Theresienstadt, outside of Prague in the land later called Czechoslovakia, was touted as a good alternative to a work camp in 1940. Hannah Kaufman, in a Jewish family who fled east from inhospitable Munich, is treated as a prisoner, but her grandfather, who is in the camp with her, insists he paid for a lakeside cottage. THE GIRLS OF THE GLIMMER FACTORY shows that the people were lied to and stolen from, every minute, every day.
The novel establishes that artists and musicians lived and worked in this ‘model ghetto’, but were treated as slaves for the Nazi war machine. Readers may be familiar with the term ‘Potemkin village’ from 18th century Russia, a village made to fool the viewer into thinking that life was better than the reality. Such was Theresienstadt, at first a slightly better camp for Jewish men who had served in the German army and their families, but then the setting for a propaganda film and intensively staged and scripted visits by the Red Cross inspectors.
Most of Hannah’s family earlier managed to escape to Palestine, a British protectorate, but as she was ill with smallpox, Hannah couldn’t leave. Meanwhile, we also follow her childhood friend Hilde Kramer. Hilde is a young war widow, who is rejected by her in-laws and returns sadly to Munich. She’s working in bars to cover rent, on war rations. Then she insinuates herself into the Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. Here, she’s just a secretary, at the mercy of her despicable boss’s advances and chauvinism. But she can’t speak out or she’ll be unpatriotic. Hannah manages to get onto the crew assigned to make a propaganda film about the Red Cross's visit to Theresienstadt. Here in the ‘glimmer factory’ Hannah works splitting mica rocks to extract mica sheets and flakes for electrical components. Hilde doesn’t know the town is run on starvation rations, full of dirt, disease, and overcrowded. Nobody can get the word out, as infringements of rules mean death. But readers will ask how a bright young woman could make herself so blind and deaf.
Jennifer Coburn goes to great lengths at the end to describe the research she carried out, and where she deviated from actual events – for instance, to introduce real people as characters earlier in the story when they arrived at the camp. Her powerful, brittle, story THE GIRLS OF THE GLIMMER FACTORY exposes the dangers of misinformation, still relevant today. We see that the Nazi strategy successfully brain-washed their good people as well as the callous ones. By the end, they were all somehow complicit. I recommend this detailed, disturbing book for adults and mature teens.
From the author of Cradles of the Reich comes a poignant and inspiring tale of resistance, friendship, and the dangers of propaganda, based on the real story of Theresienstadt, for fans of The Forest of Vanishing Stars and The German Wife.
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.
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