I usually enjoy reading Holocaust memoirs, however this one just didn't engage me or hold my attention in the way that many of them do. It's a pity as it had the potential to be an excellent book but was just not very well written. It was hard to empathise with Franci in some ways, although she clearly went through a terrible time in the Holocaust.

A moving and often heartbreaking read. One woman's fight for survival during World War 2 and the horrors she suffers in the concentration camps.
I have read a few books of this genre and they are always difficult but important reads. This book is so well written and brings to light the harrowing account for women during this time.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin UK - Michael Joseph, and the author and her daughter, Franci and Helen Epstein.
Another incredible memoir from one brave woman's experience of the Holocaust. Incredibly interesting, involving, and harrowing. Franci experienced and survived five death camps, and the amount of trauma she went through is staggering. Due to this, some extraordinary events were presented almost factually, such as a building collapsing on top of her. The narrative style was sometimes a little detached and hard to follow, but still an incredible book and I would highly recommend it.

A beautifully written book. Compelling, heartbreaking and very hard to put down. A story of great bravery which was likely the reason Franci survived. It was testament to her bravery and stoicism that she went on to have a better life.

Like many of these books written by survivors of the holocaust it is written in a very matter of fact way with no self pity and that makes it even more impactful.
It charts Franci’s journey from Terezin Ghetto through various concentration camps including Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. It is truly a triumph of the human spirit and testament to Franci’s extraordinary courage that helped her to face not only what she saw but also what she had to do to survive.

Interesting memoir on the life of Franci Rabinek, a Jew in name only, arrested and sent to Terezin concentration camp less than an hour from her home town of Prague. She left the flourishing family couture business in the hands of non Jews, they had already endured many hardships up to this point. Her parents were arrested by the Gestapo, her boyfriend was a member of the Resistance and by association they were rounded up. For a short time they were held together in the same camp but her parents were transferred to another camp. Quick thinking in extreme circumstances on her transfer to Auschwitz-Birkenhau, Franci realised an electrician was of more importance than a seamstress and she survived even with the close proximity of Dr Josef Mengele.

The hardships, abuse, hunger and brutality of the camps are all too apparent but despite this a personal sense of survival is what held my attention, a strong inner strength I just can’t imagine. I found the liberation of the camps emotional and heart breaking, the move back to ‘normal life’ to towns where names of local stores had changed, people were wearing ‘normal’ civilian clothing, where Franci again felt out of place. She eventually marries again and moves to the USA and sets up another fashion house.

Yet another informative ARC read from Netgalley and publishers Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review.

An amazing account of one woman’s survival of the Nazi concentration camps. This is a true story and all the more shocking for it. It’s quite unbelievable what the human spirit can withstand

In 1942, Franci Rabinek was sent to Terezin after being deemed a Jew by the Nazi's. This gives a true account of her struggles in her determination to survive the camp. The friends she made and lost during the war but also after she was liberated and attempts to return to "normal" everyday life.

The story is told from her own diary which remained unpublished for 50 years, and only after her death did her children decide her story should be told to the world.

It can make harrowing reading at times but is important to learn the history of how women were treated as well as the men in the camps.. This is the first book I have read that goes beyond the liberation of camps and how they had to continue to fight for survival and prejudice.

Candid, shocking and traumatic. I feel that everyone needs to read books like this in order to gain perspective on what is really important in life.

Thank you to Netgalley, author and publisher for a copy of this book. I couldn't put it down!

Every time I read a holocaust book I learn so much more and shake my head in disbelief that the Holocaust actually happened and that people did survive against the odds. This is a must read.

I love non-fiction about strong people who struggle through frightening events to somehow survive all the odds. These stories grab me because I want to believe we can persevere through the worst, but knowing that survival will take determination and hard work in order to defend our lives and beliefs. Franci’s War: A Woman’s Story of Survival by Franci Rabinek Epstein, is that kind of story. Franci was a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birrkenau camps. Her daughter, Helen Epstein, has edited her mother’s journal and divided it into chapters to help the reader follow the story.

