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Born Survivors
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite History & Biography (2015)The Nazis murdered their husbands but concentration camp prisoners Priska, Rachel, and Anka would not let evil take their unborn children too—a remarkable true story that will appeal to readers of The Lost and The Nazi Officer’s Wife, Born Survivors celebrates three mothers who defied death to give their children life.
Eastern Europe, 1944: Three women believe they are pregnant, but are torn from their husbands before they can be certain. Rachel is sent to Auschwitz, unaware that her husband has been shot. Priska and her husband travel there together, but are immediately separated. Also at Auschwitz, Anka hopes in vain to be reunited with her husband. With the rest of their families gassed, these young wives are determined to hold on to all they have left—their lives, and those of their unborn babies. Having concealed their condition from infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, they are forced to work and almost starved to death, living in daily fear of their pregnancies being detected by the SS. In April 1945, as the Allies close in, the inmates are sent to Mauthausen concentration camp on a hellish seventeen-day train journey.
On the seventieth anniversary of Mauthausen’s liberation from the Nazis by American soldiers, renowned biographer Wendy Holden recounts this extraordinary story of three children united by their mothers’ unbelievable—yet ultimately successful—fight for survival.
Eastern Europe, 1944: Three women believe they are pregnant, but are torn from their husbands before they can be certain. Rachel is sent to Auschwitz, unaware that her husband has been shot. Priska and her husband travel there together, but are immediately separated. Also at Auschwitz, Anka hopes in vain to be reunited with her husband. With the rest of their families gassed, these young wives are determined to hold on to all they have left—their lives, and those of their unborn babies. Having concealed their condition from infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, they are forced to work and almost starved to death, living in daily fear of their pregnancies being detected by the SS. In April 1945, as the Allies close in, the inmates are sent to Mauthausen concentration camp on a hellish seventeen-day train journey.
On the seventieth anniversary of Mauthausen’s liberation from the Nazis by American soldiers, renowned biographer Wendy Holden recounts this extraordinary story of three children united by their mothers’ unbelievable—yet ultimately successful—fight for survival.
385 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 2015
About the author
Wendy Holden
37 books195 followersWendy Holden, also known as Taylor Holden, is an experienced author and novelist with more than thirty books already published, including two novels. She has had numerous works transferred to radio and television.
A journalist for eighteen years, ten on the Daily Telegraph of London, her first novel THE SENSE OF PAPER was published by Random House, New York, in 2006 to widespread critical acclaim. Her non-fiction titles have chiefly chronicled the lives of remarkable subjects. The latest is BORN SURVIVORS, the incredible story of three mothers who defied death at the hands of the Nazis to give life. She has also written the memoir of the only woman in the French Foreign Legion in TOMORROW TO BE BRAVE, and about the mother of a woman killed after marrying a Sudanese warlord in TILL THE SUN GROWS COLD. She wrote A LOTUS GROWS IN THE MUD - the memoir of actress Goldie Hawn - and LADY BLUE EYES, the autobiography of Frank Sinatra’s widow Barbara, all of which were New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers.
She also wrote the international bestseller TEN MINDFUL MINUTES, her second book with Goldie Hawn and the first in a series of books for parents and children. She wrote KILL SWITCH, the memoir of an honourable British soldier wrongly imprisoned in Afghanistan as well as BEHIND ENEMY LINES, about a young Jewish spy who repeatedly crossed German lines. Her book MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS, a biography of Dean Martin as seen through his daughter’s eyes has become an enduring bestseller and she worked with Billy Connolly on JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF THE WORLD his TV-companion travel guide to the Northwest Passage screened around the world. She co-wrote American male supermodel Bruce Hulse’s explosive memoir, SEX, LOVE AND FASHION. Other works have included CENTRAL 822, the autobiography of a pioneering policewoman at Scotland Yard which was dramatised on BBC Radio, BITING THE BULLET, charting the remarkable life of an SAS wife, and FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW, the story of a paraplegic made into a British TV drama starring Caroline Quentin. Wendy was also responsible for the bestselling novelisations of the films THE FULL MONTY and WAKING NED. Her first book, UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE the true story of the controversial Irish abortion case was banned in Ireland. SHELL SHOCK, her history of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, went with an award-winning Channel 4 television documentary series. She lives in Suffolk, England, with her husband and two dogs and divides her time between the UK and the US.
