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The Nine

How a Band of Daring Resistance Women Escaped from Nazi Germany - The Powerful True Story

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The Nine

By: Gwen Strauss
Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
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'A triumph of imagination. Juliet Stevenson chronicles the terrible conditions in the concentration camps with an austere calm that makes the story hit the listener all the harder. She rejoices as we do in the life-saving kindness of strangers, and characterises the women brilliantly.' The Times

The thrilling story of how nine young women, captured by the Nazis for being part of the Resistance, launched a breathtakingly bold escape and found their way home.

As the Second World War raged across Europe, and the Nazi regime tightened its reign of horror and oppression, nine women, some still in their teens, joined the French and Dutch Resistance. Caught out in heroic acts against the brutal occupiers, they were each tortured and sent east into Greater Germany to a concentration camp, where they formed a powerful friendship. In 1945, as the war turned against Hitler, they were forced on a Death March, facing starvation and almost certain death. Determined to survive, they made a bid for freedom, and so began one of the most breathtaking tales of escape and resilience of the Second World War.

The author is the great-niece of one of the nine, and she interweaves their gripping flight across war-torn Europe with her own detective work, uncovering the heart-stopping escape and survival of these heroes who fought fearlessly against Nazi Germany and lived to tell the tale.

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'A compelling, beautifully written story of resilience, friendship and survival.' Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz

'The Nine is poignant, powerful, and shattering, distilling the horror of the Holocaust through the lens of nine unforgettable women...' Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code and The Alice Network Military Women War Survival Heartfelt Inspiring Scary Thought-Provoking Holocaust
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A well written and narrated true story of courage, bravery, friendship and humanity! A story that needed to be told.

A tale of bravery in the face of adversity!

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This is an incredible book! The narrative is really well written and very accessible and never dry. Gwen has been able to blend the tales of how the nine women ended up in the concentration camps, their experiences there and then their journey to find the Americans and freedom. I really appreciate that this book has been written by a woman, and so has been able to describe the importance of the recipe books in the camps (not for making food), the social work by the prisoners, the threat of being woman in a time where there was such strong male dominance, and the advantages of being able to turn male stereotypes of women on the men. The ending chapters of the book really helped to give an idea of the world for survivors after the war, and I appreciated the updates about the families of the nine women. There are many moments where little facts have made me shudder in horror, but they are carefully chosen by the author. This is not a depressing book to read! I listened to this book having had little idea of the experiences of political prisoners during WW2, and it really opened my eyes. I have so much admiration for the nine women!

Wow! Incredible!

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I loved listening to this. learning about the female french resistance, the nine went through so much. would definitely recommend.

very good listen

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Harrowing. Inspiring. Uplifting. Frightening. Suspenseful. Dramatic. So many words to describe this story.
When I chose this audio book I thought it was going to be just that, a story based on reality. Nothing could have prepared me for the emotions I was to go through sharing, in some very small way, the experiences of this amazing group of women.

It is impossible for normal people to imagine the mentality of those monsters perpetrating these horrific acts of deliberate cruelty and barbarity.

War and other crises bring out the best and worst in humankind.

The best is the incredible courage, strength, resilience shown by these young women. Their apparent lack of bitterness is truly humbling.


Learning about their lives following their traumatic experiences was comforting in many ways. They seem mostly to have gone on to live relatively normal, mostly happy and surprising long lives.

In my mature years I have come to understand that my father suffered from what is now recognised as PTSD following his service during WW2, along with probably a whole generation. My father never talked to us about what he went through, it was my grandmother who told me about it.

Brilliantly researched and written. Equally brilliantly narrated.

We must never let this happen again.


Lest We Forget

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This is another of those unsung stories from the war.
Brave and extraordinary women, who survived, because they were all cogs in the big wheel of their friendship which ultimately secured their survival.

I have docked a star as personally I find that he book is a little disjointed and it is easy to get muddled up with who, what and where in the time frame.

Important history

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