A Well-written Novel with Realistic (and frank) Dialogue
Anna’s Medallion
by Kris Draven
335 pages
reviewed by David Trawinski
The subtitle of this fast-paced historical novel is “A Novel About WW2 Nazi Slavery, Based on a True Love Story.” The author is a Polish American who writes under the pen name Kris Draven. The back cover describes his having grown up “in an oppressed communist society in Eastern Europe,” but in my correspondence with him, Kris clarified that he was raised in communist Poland, with his father actually being an editor for a local Solidarity newspaper, arrested by the Soviets in 1981. In 1988, they emigrated to the United States as political refugees. In the book’s “Afterward” (his author’s notes), Kris explains how both his grandparents were slave-laborers in Germany, where they met and fell in love. Before his passing, his grandfather spoke of his survival ordeal, including having spent time in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. His grandmother never spoke of her days in Germany, and understandably so.
I found this novel to be well-written, with realistic dialogue and a fast-paced plot. It explores the dire survival experiences of his grandparents, seamlessly weaves in creative elements and distills this mix down to a story of two fictional young Polish characters, Anna Kogut and Filip Wolny. The sweep of the story is expansive, moving from April 20, 1941, through to May 22, 1945, with a final reflective chapter set in 2005.
Anna’s and Filip’s paths never cross in Poland as they grow up. Anna is a city girl, who idealizes her role within the Home Army, but is quickly arrested for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets at Jasna Góra in her hometown of Czestochowa. She is sentenced to slave labor in Germany. Filip, on the other hand, voluntarily leaves his small-town family to work on a German farm, with the intention of earning money to send home to his mother. The two fictional protagonists first meet on a train, where Filip offers his bread to Anna. She, being a criminal in transport, is ignored by all other passengers. It is a tender moment in the story, igniting a spark of romance between the two.
As the story advances, both Anna and Filip discover the harsh realities awaiting them. Slave laborers, treated with disdain and condescension, are viewed as property owned by the families to whom they are assigned. They are not only ill-treated, but also abused both psychologically and, in several cases, sexually. I will caution the readers that this novel can be very blunt and raw in describing a few such events, both in its dialogue and situational framing. Be forewarned, there are many “F” bombs and occasionally explicit sexual events described within this book’s pages. Of course, given the author’s extensive research, derived from a comprehensive list of source material, there is little doubt that such abuses actually occurred.
Back to the storyline, Filip and Anna are laboring on farms owned by different squabbling siblings from the same dysfunctional family. Their paths cross again, and they are graced with a single night alone together, where their relationship deepens. Anna gives Filip the medallion she wears of the Black Madonna to remind him of her when they are separated. When Filip is told he can never see Anna again, he rebels physically against his self-described “owner.” It is then that he is sent to Buchenwald.
The remainder of the novel follows the two characters’ separated, harsh, near-death experiences until they are reunited after the war. Many additional characters are blended in, some fictional, several historical, who both help and hinder Anna and Filip on their soul-crushing separate sojourns. Yet, Anna’s medallion remains the linkage between these two kindred souls. Philip refuses to part with it, even when it could be readily traded for bread to quench the undying hunger dwelling within his famished body.
The main characters are realistically developed, with the Germans often steeped in the darkest hues of greed and overbearing control. To the author’s credit, not all Germans are presented in this vile manner. A few actually attempt to assist the two refugees in more humane and compassionate ways.
This book, rather curiously, downplays the Polishness of Anna and Filip. The novel contains very few Polish references other than in the initial chapters, but even those are without the level of cultural depth our readers might expect. The “Home Army” is referred to only as such, not the “Armia Krajowa,” for example. There are no diacritical marks to be found, except German ones, such as in “Ravensbrücke” Concentration Camp or mentioning streets as this or that —“Straße.” The two characters’ reliance on faith is downplayed, but to the author’s defense, even Elie Wiesel famously lost his Jewish faith in Auschwitz.
This may have been a conscious decision to demonstrate the predominance of the German culture over the Poles within the story. In my queries with the author, he states there are elements of faith within the book — for example: Anna’s Black Madonna medallion itself — but this story plays down them intentionally. It was intended not as a testimony to the Polish religious culture, he said, but more as one focused on the ordeals of survival forced upon the two slave-laborers. It is an entertaining read, just be prepared for the subject’s raw and frank presentation.