A journalist for eighteen years, ten on the Daily Telegraph of London, her first novel THE SENSE OF PAPER was published by Random House, New York, in 2006 to widespread critical acclaim. Her non-fiction titles have chiefly chronicled the lives of remarkable subjects. The latest is BORN SURVIVORS, the incredible story of three mothers who defied death at the hands of the Nazis to give life. She has also written the memoir of the only woman in the French Foreign Legion in TOMORROW TO BE BRAVE, and about the mother of a woman killed after marrying a Sudanese warlord in TILL THE SUN GROWS COLD. She wrote A LOTUS GROWS IN THE MUD - the memoir of actress Goldie Hawn - and LADY BLUE EYES, the autobiography of Frank Sinatra’s widow Barbara, all of which were New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers.
She also wrote the international bestseller TEN MINDFUL MINUTES, her second book with Goldie Hawn and the first in a series of books for parents and children. She wrote KILL SWITCH, the memoir of an honourable British soldier wrongly imprisoned in Afghanistan as well as BEHIND ENEMY LINES, about a young Jewish spy who repeatedly crossed German lines. Her book MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS, a biography of Dean Martin as seen through his daughter’s eyes has become an enduring bestseller and she worked with Billy Connolly on JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF THE WORLD his TV-companion travel guide to the Northwest Passage screened around the world. She co-wrote American male supermodel Bruce Hulse’s explosive memoir, SEX, LOVE AND FASHION. Other works have included CENTRAL 822, the autobiography of a pioneering policewoman at Scotland Yard which was dramatised on BBC Radio, BITING THE BULLET, charting the remarkable life of an SAS wife, and FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW, the story of a paraplegic made into a British TV drama starring Caroline Quentin. Wendy was also responsible for the bestselling novelisations of the films THE FULL MONTY and WAKING NED. Her first book, UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE the true story of the controversial Irish abortion case was banned in Ireland. SHELL SHOCK, her history of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, went with an award-winning Channel 4 television documentary series. She lives in Suffolk, England, with her husband and two dogs and divides her time between the UK and the US.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,398 reviews
October 12, 2015
Oh boy. Here we go.
I two-starred a book with heavy subject matter, with practically no reviews of substance to be seen that gave it less than four stars. Which means the masses love it and I'm standing up to say, "Hold on a minute, though." This basically puts me in the position that my Five Days at Memorial review did.
First of all, I two-starred the BOOK. Not the Holocaust, not the women themselves or their stories. My unfavorable opinion of Born Survivors doesn't have to do with content, it's about the way that content has been arranged and presented as a BOOK. Because that's what we're supposed to be rating/reviewing here, or at least I think so. Rate Holden's work here, folks, not the titular mothers.
While there was an impressive volume of information, it was presented in a haphazard and disorderly way. Even the stories of the three young mothers were shuffled in a way that created confusion. We started with background information on Priska, followed her all the way to being transported, then typewritered back to start with Rachel and follow HER all the way to transport, then typewritered AGAIN for Anka. But these three storylines also aren't happening on concurrent dates. This means that, despite efforts to organize things into three distinct stories, we're describing same historical backdrop three times. Which means that any historical referents made during these first three chapters read like a skipping record.
A minor offense, I suppose, except that later, Holden changes her strategy and begins to organize things not into distinct "Priska, Rachel, Anka" columns, but instead by dates/events ("The Camps", "The Death Marches", etc.). Then we experience the opposite problem--trying to sort out who's who, and what each woman's individual circumstances are as Holden runs around trying to keep all three balls in the air, so to speak.
