Cradles of the Reich: A Novel

by Jennifer Coburn

Overview

"Every historical fiction novel should strive to be this compelling, well-researched and just flat-out good." — Associated Press

For fans of The Nightingale and The Handmaid's Tale, Cradles of the Reich uncovers a topic rarely explored in fiction: the Lebensborn project, a Nazi breeding program to create a so-called master race. Through thorough research and with deep empathy, this chilling historical novel goes inside one of the Lebensborn Society maternity homes that existed in several countries during World War II, where thousands of "racially fit" babies were bred and taken from their mothers to be raised as part of the new Germany.

At the Heim Hochland maternity home in Bavaria, three women's lives coverage as they find themselves there under very different circumstances. Gundi is a pregnant university student from Berlin. An Aryan beauty, she's secretly a member of a resistance group. Hilde, only eighteen, is a true believer in the cause and is thrilled to carry a Nazi official's child. And Irma, a 44-year-old nurse, is desperate to build a new life for herself after personal devastation. Despite their opposing beliefs, all three have everything to lose as they begin to realize they are trapped within Hitler's terrifying scheme to build a Nazi-Aryan nation. 

A cautionary tale for modern times told in stunning detail, Cradles of the Reich uncovers a little-known Nazi atrocity but also carries an uplifting reminder of the power of women to set aside differences and work together in solidarity in the face of oppression.

"Skillfully researched and told with great care and insight, here is a World War II story whose lessons should not—must not—be forgotten." — Susan Meissner, bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728250748
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	10/11/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	45,071
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Coburn is the author of Cradles of the Reich, a historical novel about three very different women living at a Nazi Lebensborn breeding home at the start of World War ll.

She has also published a mother-daughter travel memoir, We'll Always Have Paris, as well as six contemporary women's novels. Additionally, Jennifer has contributed to five literary anthologies, including A Paris All Your Own.

Jennifer lives in San Diego with her husband, William. Their daughter, Katie is currently in graduate school. When Jennifer is not going down historical research rabbit holes, she volunteers with So Say We All, a live storytelling organization, where she is a performer, producer, and performance coach. She is also an active volunteer with Reality Changers, a nonprofit that supports low-income high school students in becoming the first in their families to attend college.

Editorial Reviews

08/01/2022

Coburn returns to fiction (after the memoir We’ll Always Have Paris) with a chilling tale of a Nazi maternity home. When the unmarried Gundi Schiller’s family doctor confirms her pregnancy in 1939, German authorities force her to live at Heim Hochland, a maternity home for the “racially pure” near Munich. Gundi abhors the Lebensborn program, but knows she must acquiesce and never reveal the identity of her child’s father, Leo Solomon, a Jewish member of the resistance. By contrast, Hilde Kramer, pregnant by the married Obergruppenführer Werner Ziegler, believes her spot at Heim Hochland lends her prestige. Nurse Irma Binz, a patriotic German with a tragic past, takes a job at Heim Hochland at the urging of an old friend. Amid revelations of the home’s practice of allowing women to voluntarily have sex with Nazi officers, the stories of the three central characters play out. As Hilde takes desperate measures after a health crisis to achieve her aspirations, Irma’s friendships with the women in the home put a strain on her loyalty to the fascist country, especially when it comes to the danger faced by Gundi and her daughter. Coburn’s characters are rather pat, and the broad outlines of the plot are predictable. Still, she brings to life the twisted realities of the Lebensborn program. Though lackluster as fiction, it offers an illuminating look at the period. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Sets high bar for historical fiction...Every historical fiction novel should strive to be this compelling, well-researched and just flat-out good." — Associated Press

"With this novel Jennifer Coburn gives compelling and necessary literary voice to those impacted the most by Adolf Hitler’s haunting and ironically dehumanizing scheme to generate racially pure infants. Skillfully researched and told with great care and insight, here is a World War II story whose lessons should not—must not—be forgotten." — Susan Meissner, bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things

"The Handmaid's Tale meets WWII in Cradles of the Reich, which explores the little-known history of Hitler's Lebensborn program and its goal of mass-breeding racially fit babies for the master race. Three German women are destined to collide at a Bavarian breeding home: a blond beauty desperately concealing her unborn child's Jewish heritage, a Nazi official's fanatical young mistress, and a nurse determined to keep her head down in the home's increasingly sinister program of forced adoptions, queasy eugenics, and racial cleansing. Jennifer Coburn's debut historical novel is adept, unforgettable, and brilliantly unsettling!" — Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code

