The Girl in the Striped Dress: A completely heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 page-turner, based on a true story

by Ellie Midwood

  The latter only waved him off. “I’m too dumb for that.”

  “You have excellent instincts for that. At least consider it.”

  “Perhaps, I will.”

  The surviving lampposts came to life and blinked their yellow eyes open. The sky was quiet without bombers tearing through its cloth. Amidst the ruins, children called to each other and to passing American GIs, asking them for gum.

  A warm grin broke on Franz Dahler’s face. “What a fine evening it is today,” he said.

  “Let us not forget how lucky we are to be alive to see it,” Novák added softly.

  “Yes. Let us never forget.” Helena nodded solemnly. “None of this.”

  If the spellbinding tale of The Girl in the Striped Dress took your breath away and left you with tears in your eyes, then you need to read Ellie’s unmissable bestseller The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz. This powerful, heartbreaking novel tells the inspiring and breathtaking true story of Mala Zimetbaum, whose heroism will never be forgotten, and whose fate altered the course of history…

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  The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz

  Millions of people walked through Auschwitz’s gates, but she was the first woman who escaped. This powerful novel tells the inspiring true story of Mala Zimetbaum, whose heroism will never be forgotten, and whose fate altered the course of history…

  Nobody leaves Auschwitz alive.

  Mala, inmate 19880, understood that the moment she stepped off the cattle train into the depths of hell. As an interpreter for the SS, she uses her position to save as many lives as she can, smuggling scraps of bread to those desperate with hunger.

  Edward, inmate 531, is a camp veteran and a political prisoner. Though he looks like everyone else, with a shaved head and striped uniform, he’s a fighter in the underground Resistance. And he has an escape plan.

  They are locked up for no other sin than simply existing. But when they meet, the dark shadow of Auschwitz is lit by a glimmer of hope. Edward makes Mala believe in the impossible. That despite being surrounded by electric wire, machine guns topping endless watchtowers and searchlights roaming the ground, they will leave this death camp.

  A promise is made––they will escape together or they will die together. What follows is one of the greatest love stories in history…

  Fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Choice, and The Orphan Train will love this breathtakingly beautiful tale, of courage in the face of tragedy and bravery in the face of fear. Based on a true story, The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz shows that, in darkness, love can be your light…

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  Books by Ellie Midwood

  The Girl in the Striped Dress

  The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz

  The Violinist of Auschwitz

  Available in Audio

  The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz (available in the UK and the US)

  The Violinist of Auschwitz (available in the UK and the US)

  A Letter from Ellie

  Dear Reader,

  I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read The Girl in the Striped Dress. If you did enjoy it, and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, just sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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  Thank you for reading the story of this truly remarkable woman. I hope you loved The Girl in the Striped Dress and, if you did, I would be very grateful if you could write a review. I’d love to hear what you think, and it makes such a difference helping new readers to discover one of my books for the first time.

  I love hearing from my readers—you can get in touch on my Facebook page, through Goodreads or my website.

  Thanks,

  Ellie

  elliemidwood.com

  The Violinist of Auschwitz

  Based on the unforgettable true story of Alma Rosé, The Violinist of Auschwitz brings to life one of history’s most fearless, inspiring and courageous heroines. Alma’s bravery saved countless lives, bringing hope to those who had forgotten its meaning…

  In Auschwitz, every day is a fight for survival. Alma is inmate 50381, the number tattooed on her skin in pale blue ink. She is cooped up with thousands of others, torn from loved ones, trapped in a maze of barbed wire. Every day people disappear, never to be seen again.

  This tragic reality couldn’t be further from Alma’s previous life. An esteemed violinist, her performances left her audiences spellbound. But when the Nazis descend on Europe, none of that can save her…

  When the head of the women’s camp appoints Alma as the conductor of the orchestra, performing for prisoners trudging to work as well as the highest-ranking Nazis, Alma refuses: “they can kill me but they won’t make me play”. Yet she soon realizes the power this position offers: she can provide starving girls with extra rations and save many from the clutches of death.