Basically, there was a TON of information here, and I think it got away from Holden a little. There were conflicting goals here, both to relate a heroic story of survival with three protagonists who never interacted, and to explain the historical details of the Holocaust to a reader who, after all, doesn't have encyclopedic knowledge of who/where/when everything was. Each of these goals stood in the way of the other.
For instance, there were these aggravating little cutaway clauses mid-story that sketched in background information irrelevant to the narrative flow of the story.
Example (NOT a direct quote): Rachel looked down in fear as Mengele, who had received the Iron Cross, asked her again if she was pregnant.
See, it's interesting that Mengele had an iron cross, but Rachel doesn't know that and it doesn't much matter to her, now, does it? It detracts from Rachel's terror and the pressing question "Are you pregnant" to include a biographical side-note on Mengele like that. This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say that the story and the history stood in each others' way.
In fact, this results in an even clunkier phrase: "but of course, [she/they] didn't know that."
For example (NOT a direct quote): The camp had a reputation as the deadliest ever built, and had been created to house Russian POWs. Of course, Anka didn't know this as she passed beneath the formidable gate. She only cared about surviving.
This pattern of sketching in historical details, then reaffirming that the mothers didn't know any of them, was maddening. And it happened a LOT. Why choose to yank the readers out of the narrative flow to provide background, only to plunge us abruptly back in with the assertion that the background wasn't important and indeed wasn't known at all to the women? I'm not suggesting that the history should've been excluded completely, I'm just saying that the transitions between the two were clunky. Again, Holden had a lot of balls to keep in the air and didn't do it terribly smoothly.
Then there were a few notable cases where an almost callously colloquial narrator showed its face. In the most startling instance, one of the mothers feared that her relatives were "sucking on gas". In a book that tried to hold on to an almost chilly, informative narrative voice, these few moments of poetic license were unpleasant.
So listen, future unsatisfied readers of Born Survivors, it's OKAY to two-star a Holocaust book. Because nobody's belittling or two-starring the Holocaust. There are deeply irritating elements of Holden's compilation and writing at work here. That's how you can find these stories so inspiring and unbelievable, but still not enjoy the book all that much. It's not wrong to be critical of the writing, even with socially and emotionally-charged subject matter. It wasn't wrong for Five Days at Memorial and it isn't wrong here. We have a duty to judge these books not simply on the inspirational value of their content, but on the quality of the writing that delivers these stories to us. Or at least I think so.
And hey, five-star reviewers, if this book was an emotionally enlightening or transformative experience for you, that's great. I just need a book that's stronger in its bones than this one. Hands down, the writing makes up the bones of a book, and the writing of Born Survivors just isn't up to scratch.
I two-starred a book with heavy subject matter, with practically no reviews of substance to be seen that gave it less than four stars. Which means the masses love it and I'm standing up to say, "Hold on a minute, though." This basically puts me in the position that my Five Days at Memorial review did.
First of all, I two-starred the BOOK. Not the Holocaust, not the women themselves or their stories. My unfavorable opinion of Born Survivors doesn't have to do with content, it's about the way that content has been arranged and presented as a BOOK. Because that's what we're supposed to be rating/reviewing here, or at least I think so. Rate Holden's work here, folks, not the titular mothers.
While there was an impressive volume of information, it was presented in a haphazard and disorderly way. Even the stories of the three young mothers were shuffled in a way that created confusion. We started with background information on Priska, followed her all the way to being transported, then typewritered back to start with Rachel and follow HER all the way to transport, then typewritered AGAIN for Anka. But these three storylines also aren't happening on concurrent dates. This means that, despite efforts to organize things into three distinct stories, we're describing same historical backdrop three times. Which means that any historical referents made during these first three chapters read like a skipping record.
