I was honored to hear Jennifer Coburn speak at Adventures by the Book football book event. She talked about her upcoming book, Cradles of the Reich. From that moment on, I’ve been waiting impatiently for it to be released. Then, Jennifer reached out and offered me an ebook ARC from her publisher. I had also preordered the book and it arrived so I have my own, physical, autographed copy for my shelf!!

This book exceeded my expectations in every way. It is one of the darkest, terrifying WWII historical fiction story I’ve ever read. It will keep you on the edge of your seat and you won’t be able to put this down. It is one I will be recommending to my book club and one I will be reading again. You must go get this on Tuesday when it releases!!

At Heim Hochland, a Nazi breeding home in Bavaria, three women's fates are irrevocably intertwined. 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. All three have everything to lose.

Based on untold historical events, this novel brings us intimately inside the Lebensborn Society maternity homes that actually 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. But it proves that in a dark period of history, the connections women forge can carry us through, even driving us to heroism we didn't know we had within us.

Thank you Sourcebook for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cradles of the Reich is a historical fiction based in Germany during WWII. This book is written in multiple POV, the main characters are Gundi, Irma, and Hilde. Gundi has been supporting the underground resistance against the Nazis and has a jewish boyfriend, she become pregnant and is sent off to a home to take care of the child while she is pregnant. Hilde is an ambitious 18 year old girl who wants to be a part of the elite and feel passionate about supporting the Nazis. Irma was about to get married to Eduardo until she discovers a woman in his home and she leaves him and goes off to work at a home for unborn mothers where her friend is working.

I read this book quickly over a few days. At times I found it hard to read because the content is disturbing - a home for unwed mothers to produce children for the Aryan race. There are definitely triggers in this book for me and one night before bed I couldn't read it because I was concerned it would give me nightmares. The story is informative and based on some actual historical information which I found upsetting and disturbing. I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys reading historical fiction. I would rate it a 4.5/5. It's an informative book and I would recommend reading it.

I am blown away by Cradles of the Reich! It isn't often I can say that either. I'm a big fan of historical fiction, and one criteria I have is that I want to learn something and be inspired to go and learn more about whatever event I'm reading in a book, and this one definitely gave me that. I'm impressed with Jennifer Coburn's writing ability in this novel.

Lebensborn Mothers

Heim Hochland was a maternity home in Bavaria where babies were birthed and taken from their mothers to be raised by the German Elite. They were all at the home for different reasons but the babies must all be racially fit to be raised in a new Hitler Germany.

The mother's and father's were screened to insure only racial purity in the children offered and no imperfections were allowed.

These homes existed in several countries during WWII. It was an experiment to help Hitler realize an pure Aryan Germany through pure race children.

The story follows three women, Gundi a University student who is secretly a member of the resistance and secretly carries a Jewish child, Heidi who is all in with the party and happy to be carrying the child of a high up Nazi officer, and Irma a nurse that is running from heartbreak.

They all have secrets and their stay at the home will end differently than what they thought. It is a story of young women, heart breaking decisions, and great courage. An eye opening story about a little known part of WWII history.

This book will keep you engaged until the end. I recommend this book.

Thanks to Jennifer Coburn for writing this great story, to Sourcebooks Landmark for publishing it and to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to read and review.

Three women, whose lives are so very different, find themselves together in Bavaria at a Nazi breeding home. Gundi, a secret member of the resistance, is an Aryan beauty who is pregnant with a Jewish man's baby but no one knows who the father is. Hilde has a relationship with an older Nazi officer and is a full supporter of Hitler's heinous acts. Irma, a nurse, who has experienced much tragedy in her life so far, is working to reinvent herself and create a new life.

Coburn has written a story that keeps the reader invested. I found myself not wanting to stop reading because the suspense of the story and my intense desire to know how the story ended.

Coburn told a story that I had little knowledge of despite being well-read about WW2. I was shocked at the depth of depravity in these breeding houses. These young girls were housed in these houses to be prostitutes for German officers.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

<b>Note:</b> I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley.

At Heim Hochland, a Nazi breeding home in Bavaria, three women's fates are irrevocably intertwined. 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. All three have everything to lose.

Based on untold historical events, this novel brings us intimately inside the Lebensborn Society maternity homes that actually 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. But it proves that in a dark period of history, the connections women forge can carry us through, even driving us to heroism we didn't know we had within us.

