Extract from Chapter One of THE REISTANCE SISTERS
Hana pressed her face against the tram window, unable to believe what she was seeing outside. She and her sisters were striving to look calm as they made their way to their AK stations for training, but it was hard for there was a curious panic in Warsaw’s air. German soldiers were marching up Jerusalem Avenue, but they were like no Germans she’d ever seen before. They were shuffling their muddy jackboots and keeping their eyes trained on the pavement of the city they’d arrogantly marched into five years ago. Their uniforms were torn and skewed and permeated with an air of defeat. She grabbed Zuzi and Orla and nodded at the astonishing sight beyond the window. Zuzi beamed. ‘Look at them, crawling in the dirt where they belong!’ ‘Zuzi, hush!’ Hana looked nervously around, aware, as always, of her duty as the eldest sister to keep the other two safe. They were in the Polish carriage, the only one of the three that made up the tram, with the front two reserved as Nur fur Deutsche – only for Germans – but you never knew who might be listening. No Pole would snitch on their own but there were soldiers everywhere and sometimes the Volksdeutsche liked to slum it with the ‘workers’ in the hope of picking up titbits to take to the SS. The Volksdeutsche were the German-born civilians who’d been shipped into occupied Warsaw in their thousands and swanned around the city as if they owned it. The Nazis had taken many businesses off Poles, handing centuries-old family concerns to these upstarts with no consideration or compensation. Even worse, they’d taken houses and apartments from the Jews, crushing them into a ghetto and ushering German cuckoos into their precious homes. It was barbaric and the Warsawians hated the Volksdeutsche almost as much as the Nazi soldiers. ‘Don’t worry about the Deutsche,’ Zuzi shot back. ‘They’re far too busy fleeing to listen to us. Look.’ Sure enough, the tram was pulling up at Warsaw’s main station in the heart of Srodmiescie, the modern city centre, and out of the front two carriages spilled a great mass of welldressed Volksdeutsche, lugging suitcases, bags and packing crates, and hurrying at speed into the station. ‘They’re leaving?’ Hana pressed her face even tighter against the glass. It was hot from the midsummer sun but she had to see this. The German families departing from their tram were joining many more arriving at the station in fancy motor cars, on foot or even by horse and cart. It was an exodus surely only matched by the poor Jews forced from the ghetto last year.
Copyright 2024, Anna Stuart
Women of War #4
1944, Poland. 'Take this message, keep it hidden.' Shaking, I tuck the torn slip of paper in between the loaves of bread. I pray I can make it through the bombed-out streets and into the tunnels beneath this broken city without being caught. If this secret falls into the wrong hands, my sisters' lives are at stake...
This heart-wrenching and unforgettable World War Two novel is inspired by the incredible true stories of the brave women who fought in the Warsaw Uprising.
Hana's home has gone up in flames; the little bakery at the heart of the city is no more. Smoke curls into the sky and the buildings around her burn. But Hana has already lost far more - her blue-eyed fiancé was wrenched from her arms at the start of the war and her brave father was murdered by the Nazis. She's determined to protect her younger sisters but every day more people are being killed...
Hana realises that one person alone won't win the war and she has to accept her sisters are playing their own part in the resistance. Fiery Zuzi is working as part of a secret all-female combat unit while gentle Orla is a nurse in the underground hospital. As the women of Warsaw plan to rise up against the enemy, Hana risks her life to navigate the dangerous streets. The torn piece of paper she clutches in her hand has the potential to save her precious family.
It's time to fight back. But when the moment they've been waiting for comes, will Hana and her sisters finally win back their freedom? Or will they lose their own lives as they fight for their futures...?
An emotional and gripping WW2 story of incredible courage against all odds and of the power of love and hope in the darkest of times. Perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Orphan Train and The Nightingale.
Women's Fiction Historical [Bookouture, On Sale: August 19, 2024, e-Book, ISBN: 9781835256565 / ]
Anna Stuart lives in Derbyshire with her campervan-mad husband, two hungry teenagers and a slightly loopy dog. She was hooked on books from the moment she first opened one in her cot so is thrilled to now have several of her own to her name. Having studied English literature at Cambridge university, she took an enjoyable temporary trip into the ‘real world’ as a factory planner, before returning to her first love and becoming an author. History has also always fascinated her. Living in an old house with a stone fireplace, she often wonders who sat around it before her and is intrigued by how actively the past is woven into the present, something she likes to explore in her novels. Anna loves the way that writing lets her "try on" so many different lives, but her favourite part of the job is undoubtedly hearing from readers. You can reach her on Facebook or Twitter.
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