The Kommandant's Girl (The Kommandant's Girl, #1)

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The Kommandant's Girl (The Kommandant's Girl #1)

by Pam Jenoff (Goodreads Author)

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 4,382 ratings · 586 reviews

Nineteen-year-old Emma Bau has been married only three weeks when Nazi tanks thunder into her native Poland. Within days Emma's husband, Jacob, is forced to disappear underground, leaving her imprisoned within the city's decrepit, moldering Jewish ghetto. But then, in the dead of night, the resistance smuggles her out. Taken to Krakow to live with Jacob's Catholic cousin,...more

Paperback, 395 pages

Published March 1st 2007 by Mira Books (first published March 1st 2001)

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Jun 06, 2008 Cathleen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Cathleen by: MPPL; Phyllis

Shelves: book-discussion, historical-fiction, romance

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 07, 2009 Jen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jen by: Carey

Shelves: airplane-books

This was a fine book, but it's been done before. The story was very predictable, and I never really felt the tension. There are parts of this book (she's undercover in WWII for heaven's sake) that should be very tense, but I really didn't feel it. The characters that Jenoff wanted you to like and sympathize with were well drawn out, the others, not so much, so there is little investment in many of the important relationships.

It was a quick read, and not terrible, but if you want to read a reall...more

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Jun 26, 2008 bookworMyra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: amazing-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The fact that the book was based on the Holocaust, and that the book was so fairytale-ish did the Holocaust no justice.

I think the book did not portray the Holocaust in the way that it should've been portrayed. To me, it made the Holocaust seem insignificant, and that doesn't do it any justice. Part of why I think this is because of the ending of the book. Though, I must admit that I enjoyed the ending, it didn't seem to fit. I was really hoping that the protagonist would be able to represent al...more The fact that the book was based on the Holocaust, and that the book was so fairytale-ish did the Holocaust no justice.

I think the book did not portray the Holocaust in the way that it should've been portrayed. To me, it made the Holocaust seem insignificant, and that doesn't do it any justice. Part of why I think this is because of the ending of the book. Though, I must admit that I enjoyed the ending, it didn't seem to fit. I was really hoping that the protagonist would be able to represent all of the Jews that had suffered through this, but the way everything worked out in her favor isn't right, because in reality, that was hardly the case. She didn't tell us if Emma/Anna ever made it to Jacob, but made it seem like she was going to make it to Jacob and live "happily ever after". I think that in order for the readers to feel at least .1% of the pain the Jews must've felt, she shouldn't have made it a "happily ever after" ending, only because the book is very loosely based on a real event (the Holocaust). Also, in the story, Emma/Anna is trying to escape from the Kommandant for the last time, who by the way is heavily drugged. During her getaway, she gets caught by a Nazi. . .and this Nazi just so happens to be the Kommandant. I did not get that at all, because the Kommandant could not have woken up that easily from being drugged, and since he is a high-ranking officer from the early 1900s, I'm assuming her had never done drugs before, so this particular drugging should've hit him hard. But it didn't. And then, during her escape, before she gets caught by the Kommandant, she encounters her father. That shouldn't have happened, because majority of the Jews who had been sent to concentration camps and been seperated from their relatives almost NEVER heard from their relatives again, unless they were in the same camps. And even then, it was a small chance. Just the fact that Emma/Anna had that full closure from everyone important to her did great injustice to the victims of the Holocaust, and because of that, the book was not as great as it could have been.

Aside that, the book was ok-ish. Maybe a little more than ok. I had really liked the concept of a Jew falling in love with a Nazi, only because if it had happened in reality, and they made their love public, it might've changed a few things about the Holocaust, it could've softened up hearts and let the hushed voices speak up. I had cried a lot, especially towards the end of the book, when she finds her father bone thin and sickly looking and when she finds Krysia dead.(less)

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May 08, 2008 Lucy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I mentioned when I wrote my review on The Book Thief, how dismayed I felt when realizing that the story was set in WWII Germany. It seems to me that the market for fictional stories of the war, especially the persecution and massacre of the Jews, has been saturated.

While The Book Thief surprised me by being completely fresh in its story telling, The Kommandant's Girl, stuck to the conservative game plan and told a familiar and unimaginative story.

To be fair, the book is set in Poland, not German...more I mentioned when I wrote my review on The Book Thief, how dismayed I felt when realizing that the story was set in WWII Germany. It seems to me that the market for fictional stories of the war, especially the persecution and massacre of the Jews, has been saturated.