This is a must read for fans of Kate Quinn and little known World Was II stories. The different perspectives of the women at the Lebensborn Society was fascinating to read about. The stark contrast between Gundi and Hilde was a great balance. While the ending, in my opinion, left a bit to be desired, the majority of the book was well-written and engaging.

This is an eye opening, sometimes difficult and emotional read, but one that is so very necessary. I have been learning more from historical fiction authors in the last 15 years or so about WWII than I ever did during my college studies in the 90s, and I am grateful to every one I have read who has written novels like this. Highly recommended!

I always find myself drawn to historical fiction and I always learn from reading my favorite genre. This well written and well researched book opened my eyes to some hard truths while tugging at my heartstrings.

Whenever I read about this dark period of human history, I wonder again and again, how could this have happened?

Through constant propaganda and an appeal to nationalism, Aryan supremacy and anti-Semitism leached into and took control of the hearts and minds of many German citizens. Moral boundaries became blurred and in many cases, altogether erased. Abject evil leaders and their blindly devoted followers brought forth “maternity houses” and “work camps.”

Through the shared thoughts and conversations of the deeply developed characters, I was drawn into their hopes, dreams, fears and regrets. I felt compassion for many of the women, hatred for the Nazi leaders and even pity for the misled. This was a very emotional read, even disturbing at times. It was not an easy read, but it was a very worthy and needed read.

Gundi, Hilde and Irma have been occupying my thoughts and I will not soon forget them. This book is historical fiction at its best!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Sourcebooks Landmark through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Cradles of the Reich is a very interesting and emotional story about a very dark time in our history.
The story centers around “breeding homes” which were set up to provide “racially pure” German women a place to give birth.
The story itself was full of information I did not know about. The ending seemed a bit abrupt leaving me wanting to know more.
Overall, I think there was not enough character development and the story was a bit too long.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Good historical fiction teaches the reader something about an event, an era, or a person. Really good historical fiction piques the reader's interest and causes them to want to learn more about that event, era, or person.. Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn is really good historical fiction. Ms. Coburn has written a book that gives the reader insight into the Lebensborn Society-- maternity homes that existed during World War II. The story, which is based on untold historical events certainly introduced this reader/reviewer to a program about which nothing was known.

The story unfolds as we follow the experiences of three very different women...women who are at Heil Hochland maternity home for different reasons and with different goals in mind. Yet the lives of all three will intersect and help to tell the story of a dark time when racial purity was the goal of Nazi Germany.

Gundi, is a university student who joins the Resistance when she gains awareness of the injustices being carried out against the Jewish population. She becomes involved with Leo who is Jewish and part of the resistance movement. When she becomes pregnant Gundi is determined to find a way to have the baby while keeping the secret that could get all of them killed. She must play the part of a soldier's girlfriend and even becomes the poster girl for German motherhood as she joins the other mothers-to-be at the maternity home.

Hilde is a member of the Hitler Youth and wants nothing more than to be an officer's wife and the mother of an officer's child. She will stop at nothing to make sure that she becomes pregnant. When she miscarries her first child at the maternity home, she even tricks a guard so that she can get pregnant again and convince the officer that the child is his.

Irma is a nurse at Heil Hochland looking for a fresh start. She begins to question what is actually going on at the maternity home when events begin raise her suspicions that Heil Hochland is more than what it appears to be. When her questions go unanswered, she decides to take matters into her own hands.

All three characters are integral parts to this story, yet for different reasons. Their backgrounds and experiences shape who they are and what they become. Cradles of the Reich tells an important story about acts of heroism and how lives can come together to create new outcomes.

Expected release date is October 10, 2022. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this Advance Reader Copy.

Jennifer Coburn I think you found your calling in historical fiction. Thank you for taking the chance to write in a genre outside your comfort zone. Cradles Of The Reich, a perfect title for this story, takes the reader back to 1935, when Hitler’s plan was to create a master race by having SS officers impregnate “racially valuable woman”. A secret breeding program was put in place which produced approximately twenty thousand perfect, Aryan babies, who after birth were taken from their mothers and adopted by wealthy German families. It is hard to believe that this story is not fiction, but a horrific reality of what also took place along with the murdering of six million Jews during WWII.

