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A review by marilynw
Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn
4.0
Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn
I remember first learning about the Lebensborn Society maternity homes from the same television program that that author mentions in her afterward. I spent time researching what I could when I learned of it. The program was far reaching in the ways it intruded into the lives of others, all for the goal of "racial hygiene".
We follow three fictional women who become cogs in the wheels of this program. One young woman, Gundi, is pregnant by the Jewish man she loves but she hides that fact as she is whisked off, against her will, to bear what is supposed to be a "racially pure" baby. The other young woman, Hilde, is a pregnant zealot for the madman that is destroying lives and people, she is a true believer and willing to do most things for her country. The third woman, Irma, is forty two, has burned bridges in her current life, so takes a job at the same breeding home in Bavaria where the other two young pregnant women have been taken.
Gundi could lose everything if her secret is found out, she's already lost almost everything. Hilde soon realizes that her situation isn't the wonderful setup she thought it was and she has to make some desperate choices to even salvage undesirable solutions. Irma sees that no matter how low things have sunk in her life, that she wants to at least make the time the girls are with her as good as they can be. But she can dig even deeper when the time comes and give even more. I enjoyed her awakening and the way she sees the past differently than she thought it was before she found out about this program.
I do wish the story didn't end so quickly, with so much left unsaid and unknown. The ending felt rushed, with much left dangling, unanswered. But the story is a good one and I felt for each woman, even misguided Hilde.
***The program that addresses this subject is The Man in the High Castle (TV series).
Pub October 11th 2022
Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for this ARC.
I remember first learning about the Lebensborn Society maternity homes from the same television program that that author mentions in her afterward. I spent time researching what I could when I learned of it. The program was far reaching in the ways it intruded into the lives of others, all for the goal of "racial hygiene".
We follow three fictional women who become cogs in the wheels of this program. One young woman, Gundi, is pregnant by the Jewish man she loves but she hides that fact as she is whisked off, against her will, to bear what is supposed to be a "racially pure" baby. The other young woman, Hilde, is a pregnant zealot for the madman that is destroying lives and people, she is a true believer and willing to do most things for her country. The third woman, Irma, is forty two, has burned bridges in her current life, so takes a job at the same breeding home in Bavaria where the other two young pregnant women have been taken.
Gundi could lose everything if her secret is found out, she's already lost almost everything. Hilde soon realizes that her situation isn't the wonderful setup she thought it was and she has to make some desperate choices to even salvage undesirable solutions. Irma sees that no matter how low things have sunk in her life, that she wants to at least make the time the girls are with her as good as they can be. But she can dig even deeper when the time comes and give even more. I enjoyed her awakening and the way she sees the past differently than she thought it was before she found out about this program.
I do wish the story didn't end so quickly, with so much left unsaid and unknown. The ending felt rushed, with much left dangling, unanswered. But the story is a good one and I felt for each woman, even misguided Hilde.
***The program that addresses this subject is The Man in the High Castle (TV series).
Pub October 11th 2022
Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for this ARC.