There are many memoirs surrounding the events of WWII, but I'm not sure there are many which tackle it the way Franci's War does. It remains to be a memoir, but the approach is quite different, with a sudden change in narrative style around 30% of the way through. I haven't really considered before how the undeniably out-of-body experience a concentration camp evokes could be represented in literature, other than a standard approach; Franci's War perfectly captures that experience, demonstrating the slip in persona remarkably well.

As with many stories of this nature, the novel takes us through the life of a prisoner. Franci Rabinek is a non-practising Czechoslovakian Jew who finds herself throughout the early part of her life travelling between concentration camps, tenuously maintaining any friendship she can to keep grounded. This is also a complete journey, including pictures of Franci and some closure about her life after her time in the concentration camps.

I struggled with the narrative voice sometimes as Franci's story unravels. Rather than feeling an emotional connection to Franci, I felt as though I was presented with a series of facts or fleeting events, leaving me quite detached from Franci herself; unfortunately it also makes the novel feel more like a descriptive list in parts which doesn't at all do Franci justice. Naturally the gravity and magnitude of the environment remains to be hard-hitting, but I feel a memoir should feel more personal in terms of understanding the personality of those affected and I can't say that I finished this book feeling like I really knew Franci.

Nevertheless, if I could every personal account of this tragic time I would. God knows it's the least we can do.

ARC provided from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What a book this is! This tells the true story of Franci, a young girl living in Czechoslovakia at the start of WWII. Franci works in her parents dressmaking business and has just met and married a young man called Joe. Joe takes many many risks as he struggles with the oppression that the Jews find themselves suddenly dealing with, from having their possessions taken from them to being rounded up and shipped off to ghetto's.

Without wanting to spoil the story, or diminish it in any way by trying to describe what happens to Franci and her friends and family, this is best described as a story of survival against the odds. Written almost entirely in the first person (as it was experienced by Franci herself) makes this hard hitting and immediate for the reader.

This is another example of Jewish memoir from one of the most traumatic and brutal times in modern history.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A heartbreaking recollection of events from the holocaust. I was unable to put this book down and I felt the sorrow through every page and every word. Such a remarkable story and remarkable woman to have survived the things she did

I have read several books about the holocaust but this one really struck home. It describes the relationships with others camp members in a way a lot of other books I have read don't really delve into. A great insight into the horrors faced and how Franci persevered. Thought provoking and definitely recommended.

A very moving and forthright account of a Jewish woman's experiences during the Holocaust. As with other similar accounts I have read, this was written in a very matter of fact way with no frills, and it was all the better for this. Note: in this ARC I found the lack of "th", "fl" and "ff" very difficult to read, but this did not detract from the overall impact of the story.

This is the story of a courageous woman who endured the horrific conditions of concentration camps during World War 2. This is a first hand account, of such braveness and strength... this was a difficult, heartbreaking read and her story will stay with me for a long time.
Thank you for allowing me to read.

This is an incredibly moving and powerful account. What makes this different is we find out what happened after the horrors of the war. The author is so descriptive and honest that you feel as if you understand a little better what so many people went through. The pain never goes away and we should never forget.

I feel that the whole challenge with books of this genre is that once the participants are through the "gate" and into their "new life" they adapt to an extent and so what is in reality horrific becomes the mundane. This has a rather distorting effect because what a detached observer would see as horrific just does not get mentioned by the inmates as it is their norm.

Franci's War is just such an example. I found the book fascinating in its sense of normality and wish Franci's journal had been saved from the flames of the Kommandant's stove as I feel that would have been a more accurate view of her life as it was implied that was where she truly expressed her frustrations and fears.

Oddly perhaps, I found the Afterward written by her daughter, Helen Epstein, to be more evocative of the life and times of her mother and in some ways more interesting.

