Day After Night by Anita Diamant ~ Book Review

World War II has ended and at Atlit internment camp four young Jewish women are waiting to immigrate to Israel. Atlit is a prison for "illegal" immigrants rund by the British military.  Like everyone else at the camp they have survived the Holocaust and each has secrets and a story of survival from the war.  And like everyone else they are frustrated that they are being held even after the war is over.  Shayndel is a Polish Zionist, Leonie came from Paris, Tedi was a Dutch Jew who was hidden, and Zorah survived a concentration camp.  They have nothing in common yet everything in common.  In spite of no one wanting to talk of what they had been through they form a bond of friendship that carries them through the long days and eventually through the escape of the camp.  

This book is based on the true story of the more than 200 Jewish detainees who escaped this internment camp in October of 1945.  I had not known anything about this part of WWII history and was taken aback that even after the war Jewish people were still being detained and held against their will and not even by the Nazi's but by the very people who helped "free" them, the British Allies because they didn't have papers.  It focuses on the story of four women at the camp, each from very different backgrounds and experiences in the war, yet each one having suffered greatly on their road to survival.  Each woman's story was heartbreaking and how they navigated through their challenges surviving the war and their time at the camp was well written.  It's not a long book and at times I found it a bit choppy but it was a good read involving a piece of history that I have not heard talked about and have not read about before.  

I gave it a 7.5/10

Read Your Shelf Challenge Goal Met:  A Book Set In A Country Other Than Your Own