Reviewer Comments: I have not been so moved by a book in quite some time as I was by THE KOMMANDANT’S GIRL. Author, Pam Jenoff has captured Emma/Anna’s trials and tribulations as the Nazis occupy Poland, and what she will be forced to do to stay alive.
It is WWII and Nazi tanks thunder into Poland….
A young Jewish bride, married three weeks when her husband goes underground with the resistance. She is forced to pretend she is unmarried and live as a Gentile with a wealthy cousin of her husband. When approached at a dinner party by Kommandant Georg Richwalder she is offered the job as the personal assistant to the handsome Nazi.
Emma is smuggled out of the ghetto and taken to Krakow to live with her husband’s Catholic cousin, where Emma takes on the identity of Anna Lipowski, a Gentile. With her husband away and fighting with the resistance, Anna’s life is further complicated when she attends a dinner party. Kommandant Georg Richwalder, second in command of the General Government is immediately smitten with Anna and, impressed with her language skills he hires her as his personal secretary. The resistance urges Anna to spy for them; gain access to valuable information that will aid them. She must work very closely with the Kommandant in order to earn his trust, yet Anna didn’t count on the attraction between the two of them and she will be tested on her loyalties to home and country. When all is said and done, what will be the cost of Anna’s duplicity?
The remarkably accurate account of a world at war, and the repercussions of that war make this a brilliant debut novel, THE KOMMANDANT'S GIRL is worth every penny. Edgy suspense, gripping violence, and poignant love scenes, all combine to make the reader a voyeur on a time in history where loyalties and beliefs are tested to the extreme. Historical fiction at its best, with vivid depictions of the cruelty of war and the effect on the citizens from many walks of life. I could not put the book down, yet was sad to see it end.
