Martha Hall Kelly's Blog: Martha's Blog, page 4
February 19, 2023
The Ravensbruck Kinderzimmer: A Horrible Experiment
My latest novel The Golden Doves features a scene set in one of the worst blocks at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, the Kinderzimmer, where my French character Arlette is assigned with her baby Willy.
In the later stages of the war many women arrived at the camp pregnant and this posed a problem for the Nazi camp staff. Desperate for workers and concerned that many of the new mothers became despondent when their newborns were taken away and were unable to be productive, they cleared out one of the barracks and created a special ward for the mothers. They named it the kinderzimmer or children’s room, a maternity block, as shown in the prisoner illustration above.
At first the prisoners felt bolstered by the idea that their children would be looked after when they went off to work and their fellow prisoners assigned to the kinderzimmer did what they could to care for the babies. They organized rags to use as diapers, cut the fingers off of rubber gloves to make bottles. But the mothers and caregivers realized the camp staff provided no food for the children and they wasted away, even while SS Nurse Elisabeth Marschall (featured in Lilac Girls) hoarded Red Cross packages and milk and porridge.
The haunting illustration above, which depicts the early days of the block, is the only one I know of and was key to my describing the block in The Golden Doves.
But some children born at Ravensbruck managed to survive, including little Manfred, below, true miracles.
Translation: Birth and baptismal certificate of one of the children born in K.L.Ravensbruck. Little Manfred, who miraculously survived the concentration camp, found godparents in Wein.
October 14, 2022
A Lovely Ukranian Reader Reached Out
A Ukranian reader, Iryna Kostina, just reached out with kind thoughts about Lilac Girls. It brings the horrors of war closer to talk with people going through it. Her thoughts below…
Hello! I’m so grateful for this book! I’m from Ukraine. This book helped me to understand that really kind people stay kind in any case. But fake kind people show their faces in difficult times. We stay strong! and support our army. I saw your book first time in May 2021 and huge book exhibition in Kiev. I noticed it for myself but that time I was not ready for this story. But in a year, after staying in bombshells, after being left by some relatives and friends I understood the story. I felt it.
You can find Iryna on Instagram here: @iskotina
and Facebook:
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September 29, 2022
So Honored To See My Book Here.
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The Golden Doves Early Reader Copies Are Here
It’s been a long time coming, but it’s such a thrill to see the new copies of Golden Doves winging their way out to librarians and booksellers and reviewers. But April 18th can’t come soon enough–when I can share it with everyone.
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December 28, 2021
Woohoo– the Sunflower Sisters Paperback is Here!
This photo is so beautiful and says it all–Sunflower Sisters is here! (Thank you to the wonderful shejustlovesbooks for posting it!)
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Woohoo– the Sunflower Sisters Paperback is Here!
This photo is so beautiful and says it all–Sunflower Sisters is here! (Thank you to the wonderful shejustlovesbooks for posting it!)
July 22, 2021
Amazing Sunflower Sisters Event at Dame Farm
What a fun sunflower-themed event this was with the fabulous Robin Homonoff of Reading with Robin, at Dame Farm and Orchards in Johnston Rhode Island.
Robin and daughter Emily, photographer extraordinaire
Everyone got a copy of Sunflower Sisters, sunflowers and blueberries. My blueberries were gone by the time I made it home. Delicious!
Such a lovely crowd!
Denise Cabral sunflower fan
So happy I could do my first live, in-person event in so long with Reading with Robin. Follow Robin on Instagram here: @Robinkall, her photographer daughter Emily (for more of her gorgeous photos) here: @emilyhomonoff, and find Robin’s website here: www.robinkall.com/readingwithrobin
So much fun hanging out with wonderful readers!
Can’t wait for my next Reading with Robin event…she always makes it so much fun and goes above and beyond!
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April 8, 2021
Sunflower Sisters Digital Kit Makes a Fabulous Bookclub Easy
The new digital bookclub download for Sunflower Sisters makes putting together a bookclub night so much fun. Full of helpful things like discussion questions, a Woolsey family tree and recipes and beverages inspired by those in the book, it’s a great bookclub partner. Find it here on marthahallkelly.com: file:///Users/marthakelly/Downloads/Book%20Club%20Kit.pdf
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April 5, 2021
A Crazy Number of Bonnets in Sunflower Sisters
One of the best things about writing Sunflower Sisters was researching the Civil War bonnet. All three main characters wear them and Anne-May the plantation mistress is especially frantic when the war cuts off her supply of new ones.
I was surprised at the many different types: mourning, casual, dressy, sunbonnets, bonnets for field work, bonnets for short social calls, for longer social calls, special bonnets for church, for young girls, bonnets for every season. I love these old photos of women in their bonnets and the pics at the bottom of those that have survived from the period. Can you find my very own bonnet?
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March 31, 2021
Sisters Just Make Everything Better.
One of the best memories I have is of my sister Polly Simpkins surprising me at the book launch party for my first book Lilac Girls, by coming down from her home on Martha’s Vineyard to The Corner Bookstore in New York. She’s one of those people who do those kind of things, goes out of her way to make other people’s lives better.
Though we couldn’t do in-person events this year, she’s supporting my new book Sunflower Sisters at her local bookstore, The Bunch of Grapes in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, our mother’s favorite bookstore when she was alive, and is bringing books to all my mother’s friends. I think my mom would love that she’s doing that.
If you’d like a little shot of bliss in your day visit Polly’s blog here: https://acupofkarma.com/ Don’t miss her amazing bead page.
Do you have someone in your life who goes out of their way to make people happy?
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