The Seven Year Dress

by Paulette Mahurin

One of the darkest times in human history was the insane design and execution to rid the world of Jews and “undesirables.” At the hands of the powerful evil madman Adolf Hitler, families were ripped apart and millions were slaughtered. Persecution, torture, devastation, and enduring the unthinkable remained for those who lived. This is the story of one woman who lived to tell her story. This is a narrative of how a young beautiful teenager, Helen Stein, and her family were torn asunder, ultimately bringing her to Auschwitz. It was there she suffered heinous indignity at the hands of the SS. It was also there, in that death camp, she encountered compassion, selfless acts of kindness, and friendship. Written by the award-winning, best-selling author of His Name Was Ben, comes a story of the resilience of the human spirit that will leave you thinking about Helen Stein and The Seven Year Dress for years to come after the last page is shut.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Holocaust, War, Fiction, World War II, Historical, Book Club

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 8, 2016

About the author

Paulette Mahurin is a best selling literary fiction and historical fiction novelist. She lives with her husband Terry and two dogs, Max and Bella, in Ventura County, California. She grew up in West Los Angeles and attended UCLA, where she received a Master’s Degree in Science.

Her first novel, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap, made it to Amazon bestseller lists and won awards, including best historical fiction 2012 in Turning the Pages Magazine. Her second novel, His Name Was Ben, originally written as an award winning short story while she was in college and later expanded into a novel, rose to bestseller lists its second week out. Her third novel, To Live Out Loud, won international critical acclaim and made it to multiple sites as favorite read book of 2015. Her fourth book, The Seven Year Dress, made it to the top ten bestseller lists on Amazon U.S., Amazon U.K. and Amazon Australia. Her fifth book, The Day I Saw The Hummingbird, was released in 2017 to rave reviews. Her sixth book, A Different Kind of Angel, was released in August, 2018.

Semi-retired, she continues to work part-time as a Nurse Practitioner in Ventura County. When she’s not writing, she does pro-bono consultation work with women with cancer, works in the Westminster Free Clinic as a volunteer provider, volunteers as a mediator in the Ventura County Courthouse for small claims cases, and involves herself, along with her husband, in dog rescue. Profits from her books go to help rescue dogs from kill shelters.

Reviews

[Malia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very moved by Mahurin's prior book, "To Live Out Loud", and though my expectations were high, "The Seven Year Dress" did not disappoint. Helen is a German girl, is a character I could instantly engage with, and I really wanted to know more of her story. We follow her movement though life as a normal girl with a good life, to someone in hiding, separate from much of her family, to a prisoner in a concentration camp and finally, a survivor of the war. It's not an easy book to read, but one I found unable to put down, engrossed in Helen's fate, and once again, saddened and appalled by what happened not so long ago.
Mahurin is good at slowly peeling away the layers of her story, revealing plot and insights into the thoughts and lives of her characters. The story is sad, of course, centered around the atrocious time of the Third Reich, but there are moments of light and humanity, which make this a book I think most readers would benefit from reading. The story is accessible, and prose and deep character development are mature and memorable. I recently read Art Spiegelman's "Maus", which also centers around the Holocaust and Auschwitz, and reading both books in the same time span was at once disheartening and difficult - being confronted with the unimaginable horrors so many had to suffer - and yet important, too. Memory can be a fickle thing, and parts of history fade too quickly from our collective minds, but books like these really remind us that we must never forget and never allow something like this to happen again.

Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The seven year dress" is a historical fiction book, which is based on a true account by Helen Stein, as told to the author. Any book which is based on the time of The Holocaust, is incredibly difficult to read about, let alone digest. This book is certainly no exception.

The author does a skillful job of presenting a story that is not only full of the true horrors of war, but has that bittersweet poignancy about it, too. Parts of this book, I found, extremely difficult to read, and obviously, what makes it all the more difficult, is knowing that these inhumane and barbaric acts actually did take place.

I feel that the main character Helen, felt very real to follow throughout this book. The descriptions of her interactions with others and the horrors of Auschwitz felt like they were in a lot of depth, and even though there were poignant moments in this book, quite a lot of it felt very depressing and heavy going. I'm not trying to say that is a bad aspect, but I cannot say I actually "enjoyed" reading this, despite how important these kind of accounts are.

Many people think that the sexual content in this book was unnecessary, but I beg to differ. It is telling us that despite the horror, heartache and everything else that was going on, we are still humans, and with that, our sexual needs and desires don't necessarily diminish.

I would recommend this, even if it was just to realise the importance of it.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing:
the last of human freedoms-to choose one's attitude in any
given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
Victor E. Frankl

The story of Helen Stein, a young beautiful teenager and his family, has left me drained and flabbergasted..
A jewish family that went through the fiery ordeal of the holocaust in nazi Germany!!
All her family murdered by the nazis..

