Books
Victoria’s War
A Novel
In VICTORIA’S WAR, Hamilton gives voice to the courageous Polish women who were kidnapped into the real-life Nazi slave labor operation during WWII. Inspired by true stories, this lost chapter of history won’t soon be forgotten.
POLAND, 1939: Nineteen-year-old Victoria Darski is eager to move away to college: her bags are packed and her train ticket is in hand. But instead of boarding a train to the University of Warsaw, she finds her world turned upside down when World War II breaks out.
Victoria’s father is sent to a raging battlefront, and the Darski women face the cruelty of the invaders alone. After the unthinkable happens, Victoria is ordered to work in a Nazi sewing factory. When she decides to go to a resistance meeting with her best friend, Sylvia, they are captured by human traffickers targeting Polish teenagers. Sylvia is singled out and sent to work in the brothels, and Victoria is transported in a cattle car to Berlin, where she is auctioned off as a slave.
GERMANY, 1941: Twenty-year-old Etta Tod is at Mercy Hospital, where she’s about to undergo involuntary sterilization because of the Fuhrer’s mandate to eliminate hereditary deafness. Etta, an artist, silently critiques the propaganda poster on the waiting room wall while her mother tries to convince her she should be glad to get rid of her monthlies. Etta is the daughter of the German shopkeepers who buy Victoria at auction in Berlin.
The stories of Victoria and Etta intertwine in the bakery’s attic where Victoria is held—the same place where Etta has hidden her anti-Nazi paintings. The two women form a quick and enduring bond. But when they’re caught stealing bread from the bakery and smuggling it to a nearby work camp, everything changes.
BOOK LAUNCH SERIES | GOODREADS | ADVANCED PRAISE
Nine Days
Poems Remembering Pope John Paul II
Available now:
AMAZON | KINDLE
Nine Days was inspired by the poignant hours before and after the death of Karol Wojtyla. During the nine official days of mourning and the seventeen-day stay between the passing of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI, the world was on virtual pilgrimage to the Eternal City. It was during these days that Hamilton wrote this collection of fifty-one poems.
Available now: AMAZON | KINDLE
Articles
75 Years Later: The Liberation of Magdeburg – Polish American Journal
Fresh and Versatile – New Polish Cookbook Takes Culinary World by Storm. – Dziennik Zwiazkowy. Polish Daily News
German Battleship Opens War at Fort Westerplatte – Polish American Journal
Forced Labor in the Third Reich – Polish American Journal
A Gift to the Pope – Catholic Sentinel
The Mother of Solidarity – Catholic Sentinel
70 Years After Invasion – Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Writer Unfair to Pontiff who Opposed Hitler – The Oregonian
Excerpt from Katherine Graczyk – Forgotten Survivors
What’s Hiding Behind the Numbers? – The Oregon Report
Daughter writes about life in S.H. – Friends & Neighbors