Cradles of the Reich

August 1, 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.