Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly FIC Kel

     This is a great read if you enjoy historical fiction.  If you want to know the background of this story, check out the end of the book where you will find the Author's Note.  She also explains how she became interested in this topic and the preparation and traveling she undertook.
       There are three main characters in the book.  Caroline Ferriday (who was a real person) lives in NYC.  She is a socialite and spends her time volunteering giving family assistance for the French Consulate.  She has a deep connection to France and loves helping French citizens trying to escape conditions in France in 1939.  Her other passion was sending packages to the suffering children in France.
      In Poland lives Kasia Kuzmerick who is a teenager.  Her world is changing rapidly as the Nazis invade her country.  When she tries to help the underground as a courier, she becomes a prisoner and is sent to Ravensbrück - a women's concentration camp.
        Herta Oberheuser is young, ambitious and a doctor in Germany.  There aren't too many opportunities for a female doctor.  She longs to be a surgeon but has been settling for working as a dermatologist .  The one day she sees an ad.  She applies for a job working for the German government.  She sees this as a chance to finally practice real medicine - and she will do it in Ravensbrück.
        One of the horrific things at Ravensbrück was the experimental surgeries done on women.  Those women became known as the Ravensbrück Rabbits.
       This is a powerful novel.