. She can't stop the Allied bombings, but she can help the party create a documentary that will renew confidence in Hitler's plans for Jewish containment. When the filming of Hitler Gives a City to the Jews faces production problems due to resistance, Hilde finds herself in a position to finally make a name for herself. And when she recognizes Hannah, an old childhood friend, she knows she can use their friendship to get the film back on track.
REVIEW
The book begins with a prologue, setting the scene and the idea of a Nazis party who order a documentary to be filmed at Thereseinstadt to show how well they are treating the Jewish people they have moved there. It covers the fact that there were in fact three films made in the end. It also shows how the Germans staged the scenery and the prisoners for the documentary.
The two main characters of Hannah Kaufman and Hilde Kramer are then introduced in turn. As girls the two attend the same school and life is fairly normal for them until Hitler raises in the ranks of power. Hannah Kaufman and her family have moved once already trying to escape the Nazis, her grandparents Opa Oskar & Oma Minna’s “Kaufman Apotheke” had been targeted during Kristallnacht, windows smashed and the good inside ransacked. They had thought they were “safe” living in Prague but they were now discovering that things were rapidly changing for the worse once again for anyone that is Jewish.
In the book, Hannah recalls things changing, such as the teachers at school suddenly putting her at the back of the class and not wanting her input anymore, or turning up to Hilde Kramer’s birthday party as she had done every other year but this time when Mrs Kramer answer the door she was ushered away and the door closed in her face with Mrs Kramer implying Hilde needed to make different friends now.
Rolf Kramer has managed to secure false documents for himself, his wife Ingrid, Hannah their now 19 year old daughter and their younger son Benjamin to travel to Palestine. They hope to get settled quickly and then send for Opa Oska and Oma Minna to come and join them. The plan for their travel has been timed to the second and planned to the last detail, unfortunately Rolf could not foresee Hannah coming down with Small pox. There is panic and last minute, alterations to birthdates on documents and Oma Minna goes on in Hannah’s place. Opa Oskar is the eternal optimist which at time irritates Hannah but they get along together with Opa Oskar finding employment in a Czech Apotheke, hidden away in the back where Germans will not see him working secretly and Hannah gains employment as a maid. Opa Oskar and Hannah are call that leaves them pleased that Rolf, Ingrid & Benjamin made the crossing safely but unfortunately Oma Minna also went down with Small pox and she sadly died during their journey.
It's not long until Opa Oskar & Hannah receive transport papers they are to move to a special “Spa village” that Hitler has said the Jewish should live in. Whilst Hannah is offered the chance to in plain sight by gaining false papers and posing as the niece of Czech family friend, she refuses she cannot let her dear Opa go to this Spa Village created by Hitler alone.
They arrive at Thereseinstadt camp and just as Hannah had feared it is most certainly not the lovely Spa Village with the Lakeside Cottage that her Opa had been expecting.
Of course, life is hard, and dangerous. The prisoners are separated from family members and put in barracks. Hannah is in the Dresden barrack with other women & women with children. You did the jobs you were given without question. Hannah ends up working at the Museum Workshop under an older woman called Griselde, there they transcribe the Torah and other important documents that Hitler has suddenly decided will be important to history. Hannah meets up with old friends Misa, who works in the Glimmer Factory where the women use sharp knives to chip pieces of mica down for the German war effort. The women regularly cut themselves but their names seem to stay off the transport lists so it’s considered a good job. Misa’s mother Marketa works as a cook and tries her best to slip her daughter and her friends a little extra food but with so little food available there rarely is any extra to be had by anyone.
Hannah discovers Misa is part of the The Thereseinstadt camp resistance when she secretly follows her to a secret meeting, another of their school friends Pavel is part of it too. Pavel and Misa would probably be a courting couple under different circumstances. The high risk is plan is to sneak letters out to reveal the real living conditions in the camp. Its at this first resistance meeting that Hannah is introduced to Radek a ghetto policeman who uses his rank to help the resistance. Hannah doesn’t want to get involved at first saying its too risky and others could be punished for their actions too not just them. However, as time goes on as more people are transported, and more become ill and perish she finds herself drawn to the resistance, a small way to make a difference. When the Red Cross are to visit the camp has to organise shows for them to see, musical concerts, football matches etc all designed to show Thereseinstadt in the best possible light. The resistance plan to tell the Red Cross the truth but never get the chance to do so.
Hilde is German and married her husband Max Bischoff, when she became pregnant, they moved to the family dairy farm out in the country prior to Max going away to war. Hilde’s mother in law, Fredericke Bischoff, doesn’t like her daughter in law much. Hilde miscarries their baby whilst Max is away at war and ends up breaking the news to him in a letter.
Sadly, not long after an Officer arrives at the dairy farm and delivers the news that Max has been killed in action. Fredericke will not let Hilde help with the funeral as she says she didn’t even know Max well enough. Fredericke enlists the help of his school friend Brigitte, who is Fredericke’s friend daughter and whom she had wanted Max to marry. Fredericke is quite matter of fact when she tells Hilde that she expects her to leave the dairy farm the day after the funeral! Hilde returns to Berlin, eventually managing to get a secretarial position, she immediately embarks on or perhaps a more accurate description would be endures an affair with her boss Otto to further her career as she wants to get into making films. She eventually secures the job as Hans Gunthers assistant on a documentary he is making about Thereseinstadt, the lovely Spa Village that Hitler has had the Jewish people sent to. The documentary is meant to quiet the rumblings around the world about how the Jewish people are being treat by the Germans. Hilde visits the camp and is shocked at what she sees wondering how they can possibly make the Germans look commendable in their treatment of the Jews, but is soon scheming to take staged favourable shots. Hilde also has the issue that she lied and said she could speak Czech, but her worries disperse when she sees and recognises her old school friend Hannah Kaufman. Hilde decides that Hannah will be her assistant, & secret translator when needed. There are delays and other films are made but eventually Hilde gets to go the Thereseinstadt to help make the documentary. This time Hilde sees a difference in the camp as it is just after the Red Cross visit and all the sprucing up that the Germans had made the Jewish people do.