A minor offense, I suppose, except that later, Holden changes her strategy and begins to organize things not into distinct "Priska, Rachel, Anka" columns, but instead by dates/events ("The Camps", "The Death Marches", etc.). Then we experience the opposite problem--trying to sort out who's who, and what each woman's individual circumstances are as Holden runs around trying to keep all three balls in the air, so to speak.
Basically, there was a TON of information here, and I think it got away from Holden a little. There were conflicting goals here, both to relate a heroic story of survival with three protagonists who never interacted, and to explain the historical details of the Holocaust to a reader who, after all, doesn't have encyclopedic knowledge of who/where/when everything was. Each of these goals stood in the way of the other.
For instance, there were these aggravating little cutaway clauses mid-story that sketched in background information irrelevant to the narrative flow of the story.
Example (NOT a direct quote): Rachel looked down in fear as Mengele, who had received the Iron Cross, asked her again if she was pregnant.
See, it's interesting that Mengele had an iron cross, but Rachel doesn't know that and it doesn't much matter to her, now, does it? It detracts from Rachel's terror and the pressing question "Are you pregnant" to include a biographical side-note on Mengele like that. This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say that the story and the history stood in each others' way.
In fact, this results in an even clunkier phrase: "but of course, [she/they] didn't know that."
For example (NOT a direct quote): The camp had a reputation as the deadliest ever built, and had been created to house Russian POWs. Of course, Anka didn't know this as she passed beneath the formidable gate. She only cared about surviving.
This pattern of sketching in historical details, then reaffirming that the mothers didn't know any of them, was maddening. And it happened a LOT. Why choose to yank the readers out of the narrative flow to provide background, only to plunge us abruptly back in with the assertion that the background wasn't important and indeed wasn't known at all to the women? I'm not suggesting that the history should've been excluded completely, I'm just saying that the transitions between the two were clunky. Again, Holden had a lot of balls to keep in the air and didn't do it terribly smoothly.
Then there were a few notable cases where an almost callously colloquial narrator showed its face. In the most startling instance, one of the mothers feared that her relatives were "sucking on gas". In a book that tried to hold on to an almost chilly, informative narrative voice, these few moments of poetic license were unpleasant.
So listen, future unsatisfied readers of Born Survivors, it's OKAY to two-star a Holocaust book. Because nobody's belittling or two-starring the Holocaust. There are deeply irritating elements of Holden's compilation and writing at work here. That's how you can find these stories so inspiring and unbelievable, but still not enjoy the book all that much. It's not wrong to be critical of the writing, even with socially and emotionally-charged subject matter. It wasn't wrong for Five Days at Memorial and it isn't wrong here. We have a duty to judge these books not simply on the inspirational value of their content, but on the quality of the writing that delivers these stories to us. Or at least I think so.
And hey, five-star reviewers, if this book was an emotionally enlightening or transformative experience for you, that's great. I just need a book that's stronger in its bones than this one. Hands down, the writing makes up the bones of a book, and the writing of Born Survivors just isn't up to scratch.
February 7, 2017
A beautifully captured testament to the strength and resilience of three young women enslaved by the nazis during the Second World War. Although the three women didn't know each other at the time, they shared a common ground - they were all newly pregnant when they were sent to the now infamous death camps across Europe.
Impeccably researched and sensitively told, each of the three women's stories are both harrowing and uplifting. This book showcases a side of the camps not widely known; when a prisoner is pregnant, what is to become of her child?
Some parts of the book make for difficult reading but this should not deter history enthusiasts from reading it. The treatment of babies and children by the nazi officers is particularly challenging to comprehend. At times it's a struggle to believe that everything documented - and thousands more untold stories - happened to real people who's only crime was their heritage and/or religious beliefs.
The book follows up what happened to each of the women in post wartime, and of their subsequent marriages and lives. Tellingly, all three women did not go on to have further children; meaning those babies born to the imprisoned women share a special bond to this day.
