Diamonds in Auschwitz
Deep inhumanity is contrasted with the boundless potential for hope in the historical novel Diamonds in Auschwitz.
Meg Hamand’s riveting historical novel Diamonds in Auschwitz follows a handful of Jewish people as they navigate World War II and the Holocaust.
Samual converts from Judaism to Christianity when he moves to Prague to work as an architect. When he sets his sights on wooing Hanna, who retains her Jewish identity and community, the Nazi occupation of Prague is just beginning. Together, they watch as the brutality escalates. Hanna defies the law to keep the diamond engagement ring Samual gave her.
Rachael is already numb when she arrives in Auschwitz, stripped of her family and her dignity. She plans to continue that way until she meets Chaya, a resilient, animated girl who reminds Rachael of her daughter Catarina, who was sent to the gas chambers upon arrival at the camp. Rachael also finds a diamond ring in the mud, and the mere act of keeping it a secret from the Nazis brings her back to life, replacing despair with resistance.
The narrative threads close in on each other via a chronicle of the deportation of the Jewish population of Prague to prison camps and concentration camps. Samual and Hanna scramble to survive. Rachael struggles to shelter Chaya as it becomes clear that the war is turning against the Nazis. As the signs of Nazis’ defeat increase, so does their abuse of the prisoners, leading Rachael to undertake drastic measures to protect Chaya. Hanna’s ring is the link between the two timelines, though another is later revealed.
Hanna, an artist, and Rachael, who sees the faces and eye colors of her deceased family in the drab surroundings of the concentration camp, narrate. Even in heartbreaking moments, they retain their attention to detail, contrasting instances of brutal oppression with the prewar glamour of Prague to poignant effect. As the book continues, the women strive for hope and moments of joy even as they endure tragedies. Hanna teaches art to a group of children in the ghetto, delighting in their expressive drawings, mere days before they are deported; Rachael feeds Chaya stories while they survive on stolen scraps of food, nourishing her soul and body. The juxtaposition of the barbaric and the beautiful speaks both to personal resilience and to broader factors of the human condition.
In the compelling historical novel Diamonds in Auschwitz, Jewish people with interwoven lives uplift one another in defiance of the dehumanization they endure.
Reviewed by
Jeana Jorgensen
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