Victoria's War: A Novel

by Catherine A. Hamilton

Overview

Victoria's War is a work of historical fiction about 19-year-old Victoria Darski, a Polish Catholic woman sold into slavery during the Nazi occupation of Europe, and Etta Tod, the 20-year-old deaf daughter of a German baker who buys Victoria. Poland, 1939: Eager to study literature at the University of Warsaw, Victoria waits with bags packed. But Hitler invades Poland and classes are canceled. German officers burst into her family's home, and Victoria’s world is turned upside down. She is ordered to work in a Nazi sewing factory. Making military shirts, Victoria sews a straight pin inside the collar in defiance. At a secret resistance meeting with her friend Sylvia, Victoria is captured and sold as a slave, with thousands of other women. Germany, 1941: When Victoria is purchased to work in a family bakery, Etta tries to protect Victoria from the brutality of her family, bringing food and companionship to the attic where Victoria is held. The two women form a quick and enduring bond, but when they’re caught stealing bread from the bakery and smuggling it to a nearby work camp, things take a turn for the worse. This spurs Victoria on to help rescue a group of mothers and babies from starvation. Victoria's War is a World War II story that hasn’t been told before, giving a voice to ethnic Polish women who were kidnapped into the Nazi slave labor operation. This lost chapter of history revealing wartime slavery is not to be forgotten.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632100689
Publisher:	Plain View Press, LLC
Publication date:	06/02/2020
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Catherine A. Hamilton is a freelance writer of Polish descent whose articles and poems have appeared in magazines and newspapers including the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the Oregonian, the Catholic Sentinel, the Dziennik Związkowy (the oldest Polish newspaper in America), and the Polish American Journal. She is the author of the chapter about Katherine Graczyk in Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation, edited by Richard C. Lukas. Victoria's War. Victoria's War is her first novel, published by Plain View Press in 2020 . She actively publishes and blogs at www.catherineahamilton.com. Hamilton lives in the Northwest with her husband.

Table of Contents

Note from the Author ix

Victoria’s War 1

Afterword 251

Discussion 257

Bibliography 261

Acknowledgments 263

About the Author 265

Editorial Reviews

“Some stories that need to be told are never told. They languish in a limbo of forgotten stories that should never have been forgotten. Hamilton’s Victoria’s War resurrects one of these stories. In language intimate and natural and yet touched by the poetry of truth, Hamilton tells the story of a young girl who is the victim of war. Too often, we think only of the men who go to war and do heroic things. We forget the other victims and heroes of war, the women like Victoria in this brilliant novel.”

—John Guzlowski, author of the award-winning Echoes of Tattered Tongues: Memory Unfolded



“In Victoria’s War we follow the life of one Polish woman caught in the machinations of a war that has no pity.…Based on the life of a real woman subjected to Hitler’s forced labor program, Victoria’s War reveals the hatred and fanaticism against Poles in Nazi Germany and the specific vulnerabilities of women that made their lives a living hell. Hamilton’s story about a largely ignored aspect of women’s history is emotionally evocative and rich in detail.”

—Sophie Hodorowicz Knab, author of Wearing the Letter “P”: Polish Women as Forced Laborers in Nazi Germany, 1939–1945

“Victoria’s War is a compelling story of a young Polish woman trapped in the vise of the German invasion of Poland at the opening salvo of World War II. Written in an engaging literary style that captures the textures of Polish life, Catherine Hamilton’s gripping novel is a must read!”

—Dr. Richard C. Lukas, author of Did the Children Cry?: Hitler’s War against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939–1945 and editor of Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation

From the Publisher

2020-03-25
Hamilton’s debut historical novel tells of the horrific World War II experiences of a young Polish Catholic woman.

During World War II, 1.7 million Poles were forced into slave labor by the Nazis; nearly half were women. In this novel, Hamilton delves into her own family history and other real-life survivor accounts to tell the story of the fictional Victoria Darski, a 19-year-old woman who’s about to set off to the University of Warsaw when the Germans invade Poland in 1939. After Nazis murder her 14-year-old sister, Elizabeth, Victoria and her mother are forced to work in a Nazi sewing factory. The young woman and her friend Sylvia are captured by the Nazis, and Victoria ends up working for the Tod family in Germany, who own a bakery. She forms a friendship with the owners’ daughter, Etta, a deaf poster artist, and the pair team up to undertake increasingly risky resistance actions, including smuggling bread into a nearby camps where Victoria’s Polish friends are being held. Hamilton’s copious research is apparent throughout this novel, but her inclusion of ample historical facts never overwhelms the main story, which focuses on Victoria’s emotional journey from bystander to decisive activist. Although the cruel Tod parents feel somewhat underdeveloped, other supporting characters, such as Etta’s brother, an SS captain, emerge as complex and distinct individuals. Although Victoria’s survival is never in doubt, the novel doesn’t flinch when it comes to detailing horrific Nazi atrocities.

A searing reminder of the many lesser-known World War II stories that still need to be told. (author’s note, afterword, bibliography, reading group questions)

Kirkus Reviews