THE GIRLS OF THE GLIMMER FACTORY

The beliefs of two young German women set them on a harrowing collision course under Nazi reign.

Hannah Kaufman, a member of a Jewish family from Munich that had initially sought refuge in Prague, remains there with her beloved grandfather as the rest of their family travels to safety in Palestine. Instead of having the family reunion they long for, Hannah and her Opa find themselves among the thousands transported to the Theresienstadt camp. Although touted by the Nazi propaganda machine as a model settlement for Jews, the camp in fact subjected its inmates to constant peril, abasement, and surveillance. At the same time Hannah struggles for survival and meaningful resistance, Hilde Kramer-Bischoff, her childhood best friend and a German national, strives to advance her faltering career within the Third Reich. She is childless, a war widow, and still searching for her place in the world after a lifetime of perceived rejection and abandonment. Her efforts at rising within the same propaganda operation that obscured the true nature of life at Theresienstadt result in an unanticipated reunion with her former friend as well as an opportunity for both women to act on behalf of the causes they believe in. Coburn’s extensively researched narrative conveys the full horror of conditions at the camp (cynically purported to be Hitler’s “gift to the Jews”) while highlighting the artistic and cultural accomplishments of the camp’s population. Hilde’s infatuation with life and advancement within the German war machine is portrayed, believably, as a case study of personal ambition and blind allegiance to a national movement. Family ties, religious belief, and the sustaining power of the arts in the face of oppression are explored in a story of human values tested under the most horrific of circumstances.

An unvarnished portrait of ugliness, bravery, and banal self-interest.