THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

Sara Young’s historical novel centers on the largely unknown Nazi project during WW II termed, the Lebensborn. The Lebensborn program, initiated by Heinrich Himmler, was to create a race of perfect, Aryan German children to further the Third Reich and the master race.

The women/girls were to be impregnated by German soldiers, using any means necessary.  Later, the women/girls were shipped to special centers, the Lebensborn homes, to deliver the babies.  The children were then stolen from the mothers to be adopted by German families.  If a child was born with any defect, it was killed.

Women that consorted with or were affiliated with German soldiers were often resented by their communities; at the Lebensborn, the women/girls received food, shelter and all prenatal care.

 

“My Enemy’s Cradle”, chronicles the fictitious story of two young Jewish women, one Dutch and one Polish, caught in the Lebensborn snare.  Both a love story and a fast paced thriuller, the novel is well written and well plotted.  Recommended.