The Nine

The Nine tells the true story of Hélène Podliasky, the author's great aunt, who led a group of nine female resistance fighters out of a German forced labor camp. Together they made a ten-day journey across the front lines of the Second World War, from Germany back to Paris.

All nine women were under thirty when they joined the resistance. They smuggled arms across Europe, sheltered agents who had parachuted in, coordinated communications between regional sectors, trekked escape routes to Spain and hid Jewish children in scattered apartments. They were arrested by French police and interrogated and tortured by the Gestapo. They passed through a series of French prisons before being deported to Germany.

The group came together gradually, with the women meeting at different points in prison, in transit and at Ravensbrück. By the time they were enslaved at the labor camp in Leipzig, they had become close friends. In the final days of the war they were forced onto a death march, and the nine chose their moment to make a daring escape.

Gwen Strauss draws on extensive research to tell this story of humanity and friendship in the darkest of times.