Beelitz-Heilstätten:
Where Ghosts Never Die
By Marina Osipova
Publication Date: 1st May 2025
Publisher: Independently Published
Page Length: 235
Genre: Historical Fiction
What if rediscovering your birthplace unearthed a secret so powerful it could rewrite history—and your own identity?
A Russian-American writer obsessed with her birthplace - a ghostly derelict German military hospital near Berlin
Her Austrian husband, who pines for the father he never met
A passionate young doctor destined for darkness
A demonic figure who changed the course of history
Interrogation reports stolen from the Soviet secret police
What mysterious force connects them all?
This genre-bending time-slip narrative bridges 2018 to the haunting eras of WWI and WWII, interweaving together the ghosts of history and a shocking secret that threatens the present.
The bond between a person, their parents, and birthplace can be profoundly emotional. Despite its infancy as a German military hospital, Beelitz-Heilstätten is where Marina was born, brought into the world where so many soldiers met their end.
The crumbling walls of Beelitz-Heilstätten are partially accessible to the public, allowing visitors to walk through history and discover the experiences of the doctors and patients during the First and Second World Wars. However, the site is also well-known for its ghostly activity. With so many lives lost within its walls, it’s understandable that spirits may still linger. As Marina enters to explore the place of her birth, she unknowingly steps into a world hidden from the usual realm of reality.
Reviving the past and resurrecting characters, “Beelitz-Heilstätten: Where Ghosts Never Die” by Marina Osipova is a powerful and intricately written novel that explores the depths of self-discovery amid challenging circumstances. Its captivating narrative draws readers into a world where the echoes of history resonate, offering profound insights into the human experience.
Marina is a character driven by her curiosity and a deep desire to uncover the truth. What begins as an innocent wish to return to her birthplace evolves into a quest filled with historical inquiries and profound explorations of her own psyche. Marina finds herself drawn into the restricted areas of the building, uncovering historical realities that have long been hidden. As an impending storm approaches, the darkness begins to lift the veil between the past and the present, pulling Marina into a world entirely unknown to her, filled with secrets she may wish she had never discovered.
Doctor Dietrich Wilchelm Hellmann treats the wound on Marion’s head, ensuring she is okay before allowing her to continue on her way to register for a nursing course at Beelitz-Heilstätten. Although Marion does not entirely remember how she ended up in the hospital, she finds purpose in the course and in caring for the patients who come under her watch. As she engages in her work, Marion finds herself drawn to Doctor Hellmann, her gaze seeking his whenever he is nearby. This infatuation is mutual, and it isn’t long before Marion’s Tuesday evenings, free from work, are spent in the company of Dietrich. They get to know each other and, slowly, she begins to develop feelings for him. Dietrich is mainly portrayed while interacting with patients; the hospital is always bustling with individuals needing medical attention. His compassion and care for them lift their spirits, making it clear why Marion is so attracted to him. However, there is more to Dietrich than meets the eye. Not every door is open for Marion, and behind a forbidden corridor or a locked door could lie horrors beyond her imagination.
When Marina awakens in a hospital with a wound on her head, she keeps to herself the truth of what she has just experienced. If she were to share her memories of the nursing course and caring for injured soldiers directly from the front line, she would likely be committed to a psychiatric ward. However, she cannot simply push her experiences into the past, where they rightfully belong. Instead, they have intruded into her present, and there are questions she needs answered. Moreover, her husband, Hans, bears a striking resemblance to Dietrich. Marina cannot move forward without knowing the truth about Dietrich and whether he was real or merely a figment of her imagination.
Osipova masterfully blends past and present through expressive prose, bringing historical characters and events back to life. This complex novel reveals the ghosts of history, who exist on the edge between the living and the dead, longing for their stories to be remembered.
