Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

Rose Under Fire is a unique World War II story because it isn’t about the experiences of the Holocaust survivors or soldiers or civilians.  It’s about a female pilot whose plane crashes, and she gets taken to Ravensbrück, a Nazi women’s concentration camp.  There she endures many tortures often inflicted upon prisoners such as beatings or being made to stand naked in the snow.  The book is different in the way that it shows all of the suffering a character goes through without making Rose seem superhuman, like in other books.  Rose is shown as a young girl going through horrible realities and surviving because of her friends.  Yet she also has flaws, as shown in her stubborn belief that her fiance will rescue her.  Her PTSD was also a weakness, sometimes disappointing you, but it’s one of the best World War II stories I’ve read.

Submitted by EN