Helen and his brother must hide..
The SS brutaly murdered his parents and an elder brother by the evacuation of his house!!
And for a few years they find a hideout in an uninhabited farmhouse!!
But soon they will be discovered and then sent in cattle waggons by train to Auschwitz the death camp with his gas chamber!!

Her spirit unbroken..
She demonstrate the power of resilience and perserverance in this hell!!!
After being raped and humiliated again and again, she remembers what her father told her:
To be and stay alive it's whats matter..

Even in Auschwitz facing the ugly grimace of evil, she finds comfort and friendship in Ester and others..
Sacrificing themselves they give her love and dignity!!!

Many years latter, she has survived and found a new beginning in the Staaten..
The tatoos with numbers on her arm are not the only scars she has to bear!!
With much tears she tells a young woman about the destiny of her family in Germany!!
She lived to tell her story..

Paulette Mahurin has written a powerful book, showing us the atrocities commited by the nazis, and the devastating meaning of the Holocaust for the jewish community in Europa!!

.."There was nothing that told me about Helen or her past, with one exception, but I had no idea what it meant.
It was a faded piece of material in a glass-covered frame that sat on the end table. The tattered swatch of dimly colored blue cotton had a floral print.
Little swirls of lighter shades outlined the design of the stained material.
My eyes went to a plaque attached to the bottom of the frame that read, "Nothing Lasts".
I couldn't help wondering,
What is this old fabric?
And what caused the rust-colored stains splattered on it that looks like blood?"..
Read the book, and you will know!!!

Dean;)

[J. Schlenker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Seven Year Dress

I had previously read The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap by Paulette Mahurin. It was one of those books that stuck with you. I can say the same for her newest work, The Seven Year Dress. I bought the Kindle version, and even though I had several library books on my Kindle application that were due back I read The Seven Year Dress instead because after I read a couple of chapters I couldn’t put it down.

The main character, Helen Stein, is painted skillfully with delicate brush strokes in the beginning. They become appropriately harsher as we get into her plight of being in hiding and then in a concentration camp. I don’t think this is a spoiler as the title and picture on the cover gives that bit away.

Even though this is a fictional account, we are told in the Forward that there was a real Helen Stein and that she shared her story. For me that made it even more worth the read. There are so many books on the Holocaust. This one truly stands out. Mahuran is a brilliant storyteller and has a knack for capturing the emotions of her characters.

[Surabhi Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. A definite page-turner.

In 1919, Helen Stein born to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany and raised with love with her three siblings. She is happy to find her best friend in Max; forced to play a role in the German army. The story weaved during the time of World War II. How a girl in Auschwitz tortured and tormented, seeing death and brutality, midst of blood bath and hypocrites mocking and laughing at the pain of the people and finding pleasure in hurting and killing people whose only crime is that they are Jews and in a position of helplessness.

A treat to historical fiction reader. It is not only about history and the story interweaved around the period. The way the story unfolds and captivates the reader is phenomenal. The author put the well-researched documented historical facts remarkably. The book is admirable and brilliant. The story touched the heart of the readers and compels to ask what kind of humans would do such barbaric act with another human.

Full review on thereviewauthor.com

[Terry Tyler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reviewed by me as a member of Rosie Amber's Review Team

I always head straight for books set in World War 2, and this book has so many good reviews that I couldn't wait to start it. I'm afraid I was a little disappointed by it, though there is much to commend, too.

In the present day, student Myra rents a room from Helen Stein; after a while, Helen reveals all that she suffered as a Jewish girl living in Berlin during the war and, later, in Auschwitz. I thought the parts in the concentration camp seemed the best researched, treated with sensitivity, not sensationalised, and would certainly serve as an education for anyone who doesn't know about the atrocities commited by the SS. The build up of anti-semitic feeling in Germany is portrayed well, as is the bond Helen formed with a friend in Auschwitz. Earlier on, though, there are parts that seem unlikely, at best.

Helen's friend Max is homosexual. As a thirteen year old, he talks about this to Helen. I doubt very much whether a boy of that age from a traditional family background in early 1930s Europe would have even acknowledged such sexual preferences to himself, let alone talked freely about them; a few years later he talks about 'coming out', which is surely a term from a later period. I also doubted that he would have had access, later, to the high level German campaign secrets that he revealed to Ben and Helen. Then there is the bear rooting about in the 'trash cans' outside the farm buildings in Brandenburg. There have not been wild bears in Germany for nearly 200 years. Helen talks about walking around Berlin as late as the end of 1938 hoping she didn't look Jewish, but wouldn't she have been wearing her yellow Star of David patch on her arm? I might be wrong, but I thought they were compulsory by then.

The other thing I wasn't keen on was the sexually orientated passages, which I thought were tacky; it's possible to write about a girl becoming a woman, and longing for love, etc, without it reading as though it's aimed to titillate.