This novel is divided into three distinct parts, clearly separating the past from the present. While this division helps highlight the contrasts between the two eras, it also creates a sense of disconnection between the sections, which seems to undermine the story’s overall theme of interconnectedness between past and present. In addition, during the second section, when Marina finds herself transported to the past and interacting with people long dead, she does not question how she arrived there. In fact, she has no memories prior to awakening in Beelitz-Heilstätten but proceeds as if this lack of memory is not a concern. It remains unclear whether her experiences there, no matter how vivid and realistic, are merely a dream or a hallucination. This ambiguity appears to be left for the reader’s interpretation, but the many unanswered questions about Marina’s time in the past could enhance the reading experience if addressed more thoroughly.
The realities at Beelitz-Heilstätten, where Marion cares for injured soldiers, starkly contrast with modern medicine. The conditions in which the nurses work are challenging and often deeply upsetting, especially given the profound trauma faced by the soldiers. One patient, referred to as “the Austrian,” frequently disrupts the ward with violent outbursts, creating an unsettling environment. In contrast, the innocence of little Max brings an air of childhood wonder to the ward, highlighting that the pain and suffering of this era extended beyond the front lines. The novel features several characters who leave a lasting impression on the reader, whether positive or negative. These characters are portrayed with such realism that they linger in the reader’s mind long after the last page is turned.
The setting of the story takes place in the historical Beelitz-Heilstätten hospital, which provides a sinister backdrop. This abandoned hospital, long left to the elements, shows few signs of care or maintenance. The author meticulously describes the crumbling buildings, portraying them as mere shells of their former glory while also restoring the lost prestige of the hospital during flashbacks to its earlier days. The detailed world-building creates both a vivid setting and an immersive atmosphere.
Osipova’s choice to include herself as the main character is intriguing, as it suggests that the novel may not be entirely fictional. Instead, it highlights that the historical figures and events depicted within its pages possess a truth and realism that extends beyond the confines of the book. The premise suggests that history can never truly be left behind; it will always find a way to resurface. The horrors revealed—those that plagued wards filled with patients injured by war, along with the chilling discoveries that Marina makes in the modern day regarding the novel’s historical counterpart—are enough to send shivers down the reader’s spine. This creates an atmosphere of dread, marked by the cold re-emergence of historical brutality, which is devoid of empathy or humanity.
“Beelitz-Heilstätten: Where Ghosts Never Die” by Marina Osipova is a mesmerising journey into the haunting echoes of a bygone era. Although it may occasionally skim over certain details, the narrative immerses readers in the past, where long-buried secrets fight their way to the surface. Osipova skilfully unveils the terrifying truths that lie hidden in the shadows of time, inviting the reader to confront the lingering spirits that continue to shape the present.
Review by Ellie Yarde
Yarde Book Reviews & Book Promotion
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Beelitz-Heilstätten:
Where Ghosts Never Die
Marina Osipova
Marina Osipova was born in East Germany into a military family and grew up in Russia, where she graduated from the Moscow State Institute of History and Archives. When she was five, she decided she wanted to speak German and, years later, she earned a diploma as a German language translator from the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages. In Russia, she worked first in a scientific-technical institute as a translator, then in a Government Ministry in the office of international relations, later for some Austrian firms. For many years, she lived in New York, working in a law firm, and then in Austria for several years. In the spring of 2022, after spending ten months in Russia, some unfortunate world events brought her back to the United States.
A long-standing member of the Historical Novel Society, she is dedicated to writing historical fiction, especially related to WWII. Her books garnered numerous literary awards, including a 1st Place WINNER of the 2021 Hemingway Book Awards novel competition for 20th Century Wartime Fiction (a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards). At some point or another, all her books hit the Amazon Top 100 lists in Historical Russian Fiction and Historical German Fiction and How Dare the Birds Sing even #1 or #2 in War Fiction in Canada, the UK, and Australia.
Her readers praise her books for “emotional realism,” for “taking on a subject that few authors have touched,” for “writing with heart and compassion while not holding back from hard cold realities of war,” for “giving an authentic and in-depth look at a culture that tends to baffle westerners.”
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