Member Review
Review by
Yvonne G, Reviewer
“One woman’s fight for love, life and hope during a time of unimaginable darkness”
When writing a review, it is all too easy to churn out those much used epithets such as ‘heart-breaking’, ‘heart-wrenching’, or ‘a tear-jerker’ and whilst this book falls into all these categories and so many more besides, I genuinely do defy even the most stalwart reader, not to shed a tear or two over this storyline.
Whether you read it first, as I did, or when you have finished the book, you really do need to check out the ‘Historical Notes’ addendum. It explains clearly, the synergy between actual events and characters, which have been so well researched and then sympathetically and painstakingly rendered into this WWII fictional tour de force, which absolutely demands undivided attention and quality reading time…
It is not often that wartime fictional stories, which are largely centred around Nazi labour camps, are narrated almost exclusively from a female perspective. A brave gambit by the author, which she has executed to perfection and with total empathy, highlighting a storyline which definitely needed to be told and that held me in thrall from the very first sentence, to the very final word. I had never really given any thought to the need for midwives in the concentration camps and the ensuing emotional agony of mothers who did, by some miracle, happen to survive childbirth, only to have their babies so cruelly snatched away from them. Some of the facts are so distasteful, that the cruelty is almost beyond belief or comprehension.
…
Hopefully spoiler free, here is a race through the storyline…
It is 1939, in Lodz, Poland. Trainee nurse, Ester, meets and falls madly in love with apprentice tailor, Filip. As war breaks out they decide to marry, anticipating that, as Jews, they may either both have to flee the country, or that they may be separated for some time. Their parents are only too happy that the young couple should confirm their love for one another and grab whatever happiness they can, as they know only too well, what wrath is about to be heaped upon their people by the German Nazi regime. Also present at the marriage are the non Jewish, Kaminski family, as Ester and long established midwife, Ana have become firm friends, despite the difference in their ages, which makes their relationship more like that of mother and daughter.
After just a few short days and with the war intensifying, life takes a very sudden and much more horrendous turn for the population, than they could have ever thought possible. The city is divided into sectors; one ghetto for the Jews, one area for all the non-Jews, with the remaining much larger properties being given over to the occupying Nazis and their families. Ana’s home has been designated as falling within the Jewish ghetto, so she, her husband and three young adult sons are forced to move across town, whilst Ester, Filip and both their extended families find themselves sharing and squashed into a tiny house, inside the newly cordoned off ghetto, where they are kept living on the point of starvation, although with both of them plying trades of value to the occupiers, they are permitted to continue working, when many others can’t. As there are other general nurses, but no dedicated midwife in the compound, Ester decides to enlist Ana’s help to train herself, so that she can help those women in need. Ana and her family are active resistance members and risk their lives to smuggle food and nursing manuals into the ghetto, whilst taking advantage of every possible opportunity to help some of the Jews escape, including Ester’s teenage sister.
Suddenly things take an altogether more sinister twist of fate, when the elderly, the infirm, and the youngest children, are rounded up and ostensibly sent to be housed, in the newly built labour camp of Auschwitz. Rumours soon spread about the terrible atrocities committed within its confines, so when Ester’s mother, Ruth becomes one of the ‘chosen’, all efforts are made to save her. Caught up in the ensuing melee, somehow both Ester and Ana also find themselves taken captive and for the remaining duration of the war, are incarcerated in this living hell on earth, kept alive and relatively well, by using the medical skills they have, when so many around them meet an altogether more agonising and often terminal fate. However, their resourcefulness and bravery, come at a huge physical and emotional cost which almost breaks them, especially Ester. Both cruelty and kindness are shown on both the side of the aggressors and their fellow detainees, as everyone fights to survive in the best way they can. So much so, that when a Nazi doctor is challenged by Ester and Ana, and is forced to speak up for his Hippocratic oath, their relief is unbounded, as every small step is seen as a victory for the women and their unborn children. Even the Lebensborn programme is more acceptable than the terrifying alternative, although it was ultimately only a tiny percentage of babies who matched the criteria and were selected. For them, Ester carries out the only procedure she can think of, in the hope that when war is over, those mothers and babies who have survived, stand some small chance of being reunited.