There is a fair bit of historical fact woven into the novel, some convincingly, other parts clumsily. I liked the epilogue, I thought it was a nicely written, suitably poignant ending. I can see from the Amazon sites that this novel has been received very well by many, and I wouldn't not recommend it, but for me it was just okay.

[Bill Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite authors and I am happy to report this is yet another excellent book! The story of Germany through the thirties and second world war is brought vividly to life through the story of one Jewish family and in particular the young daughter - Helen. We journey with her through life, from an idyllic childhood, to sexual awakening, to the death of her family and the full horrors of life in a concentration camp. The story is horrific in places as it charts tragic real events. However, I could not stop reading and have finished the book in one morning.
There are moments of lightness in the book, which include brief moments of love and laughter as the human spirit struggles to deal with impossible horror. The characters are wonderfully vivid and there is a great sense of realism throughout the book. Max is a welcome addition to the story and provides all of us with the image of how we would have liked to behave in similar circumstances but the reality was far more complex.
I loved this book and feel it would make great reading for every young person at school, in the same way Ann Frank's Diary has helped children connect with such an important part of history. Reading this book may help future generations understand the past and not repeat the same mistakes.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this was a fictional novel set during the Holocaust era, it read very much in the style of a real memoir. A relatively short story, but gripping all the same. Much of the aspects within the book have been taken from real life accounts of concentration camp survivors. It makes for uncomfortable reading at times.

This was the first book by this author I have read, and I would be tempted to read more by her. Her characters are realistic and her writing style and tone make the reading experience an easy one, despite the heavy subject matter.

A recommended read for fans of historical fiction and World War Two novels.

[Cynthia Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and heart-touching story of tragedy, compassion, horror, love and the indomitable strength of the human spirit. Though the story relates historically accurate details many of us would prefer to turn aside from; the author also shares poignant insights into the German perspective of anti-Semitism Nazism. I skimmed past the sexual fantasy scenes that seemed incongruous, but they serve as a potent reminder that humans are humans regardless of place and situation, and often because of it. Not a story for the faint-hearted or someone looking for a silver-lined view of one of humanities darkest hours; The Seven Year Dress is a book that is neither easily laid aside, nor forgotten.

4.5 Stars

[Kayla Krantz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of heartbreaking moments, this beautiful story by Miss Mahurin explores the tragedies of the concentration camps of World War II.

In this story, we follow the account of a young woman named Helen who, after surviving some unfortunate circumstances, was eventually found and taken into a concentration camp. Although she is one of the few who survive the camp, reading her story from little to young woman is hard.

The account of the way in which Germany affected Jewish families in this time is both realistic and powerful making it emotionally difficult at some points. It’s that realism though that makes this book all the better. To think that this was the reality for millions of people makes it all the more striking.

[Christoph Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Paulette Mahurin's writing. Her values, her empathy and her ability to portray humanity in adverse situation - be that discrimination or illness.
Her telling of Helen Stein's story is no different.
In the novel Helen relays this story to a writer, which enables us to get a second perspective on Helen. A very clever and heloful ploy.
Jewish Helen is friends with a gay man named Max, who is Aryan and gay and who becomes a Hitler Youth to ensure his safety. They both have a crushy on the same boy and they remain friends, even though the tides are turning against her and her family.
We follow Helen's life through the times of the Third Reich, with background information about the changing political situation.
Mahurin has chosen a wonderful character with a great survival instinct. Her story is tragic, yet, her attitude makes it inspiring and remarkable.
Kudos to this astonishing achievement of handling such a delicate subject with so much class.