When Hilde discovers that after filming there is going to be a large transport to what she has recently learnt is a death camp called Auschwitz she makes a plan to rescue Hannah. Hannah refuses saying she cannot leave Danuse behind, a little girl who she cares for since Olina, Danuse’s mother was sent to Auschwitz. Hilde hopes Hannah will change her mind and meet her where she has told her later that night. However, Hilde is betrayed and taken away by the Gestapo for planning to aid the escape of a Jewess.
The Jewish people are told that they are travelling to Berlin, to do work for the war effort and young and old alike are squashed into rail carriages for the long journey. Hannah & her friends decide to try to stick together but the hustle and bustle mean Misa and her mother Marketa end up in a different carriage. Hannah realises by the position of the sun that they are not travelling to Berlin, they are in fact heading to Auschwitz. A few younger Jewish people set about breaking out of the carriage and a few escape, running to the nearby woods, whilst the train takes the other people to Auschwitz
There is also an epilogue, which I read with mixed feelings, happiness for the survivors and the lives they went on to live but sadness for those on the Auschwitz transport heading to their death and dismayed at what happened to some of those characters that were left behind in Thereseinstadt, that weren’t on the transport to Auschwitz. An emotive depiction of families, lovers, friends ripped apart by Hitler and his Nazis party.
I found the book to be thought provoking too. The different ways Hannah & Hilde viewed their “friendship.” Was what Hilde felt for Hannah friendship, pity or guilt? Did Hilde know that her mother had turned her friend away from her birthday party all those years before. Hannah certainly didn’t view Hilde as a friend anymore and was quite clear tin telling Hilde anyone that was part of the Nazis party was no friend of hers.
Hitler and his Nazis party did strange things to people, friends and neighbours turning on each other. One character in the book named Jana was married to a German man who was having an affair and his Mistress turned in Jana as she knew she was a “Jewess” and Iveta as because she was Jana’s daughter, she was mixed race or as the Nazis called it “Mischling” meaning they ended up in Thereseinstadt.
Though fictional the book is based on research the author has done through searching through archives and speaking to survivors. It is an intriguing insight into life in Thereseinstadt. Some of the prisoner arrival dates have been altered, and some incidents are taken from other settlements and did not actually occur in Thereseinstadt, so there is a little poetic licence taken by the author. Having said that, the author presents an honest version about what was happening at the time, whilst still showing that the Jewish people held on to some hope of an end to it all and held on to their loved even more tightly knowing that they could be ripped apart at any second.
The documentary film made life in Thereseinstadt look idyllic, almost like a holiday camp. There was entertainment put on by the prisoners, there were weddings and children born in Thereseinstadt but in reality, the entertainment was escapism for the Jewish prisoners and only on after an arduous day of working. Couples did marry, in fact Opa Oskar in the book marries Griselde but they were not the lavish celebrations depicted. In Thereseinstadt couples survived on snatched moments and have to deal with the consequences of pregnancies if they happened, babies didn’t live long in the harsh reality of life in Thereseinstadt. Some children were born whilst the first Commandant Siedl was in charge, then when Commandant Anton Burger took over, he implemented the rules more diligently and there were abortions performed.
The Germans thought the Jewish were ignorant of what Auschwitz was, but some knew what went on there. The prisoners were allowed to write postcards to family and friends, though anything the German didn’t want the recipients of the cards to know was blacked out so the prisoners developed special codes. The character Klara wrote to Hannah from Auschwitz and let her know things were worse than Thereseinstadt there by letting her lines of writing slant downwards.
I of course loved the character of Hannah, her strength, the lengths she had to go to in order to get extra food, the way she supported her Opa despite his insistence they were heading to a Spa Village, the way she stepped up to care for Danuse when the little girl’s mother had been taken on a transport. Her bravery helping the resistance to smuggle babies out. I also adored Radek, a ghetto Policeman that could be trusted, he was one of the good guys helping the resistance, turning a blind eye wherever he could and his relationship with Hannah, how he talked about a proper first date when “all this was over”, such a gentleman that Hannah had to make the first move to kiss him and then how he wanted to write their names on the tunnel walls like other before them.
I found the book was well written and interesting, “enjoyable” – though that seems the wrong term to use when you remember that the horrors these characters go through are what actual, real people suffered. The book was very well written, the plot certainly drew you in and kept you engrossed to the very end. It made you almost like a fly on a wall, observing everything unfold. The pace of the book certainly kept me wanting to read it, desperate to find out what would happen to the characters I had grown to care for. I will definitely be looking at other books by the author! I honestly think this book would be great as a TV mini- series. The only small negative I had was that the book flits back & forth in time out of consecutive order about the details film making that was going on in Thereseinstadt, which can be a bit confusing.
Summing up, I found the book to be sad yet uplifting, proving that humans, the Jewish people in this case, can survive anything, including the most, dire circumstances and torturous treatment heaped upon them by Hitlers Nazis. Don’t get me wrong the book is not all “doom & gloom” despite the circumstances the characters in this book found love, friends and some lighter moments, though they were scarce.
On a final note, though this book is fictional, full of fictional characters it is based on actual events and actual people who lived and died during an horrific time in history that must never be forgotten nor repeated.
