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A review by shelves_by_sim
Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn
5.0
Based in the Third Reich Era in Germany, in the beginning of Hilter's dictatorship, three women have to navigate their way through a circumstances that lead them to a Nazi breeding home in Bavaria.
Gundi - an Aryan beauty who is secretly part of the resistance - falls pregnant with her Jewish boyfriend's baby, she is sent to the Lebensborn Society maternity home as the state is under the impression that the baby is of pure German blood.
Hilde, a true believer in the cause finds herself at the home after she fall's pregnant with a Nazi official's baby.
Irma, a middle-aged nurse looking to start over after she walked in on a Jewish women heading into her Fiancé's basement and assumes he has been unfaithful.
***Spoilers!!
As things unfold, Irma realises that not everything is what it seems to be and discovers that the head nurse condones soldiers using there "mothers in training" as sex slaves, babies, whose parents aren't engaged, get taken from them and put up for adoption and God forbid that a women gives birth to a darker skin child that could be misconstrued for a Jew! That baby would be "cleansed" by lethal injection. And all this for the name of Germany! Hilde ends up without a career or her status of being a Nazi Official's mistress and Gundi has to escape after her baby is born to save both their lives.
My thoughts:
What a heavy read! I'm still unsettled by all the things I have learned from this book. This was a dark time in Germany, where Nazis were killing and framing Jews, kicking them out their homes, throwing them in work camps, burning down their property and stealing their belongings. My heart aches for Jews who had to live through that.
Past the heavy stuff though, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was hectic but it was beautiful and hopeful. The women formed connections that saved their lives, and their souls. It wasn't a happy ending for everyone but those who got theirs deserved it. I'll say it again, this book was BEAUTIFUL
Gundi - an Aryan beauty who is secretly part of the resistance - falls pregnant with her Jewish boyfriend's baby, she is sent to the Lebensborn Society maternity home as the state is under the impression that the baby is of pure German blood.
Hilde, a true believer in the cause finds herself at the home after she fall's pregnant with a Nazi official's baby.
Irma, a middle-aged nurse looking to start over after she walked in on a Jewish women heading into her Fiancé's basement and assumes he has been unfaithful.
***Spoilers!!
As things unfold, Irma realises that not everything is what it seems to be and discovers that the head nurse condones soldiers using there "mothers in training" as sex slaves, babies, whose parents aren't engaged, get taken from them and put up for adoption and God forbid that a women gives birth to a darker skin child that could be misconstrued for a Jew! That baby would be "cleansed" by lethal injection. And all this for the name of Germany! Hilde ends up without a career or her status of being a Nazi Official's mistress and Gundi has to escape after her baby is born to save both their lives.
My thoughts:
What a heavy read! I'm still unsettled by all the things I have learned from this book. This was a dark time in Germany, where Nazis were killing and framing Jews, kicking them out their homes, throwing them in work camps, burning down their property and stealing their belongings. My heart aches for Jews who had to live through that.
Past the heavy stuff though, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was hectic but it was beautiful and hopeful. The women formed connections that saved their lives, and their souls. It wasn't a happy ending for everyone but those who got theirs deserved it. I'll say it again, this book was BEAUTIFUL