Powerful and unforgettable. It was a privilege to read about these courageous women.
Impeccably researched and sensitively told, each of the three women's stories are both harrowing and uplifting. This book showcases a side of the camps not widely known; when a prisoner is pregnant, what is to become of her child?
Some parts of the book make for difficult reading but this should not deter history enthusiasts from reading it. The treatment of babies and children by the nazi officers is particularly challenging to comprehend. At times it's a struggle to believe that everything documented - and thousands more untold stories - happened to real people who's only crime was their heritage and/or religious beliefs.
The book follows up what happened to each of the women in post wartime, and of their subsequent marriages and lives. Tellingly, all three women did not go on to have further children; meaning those babies born to the imprisoned women share a special bond to this day.
Powerful and unforgettable. It was a privilege to read about these courageous women.
February 14, 2022
Survivors! These ladies survived all odds. Their babies survived during the greatest of odds. It is amazing what humans can survive. The details are horrifying. Sad what humans do to destroy each other. How 1 man was about to live this out
April 2, 2017
Oriundas de países diferentes (Priska é natural da Eslovénia, onde em 1944 os relatos do que acontecia nos campos ainda tinham pouco crédito, Rachel da Polónia, onde os judeus eram vítimas de um preconceito generalizado, e Anka da República Checa), não deixa de ser uma coincidência terem acabado por chegar a Auschwitz nos últimos meses de 1944.
"Apesar de tudo o que tinham passado, admitir que Hitler estava a falar a sério quando prometera erra dicar todos os seres humanos de origem étnica indesejável, por forma a criar uma raça superior, estava para lá do que eram capazes de imaginar. No fim de contas, os alemães eram dos povos mais cultos e civilizados do mundo. Não era possível que a nação que produzira Bach e Goethe, Mozart e Beethoven, Einstein, Nietzsche e Durer, criasse um plano tão monstruoso - ou era?" pag. 45
De facto, é curioso como as notícias sobre os campos de concentração e o que os nazis iam fazendo ainda tinham pouca credibilidade na maioria da população. Apesar de terem de sair das suas casas, perder o emprego, ter de ir viver para guetos, a maior parte dos judeus ainda tinha esperança de que tudo ia voltar ao normal e muitos deles recusaram-se mesmo a sair do seu país.
"Apesar de estarmos esfomeados, tentámos não perder a nossa felicidade. Ainda acreditávamos que estava próximo o dia em que tudo iria mudar." pag 78
Já li muitos livros sobre a temática, mas este é completamente diferente porque não tinha conhecimento que teria sido possível uma mulher, com falta de comida, a viver em condições deploráveis, conseguisse levar uma gravidez até ao fim. Além de a conseguir esconder de toda a gente. Mas de facto isso não aconteceu com uma, mas pelo menos com três.
"Tínhamos chegado ao inferno, e não fazíamos ideia porquê." pag. 93
opinião completa em: http://marcadordelivros.blogspot.pt/2...
"Apesar de tudo o que tinham passado, admitir que Hitler estava a falar a sério quando prometera erra dicar todos os seres humanos de origem étnica indesejável, por forma a criar uma raça superior, estava para lá do que eram capazes de imaginar. No fim de contas, os alemães eram dos povos mais cultos e civilizados do mundo. Não era possível que a nação que produzira Bach e Goethe, Mozart e Beethoven, Einstein, Nietzsche e Durer, criasse um plano tão monstruoso - ou era?" pag. 45
De facto, é curioso como as notícias sobre os campos de concentração e o que os nazis iam fazendo ainda tinham pouca credibilidade na maioria da população. Apesar de terem de sair das suas casas, perder o emprego, ter de ir viver para guetos, a maior parte dos judeus ainda tinha esperança de que tudo ia voltar ao normal e muitos deles recusaram-se mesmo a sair do seu país.
