The Kommandant's Girl - Pam Jenoff

The Kommandant's Girl

By Pam Jenoff

  • Release Date: 2016-09-27
  • Genre: Historical Fiction
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 426 Ratings

Description

In her luminous and groundbreaking debut, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shows the unimaginable sacrifices one woman must make in a time of war

Nineteen-year-old Emma Bau has been married only three weeks when Nazi tanks thunder into Poland. Within days Emma’s husband is forced to disappear underground, leaving her alone in the Jewish ghetto. In the dead of night, the resistance smuggles her out and brings her to Krakow, where she takes on a new identity as Anna Lipowski, a gentile.

Emma’s already precarious situation is complicated by her introduction to Kommandant Richwalder, a high-ranking Nazi official who hires her to work as his assistant. As the atrocities of war intensify, Emma must make unthinkable choices that will force her to risk not only her double life, but also the lives of those she loves.

Don’t miss Pam Jenoff’s new novel, Code Name Sapphire, a riveting tale of bravery and resistance during World War II.

Read these other sweeping epics from New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff:

The Woman with the Blue Star
The Lost Girls of Paris
The Orphan’s Tale
The Ambassador’s Daughter
The Diplomat’s Wife
The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach
The Winter Guest

Reviews

  • Disappointing.

    2
    By ScentofCoffee
    The plot was not very believable. The characters are appealing, but lack depth. The author needed to do more research. Among other things, the details of daily life in Poland during the Nazi occupation are inaccurate. The author writes a suspenseful story, but it just doesn’t ring true. The “resolution” at the end is both improbable and incomplete. Maybe she plans a sequel, but I am not interested enough to read it.
  • Kommandant’s Girl

    5
    By ginobasso
    Loved the intricacies of both the NAZI influence overtaking Germany & the efforts of the Resistance to block it, risking so much of their lives for the sake of others. A sombre work describing one possible tale of the War.
  • Poignant

    5
    By amycubs7
    Excellently written, with believable characters facing heart rending choices. The complexity of them is amazing. The story is rich with detail and moves quickly. We shall never forget what happened in WWII.
  • Exquisite portrayal of love, betrayal,and heartbreak

    5
    By Word Lover 70
    Novel is superb in capturing the horrors of life in WW II Poland. Characters well drawn. Ending as it began with mystery and question, hardships, and simple daily struggles living a life conflicted by want,necessity and survival.
  • Intriguing and engaging despite the holes in timeline and failure to actually develop the heroine

    3
    By glhince
    I couldn’t help but grab for this title when the review opportunity arose. World War II historic fiction with all of the grey areas brought forth with a need to survive versus your own moral code. Jenoff created a romance to play in the foreground of major political and societal upheaval. But, there were plenty of good ideas brought forward in this story, and I was completely wrapped up in the reading to the end. With an initial premise that could go any of several different directions, Emma is a newlywed, young, rather sheltered girl when her homeland is invaded by the Nazis. Her husband, a Jewish Activist, flees for his life, and Emma must be smuggled out of the city to a gentile Aunt’s home in Krakow, assume a new identity and live through the war. Now living as Anna, an introduction to Kommandant Richwalder results in the offer of a position in the Kommandant’s office. As is not uncommon, youth and inexperience when faced with power often leads to situations that are loosely termed romance. The power imbalance here is so great, the consequences so dire, that I cannot see Anna/Emma’s attraction as more than infatuation. Even though, Jenoff did make the character of Georg reasonably sympathetic – and rightly so. Everyone in the war was not all good or all bad – even as their actions did skew their reputations later. So – we have a not-so-unusual romance or flirtation in a time of war, and then the story starts to fail the premise. Too many coincidences to neatly wrap-up threads started, with a heroine who seems completely unaware of the devastation around her. A timeframe that is, at best, problematic in terms of actual history – a failing that I wish didn’t add to the negatives here. Facts are easy to verify and check, and while personal accounts shared through family may have additional details to share, the trajectory of the war, the presence of the occupying force, and the questions around when Germany realized that they could (not would) lose the war all play in far too early in the story to hold the pieces in place. Intriguing and engaging despite the holes in timeline and failure to actually develop the heroine will provide readers with an interesting story, but one that could be much more satisfying. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.