[Laurette Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE SEVEN YEAR DRESS
Paulette Mahurin’s historical novel about the Dreyfus affair, ‘To Live Out Loud’ was such an amazing feat I was wondering if she could pull off a similar coup with her new book about the Holocaust, ‘The Seven Year Dress’. No need to worry, Mahurin fans. This book, like its predecessor, will get you right in the heart and the gut. Here is an author who is not afraid of taking on big subjects.
Injustice, persecution and a ruined life for a courageous man bent on upholding his principles were some of the themes of the previous book. In ‘The Seven Year Dress’ we are faced with the ultimate horror, the Nazi-driven ideology to create a super race from which all undesirable elements (principally Jews) would be expurgated. The result, staggering in its enormity, was the Holocaust. The story has been told many times. How, I wondered, would the author engage the reader once again, how address what some have called ‘compassion fatigue’?
There are times reading the opening pages of a book when you know immediately something amazing awaits. It’s as if the author is holding out a promise to the reader. In the Prologue, we witness a confrontation between two strangers. Irma, a 20-year-old nursing student, is looking for a room to rent. She meets Helen, who has a room to let. As the interview proceeds, Irma is seized with a feeling of unease. Who is this old, worn out woman, whose apartment is curiously devoid of personal items and mementoes except for a piece of faded dress material in a frame under which is written ‘Nothing Lasts’? A woman with a tattooed number hidden beneath her sleeve, and who exudes an air of ‘restrained desperation’? The tension builds, then Irma, on the point of leaving to look for other accommodation, changes her mind, and a precious friendship is born. It is a friendship which, though neither woman knows it at the time, will lead to Helen’s story being told to the world.
In the next section we change narrators, stepping back in time to the Germany of the early 1920s. The youngest child of a large Jewish family in Berlin, Helen recounts their happy family life with its scenes of domesticity, their friendship with the neighbours, whose son Max becomes an important figure in the narrative. But already the storm clouds are gathering. Helen has scarcely time to enjoy her childhood before the shadow of Adolf Hitler falls like a guillotine on the future of this one particular family, mirroring that of millions of others.
The story is a mixture of documented historical fact and artistic imagination. Like a black and white news reel we follow the relentless rise of the dictator: his vile anti-Semitic propaganda regretting that the ‘Jewish corrupters’ had not been wiped out by the poison gas of the First War, the rise of the Hitler youth movement, the passing of the Nuremberg laws, the emergence of nightmarish figures and institutions, Himmler, the SS, the Gestapo. Somewhere in a place called Dachau the first of the death camps is being built. Others will follow, haunted by devils, Rudolf Höss, Josef Mengele, Adolf Eichmann.
The events are only too familiar, but they take on a new resonance and impact as we move from the general to the particular, seeing all of this through the eyes of Helen, a normal, happy child, ‘with love in her heart’ who gradually realises her country is changing, that ‘bad things are happening’, that Hitler’s message has permeated society, become ‘a stench in the air’. First banned from attending school, she then becomes increasingly isolated, a victim of segregation, prejudice and growing violence until the realisation finally bursts upon her: ‘I was now a vermin Jew’.
Events accelerate. As Hitler invades country after country he simultaneously develops his policy of racial hygiene, the final solution to the problem of the Jewish question. The turning point for Helen is Kristallnacht, after which she begins a long descent into horror and suffering.
The following years are recounted by Mahurin in a series of relentless episodes: the loss of Helen’s entire family, her years spent in hiding, the deportation to Auschwitz, and her experiences there. This is the part of the book that is most harrowing. It is in Auschwitz that, subjected to repeated humiliation and degradation, Helen is stripped of her identity, conditioned like one of Pavlov’s dogs, ‘dismantled’ as a person. And, amazingly, how she endures, heals, becomes resilient, by observing the altruism of others, by undergoing innumerable transformations, by the realisation that ‘nothing lasts’.
I have already said that the story of the Holocaust has been told many times. It needs to be told many times more, as a metaphor of man’s ultimate cruelty. Years ago Emile Zola stood up and said ‘J’accuse’. The same message is implicit in these events which took place more than seventy years ago but which, like the Dreyfus affair, brings past and present face to face.
Two questions recur throughout the book:
Why?
How much can the human spirit endure?
‘Nothing lasts,’ says Helen. Today, reading reports of 21st century slave markets for 9-year-old Yazidi girls, raped and driven to madness by ISIL, of similar fates for the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls forced to become ‘Boko Haram wives’, we are tempted to add ‘Nothing changes.’
‘The Seven Year Dress’ is dedicated to the real Helen Stein, who, Mahurin tells us, ‘bestowed upon me a gift of compassion and humility in sharing her story with me’. She adds: ‘In telling this story, I hope I serve her well.’
You do, Paulette, you do. Now Helen will be forever in our hearts, too.

[Joshua Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paulette Mahurin perfectly captures the horrors of the Holocaust and the beauty of its survivors in The Seven Year Dress. Helen Stein is like any teen, until one day the evil of the Nazi regime comes for her. Forced to scrape out an existence in one of the Holocaust’s worst death camps, Helen still manages to find moments of dignity and beauty amongst the survivors. This novel made me cry many times over as Mahurin’s powerful writing washed over me. This one’s an emotional gut punch, but one well worth taking!