  This is how Alma meets Miklos, a talented pianist. Surrounded by despair, they find happiness in joint rehearsals, secret notes, and concerts they give side by side––all the while praying that this will one day end. But in Auschwitz, the very air is tainted with loss, and tragedy is the only certainty… In such a hopeless place, can their love survive?

  This devastatingly heartbreaking yet beautifully hopeful tale proves that even in the darkest of days, love can prevail––and give you something to live for. Fans of The Choice, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and The Orphan Train will lose their hearts to this magnificent tale.

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  A Note on the History

  Thank you so much for reading The Girl in the Striped Dress. Even though it’s a work of fiction, most of it is based on a true story. Helena Citrónová (Kleinová in this novel) indeed arrived at Auschwitz with one of the first transports from Slovakia and was signed up to the Kanada work detail by the Kanada Kommandoführer Franz Wunsch (Dahler in this novel), in which she worked, up until the liberation in January of 1945. The circumstances of their meeting are true to fact; she indeed was scheduled to die the next day and only the fact that she was told to sing a birthday song to Franz saved her life. He was so touched by her singing that he immediately ordered to take her off the “selected” list and assign her to his Kommando instead. The following development of their relationship (the love note he gave her and which she destroyed; the scene in which she refused to do his manicure for which he threatened to shoot her; the fact that he saved Helena’s sister Róžínka from the gas chamber; the fact that he hid Helena in the Kanada detail while she was sick with typhus and cared for her until she got better; the parcels he smuggled to her via sympathetic guards and Pipel boys; Helena and Franz’s arrest after someone reported them to the camp’s Gestapo; the final scene in which he gave her and her sister warm boots and instructed them on how to find his mother in Austria) are all also based on Helena’s and Franz’s interviews and testimonies, given to the BBC and during Franz’s trial. Franz’s life story, his wartime service, his transfer to Auschwitz after his injury are all also based on true fact. Their story is mentioned in both H. Langbein’s study “People in Auschwitz” and L. Rees’s “Auschwitz: New History.”

  To me personally, the Holocaust is an extremely sensitive subject, so while writing this novel I tried my best to keep as close to reality as I could, only using creative license where no survivors’ testimonies could be used and where I had to use my author’s imagination to fill in the blanks. The timeline of events, most historical figures, the complex camp hierarchy and the functioning of different work details are all true to fact and their descriptions are based on survivors’ memoirs and historical studies.

  The Denazification Tribunal procedure (its structure, members, hist
ory, and background) is also based on historical fact. The program itself was extremely complex and had to undergo multiple changes throughout the years. The German courts were indeed replacing American Military Tribunals starting in late 1946 – early 1947 with the Americans acting only as supervisors from that time on. The backlog of cases was such that a lot of POWs and former Nazis indeed escaped justice and got off without a charge but only with minor restrictions imposed on their professions (no public office, no positions in the education or press were permitted for a certain period of time, etc.). You can read more about the program and the way a Denazification Trial was conducted in Spayd and Insanally’s study “Bayerliein: The Denazification Trial of Rommel’s Chief-of-Staff, and Panzer Lehr Division Commander Generalleutnant Fritz Bayerlein” and also F. Taylor’s study “Exorcising Hitler.”

