No Surrender by Chris Edmonds

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Never Forget. The Second World War involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939–45. The 40,000,000–50,000,000 deaths incurred in World War II make it the bloodiest conflict, as well as the largest war, in history. Those large numbers can seem cold and distant to us now, but if we remember that each one of those deaths was a mother, father, son, daughter we are able to connect with the past. That is what the two books I am featuring today did for me. No Surrender, subtitled “A Father, a Son, and an Extraordinary Act of Heroism That Continues to Live on Today” tells the impact of one young American soldier’s faith and thoughtful courage. Cilka’s Journey brings to life a young woman from Czechoslovakia who met hatred and cruelty with bravery. Thank to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with digital advanced review copies. These books will be published in early October.

Advanced Review for No Surrender

“Roddie Edmonds is a hero for our age—or any age. His story of principled defiance in the face of evil is an inspiration and a challenge. In No Surrender, Chris Edmonds and Douglas Century have given us the one righteous man whose goodness spares us all.” (Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11)

JENA’S REVIEW

No Surrender: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier’s Extraordinary Courage in the Face of Evil by Christopher Edmonds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are many World War II memoirs listed on Amazon and Goodreads- and a Google search will have you scrambling through 112 million results. There probably aren’t millions of memoirs, but I am thankful that there are many, because each person who served on the Allied side has an amazing story to tell. And these stories must be told soon, while we still have the veterans or their families to tell them. Christopher Edmond’s search for the details of his father’s World War II service is a uniquely positive and uplifting read, even though the details are harsh and horrifying. The book is written in a clear and friendly style and is a pleasure to read.

The author recalls that his Dad Roddie was scrupulously fair and was known as a “square shooter”. But his Dad also had a fun side and would light up a room and warm everyone’s heart with fun and laughter. Roddie was a sincere Christian and ended family prayers by saying, “Lord, help us help others who can’t help themselves.” He loved to sing hymns in church and coach his son’s little league team.

Growing up, the author had no clue about his Dad’s service during World War II. Like many men who returned from the war, Roddie wanted to get on with his life and have a home and family. The author did know that his Dad had served as a Master Sergeant in the US Army, 422nd Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division- the Golden Lions. It wasn’t until his daughter had to do a school project, that he and his family began to look closely through his Dad’s war memorabilia and study his Dad’s diaries from 1944-45.

The author felt a strong pull to search for the men who had served with his father, or their remaining families, to learn more about his Dad’s experiences during the Battle of the Bulge and subsequent capture by the Germans and imprisonment in a POW camp. Fortunately, some of Roddie’s Army buddies were still alive and the author met with them and finally heard the grim details and bravery of his father.

Roddie’s service to the Army and duty to his men of all faiths teach us that one person can always make a difference. And that’s why the author is sharing the story of his father’s message around the world, a message of the transformative power of love, selfless sacrifice and moral courage. Roddie was a secure, grounded and prepared young man, and he was able with God’s help to do the impossible. The story of Roddie’s months overseas and his son’s search to learn about it 75 years later is incredible.

Master Sergeant Roddie Waring Edmonds of Knoxville, Tennessee would be posthumously highly honored for his World War II heroism, in 2015. He saved 1500 of his men, men who were in their early twenties at the time and who would go home to live long lives filled with careers, marriage, children, grand-children and great-grandchildren. I thank all of the men and women who have served in the Armed Forces and I salute the “Greatest Generation.” I highly recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers Harper One for a digital advanced review copy. This is my honest review.

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Chris Edmonds is senior pastor of Piney Grove Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee, and chief executive officer of Roddie’s Code, LLC, and The Roddie Edmonds Foundation, organizations committed to extending the legacy and leadership of Master Sergeant Edmonds to future generations. He also teaches Leadership Development to military leaders at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Tennessee and, later, a master’s degree in religion at Liberty Theological Seminary. He lives in Maryville, Tennessee, with his wife, Regina. 

Douglas Century is an author, journalist, and screenwriter. Co-author of Hunting El Chapo (Harper, 2018), he also co-authored several New York Times bestsellers, including Under and Alone (Random House, 2005) and Takedown: The Fall of the Last Mafia Empire (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2002), a finalist for the 2003 Edgar Award in the category of Best Nonfiction Crime Book. He also co-authored If Not Now, When? Duty and Sacrifice In America’s Time of Need (Berkely, 2008), which won the 2010 Colby Award. A veteran investigative journalist, Century is a contributing editor at Tablet magazine and writes regularly for Billboard and The New York Times. He lives in New York City.

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Millions of people have read The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, based on the real-life story of Lale and Gita finding love under horrible circumstances. That book has been called “an extraordinary document”, and “a story of hope and survival against incredible odds”. Another reviewer notes, “I find it hard to imagine anyone who would not be drawn in, confronted and moved.” Cilka, Gita’s friend, was also imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau and it is her story that is told in this second companion book to The Tattooist. Cilka’s Journey is historical fiction, based on her life and it is even more compelling, heartbreaking and inspiring.

In the excellent Author Notes at the end of Cilka’s Journey, Heather tells us that tattooist Lale considered Cilka to be the bravest person he had ever known. Cilka’s Journey begins when Cilka, age 16, was torn from her family and condemned to the Nazi concentration camp in 1942, then liberated at the end of the war only to be immediately imprisoned by the Soviet Union. She was then loaded on a box car for three tortuous weeks to a Gulag camp in Siberia north of the Arctic Circle.

What happens to a young girl/woman when staying alive is the only form of resistance she has? What happens when she feels she is an instrument of death? When she has never had any choices? Cilka’s Journey tells of her physical travels and also of her spiritual journey. Cilka survives because she is beautiful, brave, smart and searching for redemption. She survives because somehow humans are able to connect and love even while starving and working in harsh and evil conditions.

One of the most touching parts of the book for me is when the woman in Cilka’s Gulag prison hut celebrate the birth of a baby. They embroider baby clothes made from threads from their sheets and scraps of fabric. It’s hard for me to type that without crying. Another beautiful part of the book is the friendship of Cilka and the woman physician who sees Cilka’s talent and trains her.

The story is told in flashbacks from 1939-1945. The book is written in the third person, I believe deep third person, in the present tense which makes for a vivid and highly immersive story. You will feel like you are there with Cilka and the women, experiencing their fear, hardships, and deprivations. Once you start the book, you will keep reading until the end.

There is an epilogue which lets us know that Cilka and the man with the soft brown eyes she met at the Gulag returned to Czechoslovakia and were married for fifty years. I wonder if Cilka continued her medical work after she was released from the Gulag. This book is an inspiring and important memorial to those who perished and to those who lived to tell, but I wish it had never happened as it’s so unbelievably sad that Cilka’s Journey is based on true events and people.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Heather Morris, and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

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HEATHER MORRIS is a native of New Zealand, now resident in Australia. For several years, while working in a large public hospital in Melbourne, she studied and wrote screenplays, one of which was optioned by an Academy Award-winning screenwriter in the US. In 2003, Heather was introduced to an elderly gentleman who ‘might just have a story worth telling’. The day she met Lale Sokolov changed both their lives. Their friendship grew and Lale embarked on a journey of self-scrutiny, entrusting the innermost details of his life during the Holocaust to her. Heather originally wrote Lale’s story as a screenplay – which ranked high in international competitions – before reshaping it into her debut novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

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