While The Book Thief surprised me by being completely fresh in its story telling, The Kommandant's Girl, stuck to the conservative game plan and told a familiar and unimaginative story.

To be fair, the book is set in Poland, not Germany, and the story is based on a real life event the author discovered while doing her research in Poland.

Emma Bau, a newlywed whose husband has escaped to help the resistance movement, finds herself in the Jewish Ghetto living with her parents. During one night, she is awoken and smuggled out of the ghetto and set up to live as Anna Lipowski with her husband's non-Jewish aunt. At a dinner party one evening, Emma/Anna meets Kommandant Georg Richwalder, a high ranking Nazi party member, and his attraction to her leads to his hiring her to be his assistant. As his assistant, she is expected to and in fact, wants to, help the resistance by acting as a spy whenever she can. To Jenoff's credit, she attempts to give her characters depth by allowing Emma/Anna to become attracted and attached to the Kommandant, understandable considering the short length of her relationship with her husband, and considering the kind of man Kommandant Richwalder appeared to be: fair, hard working and heartbroken from his wife's earlier suicide. As their relationship progresses, she is ultimately asked to betray her marriage vows and use her relationship with the Kommandant to gain urgent information for the resistance.

The story is interesting and even well told (except for the end when the author tried to tie up too many loose strings for plot purposes), but that interesting and well told story has already been done. Many times. Unfortunately for Jenoff, whether this particular story is true or not doesn't make its telling any more consequential. In spite of its familiarity, I'd recommend Pam Jenoff's account to anyone who hasn't reached their own personal threshold of World War II Jewish fiction.(less)

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Feb 13, 2012 Felicity rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 09, 2007 Chelsea rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: advance, historicalfiction, holocaust, awardwinners, romance, own, 2006

This book was scary on so many levels: the very fact that it was taking place during the Holocaust, with lots of Jewish characters was number one. Then, the main character is working for the resistance. The Nazis we encounter are real people, with friends and lives and worries and joys, which only brings home the idea that the Nazis who were in the camps and ghettos were real people too - and yet, look at what they did. That said, it's not a thriller or a horror novel; if anything, it leans more...more

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May 08, 2008 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: all persons

Recommended to Linda by: I saw it advertised on B&N

This was an intensed story of the world war in Poland. The Jews were being severely percocuted by the Regime. One of the main characters Emma changed her name to Anna and became a spy for the side of the Jews since she was a avid Jew believer.Her husband went underground to try and salvage the Jew protesting. Anna became the kommandant's lover to get information that would have her husband fight against this ghastly war and the persocution of their fellow jew brothers and sisters.This was a wond...more

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Feb 10, 2008 Pamela Pickering rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

I would probably give this book 2.5 stars. It seems I'm alone as most other reviewers gave this book 4-5 stars so I wonder if I'm missing something. I guess I expected more from the book. It was an easy read, too easy I guess would be the point. It just sort of had the feel of a Harlequin Romance and at $13 I would expect more substance. I found the main character a little frustrating at times. She was always so jumpy. In my opinion if someone is "working undercover" and is that jumpy she would...more

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Feb 11, 2008 Celeste Miller rated it 3 of 5 stars

SHOW, DON'T TELL. Which is not what this book does. But that's okay, it's a super-fast read, good for long car trips/plane rides, etc.

I felt like it could use a few more edits, and the dialogue sounded a bit too modern and slangy for WWII Poland. (I was not buying how often Emma said "Okay" to everyone including the Kommandant.) Character development took a back seat to plot elements, and the Kommandant never seemed like a real person to me.

However, if you're looking to write an adventure/suspe...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Kimberly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

To sum up this book in one word: Disappointing

I was initially attracted to this book by its storyline and felt that the concept offered real potential. In reality, this book did not live up to my expectations. It was clearly well researched, however, I felt absolutely no connection to any of the characters and most of the events seemed rather too farfetched and convenient, especially towards the end. I felt as though I was listening to a story about Emma’s life, not experiencing these events wit...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Regina Lindsey rated it 3 of 5 stars