[Grant Leishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to think that I have been greatly blessed recently. As a history buff and someone who adores historical fiction, I have read some of the most amazing, diverse and exciting historical fiction in recent times. In the last few months alone, I have read three books set during the Nazi reign of terror, each one of them very different and each one of them equally superb. From Christoph Fischer's Ludwika to Ellie Midwood's Standartenfuhrer's Wife and Gruppenfuhrer's Mistress, I have been a happy little camper. Well, add now to that impressive list, The Seven Year Dress by Paulette Mahurin.
Each of these three authors has produced books on the same time period, but each from their own unique perspective and viewpoint. In Ludwika, we saw a young Slavic girl trying to survive amongst the Nazi invaders. In Ellie Midwood's two stories, we followed young Jewess Annalise as she not only married a man high up in the Nazi Intelligence Service but then used that position to spy on the Nazis for the Americans. Fantastic books all of them.
In the Seven Year Dress, we confront the very worst of the Nazi atrocities and Mahurin confronts it head on, through the eyes of Helen, a survivor of the infamous death camp that was Auschwitz.
We first meet Helen, as an old lady, who needs to tell her story to her new boarder. Traveling back in time to Berlin in the mid-1930's we see a young Jewish girl, about to flourish into womanhood, as the Nazi's come to power in Germany and the atrocities against the Jewish people and other "undesirables" begin.
After four years of hiding in an abandoned farmhouse basement, with only her brother Ben for company, the pair is finally arrested, by the dreaded Gestapo and transported to Auschwitz, where somehow Helen manages to stay alive through the hell that was the "Death Camp".
This book will make you cry, it will make you scream at the sheer brutality and inhumanity of the German soldiers but it will also fill you with wonder and hope and faith in the indomitability of the human spirit. Reading this book you will traverse the entire gamut of human emotions - it is that good.
It isn't necessarily an easy read. The violence and hatred are brutal and Mahurin pulls no punches in describing it, but the strength, the humanity and the sheer determination to survive shown by Helen and some of the other inmates will shine through like a beacon.
I can say easily, few books have touched me emotionally as much as this one has. Paulette Mahurin, in my book you are a superstar author who deserves mass publication. Five stars plus for this amazing "must read" story.
As an aside and not taking away from the book in any way, it is fascinating to draw parallels between the behavior of the Nazis in the 1930's and by association, most average German citizens, and the events we see currently happening in one particular part of the world today. We should learn from history, not repeat it. (No need to elucidate on that!)
Thank you for a book that will live long in this reviewer's memory.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was eagerly awaiting Ms. Mahurin 's new book, and it more than met my expectations.
This is not an easy book, if only because the situation depicted is so dreadful, but Ms. Mahurin has a nice writing style and a sensitive point of view. She weaves, in The Seven Year Dress, a story of the weakness and the strength of the human spirit.
The Seven Year Dress delves a little deeper into the human condition than in the author’s last novel, but still with the same themes of hope, despair, love, resilience and redemption.
The author focuses on Hitler’s Germany and the ruthless regime that swept across Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. While the descriptions are horribly realistic, the characters are not one dimensional.
The author's research was done very well. She has such a way of describing how the characters felt in so many situations. The story flows effortlessly with Helen Stein’s voice. Helen, a beautiful Jewish teenager trapped in a situation she has been forced to endure. It was a sick time in history, and I think books like this are important, because history does repeat itself. The more people who are horrified by the hatred, racism, and resulting unbelievable cruelty and disregard for human life, the more people there will be who will try to break the cycle of history.
The Seven Year Dress is not by any means a treatise on the Holocaust. It is one person’s observation, interpretation, and experience. It isn’t the Holocaust that comes alive in this book. Helen, the survivor, comes alive.
I cringed inside reading about all that Helen had to suffer, though I previously read books and watched movies on the same topic.
A touching moment is the one when Helen, after staying hidden for a long time, receives a dress from Max. „This dress was a symbol of normalcy, my femininity, and my past,” Helen says. I cried reading those pages, which is one of the signs of a good book.
The background characters, Ben, Max, Helen’s parents, Ester were equally important.
Author Paulette Mahurin, via Helen’s story, pulls no punches in descriptions of the horror and human tragedy that befell not only the European Jews but also millions of other people whose “crime” was that they were non-Aryan, elderly, sick, political prisoners, or disabled, and therefore, unfit to live.
All in all, The Seven Year Dress is gripping, heartbreaking, but beautiful.

[Wanda Hartzenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of this autor but none of her books I have read thus far, got me to invest quite as much as this book.
To start with. I love the young girls attitude at the start. Another old woman, another sad story. It was so human and so true to life that instead of judging her, I was taking internal bets on how long she will last against this old woman, and this old story. I won, not long.
The characters pop in this book. I have always admired the fact that this author writes exclusively for charity of no kill shelters and even SPCA's funding relocating of pets to forever homes. She also always uses her writing to shed light on issues of tolerance and in showcasing narrowmindedness as the evil it is. Usually she does this by making one of the main characters gay. This time she again shed light on the plight of Gay men and woman internationally but she made the main character a non practising Jewish woman / child. One that grows into her own sexuality as she grows into the WWII in Berlin and interesting take on how nothing surpasses our own natural instincts.

But these characters have so much to them. So many levels to be explored, to learn to know and all of them is always firstly human, secondly what ever else will help the plot along. By the end of the book, when it is reitterated that this is a book of hope, not dispair I was picking at a tear for truly, this characters spirit is such that nothing would get her down for long. And yes, the book is about hope because in the telling of the story we get to see the worst and best of humanity and we see how the best wins out by sheer will. And a promise made not to live, but to live well. Ok, so yes, I love this book? Can you tell?

[Kathleen Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Myra is a young student looking for a room, she is interviewed by an elderly woman, Helen Stein asked a lot of personal questions. Myra debates on whether or not to rent the room but decides that she does need a place that she can afford.

