Product Description

'Krakow, the City of Kings, was no longer mine. I had become a
foreigner in the place I had always called home.'

September 1939. Overnight, Jewish nineteen-year-old Emma Bau's world is
turned upside down when Germany invades Poland. And after only six weeks of
marriage, her husband Jacob, a member of the Resistance, is forced to
flee.

Escaping the ghetto, Emma assumes a new, Christian identity and finds work
at Nazi headquarters. As secretary to the charismatic Kommandant
Richwalder, Emma vows to use her unique position to gather intelligence for
the Resistance, by any means necessary.

Poignant, affecting and gripping, 'Kommandant's Girl' is the beautifully
written story of one woman's struggle to survive one of the darkest periods
in human history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5870 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
'I have not been so moved by a book in quite some time as I was by Kommandant's Girl.' --Historical Romance Writers

'...a compelling tale...I couldn't stop turning the pages.' --Young Lawyer/The Legal Intelligencer

'...an insightful portrait of people forced into an untenable situation.' --Booklist

Synopsis
This work discusses hope, struggle and defiance in the face of overwhelming odds. This is a compelling tale of love and courage in dangerous and desperate times. 'Krakow, the City of Kings, was no longer mine. I had become a foreigner in the place I had always called home.' It is the year 1939. Overnight, Jewish nineteen-year-old Emma Bau's world is turned upside down when Germany invades Poland. And after only six weeks of marriage, her husband Jacob, a member of the Resistance, is forced to flee. Escaping the ghetto, Emma assumes a new, Christian identity and finds work at Nazi headquarters. As secretary to the charismatic Kommandant Richwalder, Emma vows to use her unique position to gather intelligence for the Resistance, by any means necessary. Poignant, affecting and gripping, "Kommandant's Girl" is the beautifully written story of one woman's struggle to survive one of the darkest periods in human history.

About the Author
Pam Jenoff served as Vice Consul for the U.S. State Department
in Krakow, Poland. She is an expert on Poland and the Holocaust, and has
been honoured by numerous organisations for her scholarly work in this
area. She received her Master's degree in History from Cambridge University
and this is her first novel.

Customer Reviews

Very disappointing
I was really looking forward to reading this book. It seemed to have a great plot and interesting story line, BUT the quality of writing was absolutely abysmal. More like a rough draft as opposed to a finished work of prose. Irritating in the extreme.

Good ideas, pity about the prose style
This book was based on an excellent idea and I liked the setting - while dealing with a widely covered period of history the story comes from a lesser-known aspect of the Holocaust, namely, the resistance in Poland.

The protagonist is, however, difficult to believe in as at times difficult decisions and actions of considerable weight are reduced to simplicity. Furthermore, her emotional responses to the situation she is in are badly expressed and the author's style is extremely repetitive - count, for example, the number of times the phrase "My stomach twists" is used and it becomes clear that the author does not have the command of a particularly wide vocabulary.

While I agree with other reviewers that the story is interesting at could be at times, emotional, I do not feel the writing does justice to the subject matter as it is difficult to sympathise with such a wooden character.

The two stars I have given are for the ideas alone, not their communication.

Very guilty pleasure
While I loved reading this book I couldn't escape the fact that all the way through I felt that I shouldn't. There's something slightly exploitative and almost shameful about a story that is so based on a love story between a Jewish girl whose husband is in the Polish Resistance and her Nazi boss. And I struggled with the fact that Richwalder himself is so sexy and attractive while being a Nazi who oversees Sachsenhausen and Auchwitz, however ambiguous his own emotions.

Despite (or, worryingly, because of?) the political and power hierarchies, this is an immensely compelling book that really draws you in to Emma/Anna's life and story. The chemistry between her and the Kommandant is tangible (at least at the beginning, it fades somewhat towards the end), though I think her struggle between her attarction to him and her hatred for his position is too simplistically drawn and very unnuanced, and seems almost superimposed for the sake of moral tone.

Despite that, this is a compelling if disturbing and uncomfortable book (and I'm not completely sure whether the author intended that) which kept me up till 4am, and which I finished in two sittings. So I loved it (with ethical reservations) and am fascinated to hear what other people think.