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Leaving a Legacy
Diamonds in Auschwitz follows a Jewish woman struggling to survive the brutal realities of Auschwitz who finds a hidden diamond engagement ring in the mud, it brings her a glimmer of hope and a reason to survive. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The idea for this story came to me while reading Wendy Holden’s Born Survivors. In this nonfiction book, she briefly mentions that a woman was able to hold onto her engagement ring during the Nazi occupation and living in the Jewish ghetto. As she entered Auschwitz, she refused to let the Nazis get her ring, so she dropped it outside the gates of the concentration camp. I loved the idea of someone finding the ring while a prisoner there. How could something so beautiful change her life, even though it had no value while living in Auschwitz? The story developed from that image.
It seemed like you took your time in building the characters and the story to great emotional effect. How did you manage the pacing of the story while keeping readers engaged?
I actually wrote all of Samual and Hanna’s story in full first. Then I went back and wrote the second timeline — Rachael and Chaya’s story. I made sure to line up their plotline with Samual and Hanna’s – like having climatic events happen next to each other. It took a little bit of shuffling and organizing!
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I really wanted to dig into the idea of living after death — not necessarily in a spiritual-afterlife kind of way, but as a legacy. My characters are all very concerned with this question: If no one knows I lived, did I even exist? I wanted to show how leaving a part of you behind after death — whether a ring, memories, artwork — can give your life purpose. I also wanted to explore the idea of hope. At first, it’s seen as a poison to Rachael. She believes that hope kills faster than the Germans can. But as she finds a reason to live, even after losing everything, she sees that hope survives through even the worst of times. The ring is the physical embodiment of that hope for her and Hanna.
What is the next book that you are writing and when will that be published?
I’m in the editing stages of my second book. It’s set in Charleston after the Revolutionary War. It’s part a retelling of a Shakespeare tragedy, part murder mystery, and part origin story of a real Charleston haunted legend.
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Rachael is a resilient Jewish woman imprisoned in Auschwitz during World War II, clinging to the memories of her lost family while enduring the harrowing reality of the concentration camp. Amidst the brutality, she uncovers a hidden diamond engagement ring in the mud—its brilliance offering a glimmer of hope and a reason to survive. As she navigates the perils of camp life, Rachael forms a profound bond with Chaya, a young girl also yearning for connection and comfort in their shared despair.Interwoven with Rachael’s tale are the lives of Samual and Hanna, a young Jewish couple planning for their future while navigating the hardships of Nazi-occupied Prague. Distracted by his life in Prague, Samual initially dismisses the growing threats against their community, focusing instead on the engagement ring he dreams of giving to Hanna. As the grip of the Nazis tightens, their plans unravel, yet their love becomes a beacon of resilience amid escalating fear and loss.Diamonds in Auschwitz illustrates how, when everything seems lost, even the smallest treasures can illuminate the path to freedom and connection. Through Rachael and Chaya’s friendship, and Samual and Hanna’s unwavering love, the story reminds us that even in the bleakest times, humanity can shine brightly.
Diamonds in Auschwitz
Diamonds in Auschwitz by Meg Hamand is a gut-wrenching novel set during World War II, centered on Rachael, a Jewish woman struggling to survive the brutal realities of Auschwitz, and Samual, a man trying to build a future in a Prague crumbling under Nazi occupation. Their stories orbit a ring, an engagement ring found buried in the mud, a small glittering symbol of hope, memory, and devastating loss. Through vivid, often painful prose, Hamand paints a picture of resilience, shattered dreams, and the stubborn pulse of humanity in the darkest places.
The writing in this book just grabbed me by the heart right from the first page. Hamand’s descriptions of Rachael clawing through mud, finding what she thinks is just a rock, only to later discover it’s a diamond ring, hit me like a punch to the chest. It’s not just the horror of her surroundings; it’s the tiny spark of something beautiful refusing to be snuffed out. Hamand’s style is sharp but full of heart. No flowery nonsense, no wasted words. I found myself rereading sentences like, “Grief had replaced the marrow of her bones,” because they felt true. You can almost feel the mud in your hands, the cold in your bones, the ache that never quite goes away.
One aspect that particularly struck me was Hamand’s ability to use small, carefully chosen details to convey a much larger emotional impact. Like when Rachael keeps the ring dirty on purpose, leaving a bit of mud on it because it reminds her of her daughter Catarina’s brown eyes. That killed me. It’s such a small thing, but it shows how survival isn’t always about food and shelter; it’s about finding reasons to still feel something when everything around you tells you not to. Samual’s chapters brought a different kind of heartbreak. Watching him risk everything to buy that ring for Hanna, then seeing the city he loved crumble into silence and hatred, felt like watching someone lose their home inch by inch, day by day. I was rooting for him, even knowing full well how history tends to end for characters like him.
There were moments when the book was honestly hard to read. Not because the writing dragged, but because Hamand doesn’t flinch away from showing what Auschwitz really was: a machine for killing hope just as much as it killed people. Scenes like Rachael debating whether to throw herself into the electrified fence, or the eerie way she describes the fog she imagines to block out her surroundings, hit me harder than any graphic violence could have. This book hurts, but it’s the kind of hurt that feels important. Like you’re being trusted to sit with someone else’s pain instead of being shielded from it.
Diamonds in Auschwitz isn’t just a story about survival; it’s a story about memory. About the tiny, stubborn things people hold onto when everything else has been taken from them. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who loves deeply emotional historical fiction, or who wants a story that punches you in the gut but leaves you grateful for having felt it. Fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale or Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See will feel right at home, though “home” might not be the right word when you’re sobbing into a crumpled tissue at midnight.
Pages: 340 | ASIN : B0DXH3GMWW
LITERARY TITAN 