Lilac Girls

Hope is a pervasive theme throughout the entirety of Kelly’s Lilac Girls. Hope functions as a beacon in a dark time that allows the women to continue forward, to come unstuck. Kasia’s description of their time in post-invasion Lublin describes the war best: “After that, we were like flies stuck in honey, alive but not really living” (65). This space between life and death keeps them in a perpetual uncertainty and unknowing. Not only are they unsure of their fates, but also the fortunes of their countries and the world are unknown. The war places these women on the constant edge of the unfamiliar; they become aware that the people in power could rip their lives from them in an instant. Hope functions as a catalyst for each of the different women.

Hope manifests for Kasia and Suzanna as an individual named Herr Fenstermacher. The old electrician visits them at the bunkers and sings while he works:

But not just any songs. His own songs, made up of the newspaper headlines of the day. Yes, we knew about some war events just by listening to the distant thud of bombs to our south. But Herr Fenstermacher brought us, at great risk to himself, a gift more precious than gold.