Review: Lebensborn by Jo Ann Bender

She came to him as he stirred the pot on the stove.  His frustrations and anguish were plain when he put down the spoon.  “I know what that Nazi wants.  He wants you, Antoinette.  He’s said as much.  If you resist, he could send you to one of their camps, could say you’re Jewish, a gypsy, anything.  I don’t know what to tell you to do.  I wish your mother were here.  She’d know what to tell you.”

“Papa, these days are so terrible.  You here.  Maman at the farm.  Our family split apart; each going our way alone.  Things we need to make it through a day so hard to get.  Everything wearing out.  Then, these Nazis come here to our very house.”  She paused and with great love continued, “You’ve given me seventeen years of your love.  You must believe that I have listened to your wisdom and will do the best I can.  I have faith that God will not desert me.”

(from Lebensborn, page 15)

Jo Ann Bender’s novel Lebensborn, named after the secret Nazi program that encouraged SS officers to breed racially pure children with unmarried women and allowed childless German couples to adopt foreign children taken from their families, follows a young French girl on an arduous journey of survival during World War II.  When the SS takes over the French village of Villepente, Antoinette’s life is forever changed.  Her father, Henri, is the mayor, and Major Reinhardt Hurst decides he and his officers will live in the Gauthier home, immediately ordering Antoinette to prepare their meals and clean their rooms.  He also takes a liking to Antoinette, who is a member of the Resistance and nearly engaged to Jacques.  However, Hurst is used to getting his own way, and he is a man with a powerful presence — so powerful that it doesn’t take long for Antoinette to succumb to his charms.

The first half of Lebensborn takes place in Villepente and shows how life changes for the village’s residents under Nazi rule.  Not only do the SS search their homes and take any valuables, but they also restrict the villagers’ movements and even require them to give up their pets.  The villagers have already seen their lives drastically changed by war; food is scarce, and many of their loved ones have died in the fighting.  Their pets were one of the few comforts in their lives, and to have them taken away causes much grief.  While the SS lays down the law, Antoinette must deal with her conflicting feelings for Hurst, knowing that he is engaged to be married and that she should not be fraternizing with the enemy.

The second half of the book takes place in Germany, with Hurst sending Antoinette to a Lebensborn home to have their child.  Antoinette is supposed to be proud to be having a child for the Führer, but she is far from her family, forced to change her name and attend classes that teach Nazi doctrine, and is treated poorly because she is from an occupied country.  Antoinette’s cooking skills land her a position in the kitchen at the neighboring SS Party House, where the SS enjoy food, drink, and women and where Antoinette cobbles together a plan for escape.

Bender does a wonderful job bringing to life a French village and its people, the hardships they endure under Nazi occupation, and the life-and-death choices they are forced to make.  This fictional take on little known aspects of the Third Reich was very interesting, taking readers inside a Lebensborn, showing the power of the Resistance groups, and highlighting the excesses and rituals of the Nazis.  I had only a few issues with the book, the first being the few graphic sex scenes, which I thought weren’t necessary to tell the story.  I also didn’t buy Antoinette so easily falling into bed with Major Hurst, especially when he approached her with talk about the breeding program and how she should be proud to have a child with him for the Führer.  With Antoinette’s ties to the Resistance, I just don’t see how she was so captivated by him.  I could have understood it if he’d forced himself on her, but that wasn’t the case.  Still, Antoinette’s actions didn’t keep me from enjoying the book or admiring the strength of her character.  I also wish some of the characters were more developed, especially the British pilot whom Antoinette stumbles upon outside the SS Party House.

The title of this novel is a bit deceiving because one assumes that it is mainly about the Lebensborn program, but it is about so much more.  Bender covers everything from the collaboration between the French Resistance and the British and the strict laws the Nazis put into place in the occupied countries to Heinrich Himmler’s fascination with the occult and the brutal tactics of the Gestapo to extract information.  Overall, Lebensborn is about the resilience of the ordinary people affected by war, the overzealous believers in a lost cause, and the healing that is possible after extreme heartache.

Disclosure: I received a copy of Lebensborn from the author for review purposes. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.