Franci was born in Prague, in 1920. At the age of nineteen she became the owner of her mother’s couture shop, but the Nazi’s had invaded Czechoslovakia and her world was rapidly changing. Franci and her parents were arrested by the Gestapo, released, she got married, got pregnant—and decided on an abortion–and in the next year, Nazi’s took everything away and sent her to a concentration camp. She survived, in part, because she told them a lie, that she was an electrician. Her story is amazing, honest, heartbreaking and inspiring, and, in my opinion, a must read to understand our past–so we never repeat it.

After I'd finished reading this book I thought how matter of factly the details surrounding the events in which Franci was held captive were depicted. Their normal lives were totally disrupted, they lived in appalling conditions yet they seemed to adjust. What Franci and others like her went through is extremely difficult to comprehend. This isn't a book to be enjoyed, but a book that should be read so that generations to come will not forget.

Great read. Throughly enjoyed this book.
Thank you to both NetGalley and publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book

`Your only duty to us is to stay alive` - the words spoken by a mother to her twenty-two -year-old daughter as she and her husband faced transportation to a WW2 concentration camp.
This true story is Franci’s memoir of her life in the years leading to this moment and then of her time in a labour camp.
I have read various accounts of the suffering experienced in the second world war but the matter-of-fact presentation of this really affected me. It provides a no-frills harrowing account of events alongside the historical facts.
Even if you have read widely in this field I would recommend this.
Thank you to NetGalley and Michael Joseph UK (Penguin Random House) for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

This account of Franci’s time in prison camps during the war, is extremely moving and demonstrated the amazing strength of will and determination to survive, that she and her fellow prisoners had. Even in what must have been the pit of hell, she was resourceful and never gave up. Thank you for sharing Franci’s story.

I have been reading lots of WW2 fiction recently and this one told the story different. Franci’s War is the memoir of Franci Rabinek a non-practising Czech Jew and her story of WW2. The way the concentration camps were described were so vivid due to the factual language Franci used. I found this book harder to read than the others ive read recently and not as gripping due to the factual tone however still a worthy read.
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Franci's War is the memoir of Franci Rabinek, a non practicing Czech Jew who was a holocaust survivor. This is her own account of her three years captivity in work camps and how her strength and resilience helped her survive.
The book is very interesting, and despite reading several survivors accounts in other books, this book taught me things I was previously unaware of. The only criticism I have is that it needed a tidy up to make it flow better,

I hate to write this sort of review but I have to be honest, it didn’t grab my attention. It could of just been the fact I’ve recently read a lot of these over the recent years but I didn’t have the ‘need’ or ‘urge’ to pick it back up. I didn’t dislike it, I liked what I did read but it didn’t have me gripped.
Shame and as I say I hate to write a review like this but I just be honest.

A thought provoking book, written from a unique perspective.
This book contains many small moments which warm the heart, while in no way detracting from the horrors within. It brings about an understanding of the best and worst of humanity. The writer has an incredible talent for telling this story in a way that brings a whole variety of emotions to the reader.
I cannot write a review that does this book justice.

There are many memoirs surrounding the events of WWII, but I'm not sure there are many which tackle it the way Franci's War does. It remains to be a memoir, but the approach is quite different, with a sudden change in narrative style around 30% of the way through. I haven't really considered before how the undeniably out-of-body experience a concentration camp evokes could be represented in literature, other than a standard approach; Franci's War perfectly captures that experience, demonstrating the slip in persona remarkably well.

As with many stories of this nature, the novel takes us through the life of a prisoner. Franci Rabinek is a non-practising Czechoslovakian Jew who finds herself throughout the early part of her life travelling between concentration camps, tenuously maintaining any friendship she can to keep grounded. This is also a complete journey, including pictures of Franci and some closure about her life after her time in the concentration camps.

I struggled with the narrative voice sometimes as Franci's story unravels. Rather than feeling an emotional connection to Franci, I felt as though I was presented with a series of facts or fleeting events, leaving me quite detached from Franci herself; unfortunately it also makes the novel feel more like a descriptive list in parts which doesn't at all do Franci justice. Naturally the gravity and magnitude of the environment remains to be hard-hitting, but I feel a memoir should feel more personal in terms of understanding the personality of those affected and I can't say that I finished this book feeling like I really knew Franci.

Nevertheless, if I could every personal account of this tragic time I would. God knows it's the least we can do.

ARC provided from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.