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A review by shannonsthilaire
Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn
3.0
This book is on a fascinating topic, and one I've been studying and writing about myself for the last three years. I was excited to read this novel and get another writer's take. I appreciated the three perspectives of very different women, which capture the indoctrination and also the casual acceptance of many German people of the time.
I was perplexed that the stories did not weave together. Two of the them do, but the third dangles, as if it's not part of the same narrative at all.
There were also some inaccuracies about Lebensborn, which very few people living today would catch. The biggest one is that misconceptions about the program are reinforced, that it was a place where girls came to learn how to woo SS men. The reality was a bit different and more convoluted, but just as dark.
Overall, I'm happy to see any author take on the enormous subject of Lebensborn, which is still little known. It was a dark and frightening eugenics program cloaked in bureaucracy. Doing the research required to write this book is a fascinating rabbit hole and it's always fun to see another hunter down there with me.
I was perplexed that the stories did not weave together. Two of the them do, but the third dangles, as if it's not part of the same narrative at all.
There were also some inaccuracies about Lebensborn, which very few people living today would catch. The biggest one is that misconceptions about the program are reinforced, that it was a place where girls came to learn how to woo SS men. The reality was a bit different and more convoluted, but just as dark.
Overall, I'm happy to see any author take on the enormous subject of Lebensborn, which is still little known. It was a dark and frightening eugenics program cloaked in bureaucracy. Doing the research required to write this book is a fascinating rabbit hole and it's always fun to see another hunter down there with me.