"Apesar de estarmos esfomeados, tentámos não perder a nossa felicidade. Ainda acreditávamos que estava próximo o dia em que tudo iria mudar." pag 78
Já li muitos livros sobre a temática, mas este é completamente diferente porque não tinha conhecimento que teria sido possível uma mulher, com falta de comida, a viver em condições deploráveis, conseguisse levar uma gravidez até ao fim. Além de a conseguir esconder de toda a gente. Mas de facto isso não aconteceu com uma, mas pelo menos com três.
"Tínhamos chegado ao inferno, e não fazíamos ideia porquê." pag. 93
opinião completa em: http://marcadordelivros.blogspot.pt/2...
April 30, 2015
This book, simply put.... moved me. I'm not Jewish. As far as I know none of my relatives perished during the Holocaust. In fact, aside from telling the stories contained within these pages, the events affect me not at all. Yet, it does.
When I was 16, my parents took me to Germany. Specifically, to Dachau. There I met a man named Martin. He was a Polish officer who refused to support the Third Reich. He walked me through the camp pointing at things and saying, "They hung my father from that tree just before liberation." I was mortified. However, I have never forgotten the inked numbers on his arm or the horror that he lived. I won't either.
Martin's story was horrific. It was tragic. It was Hell. However, the story that I just read about Rachel, Anka and Priska is so much more demonic. Holden describes the trains in such detail that you can smell the unwashed bodies and human waste. She enables the reader to look up in the sky and see the flames coming from the chimneys and you can taste the human ash that falls like snow. You feel the birthing pains, the fear, the hopelessness and the determination.
"Born Survivors" is so much more than an account of three women and the Holocaust that tried to kill them. This is a memorial to every victim and every survivor. This is proof that the human spirit can and does overcome everything. Broken hearts do mend and hope thrives even in the darkest of places. The three babies born into madness saved humanity in that moment.
In reality, I am so moved by this piece that I am having a hard time putting the emotions into words. I'll put it this way. This isn't a "should" read, it's a "MUST" read. I believe that every human being alive at this moment should stand in a concentration camp at least once. Every person alive needs to see the photos and read the stories while standing where these atrocities occurred. However, that isn't possible. I believe that this book does the same thing. Holden does not sugar coat the truth. She stripped it naked and exposed it to the world. It's hard to accept that humans did these these to other adults. To be confronted with the reality of what happened to the children and infirm is almost beyond comprehension. This book forces the reader to face the evil that was the Holocaust. My 13 year old son will be reading this next. When my youngest is a bit older, he will as well.
Ms. Holden, I have no idea how you slogged through this dark matter to write this book but you've done an amazing job. Thank you.
I recieved an Advanced Reader Copy of this work from Goodreads.
When I was 16, my parents took me to Germany. Specifically, to Dachau. There I met a man named Martin. He was a Polish officer who refused to support the Third Reich. He walked me through the camp pointing at things and saying, "They hung my father from that tree just before liberation." I was mortified. However, I have never forgotten the inked numbers on his arm or the horror that he lived. I won't either.
Martin's story was horrific. It was tragic. It was Hell. However, the story that I just read about Rachel, Anka and Priska is so much more demonic. Holden describes the trains in such detail that you can smell the unwashed bodies and human waste. She enables the reader to look up in the sky and see the flames coming from the chimneys and you can taste the human ash that falls like snow. You feel the birthing pains, the fear, the hopelessness and the determination.
"Born Survivors" is so much more than an account of three women and the Holocaust that tried to kill them. This is a memorial to every victim and every survivor. This is proof that the human spirit can and does overcome everything. Broken hearts do mend and hope thrives even in the darkest of places. The three babies born into madness saved humanity in that moment.
