{"id":3294,"date":"2025-01-13T09:21:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T16:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=3294"},"modified":"2025-01-13T09:21:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T16:21:19","slug":"the-pain-the-horror-and-the-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=3294","title":{"rendered":"The pain, the horror – and the love"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the lesser-known atrocities committed by the Nazis is central to a new novel that caught Bob Moyer’s attention.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer<\/p>\n

SUNFLOWER HOUSE. By Adriana Allegri. St. Martin\u2019s Press. 336 pages.\u00a0$29.<\/p>\n

Atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Third Reich have been thoroughly documented, examined and commented upon. It is surprising then, that Adriana Allegri in her debut novel sheds light on a little-known program conducted by the Nazis that is as insidious as any of their other heinous plans: SS Lebensborn.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In order to maintain population growth, the Nazis, specifically Heinrich Himmler, encouraged German women to copulate with German men \u2014 Aryan Germans, of course \u2014 regardless of marriage. Centers were set up where women were recruited to reside while bearing children and children could be raised until they were given to good Nazi parents. According to the author\u2019s reconstruction, these residences also held \u201cmixers,\u201d where soldiers could choose a mate for what was officially called \u201cbiological marriage.\u201d Women were given awards for the number of children they produced, culminating in a gold cross for over eight children. These awards were colloquially called \u201cThe Order of the Rabbit.\u201d The author\u2019s research provides a historical backbone of credibility to her book<\/p>\n

Not just a documentation, the narrative of this very uncommon story is integrated by the author into a very common trope \u2014 the beautiful damsel saved by a handsome prince. The princess in this case is Allina, a mischling, or mixed-race girl, who is plucked from the rubble of her destroyed town by a German officer, raped in his car and then dropped at Hochland Home, the original Lebensborn center. Ultimately found not to be pregnant, Allina becomes part of the Hochland\u2019s staff. Through her eyes and traumatized sensibility, we witness the policy of Lebensborn manifested in the daily function of the home \u2014 the deprived children, the egregious \u201cmixers,\u201d the normalizing of a heinous policy in the behavior of the staff, the mothers, the soldiers and of course, the historic figures who visit, particularly Heinrich Himmler and his wife. The author also salts the narrative with actual documents, and a Lebensborn naming ceremony.<\/p>\n

At one of the \u201cmixers,\u201d which she studiously tries to avoid, Allina meets Karl, a highly ranked officer \u2014 her prince. Although the author does a good job of not rushing them into each other\u2019s arms, the reader knows they will come together as complications ensue.<\/p>\n

Indeed, they do come together, and complications do ensue. Karl has his own secrets, which bond them even closer, and brings tension to the outcome. Ultimately, those tensions come to a tragic conclusion. We know that only Allina and her daughter survive, because the narrative is framed inside Allina\u2019s now-middle-age daughter\u2019s discovery of a wooden box and Alina\u2019s recounting of the tragic past. The author is to be commended for keeping us engaged with the story despite the foreshadowing of the frame tale. She leaves the reader with a sense of both the personal pain inflicted by Lebensborn and the horrendous impact of another Nazi policy.<\/p>\n

Thanks to St. Martin\u2019s Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the lesser-known atrocities committed by the Nazis is central to a new novel that caught Bob Moyer’s attention. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer SUNFLOWER HOUSE. By Adriana Allegri. St. Martin\u2019s Press. 336 pages.\u00a0$29. Atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Third Reich have been thoroughly documented, examined and commented upon. It is surprising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1430,1432,1431,1433],"class_list":["post-3294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical-fiction","tag-adriana-allegri","tag-lebensborn","tag-sunflower-house","tag-third-reich"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3296,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3294\/revisions\/3296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}