I had heard of the more notorious Nazi concentration camps: Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, Kraków-Plaszów, and Ravensbrück. The most infamous was Auschwitz. Jennifer Colburn’s The Girls of the Glimmer Factory, a historical fiction novel that is set in ghetto labor camp called Theresienstadt, introduced me to a transitional camp for German, Czech, and Austrian Jews. It was a camp I’d never heard of before.

Colburn’s novel features Hannah Kaufman and her family, who are on the verge of fleeing to Palestine when Hannah and her grandfather, Oskar, whom she fondly refers to as Opa, are left behind and eventually wind up at Theresienstadt, a transitional ghetto camp. The Nazis created a fictional story about the camp, describing it as a spa town where workers participate in the arts, attend concerts and lectures, visit cafes and coffee shops, have access to books, and are able to worship at synagogue. A Council of Jewish Elders meet to select the cultural activities. This proves to be propaganda. While the Jewish prisoners do have access to those activities, they were not free. They are slave labor, the same as prisoners in the other camps. Meals are meager. Barracks, latrines, hygiene facilities, and medical care were disgusting. People are dying of typhus and other diseases. The “glimmer factory” is where young women sliced mica into slivers, which the Nazis sell for the war effort. Mica sparkles: therefore, “glimmer” is the term the girls used. It was hard on their hands, but it is not the back-breaking work others endured.

Hilde Kramer is a young widow who returns to Berlin and finds a job with the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. The Ministry has long had a goal to enhance the Party’s image by producing a film about Theresienstadt. Hilde’s dream is to make that film. Chapters alternate between the ghetto camp and Hilde’s attempts to be successful within the Nazi party. I found her personality and this arc of the story particularly unsympathetic.

On the other hand, I found life at Theresienstadt, as sad and horrific as it was, to be fascinating and strangely uplifting. Oskar is optimistic almost to the end, admitting at last that he’s been duped. Yet, in a situation so hopeless, how else does one go on? There is resistance, of course, and the characters who take risks to save others most certainly are based on real-life heroes.

In her Author’s Note, Ms. Colburn describes the research that went into this novel. While many of the characters are fictitious, the Nazi officials named are real, as are many of the Jewish artists. She was able to view the actual propaganda film that was made and examine items made by prisoners. Naturally, she has taken some artistic license in writing this work of fiction. It is, however, based on actual events.

I received an ARC copy of The Girls of the Glimmer Factory in exchange for my honest review, My thoughts and opinions are my own. Thanks to Net Galley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and the author.

4.5 stars rounded up

The Girls of the Glimmer Factory is the second book I have read by Jennifer Coburn. Cradles of the Reich was the first, which was a 5+ star read for me. The Girls of the Glimmer Factory started off slow for me but a little over half way through it picked up. The story is about Hannah and Hilde, two childhood friends one Jewish and the other not. They end up at Theresienstadt together. Hilde is working for the Nazi’s. Theresienstadt is said to be a model work camp set up to show the world that the Jews were not being treated bad. It was made to look like a model ghetto when the Red Cross came for tours to make sure the Jews were being treated fairly. This was definitely not the case. More than half the prisoners of the camp were sent to Auschwitz to be exterminated.

This was a very well researched book. When you are done reading you must read the authors note where she states what was real and which parts were altered for the story. I was glad that the author included the actual facts.

I visited this camp when I was in Prague and it brought back many memories from my trip.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. It is always important to keep reading about the Holocaust to keep it alive and to make sure the world never forgets.

This novel centers on Theresienstadt, the Jewish “settlement” created by the Nazi propaganda to show how well they were treating the Jewish people. It is told in alternating POV, Hannah, a young Jewish girl sent to Theresienstadt with her grandfather, and Hilde, a German girl who used to be best friends with Hannah, until she began to believe in the mission of the Reich. Their paths crossed again when Hilde was on the propaganda team that visited Theresienstadt to create the films that would be shown to the public. Hilde was ambitious and dedicated to the Nazi cause until she came face to face with Hannah and learned what was really happening in the other camps. How will she respond to what she knows?