There is a reason behind all of Helen's personal questions she asks of Myra. Finding out that Helen has a number tattooed on her wrist is the clue to Helen's background. Helen tells the story of how she ended up with the tattoo, see, all inmates of the concentration camps are tattooed with numbers and once behind that fencing, are no longer a person, no longer have identities. That is the horror of Nazi Germany and the atrocities that one race of people inflicted on another.

Helen's story starts out in the 1920's, born of a Jewish family, living in Berlin. She was born after the Great War, at a time when Germany was floundering and looking for a leader, they found it in Adolf Hitler. Helen really didn't realize at a young age how the Nazi party was going to affect her and her family and what she was going to lose as a result of one man's hatred of the Jews.With the advent of Kristallnacht, Helen and her family's lives implode into a horrible series of events that find Helen interred at Auschwitz.

Helen's story is one of many to come out of this terrible time in history, even though this is historical fiction, I could tell by the author's words, that this was a story she wanted to tell with compassion and honesty about a woman who could very well have lived during this time and experienced the atrocities of the fanatics that were the Nazi Party. I enjoyed it immensely.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

As time marches on and memories fade well written books about the horrors of the holocaust remain both important reminders of the past and warnings of where political rhetoric fuelled by hate can lead. The telling of one person's experiences reminds us the incomprehensible figures represents individuals who lived, loved and dreamed. Each individual and their personal experience deserves to be told and remembered.
The book tells the story of Helen, the sole survivor of her family. The book follows her early carefree life, the impending doom, her escape to a remote farmhouse during Kristallnacht, her discovery and removal to Auschwitz.
Not only does the author create a new unique character but deals with the question of sexuality in an original way. Helen and her brother are helped by their Aryan friend Max. On the face of it Max is the lucky one, born of the correct race with blond hair and blue eyes he is quickly enrolled in Hitler's Youth and from there into the SS. However he knows if the secret of his sexuality is discovered he will become as 'undesirable' as his Jewish friends. The book also touches on how a generation grew from children to adults within the concentration camps.
Another fresh perspective comes from the author's consideration of acts of compassion. Many survived the ordeal of the atrocities of the camp through both the giving and receiving of small acts of kindness. The sharing of a blanket or food rations or a simple hug.
A worthwhile, well-researched, thought provoking addition to the genre which I highly recommend..

[Linda Greene · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Remarkable Literary Achievement

I have just added another name to my list of favorite writers of World War II stories. Her name is Paulette Mahurin, an award-winning and best-selling author of several superb books. Her recent novel “The Seven Year Dress” is a marvel. I am a student of World War II. I have a library of books and movies on the subject. This excellent work of historical fiction will hold a special place among them.
Under madman Adolf Hitler and his equally mad horde of followers, European Jews and other “undesirables” were persecuted, tortured, and far too many of them executed in ways unimaginable, often in gas chambers in concentration camps. This exceptional novel recounts the story of beautiful Jewish teenager Helen Stein, forced into hiding from the Nazi’s in a basement, but when discovered finally, is sent to Auschwitz. In that death camp, she endures unspeakable cruelty at the hands of the SS, but also compassion, kindness, and friendship among her fellow prisoners. Ultimately, in that darkness, the strength of the human spirit is a beacon in this remarkable literary achievement. -Author Linda Lee Greene

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved loved this book so much and I loved Helen and her journey through WWII. The events she experienced were disturbing but the compassion and love she was shown in the death-camps by those also affected by Hitler's war was beautiful and made me love those characters even though they were just that; characters. WWII was very real and equally very devastating but Helen's story was truely inspiring. I definitely recommend this book if you want to know more about how cruel WWII was and how kind and loving people can really be in the worst of times. The worst of times can bring out the best or worst in people.

[D.G. Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of the Seven Year Dress is told through Jewish holocaust victim and survivor, Helen, as she shares her story with her new tenant about the degradation, starvation and brutality she witnessed and suffered from the Nazis.

Mahurin does a riveting job of capturing the climate of Nazi Germany just before the war broke out, depicting Helen and her family, and her one non Jewish friend who risked his own life to save Helen and her family from being captured and taken to Auschwitz concentration camp. We're taken right into the emotions of Helen's plight. Humiliation, inhumanity, fear and uncertainty of living one more day became the new life for Helen, once a seemingly happy, middle-class girl becoming stripped of everything she had, knew and loved from her former life before that fateful night in November 1938.

This heart-wrenching tale of destruction and devastation and an unfaltering fight to survive will have you eager to keep reading, despite the unblemished truths of the violence and descriptions of what Helen witnessed and endured.

I applaud Mahurin for writing this telling of a demoralizing tale of the human spirit of those who fought to survive despite all odds against them - heroic efforts to remain alive despite having no reason left to live except the desire to live.