“Choice. I hear Kyrsia’s voice, as if in a long-forgotten dream. There’s always a choice, she said after I had become involved with the Kommandant. We have to take responsibility for our actions. It is the only way we can avoid becoming victims and keep our dignity. “ (pg 266). Set in Nazi occupied Poland, nineteen year old Emma is rescued from the Jewish Ghetto by the Polish resistance because of her marriage to one of its leaders. Hidden with husband’s aunt Emma assumes a new identity, Anna. H...more “Choice. I hear Kyrsia’s voice, as if in a long-forgotten dream. There’s always a choice, she said after I had become involved with the Kommandant. We have to take responsibility for our actions. It is the only way we can avoid becoming victims and keep our dignity. “ (pg 266). Set in Nazi occupied Poland, nineteen year old Emma is rescued from the Jewish Ghetto by the Polish resistance because of her marriage to one of its leaders. Hidden with husband’s aunt Emma assumes a new identity, Anna. High ranking Nazi official , Georg Richwalder, takes immediate notice of “Anna” and offers her a job as his personal assistant. Seeing this as an opportunity to contribute to her husband’s work “Anna” accepts and must deal with conflicting feelings dealing with the resistance focus of prioritizing the collective over the individual and her feelings between two very different men. All along the way difficult choices must be made.

***********************Minor Spoiler******************************************

I’m conflicted about my feelings on this book. On one hand I felt the immediate attraction between a nineteen year old and a fifty-something year old man was a little far-fetched. On the surface you may disagree. If it had been purely a physical attraction from Georg I would as well. But, Georg immediately falling in love with this young girl, ready to throw away his career and reconcile his past was beyond the realm of possibility. Further, Emma had just witnessed some brutal murders within the Ghetto. To immediately swoon over a Nazi official just wasn’t believable

*************************End of Spoiler************************************************

I was also disappointed with the lack of author notes regarding the separation of fact and fiction and more information on the Polish resistance. This is one of the features I most look forward to in a historical fiction read.

On the other hand, I continue to think about the characters after the fact, which is always an indication that a read has made an impact. I find myself particularly returning to the Kommandant’s character. I thought Genoff did an excellent job of creating a complex character in Georg showing how a person doesn’t have to be completely evil to be despicable. Once again it comes down to the choices we make. I also though Genoff did a good job of driving home some insightful thoughts in compact sentences such as:

“ ‘ It will be what it will be, darling. These are uncertain times, and there is no need to give an old woman false comfort. But I do know one thing.’ Suddenly, her face relaxes. She takes my hand in hers, and I can see a light growing in her eyes. “The courage of young people such as yourself is the one thing that still gives me hope.’” (pg 92)

“Later that night in bed, I find that my throat is scratchy from laughing. It is no longer accustomed to making such a sound.” (pg 106)

I read this while traveling. I think that was the perfect setting. While it was historical fiction, it wasn’t a deep read. It provided enough food for thought but in a light setting to make the plane rides an enjoyable experience.
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Jun 06, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: wwii

It's just a quick historical romance read - if that's not what you're looking for, don't read it. It's nothing special, but it's not bad for the type of book it is. Spoilers below, by the way.

Unlike some other reviewers, I didn't think the dialogue was too modern. People tend to think that old folks talked much more formally than we do, but besides obviously dated slang (like groovy or tight or words like that), people spoke pretty similar to how we do now. The word okay, or instance, has been u...more It's just a quick historical romance read - if that's not what you're looking for, don't read it. It's nothing special, but it's not bad for the type of book it is. Spoilers below, by the way.

Unlike some other reviewers, I didn't think the dialogue was too modern. People tend to think that old folks talked much more formally than we do, but besides obviously dated slang (like groovy or tight or words like that), people spoke pretty similar to how we do now. The word okay, or instance, has been used since the mid-1800s. I've got a book of compiled American war letters (called War Letters by Andrew Carroll, and it is awesome), and plenty of the WWII letters use the word okay (or OK). Now, the story is set in Poland, so obviously none of them would actually be saying "okay" at all because it's not Polish. But this book is written in American English, and for mid-twentieth century American colloquial English, okay is an appropriate word to use.

I did, however, raise an eyebrow at some of the coincidences that popped up in the end of the book. She suddenly decides to try to say goodbye to her father in the ghetto in the middle of the night and just by chance he's out walking by the very crack in the wall she happens to find? Um-hum. Or like when she reaches into her pocket to pull out a tissue and her marriage certificate comes flying out? I don't know about you, but if I was standing in front of a Nazi with my Jewish marriage certificate in my pocket, I'd be a little more careful about pulling anything out of that pocket. And the ending was overdramatic and overly coincidental - both the Kommandant's weird mental breakdown and Marta's random appearance seemed....unlikely.