This was a beautifully told, heartwrenching book. It’s the first WWII novel that I’ve read that included the perspective of a Nazi sympathizer. Extensive notes at the end share the author’s research process and what parts were real/imagined/changed for the writing of this book.

I received a digital ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

In The Girls of the Glimmer Factory, Jennifer Coburn combines meticulous historical research with a compelling, and heart-wrenching, fictional narrative. The book centers on the little-known story of the Theresienstadt ghetto, a "model" camp that the Nazis created, and filmed, in an attempt to reassure the world that horrific tales of concentration camps were nothing but rumors. The themes of propaganda v. reality, survival and familial ties, and the mechanics of belief are all explored with great success and reverberate in today's world. Highly recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for a chance to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

It is hope within darkness. An untold story of WWII where beauty is hidden and one does what they have to in order to survive. It showed true grit and determination. A definite must read for 2025.

Thank to Netgalley for an ARC

“Propaganda has the power to divide us, make enemies of our neighbors, and even physically harm one another. Dictators propagating false narratives are nothing new but always dangerous. On the other hand, human connection- women’s friendships in particular- has the power to help us discover who we really are and find our strength when we need it most.”
This is a story of women’s friendships and human connection in the midst of inexplicable inhumanity, injustice, pain and loss. This is also a story of unfathomable hope and determination in the desire to be free from the horrors of Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’ and Nazi rule. Within the Jewish Ghetto of Terezin and the fortress of Theresienstadt, unimaginable atrocities occurred while those imprisoned there continuously tried to find the beauty in the world through their rebellion and sorrow.
Well written with factual, historical events depicted in heart wrenching detail, The Girls of the Glimmer Factory gives an inside look at everyday life inside Terezin as told by the point of view of both its prisoners and those who visited. I definitely had all the feels reading this one. The lives of the two main characters were in juxtaposition until they weren’t, and the results for each were never the same.
Although this book kept reminding me of another I had read based on life and events at Terezin, it is different. The thing is, with stories having this many similarities within the Terezin ghetto, you know the truth is there too.
When reading “a novel about the dangers of propaganda”, it’s important to note that it’s a timeless lesson, one that resonates even today. Coburn keeps this in mind throughout her telling of the story, and presents it in candid detail.

Having read many books on World War II and the Holocaust, I am once again struck by the resiliency and courage of these people in the face of so much adversity and atrocities. As in Cradles of the Reich, it was interesting to learn about yet another facet that you don’t always hear about (Lebensborn and Theresienstadt). Very thought provoking.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I learned about Theresienstadt, a concentration camp that I had never before heard of. The characters are amazing. This novel will stay with me. It is frightening to see so many parallels in life today.

Theresienstadt, a ghetto in Czechoslovakia, is the stage the Nazis set to show ‘proof’ that Jewish people aren’t being harmed at the hands of the Third Reich. The reality, of course, is a living hell for the prisoners sent there. Hilde is the filmmaker assigned, and she’s keen to prove herself. There, she runs into her childhood friend, Hannah, who is there as a prisoner with her grandfather.

The contrast between Hilde and Hannah provides great conflict and what I imagine would have been a realistic picture of the reality of living at that time. Hilde has been sucked into the Nazi ideologies, while Hannah has no choice but to bear the cruelty and oppression. The storytelling is powerful.

I read Jennifer Coburn’s novel Cradles of the Reich a couple of years ago and I enjoyed The Girls of the Glimmer Factory just as much. I enjoy this author’s ability to find lesser-known elements of the Holocaust to write about. I feel as though I learn a lot through her writing.

A huge thanks to the author for inviting me to read a digital ARC through NetGalley!

The book begins with a prologue, setting the scene and the idea of a Nazis party who order a documentary to be filmed at Thereseinstadt to show how well they are treating the Jewish people they have moved there. It covers the fact that there were in fact three films made in the end. It also shows how the Germans staged the scenery and the prisoners for the documentary.

