Actually, this book doesn't focus on the camps or even the Jewish plight, so to speak. This one focuses on a subject that I had never heard or read about: Lebensborn, a birthing center for Aryan children, where the slogan is Have one baby for the Führer. Basically, women or girls were getting pregnant in Germany and the surrounding areas by soldiers who had wives/girlfriends elsewhere. As a result, these women were left pregnant with nowhere to go and no way to support their child. 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.
This book focuses on Cyrla, a half-Jewish Dutch girl, living with her dead mother's sister, hiding in plain sight, pretending to be Christian. Several years earlier, she had been sent away by her Jewish father who had seen bad things brewing. Eventually, Cyrla's cousin Annika, whom Cyrla closely resembles, becomes pregnant by a German soldier. Annika's father enrolls her in a Lebensborn. Through horrible events, Cyrla must assume Annika's identity and live in the German Lebensborn until rescued. The horrors Cyrla witnesses are softened only by her resounding optimism and strength.
I liked this book. Good, easy read...not too heavy considering the plot line.
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