THE NINE

A group biography of nine women from the French Resistance who were caught, tortured, and starved—but survived.

Despite the courage of its participants, the French Resistance movement could not withstand the power of the Nazis and their Gestapo, whose surveillance and infiltration made joining the Resistance almost a death sentence until France’s liberation. Nonetheless, Hélène Podliasky, Strauss’ great aunt, led a group of eight other women in their 20s against the invaders. No reader will doubt the Nazis’ utter loathsomeness after the author describes the unspeakable brutality, torture, and inhumane conditions the women endured after their capture. During the war’s final months, the Nazis attempted to destroy evidence of their crimes. As oncoming armies approached, they burned documents, killed prisoners, and “forced the remaining prisoners on death marches, at first often to other death camps further into the interior of Germany, and then by the end with no clear destination.” More died than escaped, but at one point, nine women jumped into a roadside ditch to hide until the soldiers passed. Strauss alternates tales of their early lives, Resistance activities, and arrest with their horrific experiences in concentration camps and factories, escape, and walk across Germany to American lines. A long epilogue reveals that most lived into the current century. For decades they received little recognition and rarely discussed their suffering. Some found peace and contentment, but others were clearly damaged irretrievably. The author interviewed her aunt in 2002 as well as many of her subjects’ descendants, and diligent research turned up articles, letters, photographs, and even unpublished memoirs. As such, there is no shortage of documentation, but Strauss seems to belong to the history-is-boring school, so she assembles the information into a novelistic narrative with invented scenes, dialogue, and insights into her subjects’ thoughts and emotions. She gets her facts right, so most readers will make allowances.

A breathless story of almost superhuman heroism and suffering with a (mostly) happy ending.