The Nine — State of Gray

I talked about this book on my last Books & Screens post. I just finished this book - I read it with my travel book club. The book club is made up of a group of ladies that have traveled together. We are reading books that pertain to places we have traveled to or are going to. (Our first book was Leonardo - by Walter Isaacson. It was good, but very detailed and very long and I am still not done.) This book was excellent.

It follows the true story of nine women resistance fighters who escaped a death march from a German camp to certain death. It takes place at the very end of the war, and the Germans were marching their prisoners from the camps, usually East, away from the Allies. Thousands died or were killed on these marches. They trudged for ten days back across the front lines, out of Germany and back to Paris. It is an astonishing tale.

These women were all in their twenties when they started working for the Resistance. They did a myriad of jobs and were arrested by the French police and turned over to the Gestapo, who then tortured them. They were then deported to Germany. They met here and there along the way, and all ended up in the Ravensbruck camp for women. They left there for a labor camp in Leipzig, where they were forced to make ammunition for the Nazi war machine. Women in camps in Germany could be Jews, political prisoners, lesbians, criminals, gypsies or Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The women that were able to go, were gathered and forced to march from Leipzig, and a day or two into this march, the group made their daring escape into a nearby ditch.

The book then follows the women as they walk, hide, and survive by their wits - walking through villages with scared or hostile villagers, meeting up with German officers and mayors, sleeping in barns, and relying on the goodness of fellow humans. It is a gripping story of friendship and courage and resilience.

Who were these young women?

Hélène Podliasky from France - also known as Christine - twenty four when arrested - an engineer who spoke five languages
Suzanne Maudet “Zaza” - from France - Hélène’s friend - twenty two when arrested - also wrote a book about her story, published in 2004
Nicole Clarence - from France - twenty two when arrested in Paris - transported to Germany the day before Paris was liberated in 1944
Madelon Verstijnen “Lon” - from the Netherlands - twenty seven when arrested - she had come to Paris to join her brother in the Resistance - she and Hélène spoke German - she also wrote an account of the escape in 1991
Guillemette Daendels “Guigui” - from the Netherlands - twenty three when arrested - Lon’s friend from Holland
Renée Lebon Châtenay “Zinka” - from France - twenty nine and pregnant when arrested in France - gave birth to her daughter in a French prison
Joséphine Bordanava “Josée” - from Spain - twenty when arrested in France - she worked with Resistance families hiding Jewish children
Jacqueline Aubéry du Boulley “Jacky” - from France - twenty nine when arrested in Paris - she had diptheria when they escaped
Yvonne Le Guillou “Mena” - from France - twenty two when arrested - her family was from Brittany, but she was working with the Dutch Resistance in Paris

The author is Gwen Strauss and her great aunt Hélène was the central character and leader of the group. When Hélène was in her 80’s, Gwen talked to her about her story, much of which was unknown even to her own family who knew just bits and pieces. Gwen interviewed relatives of the other women, she traveled to the camps and even retraced their steps in order to tell the story properly. After all her research, Gwen was actually able to tell many of the women’s family members details and information that they never knew.

The book was released in May 2021 and has been translated into many languages (although tellingly, not in French). Our book group was lucky enough to host Gwen on our Zoom call, after finishing the book. She now lives in Provence, and was lovely and gracious and so very interesting.

We asked her questions and she explained so many things about women in the resistance in France. While these women were risking their lives for their countrymen, they were not even allowed to vote. France did not allow women to vote until 1945. After the war, very few of the female French Resistance fighters were recognized for their contributions. And still to this day, it is not talked about to a great degree. Supposedly, people did not want to hear these accounts and true stories.

Gwen is a prolific writer and has written several children’s books, many poems, essays and short fictions, and anthologies. She told us she has sold the rights to The Nine, and also has another book in the works. So we will be watching to see if Hélène’s story indeed makes it to the big screen. It would be a riveting movie.

The women did not stay in touch and did not talk about it much, if at all. However, there was a documentary movie made in 2010, about the escape, called “Escaped” by two Dutch filmmakers. They interview Hélène and Lon, and the two women have a reunion on film. They had not seen each other since the escape. It is very moving and amazing to see, especially after reading the book.

I highly recommend the book and look forward to Gwen’s next project. If I had grandchildren, I would want them to read it as well.

Most of us have not had to display courage like that. I pray that we are never faced with times like that again in our lifetime, and if we are, I pray that we can rise to the occasion, as these brave souls did.