I couldn't stop reading this book and eagerly awaited any opportunity I'd get to pick it up again to learn how Helen survived. It's also a good reminder about how easily a country can become brainwashed by false propaganda. I'm am looking forward to reading more books by this author. If you enjoy reading historical fiction, I highly recommend this book and author.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking 💔

[Lorna Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never one to shy away from difficult and important topics, Mahurin has bestowed upon the reading public yet another compelling novel that will appeal to a wide range of audiences: history buffs, humanitarians, anyone who enjoys reading a story with complex characters and a gripping plot.

When I read The Seven Year Dress, I was reminded of the slogan, “The personal is the political.” This novel is based on the true story of a Holocaust survivor, Helen. Through her story, from living a simple life of contentment with her family in Berlin to her horrifying internment in Auschwitz, I came to understand how seemingly distant political machinations can rain down on a person’s life, altering it in inconceivable ways. Conversely, moment-by-moment decisions of individuals (Helen, Ben, Max, Ester, to name but a few) impact the trajectory of their lives and the lives of countless others. The novel is both a tribute to Helen’s perseverance (the personal) and a reminder about what can happen to societies when hatred runs amok (the political).

The Seven Year Dress does something that, in my opinion, other novels and treatises on the Holocaust do not. Mahurin invites us into the most intimate thoughts, emotions, and desires of her protagonist and other characters with whom Helen shared her journey. The topic of intimacy is raised in a number of ways throughout the book. In this way, Mahurin imbues her characters and her novel with an authenticity I have rarely seen in these types of novels. She handles this area of human experience with delicacy, respect, and veracity. For example, Helen is a young woman who yearns for the comfort of a lover’s attention; instead she must find private ways to handle her needs because she is in hiding from the Nazis. Or her best friend who remains loyal to her, Max (a member of the Hitler Youth, then a full-fledged Nazi), is gay but only shares his secret with Helen. Before reading this novel, I never thought about any of the prisoners having (or wanting) a sex life or any of the Nazis having sexual secrets they needed to keep.

Did Mahurin set out to write a book simply to tell Helen’s story and write a book reminding us of the consequences of hatred combined with absolute power? Or did Mahurin set out to write a book about man’s inhumanity to man using Helen’s story as a vehicle and write a compassionate portrait of a cadre of commendable, unforgettable characters who taught me about living, hope, and love because of their suffering? Does it really matter? I’m just glad she wrote The Seven Year Dress and can’t wait for the next book!

[Christina Hamlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

“And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren't any other people living in the world.” - Anne Frank

Once upon a not so long ago time, there was jaw-dropping disbelief that a government could be so divisive as to label the lives of some of its citizens as mattering less than others. That rights could be stripped away. That guns could be confiscated. That anyone who questioned the “authority” enacting these laws could not only be branded a social pariah and subsequently unfriended but also have their property confiscated, their reputations ruined, and their very lives eliminated. Paulette Mahurin’s gripping new novel, “The Seven Year Dress,” is not just a reminder of the graphic atrocities that were committed by an arrogant yet creepily charismatic leader; it’s a topical correlation to how dangerously close we already are to allowing history to repeat itself in the 21st century by doing nothing to stop it.

As with her previous books, Mahurin is a consummate researcher whose attention to detail instantly immerses readers in the sights, smells, sounds and pulse-pounding fears experienced by a young heroine whose only crime – and that of her loving family - was to be Jewish. The bookend approach to revealing the past is an effective one; we know the heroine herself will survive but at what cost and to what extent will the emotional and physical scars last a lifetime? As with Anne Frank, Helen Stein steadfastly believes that goodness will somehow prevail against the insidious black backdrop of horror, that all of the devastating rumors she has been hearing from her dearest friend Max can’t possibly be true. Until she learns firsthand behind the walls of Auschwitz that the rumors were just the tip of a deadly, escalating campaign against humanity…

It is a powerful story that will cause one to recoil in shock, to weep for the countless lives lost, to court speculation of what one’s own actions might be under such perverse and humiliating circumstances. And though there are bittersweet moments of tenderness in the death camp, Mahurin subliminally warns her readers not to get too attached, just as the prisoners themselves learned to be wary that trusting any show of kindness might result in heinous torture and a bullet to the head.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Seven Year Dress is by Paulette Mahurin. It is a historical fiction but the information concerning World War II and the Holocaust are as accurate as she could make them. Intertwined in the history is the story of Helen Stein, who is a real person. Paulette took Helen’s story and fictionalized it.
Helen was just a young girl when she was abruptly taken from her family by a close friend, Max, and taken with her brother Ben to a secluded vacation house belonging to Max’s family. Here she and Ben stayed hidden for four years when Max came to bring supplies and a dress he had gotten for Helen. He was concerned that he had been followed so left quickly. Later that evening, the SS broke in and took Helen and Ben to a train leaving for Auschwitz. As they were dropped off at the train, the man in charge made a point of telling Helen that Max had been killed.
Helen’s ability to sew came to her rescue in the camp. She was first given a job sorting clothes where she came upon her dress and managed to take it to her bunk and hide it in her mattress. Later she was given a job repairing uniforms for the SS and unfortunately servicing the SS man in charge of the sewing room.
Helen’s ability to remember her father’s words about living made it possible for her to survive. The things she experiences and sees are horrendous and difficult to read. However, these things did happen and nothing we can do will erase them. If we don’t learn from what happened, it happened in vain.
This book is difficult to read simply because of the time period. However, it manages to keep you wanting to read to find out what happens to Helen. The book does an excellent job of portraying what happened to people in hiding and to people in the camps.