In reality, I am so moved by this piece that I am having a hard time putting the emotions into words. I'll put it this way. This isn't a "should" read, it's a "MUST" read. I believe that every human being alive at this moment should stand in a concentration camp at least once. Every person alive needs to see the photos and read the stories while standing where these atrocities occurred. However, that isn't possible. I believe that this book does the same thing. Holden does not sugar coat the truth. She stripped it naked and exposed it to the world. It's hard to accept that humans did these these to other adults. To be confronted with the reality of what happened to the children and infirm is almost beyond comprehension. This book forces the reader to face the evil that was the Holocaust. My 13 year old son will be reading this next. When my youngest is a bit older, he will as well.
Ms. Holden, I have no idea how you slogged through this dark matter to write this book but you've done an amazing job. Thank you.
I recieved an Advanced Reader Copy of this work from Goodreads.
September 9, 2015
The harrowing true accounts here follow the lives of three amazing women Anka, Priska, and Rachel all of whom, against the odds , survive the horrors of the Holocaust death camps and even more miraculously give birth while imprisoned and manage to keep their babies alive. A tribute to the indefatigable human spirit embodied by these women who somehow managed to persevere the truly unimaginable. As with most books of this type , not for the squeamish.
I wish this book had a more compelling title. It is an excellent book which I highly recommend !!! 5 stars
I wish this book had a more compelling title. It is an excellent book which I highly recommend !!! 5 stars
August 20, 2015
As with most books about the World War II concentration camps, this is a difficult book to read. However, this one is different because there is a good outcome for the three women highlighted in this book. Each of these three women, through good luck or miracle or whatever you want to call it, survived Auschwitz and were sent to Mauthausen were they survived until the war ended. All three women - Priska, Rachel, and Anka - were in their early pregnancies when they were first sent to Auschwitz and were wise enough not to share that information. Their stories were horrible and its amazing that they were able to deliver healthy babies. The three women never knew each other at the camps but the three children connected as adults and this is the story that they shared with Wendy Holden. The author did an amazing job of pulling the stories together and getting information on the three women's early history. All three women lost the majority of their families and their husbands in the camps but they each had a child who survived under unbelievable circumstances. Even though its a very heart breaking and sad story, there is a real sense of survival at the end of it. Its a must read book for people who like reading about this time period in history.
February 10, 2016
Gosto de ler livros que me entretenham, que me façam rir, que me façam sonhar, que me façam viajar por mundos imaginários. Mas de vez em quando gosto de ler livros sobre pessoas reais e mundos reais. Não foi o meu 1º livro sobre o Holocausto e muito já foi escrito e dito. Como tal apenas vos digo que é impressionante aquilo que um ser humano pode fazer a outros apenas pela sua ideologia. E que até compreendo que existam loucos como o Hitler, mas que estes sejam seguidos por milhares de outras pessoas, isso já me transcende. Um livro pesado e difícil de se ler mas que todos devemos ler para saber o que nunca se deverá voltar a repetir
January 6, 2019
Primeiro livro de 2019, com uma história forte e sincera. Absolutamente necessário ler este livro. Duro e poderoso.
"Por vezes, o simples fato de viver é, por si só, um ato de coragem."
"Por vezes, o simples fato de viver é, por si só, um ato de coragem."
July 28, 2015
Embora devore tudo o que tenha a ver com este tema e atualmente existirem tantos livros destes, este foi dos livros que mais me marcou em toda a vida.
Excepcionalmente bem escrito, onde todos os factos e relatos são comportados por uma investigação zelosa.
Mesmo assim e conhecendo o que se passou, dei por mim várias vezes a chorar e compulsivamente. É um livro que deveria de ser lido por todas as pessoas.
Atenção que o livro tem imensas gralhas, inclusive, erros ortográficos.
Excepcionalmente bem escrito, onde todos os factos e relatos são comportados por uma investigação zelosa.
Mesmo assim e conhecendo o que se passou, dei por mim várias vezes a chorar e compulsivamente. É um livro que deveria de ser lido por todas as pessoas.
Atenção que o livro tem imensas gralhas, inclusive, erros ortográficos.