The two main characters of Hannah Kaufman and Hilde Kramer are then introduced in turn. As girls the two attend the same school and life is fairly normal for them until Hitler raises in the ranks of power. Hannah Kaufman and her family have moved once already trying to escape the Nazis, her grandparents Opa Oskar & Oma Minna’s “Kaufman Apotheke” had been targeted during Kristallnacht, windows smashed and the good inside ransacked. They had thought they were “safe” living in Prague but they were now discovering that things were rapidly changing for the worse once again for anyone that is Jewish.
In the book, Hannah recalls things changing, such as the teachers at school suddenly putting her at the back of the class and not wanting her input anymore, or turning up to Hilde Kramer’s birthday party as she had done every other year but this time when Mrs Kramer answer the door she was ushered away and the door closed in her face with Mrs Kramer implying Hilde needed to make different friends now.
Rolf Kramer has managed to secure false documents for himself, his wife Ingrid, Hannah their now 19 year old daughter and their younger son Benjamin to travel to Palestine. They hope to get settled quickly and then send for Opa Oska and Oma Minna to come and join them. The plan for their travel has been timed to the second and planned to the last detail, unfortunately Rolf could not foresee Hannah coming down with Small pox. There is panic and last minute, alterations to birthdates on documents and Oma Minna goes on in Hannah’s place. Opa Oskar is the eternal optimist which at time irritates Hannah but they get along together with Opa Oskar finding employment in a Czech Apotheke, hidden away in the back where Germans will not see him working secretly and Hannah gains employment as a maid. Opa Oskar and Hannah are call that leaves them pleased that Rolf, Ingrid & Benjamin made the crossing safely but unfortunately Oma Minna also went down with Small pox and she sadly died during their journey.
It's not long until Opa Oskar & Hannah receive transport papers they are to move to a special “Spa village” that Hitler has said the Jewish should live in. Whilst Hannah is offered the chance to in plain sight by gaining false papers and posing as the niece of Czech family friend, she refuses she cannot let her dear Opa go to this Spa Village created by Hitler alone.
They arrive at Thereseinstadt camp and just as Hannah had feared it is most certainly not the lovely Spa Village with the Lakeside Cottage that her Opa had been expecting.
Of course, life is hard, and dangerous. The prisoners are separated from family members and put in barracks. Hannah is in the Dresden barrack with other women & women with children. You did the jobs you were given without question. Hannah ends up working at the Museum Workshop under an older woman called Griselde, there they transcribe the Torah and other important documents that Hitler has suddenly decided will be important to history. Hannah meets up with old friends Misa, who works in the Glimmer Factory where the women use sharp knives to chip pieces of mica down for the German war effort. The women regularly cut themselves but their names seem to stay off the transport lists so it’s considered a good job. Misa’s mother Marketa works as a cook and tries her best to slip her daughter and her friends a little extra food but with so little food available there rarely is any extra to be had by anyone.
Hannah discovers Misa is part of the The Thereseinstadt camp resistance when she secretly follows her to a secret meeting, another of their school friends Pavel is part of it too. Pavel and Misa would probably be a courting couple under different circumstances. The high risk is plan is to sneak letters out to reveal the real living conditions in the camp. Its at this first resistance meeting that Hannah is introduced to Radek a ghetto policeman who uses his rank to help the resistance. Hannah doesn’t want to get involved at first saying its too risky and others could be punished for their actions too not just them. However, as time goes on as more people are transported, and more become ill and perish she finds herself drawn to the resistance, a small way to make a difference. When the Red Cross are to visit the camp has to organise shows for them to see, musical concerts, football matches etc all designed to show Thereseinstadt in the best possible light. The resistance plan to tell the Red Cross the truth but never get the chance to do so.

