A Fabulous Debut

A Mother’s War by Helen Parusel is a marvellous historical debut that enthralled me.

The story educates as you read. It is set in Nazi occupied Norway during World War II and concerns the Lebensborn program. This was designed to re-populate Germany with Aryan looking babies – some were born in Lebensborn homes, others were kidnapped from their parents and sent to Germany to be adopted. It was an open secret and not talked about much. After the war, some mothers and their children were shunned.

Mothers entered the program for a variety of reasons – for some it was the kudos, others had genuinely fallen in love.

We see that not all Germans were Nazis. Some were abhorrent at the persecution and the horrors that they witnessed. They did what they could to help others, from inside the Nazi war machine.

There was the Norwegian resistance. We see the courage needed to stand up and make a difference.

Love happens where it will. We witness the dilemma a character faces when she meets kindness in a young German soldier.

Children are a gift from God, whatever the circumstances of their birth.