[Ellie Midwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I can say is “Wow”! What a beautifully written prose that touches upon one of the most heart-wrenching themes of the twentieth century – the Holocaust. Told from the point of view of a young Jewish girl, living in Berlin and witnessing Hitler coming to power, and slow and terrifying changes that her country starts going through, Helen still tries to follow her father’s advice and keep her optimism. However, with the Kristallnacht all her hopes shatter, and she finds herself on a long way to survival through the horrors of Auschwitz…
I couldn’t help but admire Helen’s willpower and desire to survive just to outlive her tormentors, yet trying her best to help her fellow inmates and not harden her heart in the conditions where one was ready to sell out anyone for a molded piece of bread. The brutal treatment of the inmates, together with the very rarely discussed subject of rape of Jewish inmates by the SS are accurately depictured in all their brutal honesty. Max’s story, a German boy who grew up with Helen and remained friends with her despite the new course that Germany took and his joining the Hitlerjugend and later the SS, was both touching and incredibly sad.
All in all, this is definitely a must-read for all fans of historical fiction. Brilliant!

[Julie Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a harrowing story, but one that is important, one that should not be forgotten or denied and one that everyone should acknowledge as true.

History has shown the terrible things that happened to the Jewish people during Hitler's reign, but there are still those who deny the atrocities committed by the German people (those that remained silent and those that enjoyed it), so books such this are vital in the hope that some may learn from it. Although, when we look at today's world...

This was well written and easy to follow yet it is not an easy read due to its disturbing topic - though we must not turn away from the truth.

I have only one criticism and that is I don't think some of the sexual 'pleasure' scenes were necessary. Yes, I understand Helen was growing up and discovering her sexuality, however, these scenes didn't fit into this particular story.

Overall, a brilliant piece of writing - informative and terrible but well done.

Extremely thought-provoking.

Recommended to those who want to think and are not afraid of the truth, however awful. And hopefully, it may help build a better future?

[Johanna Craven · Rating 5 out of 5]

The holocaust is not a new reading subject for me, but very rarely have I read a book on the topic that goes so deeply into the human experience of the tragedy. The Seven Year Dress follows young German Jew Helen Stein through the atrocities of Nazi Germany. Helen comes from a loving, working-class family that reminded me of my own and this made the terrible injustices they suffered all the more real and appalling.
The power of this book comes from not only the fact that Helen's family is very relatable, but also through Helen's ability to find beauty in even the most horrific of situations. Through beautiful prose, Paulette Mahurin describes the way Helen has a new appreciation for the beautiful colours of light, or the smell of soup after hiding in a farmhouse cellar for several years. Even amongst the horrors of Auschwitz, Helen finds lasting friendship and many examples of human goodness.
But for all the goodness Helen is able to find, The Seven Year Dress is a harrowing read. It is also a beautiful and important one that is not to be missed.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an impressive and ambitious novel, telling the story of Helen Stein, a woman who survived Auschwitz.
Following her childhood in the 1920s and 1930s she grows up in a world that gradually closes in on her and her family and friends. Well researched and with great historical detail the book lets us witness the loss of ease and liberties as the unthinkable really happens.
Mahurin has chosen a great character: complex, clever and naive, fragile and resilient.
Excellently chosen side characters and 'side-issues' widen the field and make this all the more rewarding and stimulating a read. You know some of what will happen but there is enough unknown to make this an addictive and compelling read.
I was in awe of the powerful ending, the message of humanity and the survival of the human spirit. In fact, the entire book is powerful, from the tense prologue to the last word of the epilogue.
Much food for thought and very worthwhile your time.

[Martin Perks · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Seven Year Dress is not the first book I’ve read by Paulette Mahurin, but is easily the best.

After reading the Prologue I was well and truly hooked. Chapter One, set in the early 1920’s depicts a well-to-do Jewish family living happily in Germany.
Helen’s father dismisses the rumours about Hitler’s plans for the Jews and they stay put in Germany.
Unfortunately, the inevitable happens and all but Helen are wiped out.
Helen is helped by Max, a German friend who joins the SS to cover his secret – his homosexuality. Eventually they are found out. Max is executed and Helen ends up in a death camp and is brutally treated.
Her dream of romance, getting married and bringing up a happy family doesn’t reach fruition - she never marries.
Best book I’ve read of its kind.