Broken Angels

I loved this book. At some points the subject matter was hard to read, especially the parents where the doctors were subjecting the women to cruel experiments in Auschwitz. How ever awful it was to read, it was worse knowing that this stuff really happened to so many people. By chance, Elsi met Willem when she brought her mother to him in need of medical help. Willem was in no means an angel, but he treated his patients different than the rest of the doctors. He is able to save Elsi when he sees that she is being put on the truck of the dead. Matilda was signed away by her mother so she could go to a training center for Aryan children to become more German. When she gets there, she isn't getting any lessons but instead is teaching show more younger children German and they must memorize passages from Mein Kampf. Matilda's life becomes interwoven with Willem and Elsi's, when Willem becomes in charge of the training center that Matilda lives at. This was a beautifully written novel and captured the different aspects of the war. I really liked how the book changed narrators from chapter to chapter. show less

This book started very well and I enjoyed how the narrative was shared between Elsi, Willem and Matilda. They were all intelligent, generous people who came from vastly different backgrounds, but fate and the horrors of the Nazi regime brought them, unexpectedly, together. Whilst I found Elsi and Matilda's stories interesting, it was Willem's that really captured my attention. He was a complex character and even though, as a high ranking Nazi doctor, he took part in the medical sterilisations at Auschwitz, he was basically a kind man with a conscience, and tried to atone for his mistakes.

I was enjoying "Broken Angels" until about three-quarters of the way through when the characters who I had regarded as broken angels became avengers, show more seeing their own justice. It wasn't believable and spoilt the book. The ending was rushed and too tidy. However, I did like Matilda's final letter. Overall, a good, but not great, novel set against the backdrop of World War II. show less

Bro­ken Angels by Gemma Liviero is a novel tak­ing place in the Lodz ghetto dur­ing World War II.

Elsi, a Jew­ish teenager in the Lodz Ghetto, dis­cov­ers her mother is being used as enter­tain­ment by Ger­man offi­cers and is suf­fer­ing trhough an abor­tion. Elsi the joins a resis­tance group.

At the same time, Matilda, a Roman­ian girl who hap­pens to look Aryan is taken from her fam­ily and brought to Ger­many so she can be molded as an Aryan child. Matilda is not to be molded, how­ever, and has a strong mind and a brave spirit.

Willem is a Nazi docotr, offi­cer and son of an impor­tant gen­eral. As a doc­tor Willem wants to save the lives of women, but that is dif­fi­cult to do when he is assigned to Lodz and show more Auschwitz.

Bro­ken Angels by Gemma Liviero is a novel about a sub­ject mat­ter which is always dif­fi­cult to read. The author tells the story from the view point of three peo­ple, which, inevitably intersect.

The nar­ra­tive moves fast and the sto­ry­telling is clear. Every now and then it seems that the dialouge is forced, but even then it doesn't really break up the narrative.

The author presents the moral dilema a Nazi gyne­col­o­gist is fac­ing. He is a man who prides him­self on help­ing women but finds him­self in a sit­u­a­tion where his patients are con­sid­ered sub-human, barn ani­mals to be exper­i­mented on for the "greater good".

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Moving Story

I was moved by this story for so many reasons. The author does a great job with character development and we could see those nuances of a person in Elsi, Matilda and Willem.
Reading about experiences during the Holocaust is never easy to do because they are so horrific.

This story is no exception (it is fictional though). There are times when you want to stop reading but you keep going because you know these things happened and people survived.

In this story, we want Elsi and Matilda to survive. There are times that I myself praising their actions and also being disappointed in their actions. But that is a testament to the authors ability - I was connected to the characters.

Willem was another story. I was so frustrated with him show more throughout. But it's always interesting to read the other side of the story as well. show less

Elsi, Matilda and William’s stories merge, as they all live through World War II. Elsi, imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto, struggles to survive along with her mother and sister. Matilda, a young girl, is taken from Romania to Germany, where she is sent to a “rehabilitation camp” where they attempt to turn her into the perfect German. Willem, a Nazi doctor, and son of a high ranking Nazi, lives first in the ghetto and then works at the rehabilitation camp.

This book was fascinating and hard to put down. The characters really came alive. I loved how their stories merged and were ultimately woven together. I would love to read more by this author. Overall, highly recommended.

Wow! What a book. The story is told from the point of view of three different people. Their stories do come together and then unwind again. Some difficult to read parts, as is often the case with books that focus on Germany/Poland during WWII.

Three different characters from different countries with different beliefs whose lives come together in 1942, who manage to find solace through hope and love. 15-year old Elsi, barely surviving in the Jewish ghetto of Lodz, with her mother and sister, scared of betrayal and being sent to "work" camp, like her father. Her mother has sold herself to the German masters to keep her family safe, becoming pregnant and trying to self-terminate the pregnancy. Elsi takes to the medical center where she meets a caring Nazi doctor, Willem, whose father is a senior Nazi official. Willem raised in a home without love, has married Lena, who has helped him find a purpose in life. Finally, 9-year old blonde-haired, blue-eyed Matilda is taken from her show more family in Romania by the Nazis, to be "Germanized," subjected to horrors in a German orphanage, with younger children and older girls, impregnated by German soldiers. Heart-rending. The second half was better than the first. show less