The story is told alternating between three German women who all end up together in a Lebensborn Maternity home in Bavaria. Gundi is a pregnant German resistance fighter who is harboring a secret, Hilde is pregnant with a high ranking officers baby and Irma is a nurse at the maternity home. These woman, though very different, find comfort and power in each other to form a bond to protect each other.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Jennifer Colburn for all the research you did and for bringing this part of history to the attention of all your readers. We must never forget who Hitler was and what the Nazi’s did not only to the Jewish people, handicapped people but also to their own people.

Cradles of the Reich was an interesting book set during WWII. I’ve read a lot of historical fiction about the Holocaust but none that i remember about the Lebensborn program. Overall I liked this book a lot and would read more books by this author.

2 stars

From the author: “In the 1930s the Nazis launched a top-secret plan aimed at producing two million "racially desirable" children for Adolf Hitler's so-called master race. The program was called The Lebensborn Society. The Lebensborn program had three tracks: it arranged sexual liaisons between German women and SS officers, kidnapped Aryan infants and toddlers from occupied countries, and built maternity homes for unwed pregnant women.”

In my significant WWII reading, I had never heard of the Lebensborn program. In ten years, approximately thirty Lebensborn homes were in operation, with nearly twenty thousand children involved. Records were burned at the end of the war.

Cradles of the Reich follows three German women. Gundi is a beautiful young woman, pregnant by her Jewish boyfriend resistance fighter. She is a good person and helps the resistance. Irma is an older nurse with a backstory. Main character, Hilde was a weird unlikable girl. The brief bit about her family was not helpful in understanding her. I found myself not wanting to read the Hilde chapters. From Chapter 32: “She was definitely, probably pregnant…Poor Gundi would have to wait until Christmas to marry her baby’s father. Boo-hoo for her.” (Yes, this was horrible Hilde, expressing her thoughts about goody Gundi.) Alas, my wish was granted at the end. Hilde, the worst character, was dropped like a hot potato. In the author’s end notes, she does say that Hilde was the most challenging character to develop given her Jewish background. The characters needed more nuances.

The pace picked up about 80% of the way through the book, then it was suddenly over.

Trigger warnings: prostitution/ abuse, descriptive sex scenes, rape

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jennifer Coburn’s new historical fiction novel tells a WW2 story I bet you have not heard before. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of the Lebensborn Society maternity homes were racially “desirable” babies were bred and offered up for adoption. Also, did you know that Polish children where were racially “desirable” were ripped from their parents, brought to the maternity homes to be adopted out? So horrible to think about.

I’m not a historical fiction lover — check out @kc1morepage for that — but I really got into this book. The story is told from the perspective of three women:

1. Gundi, a pregnant university student from Berlin whose boyfriend is Jewish (unbeknownst to the Reich);
2. Hilde, a social climber dedicated to the Nazi party; and
3. Irma, a 44-year-old childless nurse who leaves her fiancé when she thinks he is with another woman.

This book is compelling and horrifying at the same time. Read it.

I want to know more.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This was a fascinating and well-researched story about The Lebensborn Society maternity house whose role was to produce good mothers and housewives for the Nazis and to breed racially fit babies. I was aware of other dark parts of Nazi medical experiments led by Josef Mengele and but this particular topic was new to me.

Told from three different
points of view we get a good glimpse into the different types of women who lived and worked in the houses. Hilde-the proud mistress, Gundie- the ‘racially superior’ but reluctant attendee and Irma who looks after the girls and becomes aware that things may not be what they seem. All three were interesting and engaging characters.

The storyline was engaging and I was keen to learn more about the characters and see the plot unfold. The writing was fabulous and definitely evolved emotions as the sexual exploitation became more apparent. Historical fiction at its best.

I used to love WWII novels way back before they became totally overdone. In the past 3-5 years I felt like new releases just became the same story, change the names, change the cities, throw a romance in, etc etc. to the point that I actually stopped reading them.

Cradles of the Reich caught my eye with the unique synopsis of exploring Germany's Lebensborn Program, or in plain English, a program to selectively breed the perfect German child for the strongest future German empire possible.

Once I cracked this one open I just couldn't put it down; it seemed like I was reading some bizarre dystopian novel. I knew about the horrific experiments that were done to prisoners during the war, as well as the Reich wanting a pure Aryan race, but I had NO idea about the extent of the Lebensborn program.

The characters were each well defined and the pace moved along quickly enough without getting the reader lost amongst the different people and locations.