"I loved Cradles of the Reich, Jennifer Coburn's fascinating and incredibly well-researched look at this little-known Nazi breeding program and three women whose lives intersect there. Don't miss this wonderful historical fiction debut!" — Martha Hall Kelly, New York Times bestselling author of The Lilac Girls and Sunflower Sisters

"Cradles of the Reich masterfully delves into the warped underbelly of the Nazi’s Lebensborn Program for racial engineering. With grace and a deft hand, Jennifer Coburn creates indelible female characters that leave us heart torn. This book kept me breathless from chapter to chapter. I couldn’t put it down until the final heroic page." — Sarah McCoy, New York Times bestselling author of Mustique Island

"The hopes and dreams of three women collide in this shocking story about a little-known Nazi breeding home in Bavaria. Jennifer Coburn has written a brave and highly original novel; fans of historical fiction will find it compelling—and indeed essential—reading." — Kitty Zeldis, author of Not Our Kind

"A deep well of discussion topics for book-club readers." — Kirkus

"...Ample topics for discussion groups. For fans of Martha Hall Kelly's The Lilac Girls, Lisa See's The Island of Sea Women, Jennifer Worth's Call the Midwife, and World War II women’s stories." — Booklist

From the Publisher

2022-07-13
The author’s first historical novel explores the perils of motherhood in prewar Nazi Germany.

In 1939, three women live at Heim Hochland, a home for “racially pure” unmarried mothers in a secret breeding program to create Aryan babies for Hitler. Gundi Schiller and Hilde Kramer are pregnant, and Irma Binz is a nurse. Basing her novel on a real Nazi program, Coburn skillfully intertwines the stories of distinctly different personalities: Gundi secretly distributes anti-Nazi flyers; Hilde is a true Hitler Girl; Irma just wants to do her job and stay out of trouble. Secrets abound: Gundi had sex with a Jew; Hilde wants to be an actress; Irma treats injured resistance fighters. Gundi carries the most weight in this carefully researched story, and she is the most sympathetic. A leering doctor rhapsodizes to her, “You, my dear, are perfection. I have been waiting for a girl with your features since we started the program four years ago.” And the man everyone presumes to be the father, her friend Erich Meyer, looks “as if he'd been plucked straight off a Nazi propaganda poster.” But she has actually only had sex with Leo Solomon, and if the baby shows evidence of being a Mischling, a mix of Jew and Aryan, it will be euthanized and Gundi could be arrested. Hilde, who looks like she could pull a plow and has a figure that “look[s] like a can of evaporated milk,” seems aimless and shallow. The 18-year-old miscarries the baby of her married Obergruppenführer lover but hopes to get pregnant by him again when he returns to Heim Hochland. She certainly isn’t making the “productive contributions to Germany” that her mother and SS officer father want. She feebly attempts to impress Propaganda Minister Goebbels when he pays a visit, pitching a movie idea: All is good until a Jew comes to town. It’s an old idea, he says dismissively. On one level, this compelling story is about women and babies; on another, it portends a dark future of concentration camps and war.

A deep well of discussion topics for book-club readers.

Kirkus Reviews

Coburn’s fascinating and incredibly well-researched look at this little-known Nazi breeding program and three women whose lives intersect there…Wonderful historical fiction.”

New York Times bestselling author Martha Hall Kelly

The Handmaid’s Tale meets WWII in Cradles of the Reich…Jennifer Coburn’s debut historical novel is adept, unforgettable, and brilliantly unsettling.”

New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn

Coburn gives compelling and necessary literary voice to those impacted the most by Adolf Hitler’s haunting and ironically dehumanizing scheme to generate racially pure infants…A World War II story whose lessons should not—must not—be forgotten.”

USA Today bestselling author Susan Meissner

Masterfully delves into the warped underbelly of the Nazis’ Lebensborn program for racial engineering. With grace and a deft hand, Coburn creates indelible female characters that leave us heart torn.”

author of Mustique Island Sarah McCoy