Lilac Girls

Paul is a handsome French actor who meets Caroline in the spring of 1939. He falls in love with her but has a wife back in France. According to him, Rena is no longer interested in being with him. Paul and Caroline strike up a romance, but when Germany attacks France, he feels compelled to return to France to help his wife. While there, they have a baby and drop her off at a convent the day before the Gestapo arrives. Paul is taken to a concentration camp in the mountains for years. When the war ends, he writes to Caroline and she comes to care for him. They believe Rena is dead and both wish to move forward with their relationship. Things become strained between them when Caroline discovers that not only is Rena alive, but that Paul and Rena have a child.

Although Paul writes, calls, and visits Caroline as much as he can to try and reconcile with her, Caroline ignores him for 10 years. After Caroline meets his daughter and Paul tells her about Rena’s lover, they finally begin writing to each other again. 

Rena is Paul’s wife. She is described as being far younger than Paul and impossibly beautiful. Rena owns a lingerie shop in Paris. Both her and Paul do not get along, but the war brings them closer together and they conceive a child. Rena is Jewish and thus targeted by the Nazis when they finally seize control of the city. She is taken to Auschwitz but manages to escape by pretending to be dead; a kindly German family who nurses her back to health saves her. When Rena returns to Paris, she begs for Caroline to help her find their child. Caroline does. Rena eventually retires to an island in Greece with a lover half her age.

Leena is Paul and Rena’s daughter that Caroline finds at an orphanage at their urging. She grows up to become a child actress and is told stories about Caroline Ferriday all her life. Leena is unknowingly the catalyst for Paul and Caroline’s reconciliation. She invites Caroline to visit them in Paris and Caroline agrees.

Roger is Caroline’s boss at the French Consulate. He has a fondness for dancers and frequently sleeps over in his office with them for company. Roger supports Caroline in almost all her charitable pursuits, going so far as to grant her a higher security clearance during the war. He is, however, unable to ever give her a salary as Caroline remains only a volunteer for the consulate throughout most of the novel.

Formerly Kasia Kuzmerick, she is 16 years old when Germans attack Lublin. She is in love with Pietrik Bakoski, whom she eventually marries. In an attempt to get closer to Pietrik, she helps him in the underground movement to resist the Nazis. Kasia unknowingly leads an SS man straight to her family and Pietrik. They are all captured, and the women are forced to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Kasia survives the torture and medical experimentation at the camp and escapes with her sister Zuzanna. Kasia is kind and resilient; she is responsible for the secret letters coded in urine that end up alerting the world to the atrocities happening in Germany. Kasia feels responsible for her mother’s death and is unable to accept it. She is angry for a long time, unable to connect with her husband or her daughter. After confronting Herta Oberheuser, the doctor responsible for her wounds, she is able to move on.

Pietrik is Kasia’s first love and also her husband. Pietrik has loved Kasia since they were children. He blames his involvement in the underground for getting Kasia and her family captured. Pietrik is unable to come to terms with his survivor’s guilt for a long time. Pietrik tries to prod Kasia into happiness the same way that she was once there for him when the war had just ended. Despite his attempts, Kasia pulls further away from him. Pietrik loves Kasia and wants her to heal; he hugs her close when she finally returns to him from Stocksee.

Halina is Kasia and Pietrik’s 10-year-old daughter. Kasia wants to name her “Hope,” but Pietrik and her father already begin to call her Halina. She looks exactly like her grandmother. Halina even takes after her artistic ability.

Luiza, or Lou, is still in braces when the SS men take her along with Kasia, Zuzanna, Halina, and her brother. Luiza passes away at the camp as a result of the medical experiments. Both Kasia and Pietrik feel a tremendous amount of guilt for her death.

Nadia is Pietrik and Kasia’s best friend. She is part Jewish and Pietrik does his best to move her and her mother to safe apartments. Nadia and her mother are eventually captured. Kasia sees her years later in Ravensbrück for a moment before she is taken away on a death transport.

Zuzanna is Kasia’s older sister; she has just graduated medical school when the Germans take Lublin. She is kind and frequently helps others at the expense of her own health. Zuzanna is sterilized in the camp and eventually finds out that she has stomach cancer. Caroline manages to pull some strings and Zuzanna is cleared for air travel and eventually gets treatment at Mount Sinai. She falls in love with a man named Serge and together they adopt a little boy named Julien. Serge and Zuzanna open a restaurant together where she makes Polish desserts.

Halina, or Matka, is a beautiful woman with blonde hair. She is an artist who sketches portraits. When Poland falls to Germany, she strikes up a friendship with an SS man named Lennart. The nature of their relationship is unknown, just as her exact relationship with Herta is uncertain. Halina is a detail-oriented, strong, and brave woman. At the camp, she runs a tight ship at the hospital, and keeps infectious diseases at bay. Halina loves her children dearly and is ultimately caught trying to get the names of her daughters, Kasia, Zuzanna, and Luiza, off the experimentation list. Halina is shot at the wall when she least expects it, but not before saying goodbye to her children in the night.