Martha Hall Kelly’s Lilac Girls is a history lesson and a good read all wrapped up into one fat, but not too fat, book. She takes us back to World War II, just at the part where things heat up.

Caroline, a New York socialite with a family heritage of helping the unfortunate, works at the French consul, hurrying up visas for panicked people who want to escape Europe.

Kasia, a Polish girl, lives in a city where nothing exciting happens. But that has all changed. Now she hears rumors about a tent city of refugees on the edge of town. She sees soldiers on the street corners and planes grazing the skies. The boy she likes mysteriously disappears every few evenings. She’s pretty sure he’s part of the resistance. She begs him to give her a little mission and . . . I’d better not say anymore.

Herta, a German girl, longs to be a doctor. She borrows a medical text from her father’s Jewish physician. When she returns it, she witnesses soldiers roughly escorting the doctor away. Later, the only work she can find is in a dermatology clinic. That is, until she sees an ad for a position in a women’s re-education camp. It’s called Ravensbruck. It sound so lovely, so pastoral.

The book’s mood shifts with each character. Caroline’s chapters dance with wit. There may be serious troubles in the world, but there’s no reason to be dour as she packs up coats for the needy.

Kasia’s chapters quiver with fear, starvation and the love of sisters and friends looking out for one another.

Herta’s chapters . . . Well, life goes better for Herta when she doesn’t think too much, when she simply follows orders.

Some of these characters really existed and others sprang from Kelly’s imagination. Now and then, the author strikes a false note, but the story was so engaging that I forgave those brief blunders.

The endnotes, detailing Kelly’s years of research, are also pretty good reading.

Photo credit: I_Gautheron on Visualhunt / CC BY-NC-SA