Emma/Anna is a little obnoxious as well. And the women in this book were way too romantic given their situations. Like, they're in the middle of a war and active in a resistance movement, but their biggest concern is whether other girls are spending time with their husbands? Uh, maybe I'm just unsentimental, but I think if I was in that situation, I'd be more concerned with everyone staying alive rather than worrying about who was sleeping with whom. Also Emma/Anna took risks that I thought were silly and dangerous to those around her: going to see her father at the end, which was dangerous to both her and her poor father; keeping her wedding photo at Krysia's, which was dangerous for Krysia as well as herself, and so on. I understand that there was significant emotional attachment involved, but still. A photograph isn't worth a friend's life. Also I didn't see why Anna didn't just keep her wedding and engagement ring with her and keep it with her other jewelry and say that it was her dead mother's. But that's a small point, I guess.

Anyways, it was a quick, easy read. It's interesting enough to keep your attention but it's not going to blow your mind or anything.
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Aug 19, 2010 Emma Twosouls rated it 2 of 5 stars

Modern American English doesn't really work for a Polish mid 20th century first person narrative. Okay??

I really wanted to 'wind up the pace in the middle'. Foe me there where far to many implausable coincidences created to fit the predictable plot.

Why did the kommandant say the 'war was gong badly' (for Germany)at a time when it clearly was not, why would he carry a 'six shooter', Emma counts his two fired rounds and calculates that there are four left. Really unless he is cast as a wild west e...more

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Jun 03, 2010 Jennifer Eckel rated it 1 of 5 stars

A standard paragrah in Ms. Jenoff's book includes at least 2 uses of the word Okay. How do you feel? Okay. For a novel set in Poland in the depths of WWII this word is inappropriate. It's frequency made me cringe.
Ms Jenoff also had issues with time. The phrase, it was the second winter of the war and the Kommandant could tell that the war was going badly.
Excuse me, that would be the winter of '40-41 and Germany stood supreme on the European Continent. The book roughly covers only the time frame...more

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May 12, 2010 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: borrowed-from-public-library, unfinished

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. When I started this novel, I was really excited. My great grandparents were from Poland and Hungary, I usually like books about World War Two, Emma reminded me a little bit of the lady in "Black Books: which was long but a great movie...I wish the book had stayed as exciting to me. First of all, Emma is apparently pretty and works at a library. Her future husband is rich but doesn't care that she's poor, and marries her. Their romance didn't feel very real to me, because it seemed like he had fi...more

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Aug 24, 2012 M. rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was a bit slow the first time I read it and the story does seem a bit stretched, but it is historically accurate and fairly engaging. Although the novel advertises itself as a sort of romance, it's scenes in relation to this subject are very few and far between, and poor character development make it only mildly believable. We rely mainly on the lead character, Emma, to guide us through Nazi-occupied Poland and her struggle in such close proximity to her greatest enemies, but all we re...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Kara Huggard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2009, historical-fiction, romance

Only after I finished this book and read the reviews, did I realize that The Kommandant's Girl was published by a Harlequin imprint. Now its shortcomings make much more sense. This could have been a rich historical novel with fictional events bringing real ones to life. Unfortunately it fell short of the mark. This book had all of the ingredients for a great novel: Interesting historical setting (Krakow Poland at the onset of WWII), fascinating plot (Polish Resistance Movement), and intriguing c...more

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Aug 29, 2011 MAP rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, wwii

The Kommandant's Girl follows the story of Emma Bau, a 19 year old Polish Jewish woman whose husband disappears to help the resistance 3 weeks after their marriage and then (through connections) smuggles her into a new life as a Catholic girl named Anna. As Anna, she works for the local Kommandant and finds herself put in a precarious position in order to help the resistance.

As others have said, nothing in this book is really new; it's a story that's been told over and over, both in fiction and...more

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Oct 12, 2010 Julie H. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, book-club-selections