  Most of the historical figures mentioned in the novel are also based on real Auschwitz survivors and SS men serving there. R. Höss, who is considered the Kommandant of Auschwitz despite the interruption of his service there, was indeed removed from his position during the investigation of the corruption in Auschwitz (conducted by Dr. Konrad Morgen and his staff in 1943, as described in the novel) and replaced by Kommandant Liebehenschel. The personality of Liebehenschel and the changes he introduced at once (he indeed toured the camp right after his appointment, spoke to the inmates, strictly prohibited the Kapos and the officers from abusing the prisoners, removed the so-called “standing cells” which the Auschwitz Gestapo used during Höss’s time as a Kommandant and introduced a system of rewards to the prisoners) are all based on survivors’ memoirs. H. Langbein, a former Austrian political prisoner in Auschwitz and a historian, has an entire chapter in his study dedicated to the comparison of the two Kommandants. Both Höss and Liebehenschel were tried in Cracow after the war and sentenced to death by hanging, for crimes against humanity. Höss’s personality I also based on what I read about him from his own memoir that he wrote in captivity, “Death Dealer.”

  Franz’s comrade Oskar Gröning (the name was not changed), indeed worked as an accountant in the Kanada detail until his transfer to the front was finally approved in 1944. He arrived at Auschwitz in 1942 and, after witnessing the cruelty reigning there firsthand, requested to be transferred to the front immediately but that request was denied. He was indeed mostly a desk person and wasn’t charged with any brutality towards the inmates, however, he was still tried as an accessory to murder in September 2014, found guilty of facilitating mass murder and sentenced to four years of imprisonment but died on March 9, 2018, before he could start serving his sentence. He gave multiple interviews to the BBC, some of which were made into documentaries, such as “The Accountant of Auschwitz,” “Auschwitz: the Nazis and the Final Solution,” “The Last Nazis.”

  Gerhard Palitzsch was actually the first Auschwitz Rapportführer, who was indeed accused of appropriating inmates’ valuables and of having sexual relations with a non-Aryan inmate during the investigation of 1943. As a result, he was transferred to Brünn and later, in June 1944, he was thrown out of the SS. His further fate is unknown, though, he is considered to have fallen during the Battle of Budapest.

  Aumeier, Hössler, Moll, Voss, Gorges, and Grabner are all real people who served in the SS in Auschwitz during Helena’s incarceration there. Hössler, nicknamed by the inmates “Moshe Liar,” was indeed infamous for his sleek manner with the new arrivals and the stories he would spin in order to pacify them. While writing his eerie addresses to the new arrivals, I mostly relied on the memoirs of one of the Sonderkommando survivors, Filip Müller (“Eyewitness Auschwitz”), who witnessed Hössler’s talk firsthand.

  Unterscharführer Gorges, who was the Kommandoführer of Crematorium V, and Oberscharführer Voss, who was in charge of all crematoria before Moll replaced him on Höss’s orders right before the Hungarian Aktion, are also described as they were presented in Müller’s memoirs, “Eyewitness Auschwitz.”

  Otto Moll, unanimously remembered by the inmates and fellow SS men as the brutal and fanatical slave-driver, torturer, sadist, and murderer, was indeed placed in charge of the Hungarian Aktion by Kommandant Höss, who returned to Auschwitz in May 1944; the change of the command in the crematoria, the construction of the pits behind the crematoria, the camouflage screens, the scene with the three women brutally executed by him personally, and also his appearance and personality are all based on the Sonderkommando survivors’ memoirs, who worked under his charge. Moll was indeed one of the few people awarded, by Himmler, with the Cross with Swords for distinctive service to the Reich. He was tried in Cracow after the war and sentenced to death by hanging.

  Maximilian Grabner was indeed the head of the Auschwitz Gestapo, who was later tried in Weimar for corruption and unsanctioned murder of inmates at the so-called “Black Wall” – the wall, by which many prisoners died by firing squad, on Grabner’s orders. It was situated near Block 11, the punishment block. After the war, he was tried for crimes against humanity, found guilty, and hanged in January 1948.

  As for the inmates, some of them are real people (such as Mala Zimetbaum, who worked as an interpreter and a courier in Auschwitz before her escape with her beloved, Edward Galiński, as well as the inmate known as Dayen, who was said to be a former rabbi and who was in charge of burning books and documents left from the new arrivals) and some are fictional characters based on real people. For instance, the Slovak doctor who helped Helena. He is based on Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, who worked as an inmate pathologist assigned to Dr. Mengele. His living quarters and his responsibilities are all based on Dr. Nyiszli’s memoir, “Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account.”