Over the years, I have read many books about "camp life" and this is quite likely to be my last because the world is rapidly losing sight of what life was really like for the people transported to and between the camps and who had their lives and families destroyed by the Nazi process. Modern portrayals and time passing continue to soften the view and, as the truths told at the Nürnberger Prozesse fade from the memory along with the people who did survive, the true reality will dissolve leaving increasing disbelief that concentration camps, pograms, ghettos and death marches could ever have existed or happened.

A heart breaking story of survival through unimaginable circumstances. I cried tears in place, was horrified by what was done to her as well as people’s reactions to her after the war. And throughout I felt her pain.i learnt so much more from this than all the other survivor stories. I visited Terazine when we lived in Belgium and I have an old book about this camp - I never got round to reading it and this will now be next on my list to read.
The ending, showing the photos, documenting dates and names of the real people was fascinating.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to find out more about WWII or about survival. Thank you for allowing me to read this amazing book.

This stands as a very interesting addition to the groaning shelves of Holocaust memoir. Its author was a young, fairly cosmopolitan woman in Prague, until – despite little truck with any religion – the fact of her having four Jewish grandparents conspired to make her a victim of the Nazis. The first chunk of the book then is her life in the Terezin ghetto, before she is moved on to Birkenau, which comes with its attendant change in the book, as she portrays the mental fracture this caused, and the dissociation with reality it needed, by switching her narrative from the first to the third person, while keeping a collective "us" to show what everyone was subjected to. It's an awkward approach to describe, but not ineffective.

Before then we'd had what could only be described as a calm telling, meaning we didn't lack for vivid recollection, but nor really did we see the true horror of the times, or feel the real galling reality of being labelled an unwanted Untermensch. Still, this less horrific telling of the woman's experiences may well be needed, if someone wants to know what went on but fears finding things too bleak and too nasty to read about. I'm putting that comment in, not because I needed this to be more sensationalist, but because it could be a decider for someone thinking of buying this. As an experienced reader of the genre I was a little surprised at how calm, and almost distanced, some of the narration is – while the text may have been a little brazen in its mention of sex and sexuality when it was first typed up in the 1970s, it doesn't feel that way now, and often I did feel things lacking a little impact for being so reserved. Still, four stars plus.

This is the memoir of Franci Epstein who in 1942 was sent like many other Jews to Terezin, a concentration camp near a Prague. Over a three year period she she was sent to Auschwitz and then Bergen Belsen. Her history was as a dress designer but lied to Dr Mengele and told him she was an electrician
This Is a powerful account of a strong and brave woman who endured and survived ..

Franci’s story is a wonderful tribute to her life. She overcame so much to survive World War 2 and start again after it. This is a powerful story which needs to be read. We should never forget the horrific suffering and deaths in the concentration camps.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This book was so moving....loved the story and the journey of the characters.
Learnt a lot about life in Austwich, its harrowing and made me cry in parts

This is the story of Franci and her life from the summer of 1942 when she was twenty-two years old and a successful dress designer in Prague.
That was when she entered the concentration camp at Terezin to the north of Prague. It follows her to Auschwitz and finally to Belsen.
This is her story of survival, friendships horror and courage.

Franci was only 22 when her comfortable life was torn from her and she was sent to Terezin for being designated a Jew. Her Mother told her it was her duty to stay alive. How did she do this living through such hell there and later Auschwitz-Birkenau?
This is a very moving memoir of a woman who not only survived but also went on to find love and safety later in life.
We should always remember the victims and survivors of the Second World War.