I've already recommended this novel to multiple friends. It's an important read and not one that's widely known. If you're looking for a different World War II story, pick this one up.

Cradles of the Reich
Author, Jennifer Coburn
Pub date: 10.11.22

Thank you @sourcebooks and @netgalley for the e- arc of this unbelievable historical fiction novel!

Cradles of the Reich is a World War II story told from the perspectives of three very different women who are fighting, living, and breathing for very different causes. Gundi, an Aryan beauty and pregnant university student, is hand- picked, literally, by the doctor in charge of the German breeding program himself, and sent to live at Heim Hochland as the perfect maternal model to contribute to the master race. However, she secretly belongs to a resistance group and carries a forbidden secret about her unborn child. Irma, a forty- four- year- old nurse, longs for a second chance after a devastating personal tragedy and a recent break up with her fiance, and finds herself caring for the pregnant women and girls living at Heim Hochland alongside her friend and supervisor, Marianne. She is maternal and oh, so brave, and the residents at Heim Hochland are lucky to have her on their side. And Hilde, only eighteen, is a fierce supporter of the cause and ecstatic to be carrying the child of a high- ranking Nazi official, despite his marital status and lack of attention. She's deceitful and will do anything to secure her residence and reputation among the maternity home.

I was completely blown away by this fascinating and well- researched, yet very unsettling story of what transpired behind the closed doors of Heim Hochland and many other Lebensborn Society maternity homes. Thousands of babies were bred and born in these maternity homes and then taken from their birth mothers and adopted by German families who believed they were creating a stronger race of Germans. I knew absolutely nothing of this dark and disturbing event during an already horrifying time in history and was amazed at the sacrifices that these women made and what they survived.

4.5 stars!

The things that happened around WWII shock me even today. This is the story of a German breeding program meant to make pure and perfect Germans. For the most part the girls happily participated feeling it was their duty.

What I enjoyed about the book was that it was told by three different women, each with their own POV. My favorite character was Gundi because of her spirit. She was sent to the home when she was already pregnant and has a secret to hide. She is a brave and strong woman and I enjoyed reading about her.

Wow. Cradles of the Reich highlighted yet another atrocity that the Nazis did exploiting young women, girls really, in their world of eugenics. I had no idea that this happened though not surprised.

Ms. Coburn's book follows three females from diverse backgrounds and beliefs as they come together at a maternity home in Bavaria. It is much more than a home for those of the "pure" race to be taken care of during their pregnancy to give birth to healthy children of the Reich.

Irma's, Hilde's, and Gundi's stories are very different and kept my interest as their lives intertwined. They had different hopes and dreams.

I think the writing could have been a little tighter but all in all the book kept my interest. I recommend this for anyone who wants to learn about a different aspect of the Nazi's desire for a "perfect" race.

Thank you Net Galley, the prublisher, and author for an advanced copy.

I’m not normally an historical fiction reader, which is a little bizarre because I was actually a history major in college. I am fascinated by the Nazi party. So when I was offered the opportunity to read Cradles of the Reich, I jumped.

I knew, of course, about Henrich Himmler and his eugenics crusade for racial purity. Cradles of the Reich is a startling and overwhelming (fictional) account of three women who are part of the Lebensborn program. Literally translated as "Fount of Life," Lebensborn was an actual initiative in Nazi Germany to create and cultivate the ideal Germanic race. This was accomplished by encouraging "perfect" Aryan women, often unmarried women in "relationships" with SS officers, to bear children in Nazi maternity homes. Other children, deemed to be racially worthy, were literally kidnapped to be adopted to SS families. In conclusion: majorly messed up stuff.

Cradles of the Reich follows three women who experience the Lebensborn in different ways. Set in Heim Hochland in Bavaria, there is Gundi, an unmarried and pregnant university student, who is pressured to enter a Lebensborn house because she is considered the "perfect" Aryan woman - and, spoiler alert, she is secretly part of the resistance. Hilde, only 18, wants nothing more than to be a “Hitler girl” and will do whatever it takes to bear the child of a N@zi officer. And Irma, a 44-year old nurse suffering from a personal devastation, is just trying to move on with her life and ignore the atrocities around her.

I was completely absorbed by this book, the topic, and the writing - it completely sucked me in. The storyline is so intimate and powerful, and the subject matter is so dense - but Jennifer Coburn makes it accessible through Gundi, Hilde, and Irma. You will root, cry, hate, and love these women.