Heart-Breaking

The Orphan List by Ann Bennett is a powerful and heart-wrenching dual timeline novel that totally consumed me. It is the first book in The World War II Orphanage series which promises to be fabulous.

The novel is set in Italy in 2005 and in Germany during World War II. An old lady of ninety in 2005 bridges the gap between the two time periods as she was a young nurse during the second world war. We witness the Nazis rise to power. We see the indoctrination of the German people. To speak out was to sign your own death certificate – but there were those brave souls who did what they could to help, and who felt guilty if they failed. This guilt would last a lifetime. “Praying for some way to heal the past.”

Lebensborn was the brainchild of Heinrich Himmler. It was designed to re-populate Germany via SS officers and young German women, but the baby, if perfect, would be whisked away from the mother and adopted by ‘good’ SS families. Those babies who were less than perfect met a dreadful fate. The girls were told, “It’s an honor to be chosen. To do your duty for the Fatherland and for the Fuhrer.” Many totally believed this lie. It was an evil practice with many doctors believing, “the ovaries of fertile Aryan women are so precious, they should be the property of the state.” How ridiculous!