When liberation is in sight, Ester and Ana, together with a small handful of women from Lodz, are lucky enough to be offered a way home without the need for any delays or red tape, which they grasp with open arms. News from family had stopped arriving some time ago, so it is with an air of trepidation that they enter the city, not knowing what they will find and more importantly, who amongst them has survived. There is good and bad news for both ladies, reunions tinged with sadness for those who will not be joining them, and the aching loss and search which Ester will never give up on, as she continues to try and find the missing piece of her, which will bind her to Filip forever.
…
The compassionate honesty and integrity of this totally immersive, multi-layered storyline, really shines through in its fluent and well structured writing. The story is powerful, intense and highly textured, with an all pervading claustrophobic atmosphere of mistrust and fear. Although events elsewhere in the theatre of war may be moving rapidly and are fast changing, for the women of Auschwitz it is as though time has stood still, as each day highlights anew the strength and resilience of the female spirit to carry a child to full term in such perilous conditions and evokes the same relentless battle and drive to survive, even though fate and the Nazi doctors, decree that your newborn probably won’t. Despite the decimated locations of a country in turmoil and the terrible conditions in which the unfortunate and totally innocent detainees were incarcerated, some beautifully nuanced and descriptive narrative and dialogue, afford a terrifying and all-encompassing visual and evocative sense of time and place, lifting the sights, sounds and smells from the page, as I took my ‘armchair journey’ back in time.
Anna affords that same attention to detail and visual inclusion, to her eclectic cast of characters, no matter how small a part they play in the whole. They are well developed and defined, and whilst not all are easy to connect or empathise with, the overall dynamics and synergy between them, makes them completely investable, genuine and authentic in their individual roles, as they are given a generous and strong voice with which to tell of their courageous efforts of resilience over adversity. They represent a complex jigsaw of vulnerable human emotions, which are laid bare when the fragility of the lines between life and death, defeat and survival, love and hate, trust and duplicity, the frailty of the human mind and indeed their very existence, are drawn. However a raw addictive passion and the determined will to survive, overcomes the odds stacked against them, although not all are destined to be reunited with loved ones.
What always makes reading such a wonderful experience for me, is that with each and every new book, I am taken on a unique and individual journey, by authors who fire my imagination, stir my emotions and stimulate my senses. This story was definitely one of a kind, having the power to evoke so many feelings, that I’m sure I won’t have felt the same way about it as the last reader, nor the next, so I can only recommend that you read The Midwife Of Auschwitz for yourself and see where your journey leads you!
When writing a review, it is all too easy to churn out those much used epithets such as ‘heart-breaking’, ‘heart-wrenching’, or ‘a tear-jerker’ and whilst this book falls into all these categories and so many more besides, I genuinely do defy even the most stalwart reader, not to shed a tear or two over this storyline.
Whether you read it first, as I did, or when you have finished the book, you really do need to check out the ‘Historical Notes’ addendum. It explains clearly, the synergy between actual events and characters, which have been so well researched and then sympathetically and painstakingly rendered into this WWII fictional tour de force, which absolutely demands undivided attention and quality reading time…
It is not often that wartime fictional stories, which are largely centred around Nazi labour camps, are narrated almost exclusively from a female perspective. A brave gambit by the author, which she has executed to perfection and with total empathy, highlighting a storyline which definitely needed to be told and that held me in thrall from the very first sentence, to the very final word. I had never really given any thought to the need for midwives in the concentration camps and the ensuing emotional agony of mothers who did, by some miracle, happen to survive childbirth, only to have their babies so cruelly snatched away from them. Some of the facts are so distasteful, that the cruelty is almost beyond belief or comprehension.
…
Hopefully spoiler free, here is a race through the storyline…
It is 1939, in Lodz, Poland. Trainee nurse, Ester, meets and falls madly in love with apprentice tailor, Filip. As war breaks out they decide to marry, anticipating that, as Jews, they may either both have to flee the country, or that they may be separated for some time. Their parents are only too happy that the young couple should confirm their love for one another and grab whatever happiness they can, as they know only too well, what wrath is about to be heaped upon their people by the German Nazi regime. Also present at the marriage are the non Jewish, Kaminski family, as Ester and long established midwife, Ana have become firm friends, despite the difference in their ages, which makes their relationship more like that of mother and daughter.
