“You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea”
― Sophocles
A Song of Silence: A Gripping Holocaust Novel Inspired by a Heartbreaking True Story, Book 2 of the “World War II Historical Fiction” series by Steve N. Lee is a highly suspenseful novel that takes place in Poland during the World War II Nazi invasion.
Mirek Kozlowski, a well-known children’s author, runs an orphanage of 89 children in a small Polish town that is suddenly overrun by Nazis. Almost overnight their happy existence changes. Townspeople suffer losses of property and livelihood. Serious food shortages affect the health and well-being of the town’s citizens. Mirek strives to keep his orphanage running, but the daily onslaught of atrocities are a constant challenge.
When SS Captain Kruger learns that Mirek Kozlowski is also an author, he is intrigued. Kruger has dreams of becoming a writer and has, in fact, written a manuscript. Maybe Mirek could help polish the book into publication. But in the meantime, Kruger is driven to do his job to meet Nazi goals: destroy Polish culture, segregate the Jews, expand German territory, elevate the Fatherland, and create new world order with ethnic Germans at its center.
Anna-Maria Kisiell quietly brings joy to Mirek’s life. She helps where she can, assists in the kitchen, works with the children. The two find solace in each other, but with all the struggles to merely survive, how can a relationship ever develop?
As the Polish people suffer depravation of jobs and food, all while witnessing senseless killings, some resistance is organized, but any knowledge of this by the authorities leads to harsh punishments. Expressing an opinion can result in a whipping or even death.
But Mirek strongly believes that if good people do nothing, bad people will be empowered to do evil. Based on this belief, he ventures into a scheme to save his children.
A Song of Silence is a stark reminder of what the world was like in the 1940s and the unspeakable suffering at the hands of men who perceived themselves as the “racial elite” of a Nazi future. Steve N. Lee has captured the horror and raw fear instilled in a townspeople who simply wanted to live their lives under their own rule. The novel contains vivid descriptions of evil acts, but told without wallowing in sentimentality. It is history brought to life, a history we must not forget.