Welcome friend! The Sunflower House is a historical fiction set in the Second World War Germany and it was brilliant that it made my 30 books of year 30 list. It sheds light on the Nazi operation of producing children that met the Nazi standards. At these specialized birthing hospitals, pregnant women, married and unmarried, were encouraged to stay and give birth. I had never heard of this side of German history and was fascinated and terrified by the events portrayed in this book.
Adriana Allegri | Goodreads
Family secrets come to light as a young woman fights to save herself, and others, in a Nazi-run baby factory—a real-life Handmaid’s Tale—during World War II.
In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it’s 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret—her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling.
One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program.
The Sunflower House is a meticulously-researched debut historical novel that uncovers the notorious Lebensborn Program of Nazi Germany. Women of “pure” blood stayed in Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population, giving birth to thousands of babies who were adopted out to “good” Nazi families. Allina must keep her Jewish identity a secret in order to survive, but when she discovers the neglect occurring within the home, she’s determined not only to save herself, but also the children in her care.
A tale of one woman’s determination to resist and survive, The Sunflower House is also a love story. When Allina meets Karl, a high-ranking SS officer with secrets of his own, the two must decide how much they are willing to share with each other—and how much they can stand to risk as they join forces to save as many children as they can. The threads of this poignant and heartrending novel weave a tale of loss and love, friendship and betrayal, and the secrets we bury in order to save ourselves.
The Sunflower House – Book Review
The story begins with a phone call and eventual discovery of a family secret. Allina moved to America, never revealing her past to her daughter, who was around eleven at that time. When an accident at home leads Katerina to a box containing Nazi artifacts, she questions her mother who finally reveals how she spent the time during the war and her escape from Germany.
Allina grew up in a German village with her aunt and uncle. A few days before the attack that destroys the village, Allina learns her parents’ truths and how they influence her identity. Shaken by these revelations and also deeply loved by her caregivers, at the young age of eighteen, Allina has a lot to work through. But life does not give her a break and she becomes victim of rape and kidnapping during the attack. The General who ‘rescues’ her sees potential in her and delivers her at the Hochland Home, ordering the head nurse there to employ her should she not get pregnant. His recommendation lets her slip in without a security check.
At Hochland Home, a new world is revealed to Allina. She finds herself at a facility full of pregnant women. Some are married. Many are not. The Nazi regime encouraged Germans to have as many children as possible, even creating opportunities for soldiers to come and stay at these facilities and get unmarried women pregnant.
Allina meets women with many attitudes towards pregnancy and surrogacy – those who care deeply about the child they are having, those who have no emotional connection to them and are just going through the motions of nursing, others who enjoy having children and returning to the facility when they are pregnant again. But what was most astonishing for Allina (and me) was the children themselves. In her new role as a nurse, one of the first observations Allina makes is that the nursery is quiet. The children do not cry out. They are not engaged with each other. She is horrified to learn that everything at Hochland Home is on a schedule and nurses and mothers are not allowed to give love and soothe the children.
High ranking SS officers exercise their own power at Hochland Home. Allina learns that the General has a claim over her. This offers protection from other officers and stops their advances. Traumatized by the events at the village and terrified to have to face the General who left her here, Allina tries her best to settle into a new life. Eventually, she meets Karl, another SS officer whose influence is similar, if not the same as the General, and he takes her under his wing. I loved Karl and his backstory. Why he joined SS and how he and his friends were doing their best to carefully oppose Hitler. In the Nazi regime, the penalty of being found out would be death and Karl and Allina look out for each other. They play pretend where needed. Hitler’s speeches and propaganda are expertly woven into the narrative and good German values have to be shown at all times.
When the children at Hochland Home come of a certain age, those without parents are adopted by Nazi families. However, if children are ever returned and deemed not good enough by the adopted parents, they are returned to the facility. Allina finds herself an unwilling participant in Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program. When she shares this with Karl who has been trying to save children in recent years and had suspected a malicious underground operation at the Hochland Home, he decides to support her in a new educational format to help the disadvantaged children. The Sunflower House is his ancestral home where they come up with their plans.
The Sunflower House is a heartbreaking story. I loved how it tugged at my heartstrings. I cried with Allina when she had to part from the children she had grown so close to while carrying. I felt her love and fear for Karl. He built a team of men who watched his back and looked after Allina when he could not help her. Telling this story from the perspective of a nurse was a great choice and I felt it allowed the numerous aspects of the Nazi program to produce racially pure healthy Aryans.
The Sunflower House reminded me of Handmaid’s Tale, the dystopian novel by Margetret Atwood where women were used primarily for reproduction. Another book I thought of was The Farm by Joanne Ramos, a thought-provoking novel set in a luxury surrogacy facility where economically disadvantaged women were paid to carry babies for the wealthy. If you enjoyed either of these books, The Sunflower House would be a good one to read. It teaches about lesser known history through compassionate and kind characters for whom it is impossible not to root for. It is also a story about how immigration allows people to start a new life and choose to put a painful past behind for the sake of the children.
Would you like to give it a read? Add it to your Goodreads shelf.
Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this book for an honest review. Come back tomorrow for an interview with the author, Adriana Allegri.
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