While parts are a bit contrived, this is altogether a very well written bit of historical fiction in which a recently married Jewish woman is left behind in Nazi-occupied Krakow when her husband, Jacob, heads off to join the resistance. After returning to her parents' apartment in the Jewish quarter, Emma learns that they and their neighbors have been forced to relocate to the walled ghetto known as Podgorze. Emma tracks them to the ghetto, talks her way in, reconnects with her parents, only to...more While parts are a bit contrived, this is altogether a very well written bit of historical fiction in which a recently married Jewish woman is left behind in Nazi-occupied Krakow when her husband, Jacob, heads off to join the resistance. After returning to her parents' apartment in the Jewish quarter, Emma learns that they and their neighbors have been forced to relocate to the walled ghetto known as Podgorze. Emma tracks them to the ghetto, talks her way in, reconnects with her parents, only to be subsequently spirited away to live with her husband's well-connected older cousin, Krysla. A respected Catholic woman in her 70s, Krysla arranges for Emma--known to one and all in her gentile disguise as cousin Anna Lipowski from Gdansk--to be hired as the personal assistant of a highly-placed Nazi officer named Kommandant Georg Richwalder. At considerable risk, Emma/Anna gathers information from the Kommandant's office that is filtered to the resistance. At this same time, she finds herself increasingly attracted to the Kommandant--a feeling that is clearly mutual. The question of the lengths to which she will go to aid the resistance is provocative and handled quite well. I particularly appreciated the fact that while Emma/Anna is horrified by her physical and increasingly emotional relationship with someone she previously could only have seen as a monster, she never lied to herself or whitewashed the complexity of her feelings for Richwalder and the degree to which she willingly compromised her wedding vows. This is a very clever story in which the reader is not beaten over the head with the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis. Far more effectively, Jenoff conveys the horror of sites such as Auschwitz by relaying how shocked the otherwise hardened Kommandant was after a visit there. While there is considerable violence in the story, it is generally off stage, but ever-present. The story also takes the opportunity to question the senseless acts of violence perpetrated by the young men in the resistance--some of whom utterly fail to consider the long-term costs of their short-term victories. With such tough subject material, I was very pleasantly surprised by what a page-turner The Kommandant's Girl turned out to be. (less)

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Apr 05, 2009 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 04, 2009 Christina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-reads

The Kommandant’s Girl begins slowly with Emma and the little boy she is hidden with, Lukasz, out shopping for food, but the story quickly picks up its pace, immediately grabbing me in the next chapter and refusing to let me go. I kept turning those pages, and I was very annoyed when I had to put it down to go out to eat with my family.

The novel, Jenoff’s first, is told from Emma/Anna’s point of view, but it’s beautifully written, a rarity with first-person accounts. It’s impossible to hate Emma/...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Courtney Stockstill rated it 3 of 5 stars

Glad I got this book from the library and didn't pay $8.99 for it. I'm giving it 3 stars. It could have been better. The overall subject was interesting and had the potential to be a 5 star book, but I thought the author did a less than average job writing the story. Some of the details were not realistic, like hiding paper's under her blouse, but making the mistake of leaving some of them exposed. Or like dropping the key to the Kommandant's apartment on the floor. I'm pretty sure it was 1941 w...more

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Nov 09, 2012 Sherry Chiger rated it 1 of 5 stars

Maybe it's unfair to review a book that one didn't properly finish. But The Kommandant's Girl is a fail on so many levels that after reading more than half and then skimming the remainder, I feel the need to warn people from investing in it.

Despite the pedestrian (at best) prose, the book starts promisingly enough, providing an unusual glimpse into the Krakow ghetto shortly after the Nazi occupation of Poland. But the emotions that the narrator, a Jew passing as a Catholic Pole, succumbs to rega...more

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May 22, 2009 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Rating 3-1/2.

This is a novel about a young, married, Jewish girl, Emma Bau, who goes into hiding in plain sight in the City of Krakow, Poland. The events take place over a year from March 1941 to March 1942. Among the ways that Emma “hides” herself is her assumption of a new Christian identity as “Anna Lipowski” living with her husband’s aunt, Krysia, a Catholic, as well as her work as a secretary for the Kommandant of the city of Krakow, who has the unbelievable name of Georg Richwalder. The K...more Rating 3-1/2.

This is a novel about a young, married, Jewish girl, Emma Bau, who goes into hiding in plain sight in the City of Krakow, Poland. The events take place over a year from March 1941 to March 1942. Among the ways that Emma “hides” herself is her assumption of a new Christian identity as “Anna Lipowski” living with her husband’s aunt, Krysia, a Catholic, as well as her work as a secretary for the Kommandant of the city of Krakow, who has the unbelievable name of Georg Richwalder. The Kommandant and Anna are very attracted to each other. Because the resistance needs the information that the Kommandant is privy to, Anna allows a romantic alliance to begin between her and Georg so that she can search his apartment office.

There were a lot of very convenient events in this book which seriously stretched the imagination. For instance, the resistance meets their contacts at the same restaurant on the same day of the week and same time, yet they are never discovered by the Gestapo. There are many more similar events which allow the plot to move along but, given the history of the area, do not fit.

