Cilka's Journey

On the train to Vorkuta Gulag, Cilka sits in a crowded railway car with many other women, some with infants. The train eventually stops, and two men give the women a bucket of water and several hunks of bread before slamming the door shut. The women fight over the bread until one woman declares that they will all share. When the train starts again, Cilka meets Josie Kotecka, the granddaughter of the woman who organized sharing the bread. Cilka and Josie talk and get to know each other. Josie believes they’ve been traveling for nine days and in that time, eleven women and four infants have died, making the train car less crowded. Josie’s grandmother also eventually dies, so Josie stays close to Cilka.

Flashback to Auschwitz, 1942. Cilka and her sister Magda wait while lined up outside. Commandant Schwarzhuber arrives to help select who will live and who will die. He stops in front of Cilka and looks at her face and the number on her arm. The sisters make it through the selection process and get in line to have their tattoos re-inked. Cilka meets the tattooist of Auschwitz, Lale, and a beautiful girl named Gita. She and Cilka become friends. A soldier pulls Cilka aside at roll call the next day and sends her to the administration building.

Nights on the train grow cold, and the women lose track of time. At their final stop, the doors open, and dozens of men in uniform yell for the women to get out of the train car. The women form a line, struggling to stand and walk toward the distant buildings. Cilka and the other women enter a concrete bunker and are ordered to undress. Several soldiers hose the women down, laughing as they collapse under the water’s pressure. The women wrap themselves in thin towels as they exit the building, and then enter another and form four lines where men shave all the hair off their bodies. Cilka and Josie leave the room after their turn, and Josie vomits as they walk down a long corridor. They approach another room where male inmates select the women they want as bedmates. Cilka tells Josie to go with whichever man chooses her, telling her it’s best to endure and survive.

Flashback to Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1942. Cilka and Gita are sitting at work when an SS officer takes Cilka to a building on the other side of the women’s camp. Inside the barracks stands Schwarzhuber, who tells Cilka that she will be the leader of Block 25. He then takes her to a small room and rapes her.

A female guard tells Cilka and Josie that the men in the room are trusties, senior prisoners who hold positions of power and influence in the camp. Cilka steps into the room and is chosen by a man named Boris. Josie enters next, and a man named Vadim chooses her. The women leave the building and enter another, where each receives a shirt, pants, a heavy coat, and a hat—all gray. Cilka and Josie enter the yard and see the camp’s many buildings, which vary in size and shape. Despite the late-summer sunshine, there is snow on the ground. The two women follow the line to Hut 29 and enter to see beds with mattresses lining the wall and a stove in the middle. The brigadier, Antonina Karpovna, introduces herself and leaves the women to get settled.

Josie and Cilka claim beds next to each other at the far end of the room, hoping for privacy. They meet a girl named Natalya, who is Russian but lived in Poland before being sent to Vorkuta. She goes to put more coal in the stove, but Cilka cautions against it, drawing the other women’s attention. Josie and Cilka fall asleep and wake up to Antonina ordering all the women out of the hut. The 20 women form lines outside the hut and then move to the mess building. With no space to sit in the mess, Cilka and Josie stand against the wall and drink their mug of soup, saving their bread for later. Antonina takes the women back to the hut and explains her rules; she demands order and cleanliness, and anyone who does not follow the rules will go to solitary confinement. She then hands each prisoner her number and says they must sew them onto their clothes tonight. Antonina leaves the women to sew, and Cilka, Josie, and Natalya go outside to find more coal. They return with a full bucket, and Cilka sews on her and Josie’s numbers.

The women of Hut 29 wake at six o’clock the following morning. Antonina enters the hut and inspects them before allowing them to go to breakfast. When the women return, they line up for roll call and then march with the other prisoners to the camp gate and the coal mind beyond. Another prisoner teaches Cilka, Josie, and Natalya to use buckets to move coal from a large pile into carts for transport. Because they are so weak, they can only fill their buckets half full. After several hours, the prisoners march back to their huts and collapse onto their beds in exhaustion.

Flashback to Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1943. Cilka stands outside Block 25 as SS officers line women up for roll call. The SS will soon send these women to the gas chamber. When she sees an officer beating a group of women, Cilka verbally lashes out at them to protect them from the officer’s beatings and ushers them inside the block.

The narrative shifts back to Vorkuta, where Cilka’s days are long and exhausting. At night, the women talk, sharing memories and exchanging stories. On the way to dinner one night, someone pushes Josie from behind, forcing her forward. She reaches out a hand to steady herself, burning her hand on the flue. Cilka immediately puts Josie’s hand in the snow and wraps it with a torn bed sheet before leading her to dinner.

After breakfast the next day, Antonina walks Josie and Cilka to the camp hospital. Cilka and Josie sleep in the waiting room until the receptionist calls their number. They are given a clipboard and taken to a screened-off section of the ward to wait. Cilka helps Josie fill out the form, and Josie explains why she was arrested and sent to Vorkuta, but Cilka evades Josie’s questions about her own past. Yelena Georgiyevna enters the room and helps Cilka finish filling out the form, encouraging Cilka to continue writing in Russian. She treats Josie for first-degree burns and orders her not to work for two weeks and to have her dressings changed daily, also giving her a note to that effect. Yelena then offers Cilka a job at the hospital, but Cilka says she’s happy to work with the other women at the mine, knowing that good jobs come with a price. Yelena then suggests that Cilka come work in the hospital just while Josie gets her hand treated, and Cilka agrees. Yelena gives Cilka a note explaining the arrangement, and the two women return to the hut.

Cilka and Josie fall asleep and wake up to the other women returning from work. Antonina enters, and Cilka gives her Yelena’s notes. Two women—Elena and Hannah—are upset about Cilka’s new job. As they walk to dinner, Cilka and Josie tell the rest of the women about their day at the hospital. After lights out, a group of men enters the hut; they’ve come to take advantage of the women they’ve chosen. Boris goes to Cilka, who tries to stop Josie’s screaming and her attempts to escape. She tells Josie they have no choice but to let the men have what they want. Hand in hand, Josie and Cilka keep eye contact through their ordeal. When Boris finishes, he tells Cilka that no other man will touch her or Josie. He then tells the other men to get out, leaving the sobbing women behind.

The next day, Josie’s face is swollen and bruised from Vadim’s rough treatment, and she refuses to speak to Cilka. After breakfast, Antonina takes the two women to the hospital. Yelena sees Josie’s injuries, and Josie blames Cilka for failing to protect her and fight off the men. Yelena understands the situation and takes them into an exam room to change Josie’s bandage and dressing, then introduces the women to two nurses who will train Cilka to file records and fetch medication. Cilka learns her tasks quickly, impressing the nurses. When given lunch, she takes it to Josie, who refuses to touch it and tells Cilka she doesn’t want anything from her. When they return to Hut 29, they find it’s been searched and left a mess. Antonina tells Josie and Cilka that it was another brigadier looking for contraband and warns them to be careful. The other women return from work, and Cilka explains the mess and who did it. After dinner, the women chat, but Josie talks to Natalya, ignoring Cilka.