Broken Angels by Gemma Liviero is the story of three very different individuals. Matilda is a little girl who is “sold” to the Nazis and sent from Romania to a special German school where she can learn to be the perfect Aryan child. She will then be given to a German family. But Matilda is a very strong-willed child and doesn’t want to conform.
Then there is Willem. A high-ranking Nazi doctor who goes into the Jewish Lodz Ghetto daily and tries to help the Jews. His father is a high ranking Nazi and Willem has his position because of his father who helps him get a posting at Auschwitz. Elsi is part Jewish and lives in the ghetto where her family is trying to survive. She meets Willem when she takes her Mother to see him. Elsi soon joins the resistance to fight against the Nazis.
All three are living very different lives trying to survive the war and they do what they can to save others. Matilda, Elsi and Willem are such well-developed characters that it makes the reader care for them. I fell in love with these three individuals and I worried if they would survive. I wondered if what they were doing was worth it and would they really be able to save all these people.
There were so many unsung heroes of the war who risked their lives for perfect strangers because they believed what the Nazis were doing was wrong and they weren’t going to sit around and watch it happen. As I was reading this, I kept thinking – would I risk my life for a perfect stranger? I would hope if I was ever in a situation where I could help someone, I would. This was such a riveting story that was so beautifully written.
Book Description:
Nazi doctor. A Jewish rebel. A little girl. Each one will fight for freedom—or die trying.
Imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto, Elsi discovers her mother’s desperate attempt to end her pregnancy and comes face-to-face with the impossibility of their situation. Risking her own life, Elsi joins a resistance group to sabotage the regime.
Blonde, blue-eyed Matilda is wrenched from her family in Romania and taken to Germany, where her captors attempt to mold her into the perfect Aryan child. Spirited and brave, she must inspire hope in the other stolen children to make her dreams of escape a reality.
Willem, a high-ranking Nazi doctor, plans to save lives when he takes posts in both the ghetto and Auschwitz. After witnessing unimaginable cruelties, he begins to question his role and the future of those he is ordered to destroy.
While Hitler ransacks Europe in pursuit of a pure German race, the lives of three broken souls—thrown together by chance—intertwine. Only love and sacrifice might make them whole again.
Until next time…enjoy the view from your passenger seat
Views from the Passenger Seat 