Traitors Among Us

Starred review from July 15, 2021
Two sisters try to make their way back to an Allied zone after World War II. Told in alternating chapters narrated in the first person by Ukrainian sisters Krystia, 16, and Maria, 14, this gripping novel tells a lesser-known story of the war's horror. It is June 1945, and Germany has surrendered: The war on the Western Front has ended. Krystia and Maria travel on foot to an American refugee camp in occupied Germany, hoping to eventually reach their aunt and uncle in Toronto. But just after they arrive to what they think is safety following, in Maria's case, forced labor on a German farm, and, in Krystia's case, hiding Jews and watching their mother get hanged for being part of the resistance, they are abducted by Soviet soldiers and accused of being Nazi collaborators. Taken to an interrogation house in the Soviet-controlled zone of occupied Germany, they are tortured but refuse to sign a false confession. The depictions of starvation, torture, and executions are drawn from actual accounts of prisoners who lived to talk about what happened in Soviet interrogation houses. Although some scenes can be difficult to read, this is ultimately a story of the strength of the human spirit. Krystia and Maria are survivors, and they never give up, drawing strength from remembering their parents' belief in them as they struggle to stay alive. Gripping, harsh, and superbly written. (author's note, map) (Historical fiction. 13-18)

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