This book could have been so much more than it was. The city of Krakow has a rich history, not least of it during the years of 1941 to 1943 when Krakow instituted its Jewish ghetto. Emma/Anna does spend a few weeks in the ghetto at the very beginning of its creation, but she is then spirited out to live with Krysia and begin her “new” life. Because Emma’s husband, Jacob, is a member of the Jewish resistance we learn a little about their organization and the part they play in saving some from the ghetto, but the book ends three months before the first “resettlement” of the Jews out of the ghetto, which ends with the emptying of the ghetto in March 1943. I believe the author could have used this material with Emma and Jacob to create a much more credible, exciting, and interesting book. Instead, the author took all the easy roads and the reader was left wanting more.
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Dec 10, 2012 Stephanie Bee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Being the World War II buff that I am, and being a romantic which is the cherry on top, I was immediately drawn to The Kommandant's Girl. It was a relatively easy read, one that I finished within a night. As far as making her characters relatable and the storyline interesting, Ms. Jenoff did a great job. Reading along, I was able to feel the fear, attraction, guilt and regret that Emma felt. I appreciated the internal conflict that the war caused for Emma (which I'm certain many people during th...more

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Oct 25, 2010 Tasha enderby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, world-war-ii

This was a heartbreaking story of a women caught inbetween the man she loved, a man she couldn't help but to care. This book kept me on my toes I can't imagine going from being placed inside a ghetto to having to live a lie in a small village. Always worrying that someone will find out I was a Jew. Talk about stress but then to be asked to pose as a secratery for a Kommandant, and let him fall in love with you so you can sneak out information to the resistance. This is more then I could deal wit...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: historical romance lovers

I've read plenty of historical fiction in the past, but never have I read one set during WWII. I was pleasantly surprised, as I wasn't sure how immersed I would be. For Jenoff's first venture, she's created a well versed and rounded sense of what it must have been like during the time of the Nazi's rise in Poland. It was a very quick read for me, which was a little disappointing, but that could also mean it makes for being a page turner. Emma/Anna is placed in quite the situation (as were most o...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Marg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I learnt an important lesson with this book. If someone has hidden a review because of spoilers, chances are there are spoilers!

I had less than 40 pages to go when I clicked on a review and was totally spoiled for the major climactic events of the book, and that's despite the fact that I snuck a look at the last page which didn;t reveal anything major.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whilst it wasn't a deliberate choice on my part, it does seem very fitting to be posting about this book on Remembrance Day,...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Missy Cahill added it

A very average read. The events i felt, even though the author had lived in Poland didnt live up to the timeline she claimed they did in the book. The love story between the kommandant and 'Anna' felt really false and unbelievable. Anna claims to have fancied him, but the majority of the time she spent with him was in absolute revulsion. It had all the makings of a great story, unfortunately it was not told that well at all. The use of tenses was absolutely shocking, and the ending left a lot to...more

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May 12, 2009 Melanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club, war, historical-fiction

I have been fascinated with books I have read on WWII. I am always humbled as I realize how fortunate I am to live without fear on the deep level so many endured.

This book was pretty good; rarely have I had such a white-knuckled grip on the book I was reading. Some parts were very intense and suspenseful. I found myself wondering what I would have done in Emma's situation. How far would I go to help with a resistance group? Emma sacrifices everything, including her marital covenant (reader aler...more

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About Pam Jenoff

Pam Jenoff was born in Maryland and raised outside Philadelphia. She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Cambridge University in England. Upon receiving her master’s in history from Cambridge, she accepted an appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. The position provided a unique opportunity to witness and participate in operations at the most senio...more

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The Diplomat's Wife (The Kommandant's Girl, #2)

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Quotes from The Kommandant's Girl

“I'm so sorry. I love you. I never could have hurt you.” — 5 people liked it

“Anna is something wrong " he asked his brow furrowed.

Yes I want to say. You ran a prison camp for Jews. You keep my parents locked in the ghetto. You let your wife's father be killed and would kill Jacob too if given the chance. Your wretched Gestapo came to our house and now Lukasz might have to leave us. Let me count the ways. Of course I did not dare to say any of this. "No Herr Kommandant " I replied managing to keep my voice even. "Everything is fine.” — 1 person liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/374494.The_Kommandant_s_Girl?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347986739l/374494.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/374494.The_Kommandant_s_Girl?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff[/url]

The Kommandant's Girl (The Kommandant's Girl #1)

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