Hilde is German and married her husband Max Bischoff, when she became pregnant, they moved to the family dairy farm out in the country prior to Max going away to war. Hilde’s mother in law, Fredericke Bischoff, doesn’t like her daughter in law much. Hilde miscarries their baby whilst Max is away at war and ends up breaking the news to him in a letter.
Sadly, not long after an Officer arrives at the dairy farm and delivers the news that Max has been killed in action. Fredericke will not let Hilde help with the funeral as she says she didn’t even know Max well enough. Fredericke enlists the help of his school friend Brigitte, who is Fredericke’s friend daughter and whom she had wanted Max to marry. Fredericke is quite matter of fact when she tells Hilde that she expects her to leave the dairy farm the day after the funeral! Hilde returns to Berlin, eventually managing to get a secretarial position, she immediately embarks on or perhaps a more accurate description would be endures an affair with her boss Otto to further her career as she wants to get into making films. She eventually secures the job as Hans Gunthers assistant on a documentary he is making about Thereseinstadt, the lovely Spa Village that Hitler has had the Jewish people sent to. The documentary is meant to quiet the rumblings around the world about how the Jewish people are being treat by the Germans. Hilde visits the camp and is shocked at what she sees wondering how they can possibly make the Germans look commendable in their treatment of the Jews, but is soon scheming to take staged favourable shots. Hilde also has the issue that she lied and said she could speak Czech, but her worries disperse when she sees and recognises her old school friend Hannah Kaufman. Hilde decides that Hannah will be her assistant, & secret translator when needed. There are delays and other films are made but eventually Hilde gets to go the Thereseinstadt to help make the documentary. This time Hilde sees a difference in the camp as it is just after the Red Cross visit and all the sprucing up that the Germans had made the Jewish people do.
When Hilde discovers that after filming there is going to be a large transport to what she has recently learnt is a death camp called Auschwitz she makes a plan to rescue Hannah. Hannah refuses saying she cannot leave Danuse behind, a little girl who she cares for since Olina, Danuse’s mother was sent to Auschwitz. Hilde hopes Hannah will change her mind and meet her where she has told her later that night. However, Hilde is betrayed and taken away by the Gestapo for planning to aid the escape of a Jewess.

The Jewish people are told that they are travelling to Berlin, to do work for the war effort and young and old alike are squashed into rail carriages for the long journey. Hannah & her friends decide to try to stick together but the hustle and bustle mean Misa and her mother Marketa end up in a different carriage. Hannah realises by the position of the sun that they are not travelling to Berlin, they are in fact heading to Auschwitz. A few younger Jewish people set about breaking out of the carriage and a few escape, running to the nearby woods, whilst the train takes the other people to Auschwitz

There is also an epilogue, which I read with mixed feelings, happiness for the survivors and the lives they went on to live but sadness for those on the Auschwitz transport heading to their death and dismayed at what happened to some of those characters that were left behind in Thereseinstadt, that weren’t on the transport to Auschwitz. An emotive depiction of families, lovers, friends ripped apart by Hitler and his Nazis party.

I found the book to be thought provoking too. The different ways Hannah & Hilde viewed their “friendship.” Was what Hilde felt for Hannah friendship, pity or guilt? Did Hilde know that her mother had turned her friend away from her birthday party all those years before. Hannah certainly didn’t view Hilde as a friend anymore and was quite clear tin telling Hilde anyone that was part of the Nazis party was no friend of hers.
Hitler and his Nazis party did strange things to people, friends and neighbours turning on each other. One character in the book named Jana was married to a German man who was having an affair and his Mistress turned in Jana as she knew she was a “Jewess” and Iveta as because she was Jana’s daughter, she was mixed race or as the Nazis called it “Mischling” meaning they ended up in Thereseinstadt.

Though fictional the book is based on research the author has done through searching through archives and speaking to survivors. It is an intriguing insight into life in Thereseinstadt. Some of the prisoner arrival dates have been altered, and some incidents are taken from other settlements and did not actually occur in Thereseinstadt, so there is a little poetic licence taken by the author. Having said that, the author presents an honest version about what was happening at the time, whilst still showing that the Jewish people held on to some hope of an end to it all and held on to their loved even more tightly knowing that they could be ripped apart at any second.

