Born Survivors - Softcover

Wendy Holden

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0751557390 ISBN 13: 9780751557398

Publisher: Sphere, 2015

Synopsis

Among millions of Holocaust victims sent to Auschwitz II-Birkenau in 1944, Priska, Rachel, and Anka each passed through its infamous gates with a secret. Strangers to each other, they were newly pregnant, and facing an uncertain fate without their husbands. Alone, scared, and with so many loved ones already lost to the Nazis, these young women were privately determined to hold on to all they had left: their lives, and those of their unborn babies.

That the gas chambers ran out of Zyklon-B just after the babies were born, before they and their mothers could be exterminated, is just one of several miracles that allowed them all to survive and rebuild their lives after World War II. Born Survivors follows the mothers' incredible journey - first to Auschwitz, where they each came under the murderous scrutiny of Dr. Josef Mengele; then to a German slave labour camp where, half-starved and almost worked to death, they struggled to conceal their condition; and finally, as the Allies closed in, their hellish 17-day train journey with thousands of other prisoners to the Mauthausen death camp in Austria. Hundreds died along the way but the courage and kindness of strangers, including guards and civilians, helped save these women and their children.

Sixty-five years later, the three 'miracle babies' met for the first time at Mauthausen for the anniversary of the liberation that ultimately saved them. United by their remarkable experiences of survival against all odds, they now consider each other "siblings of the heart." In Born Survivors, Wendy Holden brings all three stories together for the first time to mark their seventieth birthdays and the seventieth anniversary of the ending of the war.

A heart-stopping account of how three mothers and their newborns fought to survive the Holocaust, Born Survivors is also a life-affirming celebration of our capacity to care and to love amid inconceivable cruelty.

About this title

Review:

"It's no surprise Born Survivors is gathering excellent reviews."--Chicago Tribune

"Packed with harrowing detail and impressively well-researched.... Intense, powerful, and moving, more than make up for this. Born Survivors is a worthy testament to these three women and the miraculous survival of their children."--Jewish Chronicle

"A work of quite extraordinary investigative dedication.... A moving testament of faith."--Sir Harold Evans

"Born Survivors, is exceptionally fresh history, a work of prodigious original research, written with zealous empathy."--Women in the World, New York Times online

"An astonishing and deeply moving work.... With remarkable detail gleaned from a wealth of research."--Booklist (starred review)

"Even though it occurred more than 70 years ago, the story's truth is so chillingly portrayed that it seems as if it could have happened recently.... An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered through at the hands of the Nazis."--Kirkus Reviews

"Holden's triple biography is packed with enough contextual information to qualify as a history lesson but makes its impression as a tale of undeniable courage and astonishing love in the face of incredible cruelty and evil."--Contra Costa Times

"Holden weaves...written, oral and recorded accounts, plus an array of historical records, into a spellbinding story of perseverance amid systematic abuse."--American Jewish World

Book Description:

An incredible, inspirational story of resilience, resourcefulness, and maternal courage, set against the background of the holocaust.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sphere
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0751557390
• ISBN 13: 9780751557398
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400