After just a few short days and with the war intensifying, life takes a very sudden and much more horrendous turn for the population, than they could have ever thought possible. The city is divided into sectors; one ghetto for the Jews, one area for all the non-Jews, with the remaining much larger properties being given over to the occupying Nazis and their families. Ana’s home has been designated as falling within the Jewish ghetto, so she, her husband and three young adult sons are forced to move across town, whilst Ester, Filip and both their extended families find themselves sharing and squashed into a tiny house, inside the newly cordoned off ghetto, where they are kept living on the point of starvation, although with both of them plying trades of value to the occupiers, they are permitted to continue working, when many others can’t. As there are other general nurses, but no dedicated midwife in the compound, Ester decides to enlist Ana’s help to train herself, so that she can help those women in need. Ana and her family are active resistance members and risk their lives to smuggle food and nursing manuals into the ghetto, whilst taking advantage of every possible opportunity to help some of the Jews escape, including Ester’s teenage sister.
Suddenly things take an altogether more sinister twist of fate, when the elderly, the infirm, and the youngest children, are rounded up and ostensibly sent to be housed, in the newly built labour camp of Auschwitz. Rumours soon spread about the terrible atrocities committed within its confines, so when Ester’s mother, Ruth becomes one of the ‘chosen’, all efforts are made to save her. Caught up in the ensuing melee, somehow both Ester and Ana also find themselves taken captive and for the remaining duration of the war, are incarcerated in this living hell on earth, kept alive and relatively well, by using the medical skills they have, when so many around them meet an altogether more agonising and often terminal fate. However, their resourcefulness and bravery, come at a huge physical and emotional cost which almost breaks them, especially Ester. Both cruelty and kindness are shown on both the side of the aggressors and their fellow detainees, as everyone fights to survive in the best way they can. So much so, that when a Nazi doctor is challenged by Ester and Ana, and is forced to speak up for his Hippocratic oath, their relief is unbounded, as every small step is seen as a victory for the women and their unborn children. Even the Lebensborn programme is more acceptable than the terrifying alternative, although it was ultimately only a tiny percentage of babies who matched the criteria and were selected. For them, Ester carries out the only procedure she can think of, in the hope that when war is over, those mothers and babies who have survived, stand some small chance of being reunited.
When liberation is in sight, Ester and Ana, together with a small handful of women from Lodz, are lucky enough to be offered a way home without the need for any delays or red tape, which they grasp with open arms. News from family had stopped arriving some time ago, so it is with an air of trepidation that they enter the city, not knowing what they will find and more importantly, who amongst them has survived. There is good and bad news for both ladies, reunions tinged with sadness for those who will not be joining them, and the aching loss and search which Ester will never give up on, as she continues to try and find the missing piece of her, which will bind her to Filip forever.
…
The compassionate honesty and integrity of this totally immersive, multi-layered storyline, really shines through in its fluent and well structured writing. The story is powerful, intense and highly textured, with an all pervading claustrophobic atmosphere of mistrust and fear. Although events elsewhere in the theatre of war may be moving rapidly and are fast changing, for the women of Auschwitz it is as though time has stood still, as each day highlights anew the strength and resilience of the female spirit to carry a child to full term in such perilous conditions and evokes the same relentless battle and drive to survive, even though fate and the Nazi doctors, decree that your newborn probably won’t. Despite the decimated locations of a country in turmoil and the terrible conditions in which the unfortunate and totally innocent detainees were incarcerated, some beautifully nuanced and descriptive narrative and dialogue, afford a terrifying and all-encompassing visual and evocative sense of time and place, lifting the sights, sounds and smells from the page, as I took my ‘armchair journey’ back in time.
Anna affords that same attention to detail and visual inclusion, to her eclectic cast of characters, no matter how small a part they play in the whole. They are well developed and defined, and whilst not all are easy to connect or empathise with, the overall dynamics and synergy between them, makes them completely investable, genuine and authentic in their individual roles, as they are given a generous and strong voice with which to tell of their courageous efforts of resilience over adversity. They represent a complex jigsaw of vulnerable human emotions, which are laid bare when the fragility of the lines between life and death, defeat and survival, love and hate, trust and duplicity, the frailty of the human mind and indeed their very existence, are drawn. However a raw addictive passion and the determined will to survive, overcomes the odds stacked against them, although not all are destined to be reunited with loved ones.
What always makes reading such a wonderful experience for me, is that with each and every new book, I am taken on a unique and individual journey, by authors who fire my imagination, stir my emotions and stimulate my senses. This story was definitely one of a kind, having the power to evoke so many feelings, that I’m sure I won’t have felt the same way about it as the last reader, nor the next, so I can only recommend that you read The Midwife Of Auschwitz for yourself and see where your journey leads you!
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