“Auschwitz never forgot me. I begged it to. But even as I wept and bargained and withered it took care to know my number, and to count every soul that it claimed. We were so innumerable, we should have overwhelmed this land beneath us into nothingness. But this patch of earth would not be overwhelmed. Some claimed that we might overwhelm it when we fully understood its evil. But whenever we began to understand evil, evil itself increased. Others believed that hope might overwhelm it. But whenever hope flourished, so did our tortures.”
“Everyone survived by planning. I could see that. I realized that Stasha and I would have to divide the responsibilities of living between us. Such divisions had always come naturally to us, and so there, in the early-morning dark, we divvied up the necessities: Stasha would take the funny, the future, the bad. I would take the sad, the past, the good.”
Mischling. Everything I expected and yet nothing like it simultaneously.
Mischling is the story of two girls, identical twins, who find themselves in the care, if by some horrific stretch of the imagination you can call it that, of Josef Mengele, a physician who took particular interest in twins during WWII. The first half of the book occurs within the walls of the Zoo, the portion of Auschwitz where Mengele's patients are kept, and the second half during the troubling and confusing time after the camp was liberated.
Mischling is beautifully written and if you didn't wish you had a twin before, you will once you read of the deep emotional and vital connection that Konar describes. Though the topic is troubling, the story is told as if it is being recounted and often the most disturbing details are glossed over, as they are too damaging and traumatizing to relive. We get hints through the whole thing of what is being done, but we are saved the frightening details, although the twins themselves were not.
I had to compartmentalize while reading this book. I could accept it if I told myself it was just a book. But even if Pearl and Stasha are not real, the events described are. And that is wrenching and overwhelming on its own.
I highly recommend this book, to not only lovers of WWII and historical fiction, but to those who love to read of survivors, of fighters, of living despite the odds. Of family, of love in terrible times. Do not read this book if you admire revenge and seek justice, for there is none of that here.
I loved it, was thrilled, appalled and enraptured by it. And (shh, spoilers!!) it had a happy ending, which resolved my heart quite nicely.
p.s. Not a swear word in the whole book. No sexual references or content. That does not mean it does not mean it is fit for all audiences; as we all know, some terrible things happened in Auschwitz. But this book does not get gore-y often or detailed, so it is up to your discretion. Probably the least scarring book about Auschwitz that I've come across, as it is told from the perspective of 12 year olds who would rather not remember the details, let alone recount them.
