Cilka's Journey

Content Warning: This study guide contains depictions of genocide, rape, sexual assault, suicide, and drug addiction.

Over two weeks, Josie’s hand heals, and the women of Hut 29 get to know each other further. Cilka accepts Josie’s aloofness, and the men continue to visit the hut to rape the women. During Josie’s final hospital visit, Yelena tells Josie that there is no work for her there, and Yelena can’t show favoritism to the prisoners without compromising herself. When Josie and Cilka leave the hospital, Cilka bumps into a man named Alexandr Petrik, who works as a messenger in the camp. She notices that he is polite, a rare trait in the men she has known. The women in the hut have mixed reactions to Josie’s unbandaged hand, but Josie immediately begins helping with the hut’s chores.

The next day, Cilka returns to the hospital after Josie and the rest of the women go to work. Cilka still thinks about turning down a job at the hospital. When she arrives, she works with a doctor named Yury, and they examine a male patient.