The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E16: Hélène Outwits the Nazis

The Girlfriends: Trust Me Babe

iHeartPodcasts and Novel

True Crime, Society & Culture, Relationships, Documentary

4.4 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Germany. Spring 1945. The writing is on the wall for the Nazis. And thousands of women are marching along dirt roads. If they stop walking, they’ll be shot. Their route is lined with piles of corpses. It’s a death march. Among these women are The Nine. Nine young women, all members of the French resistance, who have formed an extraordinary bond of friendship and support in the concentration camp in which they’ve been held. Their unofficial leader is 25-year-old Hélène Podliasky. And she’s about to suggest something incredible: The Nine are going to escape. Hélène’s story is told by her great niece, the writer Gwen Strauss. The Girlfriends: Spotlight is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts. For more from Novel visit novel.audio

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed Human.
0:04.3	Hi, listener.
0:05.5	I wanted to give you a heads up that this story discusses concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
0:11.3	There will be some mentions of torture and violence.
0:15.1	But you will also get to hear about nine amazing female resistance fighters
0:19.5	and how their friendship was the key to their survival.
0:27.2	Thousands of women are marching.
0:30.3	They are organised in rows of five, blocks of 100,
0:34.0	and groups of 1,000.
0:36.5	They are wearing wooden clogs that scratch and slip on the dirt road.
0:41.4	Their thin coats are emblazoned with a thick white cross on the back.
0:46.4	They are marked as prisoners.
0:49.3	It is spring 1945.
0:52.2	We are in Germany and the writing is on the wall for the Nazis.
0:57.0	Heinrich Himmler has ordered the evacuation of all concentration camps.
1:01.9	These women are on a death march.
1:05.9	They don't know where they're going.
1:08.0	They just know that they have to keep walking.
1:10.6	If they stumble out of line, they'll be shot. They just know that they have to keep walking. If they stumble out of
1:11.8	line, they'll be shot. Beside the road is a ditch, and there, in the ditch, a nine women.
1:22.0	They are arranged in a pile like corpses, but they're alive.
	...

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