Writing a review about this incredible work of historical fiction is challenging because of the subject matter. This makes my admiration for Ann’s writing even higher, because of her ability to write about what was a horrifically unspeakable program and time, and to do so in such a compassionate and thoughtful way. The story left me with tears; with goosebumps; and, some moments were more spine tingling tense than many of the thrillers i’ve read recently. This is the story of several women and how the terrible Lebensborn program run in Germany by the SS throughout WW2 and earlier impacted each of them. I’ve read many books about WW2 but none that has focused this much on the program that included babies taken from mostly single German women and adopted out to SS members and other high ranking Nazis (and this is just one aspect of the program). The stories of Margarete as a nurse unwillingly involved in the program, and Hedda as one of the women who may lose a baby to the program intertwine. Many decades later a dedicated reporter, Kristel, investigates the program to shine light on the horror and try to help survivors in any way she can including for her own personal reasons which brings her in contact with Margarete and a precious blue notebook. For me, while beautiful in some ways, the ending came too quickly and felt slightly abrupt. I'm hoping that the second book in the series will continue on with at least some of this story, and let me find out more about Margarete. Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the advanced reader copy in exchange for a review. Due for release in Australia, 15th August 2024.

Margarete Weiss is enjoying her life in a care home in Italy. After watching an appeal on tv to she decides it’s time to take action and asks her carer Ginetta to contact Kristen Meyer who is the reporter asking people to come forward. This is an occasion which will change life dramatically for Margarete, while offering some closure at the same time.
After introductions Kristen realises that it’s going to take time to gain Margarete’s trust in order that she gets the full story. After contacting her boss to arrange a lengthier stay Kristel phones her partner Joachim to let him know, what he says comes as a surprise!
As details of Margarete’s experiences working at Schloss Schwanburg under the rule of the Nazi’s starts to emerge it is quite unnerving, exciting and emotional in equal measures. This is balanced out by the telling of Hedda’s story which I found to be the saddest.
There was a choice of nasty characters, Dr Finkel, Holme Schwartz, no.1 being Sebastian. Naturally my favourite has to be Margarete.
I can’t recommend this enough.

This is an insightful, unsettling, heart-wrenching novel. I stayed up late to finish it. I shall often reflect on this novel and never forget the content it exposes. The author skilfully brought the reign of the Nazi Regime during the war into vivid life. There are bittersweet moments that are so poignant.

Margareta Weiss, a children’s nurse with the Brown Sisters, is transferred to a remote magnificent castle in Southern Bavaria to care for unwed mothers and their babies – a little-known Lebensborn Programme, where high-ranking Officers adopt illegitimate babies to propagate the Ayran mould. Her colleagues are cold-hearted, hostile and emotionally detached. They are brainwashed by the Nazi ideology of creating a pure Aryan race and have developed top-secret programmes to accomplish this. Margarete is not sympathetic to their cause but remains quiet to avoid dire consequences. A secondary decadent experiment was to choose girls who fit the Ayran mould and pair them off with SS Officers until they bore an Ayran child.

Sixty years later, Margarete, aged ninety, is in Trento, Italy, in a Care Home and tells her story to a journalist, Kristel, with astonishing results.

It struck me as appalling how brutally the Nazis treated their people, especially Jews, by terrorising, intimidating, torturing and putting them in camps if they showed signs of opposing their ideology by not following the rules and beliefs of the Führer. I recently read an article by a young German man who expressed his disbelief in the atrocities committed by the regime.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture.

This WWII novel will leave you sobbing like a baby. The Orphan List follows Hedda, Kristen, and Margarete, three women united across time by the German Lebensborn program. Created by Himmler, the Lebensborn program started as a way for unwed Aryan mothers to have their babies instead of terminating the pregnancy. SS officers and their wives then adopted the babies. Over the course of the war, though, the Lebesnbron program took on a more sinister role.

In 2005, Kristel is a news reporter in Munich, informing the world about the horrors of the Lebensborn program—a program that she believes her mother was born into. When she gets a call from a senior care center in Italy claiming that a resident there has information on the program, she travels to meet Margarete.

Margarete was a German nurse forced to work at one of the Lebebsborne delivery homes. While she is against the Nazi party, she is forced to co-collaborate with them to keep her own family safe. Secretly, though, she keeps a list of every baby taken from their mother and the names of the German families who adopted them. Her own act of rebellion could now help reunite mothers and children years later, but her story is now without its own heartache and horror.

Hedda lost her family in an air raid and fell in love with Sebastian when he was there to care for her afterward. Now, alone and pregnant, Sebastian arranges for her to go to the same Lebesnborne program Margarete works at. Margarete promises to help Hedda keep her baby, but can they outmaneuver the Nazi doctors and nurses and save baby Evalina?

This book brings light to the atrocities of the Lebesnborn program and the Aktion T4 program created by the Nazis. This novel made me angry, sad, and full of hope as I read the story of these three brave women. While it is a work of fiction, I learned a lot about the Lebesnborn program. This novel is perfect for individuals who want to know more about history and love historical fiction. I promise it will pull at your heartstrings and leave you wanting more! One central question was left unanswered at the end of the book, and I hope it will be revealed in book 2!!!!

Disclaimer: While I received an advanced reader copy of this novel, my thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a gripping historical fiction novel that brought together the experiences of Margarete Weiss, a courageous nurse during World War II, with the modern-day finding out of Kristel, a young reporter.

The novel starts in wartime Munich, when Margarete was sent to what she thought was an idyllic mother and baby home.

Jump to 2005, Margarete is now a frail, 90-year-old woman residing in a care home in Italy.
Her peaceful life is halted by Kristel, a reporter investigating a part of history.

The two timelines were interconnected and well written.

Margarete was so brave and compassion came through her despite the darkness around her. Kristel, was intellectual and determined, representing a new generation seeking truth and justice. Their relationship was one of interviewer and interviewee to a deeper personal connection.

It made me think about the importance of remembering and confronting the past, no matter how painful.

I enjoyed reading this book! The Orphan List is a dual time-line story about the infamous Lebonsborn programme during WWII. Set in a fictional birthing home, this story follows an unwilling, but helpless to refuse, nurse. We read her experiences as she finally is sharing her story with a reporter. This book covers all the feels from horror, heroics and heartbreak. There were parts that were very heart wrenching and I can't imagine living that reality. Very well-done addressing a sad, reality that exist during the war.

This book had it all. Drama, twists and turns, emotional heart wrenches….

It is easy to live in the 21st century and forget about the trauma and wars that have gone before us. I found myself weeping and mourning for the victims of the atrocious “programme” this book was based on. A beautifully written book portraying the hideous black mark in our history that is the nazi invasion!