The extremes a woman would go to give her sister the chance to escape from a hell-hole jail is just one of the moral dilemmas in this novel. The best-selling author, Ken Follett, once said moral dilemmas made the best stories. Marion Kummerow has done just that in this novel set in Germany in 1943.

Lotte Klausen is an impulsive, rebellious and outspoken teenager. She lives with her aunt and cousins because her mother thinks it’s too dangerous for her to be in Berlin. But her mother’s fear that Lotte’s fiery personality will get her – and others – into trouble is realised when Lotte harbours Jewish children whose parents have been taken away. She’s caught and endures the awful consequences.

She ends up at the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp for women. Lotte’s sister, Anna, active in the resistance, has come to rescue her but the price she has to pay is enormous.

Marion Kummerow skilfully paints a picture of war-time Germany’s brutality and horror. But there’s also love and tenderness. The complexities and reality of what life was like is all here.

Lotte is a loveable character motivated by good. She has help along the way but ultimately she is left to battle for survival on her own. She develops into a brave opponent of the Nazi regime. Her evolution and depth is one of the many strengths of this page-turning novel.

War Girl Lotte is part of an eponymous series but can be read on its own. The author’s love and resistance series, which I’ve also read, is a must for World War II fiction fans.

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