This title is # 4 on the Best Indie Books of 2019. All votes and nominations were counted. I am pleased to introduce new stories to readers, so please check out this book.
A Thousand Mothers by Brenda Marie Webb
Synopsis:
In December 1942, the Nazis deport Perl Kaczlowicz from the Plonsk ghetto in Poland and send her to Ravensbruck, the infamous female concentration camp. She says good-bye to her husband that fateful morning not knowing that she is expecting their first child, or that she will never see him again.While imprisoned at the camp, she meets Helene Dvorak and other extraordinary women who risk their lives to save her and her baby from the brutality and unimaginable cruelty surrounding them. The women bond together to form friendships and lasting ties that endure through the horrors of the holocaust and long after liberation.From the hell of Ravensbruck to Montreal and Savanah, A Thousand Mothers tells the story of the resilient spirit of women and the astounding power of loyalty, courage, and love during the darkest days of the twentieth century.
Excerpt:
The train lurched to a stop, but Perl didn’t know where she was or even how long they had been traveling. She knew they had boarded the train on Wednesday, December 2, but there were no windows in the stifling car, so day and night had become one. She thought the trip had taken two days, but her mind refused to form a coherent thought as she rubbed her gritty eyes and willed herself to focus. They had packed the women in so tight that she had been standing the whole trip, and her leg muscles were cramped and ready to give out. Her once-clean clothes were stained, and she was light-headed from hunger.
There had been a bucket of water in the car for everybody to share, but that had soon run dry, and no one had refilled it. The Nazis had squeezed one hundred and fifty women into a car meant to hold fifty. A slop bucket overflowed and spilled over everyone’s shoes. The exhaust fumes along with the jerky movements of the train caused women to become sick, and the stench of sweat, urine, and excrement was revolting and added to the humiliation and suffering of the deportees. The noise in the car was deafening as the women and children cried for water and air.
Perl was shocked as women clawed each other trying to push their way to the cracks in the wall for a breath of fresh air. Once sweet-tempered women acted as animals as they trampled the weak and sick trying to get an inch of space.
Many women died during the journey from illness, suffocation and hunger, and Perl was appalled when the women pushed the deceased to the floor of the car to make room for the living. The women sat on dead bodies and walked on them as if they were garbage.
“Irena, wake up; the train has stopped.” Perl shook her sister-in-law, who was leaning on her. The rocking of the railcar had caused Irena to become sick, and she had vomited on herself and Perl.
The car doors crashed open with an ominous clang, letting in a welcome blast of fresh air. But after being in darkness for so many days, the spotlights aimed into the cars blinded and disoriented the women. Perl flung her arm over her eyes to block out the brightness of the lights, and in the confusion that followed, she and Irena became separated. She shouted her name, but Irena didn’t hear her in the earsplitting noise and mayhem that ensued. Perl clapped her hands over her ears, trying to block out the shouted orders coming from the SS guards and the screams of anguish from the women and children. Rough hands grabbed her and threw her from the car. She landed hard on the frozen ground, and before she could get up, a guard lashed out at her with his whip.
Author Information:
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