By
Wendy Holden
HarperCollins,
2015. 385 pgs. Nonfiction
Separated from their husbands, three
young mothers imprisoned by the Nazis in the fall of 1944 manage to conceal
their pregnancies from Nazi doctor Josef Mengele when they arrive at Auschwitz.
Young and still healthy the women are sent to work in harsh conditions at a
labor camp in Freiburg. Unknown to each other they continue to hide their
pregnancies even as they are nearly starved to death. As the Germans fall back
and the Allies approach, one gives birth in the factory clinic to a tiny baby
just before they are all loaded onto trains to be transported to Mauthausen.
Two more babies born on that treacherous journey also survive to be liberated by
American troops.
The
author relates the early lives of these three women, their marriages, and their
lives after liberation. For those not as
familiar with the Holocaust, the author also gives background information about
Nazi policies and the conditions in the countries they occupied as Jews are
placed in ghettos and concentrations camps. Unknown to each other while in the
camps, after the war the three women raised strong children. Bonded by their
incredible births and their strong mothers, the three children finally meet to celebrate their survival. This story
deserves to be told and the author’s writing is excellent. Be warned, however, that there are graphic
descriptions of life in the camps and the inhuman treatment prisoners received.
SH
No comments:
Post a Comment