The documentary film made life in Thereseinstadt look idyllic, almost like a holiday camp. There was entertainment put on by the prisoners, there were weddings and children born in Thereseinstadt but in reality, the entertainment was escapism for the Jewish prisoners and only on after an arduous day of working. Couples did marry, in fact Opa Oskar in the book marries Griselde but they were not the lavish celebrations depicted. In Thereseinstadt couples survived on snatched moments and have to deal with the consequences of pregnancies if they happened, babies didn’t live long in the harsh reality of life in Thereseinstadt. Some children were born whilst the first Commandant Siedl was in charge, then when Commandant Anton Burger took over, he implemented the rules more diligently and there were abortions performed.
The Germans thought the Jewish were ignorant of what Auschwitz was, but some knew what went on there. The prisoners were allowed to write postcards to family and friends, though anything the German didn’t want the recipients of the cards to know was blacked out so the prisoners developed special codes. The character Klara wrote to Hannah from Auschwitz and let her know things were worse than Thereseinstadt there by letting her lines of writing slant downwards.

I of course loved the character of Hannah, her strength, the lengths she had to go to in order to get extra food, the way she supported her Opa despite his insistence they were heading to a Spa Village, the way she stepped up to care for Danuse when the little girl’s mother had been taken on a transport. Her bravery helping the resistance to smuggle babies out. I also adored Radek, a ghetto Policeman that could be trusted, he was one of the good guys helping the resistance, turning a blind eye wherever he could and his relationship with Hannah, how he talked about a proper first date when “all this was over”, such a gentleman that Hannah had to make the first move to kiss him and then how he wanted to write their names on the tunnel walls like other before them.

I found the book was well written and interesting, “enjoyable” – though that seems the wrong term to use when you remember that the horrors these characters go through are what actual, real people suffered. The book was very well written, the plot certainly drew you in and kept you engrossed to the very end. It made you almost like a fly on a wall, observing everything unfold. The pace of the book certainly kept me wanting to read it, desperate to find out what would happen to the characters I had grown to care for. I will definitely be looking at other books by the author! I honestly think this book would be great as a TV mini- series. The only small negative I had was that the book flits back & forth in time out of consecutive order about the details film making that was going on in Thereseinstadt, which can be a bit confusing.

Summing up, I found the book to be sad yet uplifting, proving that humans, the Jewish people in this case, can survive anything, including the most, dire circumstances and torturous treatment heaped upon them by Hitlers Nazis. Don’t get me wrong the book is not all “doom & gloom” despite the circumstances the characters in this book found love, friends and some lighter moments, though they were scarce.

On a final note, though this book is fictional, full of fictional characters it is based on actual events and actual people who lived and died during an horrific time in history that must never be forgotten nor repeated.

This is a book about the two childhood friends on opposite sides of the Nazi’s “Final Solution:” Hannah, a young Jewish woman sent to Theresienstadt (Terezin) work/transit camp in Czechoslovakia and Hilde, a German woman who is a true believer in the Reich, who is dedicated to climbing up the Party’s ranks. Hilde is part of the team selected to make a propoganda film about Theresienstadt, which was made to be a “showpiece” camp for inspectors, though inmates like Hannah knew conditions were extremely bleak when no one else was looking. The two women’s lives intersect in the darkest of places, and both have their own views of how the reunion will play out. How will it go - and what will it mean?

The book alternates between the two women’s’ POVs.

I was very happy to see a novel about Terezin. I have friends whose relatives died in the camp and friends whose relatives passed through on their way to camps in the east, where they were murdered. But very few people know about the camp’s story, though it was such a huge part of so many Jewish families’ stories. I like that the author highlighted the camp and also highlighted that any kind of positive conditions, like culture and community, were due to the inmates, not allowances from their oppressors. That’s a very important distinction.

