A remarkable and true story

This is a remarkable and true story of nine young women, Helene, Suzanne (Zara), Nicole, Madelon (Lon), Guillemette (Guigui), Renee (Zinka), Josephine (Josee), Jacqueline (Jacky) and Yvonne (Mena). They were all in their twenties (Josee was the youngest at only twenty years old). As we read along we meet each of the women through their own personal life stories, their childhood, where they grew up and their involvement in the war before they were captured and imprisoned. The harrowing details of the death march makes difficult reading, and as the women make their escape, it must surely give them hope for the future, but will they make the hundreds of miles to freedom, past German villages where they are in grave danger and through woods and swollen rivers, with nothing but the clothes they are wearing and items they could carry. At the end of their escape route they reached Colditz, with its numerous prisoners who were in a very bad state, although happy to have been liberated by the Americans these prisoners were in such a bad state they couldn't eat the food offered them without it killing them. The nine women although pleased to reach the American front line, soon realised that their long and troublesome journey was still far from over. I did find it interesting at the end to find out how their lives progressed with family and careers and to think that how their lives could have been so very different.
This book is hard to read at times and also to comprehend that such atrocities went on, but they did and these women must never be forgotten, this is such a great tribute to them. This book is written by the great niece of one of the nine women Helene, and it must have been a hard journey for her to make to discover all these things about her great aunt and all the other women. If you are interested in WW2 history, the resistance work and concentration camps you will find this book interesting.