Lilac Girls

In the summer of 1945, Kasia learns the full story of what happened in the war while they were at Ravensbrück. She is enraged that the Allied countries did not come sooner at the reports of Auschwitz. Stalin has been tightening his control over Poland; the Red Army and the NKVD, Stalin’s law enforcement agency, have been killing former political dissenters. Kasia finds Kornel Makuszynski’s Satan from the Seventh Grade that Nadia hid for her in their secret place. In it, she finds all 10 of Pietrik’s dance tickets that Nadia bought for her. When Kasia gets home, she digs up the tin cans buried in the backyard. They open the cans up and their most precious things are finally returned to them. Papa, Zuzanna, and Kasia hold each other as they cried.

A while later, Kasia hears from her father that the NKVD are keeping an eye out for the Rabbits. The Red Army believes that the women might be German spies. Papa tells Kasia to burn all the letters and her former Girl Guide uniform. Zuzanna saves one letter for Kasia and they burn the rest. Kasia has been assisting the nursing wing at the hospital, helping to clean the bandages of soldiers with the most gruesome injuries.