I also liked that the author was Jewish herself, because she was able to get so many details correct. She “understood the assignment,” as the kids say. Too many authors in this genre focus on the non-Jewish characters and their redemption arc at the expense of the Jewish characters’ development or potential. No spoikers, but this book did not do that. It hit the right note.

It also didn’t go for the schmaltzy ending. It was realistic and gritty and painful. It was the Shoah, after all, there weren’t any “happily ever afters.”

I also learned things I didn’t know about the Nazis and their means of propaganda, as well as their plans for the future. It was very interesting, if disturbing. Not that it gave me any pity for the people who believed it.

Overall, this was a fantastic book about a too-little known part of Holocaust history. I recommend this book to everyone to learn more about WW2 history, as we enter an age when first-person accounts are getting scarcer by the day.

The Girls of the Glimmer Factory by Jennifer Coburn

Theresienstadt was a "model ghetto" that was engineered during times of propaganda visits and video to give the appearance that the inhabitants (in reality, prisoners and slaves) were living lives of luxury, prosperity, and smug decadence while hard working, loyal to the party, Germans were fighting and suffering all the hardships of war. In reality, Theresienstadt was a labor camp and holding camp before sending prisoners to work and death camps. To encourage people not to fight getting taken from their homes and loved ones, taking the train to this camp was touted as the first step before residents went on to better, permanent communities. It was all a lie, people were beaten, starved, and murdered here, and if they didn't die here, they would probably die at their next destination.

We meet Hannah, a woman sent to this camp with her grandfather after the rest of her family manages to escape to safety. The people imprisoned in this camp are allow a wide variety of cultural pastimes, the better for having them ready to put on performances for the propaganda visits from outsiders and for video filming to promote the lie of just how good these selfish, no good to the touted party line, people have it compared to those of pure German ancestry who follow the party line.

Hilde, a true believer in the Nazi cause and once a childhood friend of Hannah before her mother cut ties with Hannah due to her family's impurities, works in the Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. Hilde has always been selfish and self serving, allowing her greed and jealousy to overshadow her common sense. She blunders from one mistake and misstep to another, unable to keep her mouth shut, unable to see all the wrongs she commits while she does what she wants to do for her own sake.

Years after they last saw each other as children, Hilde sees Hannah again when she is at Theresienstadt to make propaganda films about the camp. Watching Hilde's blind, misguided faith in the corruption that she is so zealously a part of, set against the reality of the horrors that Hannah and others are living would be shocking if I wasn't already aware of so much of what takes place in this story. There are so many real life brave, heroic people who persevered until they couldn't anymore, to make beauty through art, theater, and music under the harshest of conditions while the outside world was presented lies after lies so this could all be allowed to continue. There are good and bad people on all sides and seeing people go against those who would destroy them to help those who had no way to save themselves gives me faith in humanity despite the cruelty of so many others.

Cradles of the Reich is a previous book by this author, and although the two books don't have to be read together, one of the main characters in The Girls of the Glimmer Factory is followed in Cradles of the Reich. Together the books show the myriad of ways that people are being totally controlled and destroyed by madmen and their followers. My review of Cradles of the Reich: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5035079352

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and NetGalley for this ARC.

Hannah is one of the Jewish prisoners at Theresienstadt. Imprisoned with her grandfather, Hannah works recreating Jewish manuscripts. Her best friend, imprisoned with her boyfriend, works at the glimmer factory, shaving mica. Hilde, a Nazi follower, works at the Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. Tasked with making a film of Theresienstadt, Hilda is astonished to find her childhood friend Hannah locked inside.

I thought it was interesting how the author weaved the story of filming Theresienstadt into the character storylines. However, I thought the characters themselves were very stereotypical and flat. I also found most of the characters unlikeable. Overall, not a book I would re-read or recommend.

4.5⭐️s. This was a well done portrayal of 2 women’s perspectives on opposite sides of WW2, centering on the Theresienstadt ghetto, and the crazy way the Nazi’s used it for propaganda.

