The
Nazis were responsible for the most incomprehensible crime
of all time. In novel-like fashion Wendy Holden in her powerful
book, Born Survivors tells the story of three young
mothers who exhibited strength, courage, defiance, and hope.
She chronicles many of the atrocities that these women had
to endure, while trying to make sure they would give birth
to the child in their womb.
The three mothers’, Priska, Rachel, and Anka, defied
death to give their children life. Torn from their families
by the Nazis they were first sent to Auschwitz, then Fielberg,
and ended up at Mauthausen. Although these women were strangers
to one another they had something in common: all were a few
months pregnant and needed to keep this a secret from their
Nazi captors. Dr. Josef Mengele treated them like cattle,
opening their mouths and looking at their teeth. To find out
if they were pregnant he would squeeze their breasts to see
if any milk leaked out. Those discovered were either sent
to their death or were used for genetic testing.
One
of the surviving children, Hana Berger Moran, noted, “
My mother said of Josef Mengele that he was just a man, but
what an evil man. I don’t think a four-legged animal
would behave as cruelly as the Germans. What we went through
is a war on the Jews. Even today, I can’t be on a train
platform and view the cattle cars. I get hysterical. It must
be visceral where my mom somehow transferred to me as a newborn
or while in the womb what she was feeling. I spent the first
seventeen days of my life in a Concentration Camp.”
As with
most books about the Holocaust it is difficult to read, the
cruelty beyond comprehension Holden describes in detailed
fashion the conditions these mothers had to endure in the
Concentration Camps and in the brutal death train transfer.
Holden felt any book about Holocaust victims must include
the atrocities of the Nazis. She commented, “ As I write
in the book, Mengele examined the women’s teeth like
they were cattle. He was unmistakably cruel. As far as we
know these babies were the only ones that survived, because
the other pregnant women were either directly killed or used
for experiments. In one instance a woman had slipped between
his fingers and when she was discovered pregnant she was sent
back. He was so incensed that he waited for her baby to be
born, and then had her tied to her bed, laying next to the
baby so that she could watch it starve to death. Each person
in the Holocaust had their lives and dreams stolen by the
Nazis.”
The
reader is able to picture the events as if they were going
through the atrocities with the women; yet, with it all the
outcome is uplifting. Whether by luck, miracle, or a little
of both these three women and their babies beat the odds.
They did not just survive but flourished after the liberation.
As Holden writes in the book, “these babies went on
to have babies of their own and create a second and then a
third generation, all of whom continue to live their lives
in defiance of Hitler’s plan to erase them from history
and from memory.”
The
author noted, “The mothers were sent to a slave labor
camp where they worked 12 hours/day, seven days/week, using
heavy riveting machines and did not miscarry. In addition,
luck played a role in that the pregnancies were not detected;
they survived chronic malnutrition, and one of the worst winters
ever in flimsy clothing.”
An interesting point made in the book is the “Gone With
The Wind” thread. Anka, before she was rounded up, was
a moviegoer. One of her favorites was this epic film. How
Scarlett suffered resonated with her, as well as another mother,
Rachel, who found solace in the quote, “I will never
go hungry again.” Each woman used the philosophy of
Scarlett, ‘I’ll think about it tomorrow.’
It helped them overcome the hell they were going through,
trying not to think about what would happen to their babies
and themselves. It is also interesting how each woman, as
with Scarlett, were strong willed, competitive, educated,
intelligent, from a wealthy family, and not very religious.
Holden
wants readers to “ look around their lives and feel
blessed that they are not living in great fear. I want people
to feel compassion for these women and for those who did not
make it, and to remember the Holocaust. Throughout the story
there was cruelty but also hope provided by the small acts
of kindness by strangers.”
Born
Survivors is ultimately a book of hope because it shows
how luck, courage, and perseverance can help someone achieve
their goal of survival. In this case it was the desire by
the three mothers to keep themselves and their babies alive.
It also brilliantly contrasts the cruelness of humanity with
the kindness. There are many scenes where the readers will
be overcome with grief regarding the Nazi crimes but there
are also scenes in which townspeople and the American liberators
provided emotional, medical, and material support. This book
is a must read for everyone from high school students to adults.
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