Cilka's Journey

Cilka walks into the dispensary to get medication for another nurse and sees a prisoner holding a knife to Yury Petrovich’s throat. The prisoner, a camp trustie, demands that Cilka enter the room and close the door, where he releases Yury and holds Cilka at knifepoint instead. Yury gives the trustie medicine, and the trustie says he’ll be back in two weeks for more and leaves the room. Yury tells Cilka that the trustie cornered him several months ago and has been threatening him ever since. He warns Cilka not to tell anyone because the trusties will punish her for it. When she walks home that evening, Cilka sees a group of large men waiting for her outside the hospital, among them the man from the dispensary.

Elena asks Cilka if the women can visit Josie and Natia yet and expresses her worry over Cilka’s withdrawn demeanor. Cilka worries about the trusties, who are still watching her, and fears what other people might know about her time in Auschwitz. Elena says the women can help with whatever is troubling her, but Cilka says she’s fine and promises to get a message to Josie. Later, Anastasia asks why the women get so excited about Josie and wants to know if Cilka loves Boris, who clearly loves her. Cilka tells Anastasia to stay out of her business. Cilka knows that her arrangement with Boris is purely practical; she is merely a body to him, and in exchange, he protects her from gang rape. As the women walk, the trustie from the dispensary talks to Cilka, and she instinctively pushes Anastasia away to protect her. She returns to the hut, telling Anastasia to get the other women back to the hut, too.

Flashback to Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1944. Cilka watches as hundreds of naked women move past her. Anton Taube, Schwarzhuber’s superior officer, forces her to walk along the line of women with him. He, too, comes to Block 25 to rape her as Schwarzhuber does. Taube selects who will live and who will die based on the firmness of their breasts, causing Cilka to vomit into the snow, which makes Taube laugh.

While on duty at the hospital in Vorkuta, Cilka goes to the nursery to see Natia and leaves a message for Josie that the women will visit her during their Sunday evening walk. On Sunday, the women swarm Josie and Natia, joyful at seeing them and cuddling the baby. Cilka is amazed at Natia’s power to make them all so happy. The women visit Josie and Natia twice more before the autumn weather turns cold. During their last visit, Cilka asks Josie for news of Alexandr, but Josie has little information. She offers to talk to him for Cilka, but Cilka declines.

Winter settles over the camp, and Cilka continues her routine at the hospital, though she spends more time on her bed in the hut facing the wall. The other nurses offer their support because of Cilka’s withdrawn behavior, but she refuses. One day, Yelena asks Cilka if she’s ready for a new challenge working on the ambulance, and Cilka agrees. A new patient arrives in the ward, and Cilka sees it’s the trustie who threatened her and Yury in the dispensary. He has multiple stab wounds in his chest. Cilka holds his hand despite how he has treated her and stays with him until he dies.

At the end of Cilka’s shift, Yelena takes her into an empty room. Cilka tells the doctor about her experience at Auschwitz and why the Soviets sent her to Vorkuta. She says several Nazis raped her and is ashamed that she never said no or fought back. Yelena promises to keep Cilka safe and encourages her to keep living because of the difference she makes in the lives of others. Cilka says she admires Yelena for choosing to work in the prison. After the women’s conversation, Cilka heads to the hut and sees Alexandr smoking outside the administration building.

At work the following day, Cilka is distracted by the anticipation of the ambulance getting called out but is disappointed when it never does. Hannah also resumes her extortion for medication. The ambulance gets called out the next day, and Cilka introduces herself to Kirill, the driver, and Pavel, who sits in the passenger seat. They criticize her for her small size and doubt her ability as a nurse. The ambulance stops at a mine where a tunnel has caved in. Cilka insists on going into the mine against the supervisor’s warning. Pavel goes with her, and a miner takes them down the elevator into the tunnel where the injured men are. Cilka calls out to the miners until she finds them. One man is dead, but Cilka and Pavel get the other three miners into the ambulance and back to the hospital.