I thought the voices of Hannah and Hilde were really personalized perfectly. So often I feel like books with dual perspective sound too similar between characters but this was beautifully done, helping you see the frustration and desperation of Hannah, and yet the utter arrogance and selfishness of Hilde.

I didn’t realize this book carried over from Cradles of the Reich with Hilde’s character. Not technically a sequel but it could have been. I always like books that cross over characters - it helps me feel more invested in them, so that was a good surprise since I read that a couple years ago.

I’ve read many WW2 books and have known of Theresienstadt in vague references but never directly read about it so this was a good new setting to learn about. The author did a great job explaining the misunderstanding the ghetto camp has, as being viewed as “not as bad” because of how it was portrayed as a giant lie to the outside world. Both the cunning and the depravity of the Nazis is still astounding to me.

I will say I don’t really understand the title choice of the Glimmer Girls since that was only sort of a here and there background feature of the camp and the characters in it weren’t really known for that. I thought I was going to learn more about the mica mining but hardly did. But regardless, I thought it was well done and I’m glad I learned about this piece of the war and holocaust.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.

This is a fascinating story. I had no idea that a “ model” concentration camp had been built to show to the Red Cross and other war tribunals how the nazis were running fair and liveable camps. Now, around this camp based on fact is a beautiful and stunning story of a young girl and her grandfather who are broken off from the rest of their family and end up here during the war. The story will hold you from page 1 until it’s finished, as another look at the misguided hold the German nazis had trying to protect their evils. The characters are drawn sharply and will remain in your thoughts. A must read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read The Girls of the Glimmer Factory. This is a brutally beautiful story of survival and family. This is a meticulously researched story that draws on actual events. This is a must read for anyone wanting to learn more about the Theresienstadt ghetto.

Unlike some historical fiction that is set in World War II, this novel shows us a view of what life was like for refugees between the onslaught of widespread harassment and the looming fate of the death camps . . . when they were being bent and conditioned . . . and still held hopes of renewal.

According to the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, 155,000 prisoners of war were sent to Theresienstadt. This ghetto served as a housing/work facility and way station before being transported to the death camps being established further east.  Several propaganda campaigns were launched by the Nazi party during this time to contradict reports of the horrific conditions within these camps and ghettos where many families were being held. The creation of false narratives by this political power was a conniving and concentrated effort to conceal plans to drive the Jewish race into extinction.

This story and others that depict this terrible time in history serve as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Survivors of the holocaust have now become stewards of the past preserving the arts, culture, and traditions of their Jewish ancestors. The more we learn and understand the past, hopefully, that wisdom will help to create a better future for us all.

I thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of The Girls of the Glimmer Factory for my unbiased evaluation.  3.5 stars

'The existence of beauty and art was a result of two things: the cynical needs of the Nazis and the sheer fortitude of the prisoners'.

Hannah Kaufman and her grandfather are trying to survive the best they can in Prague, as Nazism takes control and anti-semitism tightens its noose around Jewish citizens. But hope seems to arrive in the form of a new 'settlement', Theresienstadt. Hannah's grandfather has sold their belongings to secure a lakeside cottage. Their arrival, however, makes it clear that this is no more than a rundown ghetto, serving meagre rations. With so many artists and musicians in residence though, defying their oppressors with the simple joy it brings them, gives hope to believe the war will soon end.

Hilde was a childhood friend of Hannah's, right up until the events around Kristallnacht forced the Kaufman's to flee Munich. As a proud German, she is keen to do whatever it takes to prove herself to the Reich, and filmmaking might just do it. When she's assigned to work on a propaganda film, featuring Theresienstadt, Hannah and Hilde's stories collide. But as the conditions become more dire, and people become more desperate, in the closing months of the war, just one of them will ultimately survive.

