My Enemy's Cradle
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4.1 • 11 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A young Jewish woman finds refuge from the terrors of WWII inside a Nazi birthing facility in this “gripping novel” set in war-torn Holland (Historical Novel Society).
Cyrla's neighbors have begun to whisper. Her cousin, Anneke, is pregnant. And she’s eligible for admission to the Lebensborn: a German maternity home for girls carrying Aryan babies. But Anneke's love, a German soldier, has disappeared. And she knows that Lebensborn babies are either released to their father's custody—or taken away.
Meanwhile, someone has discovered the truth of Cyrla’s identity. As a Polish Jew, she was sent to her Dutch relatives for safekeeping years ago. Now she must choose between certain discovery and posing as Anneke in the Lebensborn. But how can she take refuge in the enemy’s lair?
Mining a lost piece of history, author Sara Young takes readers deep inside the Nazi Lebensborn program. An elegy for the terrible choices women must sometimes make to survive, My Enemy’s Cradle is also a story of finding love, hope, and humanity in the darkest of times.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Children's-book author Young (who, as Sara Pennypacker, penned the celebrated Stuart series) makes a stunning adult debut with this beautifully told and heart-wrenching novel set in WWII Europe. Cyrla, half-Jewish, is no longer safe hiding in the home of her Dutch relatives under the increasingly harsh Nazi occupation. When cousin Annika, whom Cyrla closely resembles, becomes pregnant by a German soldier, Annika's father enrolls her in a Lebensborn, a birthing center for Aryan children, where the slogan is "Have one baby for the F hrer." In a tragic turn of events, Cyrla discovers her only chance of survival is to hide in plain sight: she must assume Annika's identity and live in the German Lebensborn until rescued. Within the Lebensborn's walls, mothers-to-be receive proper nutrition and medical care until their children are taken from them for adoption into Aryan families The horrors Cyrla witnesses are softened only by her resounding optimism and strength.
