It seems fitting on the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two to feature an author and a collection of stories commemorating WW2. Today, Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger talks about writing WWII fiction and her contribution to The Road to Liberation.
What inspires you to write about World War II?
My family are refugees of WWII and I grew up knowing that they had barely made it out of Europe alive. I grew up in a diaspora of Ukrainian-Americans, many of whom believed they would return to the “old country” as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed. Well, that did not happen right away. By that time, the first generations of Americans were deeply entrenched, married to Americans, and living a dual life between the old and the new. I, however, always knew that I would somehow return to the “old country”. That “somehow” turned into Austria, the country where my mother was born in a displaced person’s camp, and that “somehow” was by returning to war via my historical fiction.
What is The Road to Liberation Collection about?
Author Marion Kummerow (War Girl series) is the brainchild of the project. She lives two hours from me in Munich, Germany and is a passionate champion of making sure that the lessons of WW2 are not forgotten. She approached a group of us authors in Facebook’s Second World War Club and asked whether we’d be interested in taking part in a 75th anniversary edition. At first it was supposed to be a collection of novellas. However, when you ask novelists to write a short book, you’re bound to have problems. We each wrote a full novel.
Your novel, Magda’s Mark, will debut in the collection. What is the story?
Imagine this: you are the wife of a commanding officer, who is head of a the Bohemian (Sudetenland) district. Your reputation has been built upon your selfishness, your unhidden contempt for the local “Slavs” and you are known to wield power with a strong hand; of reporting any slip of a misdeed directly to your husband. Imagine you are pregnant. You need a midwife. You give birth one night, and the midwife goes to clean up the baby. You, in the meantime, are given something to help you rest. When you awake, you find the baby has been returned to you. And he has been circumcised…at a time when Jews are being rounded up and deported to concentration camps…
That is what happened to my friend’s mother-in-law. My friend’s husband was that baby boy. And as soon as I heard that story, my jaw dropped to the floor. I needed to know who had been pushed so far and under which circumstances to take that great of a risk. Thus, the first seeds of Magda’s Mark were planted alongside those questions.
Magda’s Mark is a story about a woman who commits one courageous and rash act of rebellion. When the Nazi officer begins to hunt for her, she survives in the Underground, her plan for revenge the only thing keeping her going, and when the time comes to put her plan into action, Magda is faced with the woman she has become, and what will define her in the aftermath of the war.
Why do you think World War II fiction continues to be such a popular genre?
WWII is also the great allegorical tale, the good vs evil was so clearly drawn and yet, and this is where it gets juicy and something I tackle in Magda’s Mark, it wasn’t really all so clear cut. We’re discovering, ever more, the three-dimensional sides to the stories. Authors are writing about different perspectives that make us stop and think, “Aha, it wasn’t all black and white. It wasn’t all about the good guys vs the bad guys.” We still have enough access to those personal stories and that’s what I think historical fiction authors of this genre try to bring to life; the individual impacts are what make these “lessons” all the more relevant.
The Road to Liberation by Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger, Marion Kummerow, Ellie Midwood, J.J. Toner, Marina Osipova, and Rachel Wesson
By 1944, the Axis powers are fiercely holding on to their quickly shrinking territories. The stakes are high—on both sides: Liberators and oppressors face off in the final battles between good and evil. Only personal bravery and self-sacrifice will tip the scales when the world needs it most.
Read about the heroic act of a long-term prisoner, an RAF squadron leader on the run in France, a Filipino family fleeing their home, a small child finding unexpected friends amidst the cruelty of the concentration camps, a shipwrecked woman captured by the enemy, and a young Jewish girl in a desperate plan to escape the Gestapo.
2020 marks 75 years since the world celebrated the end of WWII. These ten books will transport you across countries and continents during the final days, revealing the high price of freedom—and why it is still so necessary to “never forget”.
Chrystyna was on the blog two years ago with an article about her Reschen Valley Series.
Many thanks, Chrystyna, as someone who has written three novels set during the world wars, I know the challenges and the rewards of doing so. Congratulations to you and the others on producing these stories.
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M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.
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