The Glimmer Factory is told in the alternating POVs of Hannah and Hilde. Hannah is reticent and fearful of joining any acts of resistance, while Hilde is a fanatical force that will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

Jennifer Coburn's story is well-researched and I really enjoyed reading her comprehensive endnotes. Theresienstadt was yet another part of WW2 history I was unaware of and I'm glad I had a chance to rectify this. A great addition to WW2 historical fiction and remembering the Holocaust.

'Truth could take alternate forms and be no less true'.

"Joy is the greatest act of resistance."

There are countless books set during WWII, and picking up a new one, I am always worried it is going to be similar to something I have already read, but luckily, The Girls of the Glimmer Factory presents a setting that only has come up in few WWII novels I have read before: Hitler's gift to the Jews: Theresienstadt. In this book, we meet two young woman. First, there is Hannah, young, Jewish, failing to flee to Palestine with the rest of her family, transported to Theresienstadt with her Opa, believing he is taking them both to a better place. Then, there is Hilde, a German girl who after learning her husband has died leaves for Berlin to work in the filmmaking branch of the Reich. We see each of the women trying to make the best of their situation, until their worlds collide once more (after having been childhood friends), when Hilde comes to Theresienstadt to film the next big propaganda movie...

So, I loved how this book explored the realities of Theresienstadt. How yes, it was different from the work and death camps most of us will be somewhat familiar with. Where prisoners had some degree of freedom. Where there was some level of cultural preservation. But how it was definitely not a simple life, or a treat to be there. The insecurity of knowing how long one can stay, the long days of labour on very meagre rations, having to act and pretend everything is peachy when Nazi officials or the international red cross come to visit, were its own version of hell.

I also really appreciated how the author showed us the perspective of 'the average German' trying to do well for themselves in day to day life, trying to excel regardless of what that meant. I found it unfortunate that Hilde's character, at least to me, seemed a little ditzy and unlikable, making it harder for me to go along with her, and really believe her storyline. That being said, the book is well-researched and full of little facts and scenes that make the story overall believable and enjoyable to read (in as far as one can say that about a WWII book including references to Auschwitz and the final solution, of course).

Do not be deceived by the title. This book is set in a prison camp, the glimmer is not hope. Hannah's family sees the danger of Nazi Germany looming. Living in Prague, they plan to move to Palestine. The family has applied for legal migration papers but the documents and travel visas are limited. Many of their friends have escaped using smugglers. Hannah, her mother, her father, and her younger brother Benjamin have their papers. The grandparents are to follow but there is no guarantee they will leave. On the morning of their trip, Hannah awakens with smallpox. She stays behind with her grandfather and both will emigrate as soon as she is better. Sadly, the Nazis arrive and she and her grandfather are sent to Theresienstadt. While not as horrifying as Dachau or Buchenwald, Hannah was denied basic human comforts.

Hilde was the same age as Hannah and had attended the same school. As the Nazi influence grew and anti-Jewish sentiment became popular, Hilde no longer associated with Hannah. Hilde was German and devoted herself to being a good German girl. Her relationship with her parents was difficult and when Hilde met a man that promised to care for her, she married him. She moved to live with him on the family farm. His mother disliked Hilde and made no attempt to hide it. When they received news that Hilde's husband had died in the war, Hilde's mother-in-law told her to move out. Hilde was determined to live away from her parents, so she traveled to Berlin to find work. As part of the Nazi propaganda and in an attempt to hide the treatment of the Jewish people, a film was to be made showing how wonderful life was in the Theresienstadt camp. Hilde was surprised to find her old friend living there. Hilde wanted to help her former friend but was her intent heartfelt or misguided guilt?

All concentration camps were horrific. The two girls separated by religion is an interesting contrast. Both characters are interesting and Hilde exemplifies the single-mindedness that people had toward Hitler and the Reich. Hilde was naive. Hannah was initially naive but life in the concentration camp soon matured her. The tale of these young women is realistic and not sugar-coated. A credit to the author for being blunt and also for showing life after the war. This is a story that would be excellent for either high school reading and discussion or a book club. Thank you for allowing me early access.