I always find it hard to say I enjoyed these type of books because of the content but I did enjoy the book.
This is another true story of the Holocaust.
Fascinating and traumatic.i still cannot imagine how it felt to actually live this.
Well worth a read

Franci's War a book in 3 parts the Young Franci's the sower and business lady a high achiever and a special lady that's how I read it, then the trauma years of À4116, then we'll I will let you find out and you don't want to miss that.
It is impossible even from books like this to imagine the full extent of what the Jews faced in those years of the Second World War, but this is a taste of one ladies battle it involves many heroes and then the Nazis and I don't think I will ever understand why they agreed to act that way fear or obeying orders whatever the reason it must of haunted then till the day they died. But that still doesn't cut it or explain it. However this is Franci's story not theirs
Franci's family were in Prague when there lives were shaken to the core, they weren't practicing Jews infact they had registered as Catholics but that meant nothing to the invading army they took their rights away their company their possessions, then moved them to the ghetto all the while trying to rob them off dignity and would take away their status as human if they could.
The story of the Holocaust is one of the most evil and horrendous events of human history one the world must never forget. But it is also the events of individuals many that will never be remembered as individuals but that's what this was on a mass scale but everyone sent to a Ghetto was an individual a single life that mattered to others a son or a daughter also many parents grandparents they were starved humiliated on a scale never known in recent history of ever. So why read this because each Jew is a, person who has a story to tell one that stands head and tail above the odds. The fact is that they all became hero's we know most died they are still hero's some survived and lived with the guilt of that when they have nothing to be guilty about. I understand why they felt that it's human nature is about love of those they lost.
This is a book i recommend highly it is a story that needs to be heard shouts out to be heard so please bear what Franci's had to say and let her be one of your hero's.

Franci's War id the true story of Franci Rabinek Epstein , a feisty young from Prague who despite ,like her parents, never thinking of herself as Jewish was seen as such by the Nazis because of her Grandparents and spent the war in a variety of concentration camps. While Franci was alive there was little interest in publishing her book, which has finally ,and deservedly , made it into print through the efforts of her daughter Helen.
Franci is a free spirit and often gets into trouble or makes herself unpopular with some of the decisions she makes and the book is a very honest,possibly why publishers shied away in a different era when she tried to interest them in her book ,and her openness about sex, in the camps and her personal life would have seemed quite shocking.. From the Terezin Ghetto to Auschwitz then Bergen Belsen via a slave labour camp near Hamburg that was bombed by the Allies this is a candid account of shocking events laced with stories of rebellion and the best and worst of human nature. I was particularly struck by the story of the horrors of Bergen Belsen camp and the appalling and almost unbelievable that the British Army saw when they liberated it as an elderly neighbour of mine ,now sadly passed on,was with those troops as a nurse and was haunted by what she saw for the rest of her life......and became an Atheist as a result.
Sadly Franci never lived to see her book published but part of her daughter's contribution is a record of her later life, how her old friends from Prague and the camps kept in touch and the full and fruitful life she enjoyed after the war.
A great read that was well-worth the wait ,it took too long but Franci's eloquent and brave narrative can now be shared. She was very much ahead of her time in her thoughts and the way she lived her life ,this isn't a dry Holocaust memoir ,Franci is someone many women today will be able to identify with in the same way young girls can identify with Ann Frank.

Many thanks to Helen Epstein for sharing her Mother's amazing story and Penguin UK and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

This book is a very powerful account of a young Czech Jewish girl's experience during WWII.Being moved to four different camps Franci was determined to survive , such an inspiring woman and so brave .Franci did survive but when she returned to Prague after the war was over, nothing was the same she had lost everything including her Family and business but she was a survivor .Many thanks to the Publisher the Author and Netgalley for my review copy in return for an honest review.

Franci’s War is the memoir of Franci Rabinek a non-practising Czech Jew and the horrors that she experiences in WW2. Franci, came from a quite well-off family that owned their own Fashion house.
This story shows the story shows Franci’s journey from Prague, to the horrors of the concentration camps to the Liberation and to her then making a life for herself in America after the war. The sheer determination of her survival. This is a straightforward tale of an account of what happened.
Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Micheal Joseph for a copy of this book. I have read several books of this nature but never a memoir. To be honest I found this book quite hard to get into. There was no personalization. It was just hard cold facts. The copy had so many typos in it, but l learned later that this was deliberate as it was written this way originally. I understood that but for me I could not engage in this book properly because of this. 3 stars from me.