The persecution of the Jews during World War II has been well documented by novelists and journalists alike. However novelist Sara Young reveals to us one of the most unknown and terrifying of Heinrich Himmler’s wartime projects the Lebensborn Nazi breeding programme.Cyrla’s neighbours have begun to whisper. Her cousin, Annika, is pregnant and has passed the rigorous exams for admission to the Lebensborn, a maternity home for Aryan girls carrying German babies. Annika’s soldier has disappeared; the Nazis confiscate fatherless children. Cyrla, sent from Poland to hide with her Dutch relatives, has been warned that her neighbours know she is half Jewish. She won’t be safe for long.A cruel twist of fate places Cyrla with the terrible choice between certain discovery in her cousin’s home and taking Annika’s place in the Lebensborn. If she takes refuge in the enemy’s lair, can Cyrla fool the doctors, nurses, guards and other mothers-to-be? How will she escape before they discover she is not who she claims?
Sara Young has had great success with her children's books which have charted in the top ten of the New York Times bestseller lists.
This new novel for adults is based on the little known experiment in Nazi Germany where young 'racially valuable' women were encouraged to have sex with German soldiers, in or out of wedlock in order to present their country with new citizens and future soldiers.
These pregnant women were taken to commandeered maternity homes throughout Germany. The programme expanded to occupied countries where Aryan girls who were pregnant by German citizens were also admitted.
Still this was not enough for Himmler and eventually blatant kidnapping of young children from eastern occupied countries (200,000 children from Poland alone) was sanctioned.
The vast majority were never returned to their families after the war.