  The Kanada work detail, its structure, organization, and functions are all described based on the survivors’ memoirs. It was definitely considered to be the most desirable work detail since the inmates had comparatively bearable living conditions (they lived in the complex itself and were allowed to have mattresses, pillows, bed covers, etc. in their barracks), were permitted to take showers that were also installed next to the warehouse, and allowed to keep their hair and wear civilian clothes. They did work under the supervision of male SS guards, both male and female inmates together, which was not the case with the regular camp in Birkenau, where the inmates were strictly separated by sexes and where women from the women’s camp worked under the supervision of female SS wardens (most of whom began arriving in the spring of 1942, along with the first women transports from Slovakia). The idea to appoint “antisocial” German inmates (mostly it meant prostitutes) as Kapos belonged to Himmler, who ordered Kommandant Höss to implement it at once. Maria Krupp is the collective image of such a Kapo. It was mostly women who worked in the Kanada Kommando under Franz Wunsch’s (Dahler’s) charge.

  The Sonderkommando (the inmates who worked in the gas chambers, crematoria, and burial pits) was also considered an “elite” kommando since they, just like Kanada inmates, were allowed certain privileges. They also had separate living quarters from the rest of the inmates and were more or less prohibited from interacting with them since the SS didn’t want any details of the crematoria operations leaking out to the general population of the camp. They also had rather comfortable bunks, plenty of food and drink in their living quarters (SS camp leader Aumeier later characterized the members of the SK as “hulking, well-nourished Jewish inmates”; Tadeusz Joachimowski, who was a roll-call clerk in a section of Birkenau, provided the following description: “When I went to Block 3 and entered the room occupied by the camp elder and camp Kapo, I saw a big table with a cloth of white linen at which about twenty Jews from the Sonderkommando were sitting. Karl Seefeld put platters with choice ham, sausage, fish, and other foods on the table and those around it enjoyed the feast. After-dinner treats included chocolate and an assortment of fruit.” – H. Langbein, “People in Auschwitz” – and were permitted to wear civilian jackets and sometimes even civilian slacks. The SS tolerated their appropriating food, alcohol, and even valuables from the dead inmates and t
he Kanada solely due to the fact that no one else would do the job and therefore the SS felt that the SK had to be compensated somewhat for the horrors of their profession. The difference between the Kanada and the SK was that the members of the SK were summarily liquidated every four to five months, with the exception of only a few members and a new team would be gathered, in order not to keep witnesses alive for too long.

  The description of all five crematoria is also all based on survivors’ testimonies and historical sources. Crematorium 1, the walls of which were constantly crumbling, which was the reason why the corpses were at first buried in the open field behind Bunkers 1 and 2 (which served as gas chambers) called The Little Red House and The Little White House, was situated in Auschwitz; Crematoria II, III, IV, and V were later constructed in Birkenau. They combined the crematorium facilities, the gas chamber, the SK living quarters, and the Kommandoführer’s office and became the main extermination sites starting in 1943. Bunker 1 and Bunker 2 were former farmhouses which were transformed into gas chambers before the construction of the four crematoria; they were much smaller in size and only had a small changing room and hatches in the ceiling into the gas chamber itself, through which the gas was dropped by the SS medics. The new crematoria were much more complex, had changing rooms much bigger in size and with multiple signs in different languages that were placed there to pacify the new arrivals and persuade them that they were indeed only taking a shower. Inside the gas chamber, they had special “gas columns,” through which Zyklon B was lowered into the chamber by the SS medic. They also had elevators to deliver the bodies faster, from the basement into the crematorium upstairs. You can read more about it in F. Müller’s memoir “Eyewitness Auschwitz,” which also includes their detailed plans.