April 5, 2020
Ia com algum receio para a leitura deste livro, pois tinha as expectativas muito altas.
Esperou 5 anos na estante pela sua vez... e sabem que mais, merece o hype que teve na altura, pois é um livro extraordinário!
Esperou 5 anos na estante pela sua vez... e sabem que mais, merece o hype que teve na altura, pois é um livro extraordinário!
July 29, 2017
4,5*
Um livro de cortar a respiração e partir o coração.
Um livro de cortar a respiração e partir o coração.
July 1, 2015
Santayana's 1863 quote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" has been my reason for reading nonfiction for most of my life. "Born Survivors" by Wendy Holden is a perfect reminder of that. A story of how three women and their newly born infants survived the Holocaust is so powerful and disturbing that I experienced emotions ranging from rage to gratitude. I am continually stunned by the inhumanity and torture they endured. Priska, Rachel and Anka did not know each other although they were in the same camps - each guarding their secret pregnancy that if known would have guaranteed their immediate death. How they survived and protected their babies is a remarkable story. My gratitude is due to those angels that despite being in grave danger, did the morally right thing to help the prisoners when they could....especially the Czech town of Horni Briza. I highly recommend this book, even though it made me cry...especially the last few chapters. It's a tough read, but so very important as we are now at the 70th anniversary of the liberation and those that lived it are leaving us so it's our job to remember so it doesn't happen again.
January 13, 2019
Muito bom! Sinto que aprendi muito com este livro. Parabéns ao trabalho de investigação.
April 20, 2016
As a previous reviewer said, I am rating the author's writing...not the facts of this book. This story of three holocaust survivors and their experiences in the concentration camps is harrowing. All three give birth and their "miracle babies" meet some 65 years later. (This is NOT a spoiler...the information is on the book flap). Should be a fascinating read, right? Not so.
I read for three reasons: 1) To learn something
2) To be entertained/enthralled/compelled/intrigued
3) To enjoy the beauty of the writing
This book failed me entirely on numbers two and three. I will admit that I learned about these three individual women but that's where the substance ended for me.
The writing is disjointed and awkward. The author did a lot of research but put it together in a way that was distracting. I imagine she gathered information from the three families and also gathered historical facts about the war and the camps. Instead of melding it seamlessly she put the biographical background in separate chapters titled: Priska, Rachel and Anka and THEN filled in the historical information in a loose chronological order. The result takes away from the flow of the story.
Now let me bore you with some horrible, careless writing (or is it careless editing?)
Nonsensical fragment: Page 128: "As more blocks were needed, so they were made of local wood."
Page 187: "....Priska, Rachel and Anka still knew nothing each other." (Missing OF maybe?)
Page 204: "....Edita, who wept at the news that the baby had been PART named after her." (emphasis mine)
Page 268: "-Adolf Hitler and his new bride Eva Braun SAT SIT side by side...."
UGH. There are many more errors and they distract from the story.
These three women SHOULD have their stories told. Their survival and the survival of their babies is nothing short of miraculous. The children and grandchildren SHOULD have a record of the horrors of the camps and the triumphant determination of Priska, Rachel and Anka. But they deserve a well-written and thoughtful account and NOT a sloppy, poorly edited book.
(P.S. I'm not a perfect writer and I'm sure my reviews contain errors. But I'm not being paid for this either.)
I read for three reasons: 1) To learn something
2) To be entertained/enthralled/compelled/intrigued
3) To enjoy the beauty of the writing
This book failed me entirely on numbers two and three. I will admit that I learned about these three individual women but that's where the substance ended for me.
The writing is disjointed and awkward. The author did a lot of research but put it together in a way that was distracting. I imagine she gathered information from the three families and also gathered historical facts about the war and the camps. Instead of melding it seamlessly she put the biographical background in separate chapters titled: Priska, Rachel and Anka and THEN filled in the historical information in a loose chronological order. The result takes away from the flow of the story.
Now let me bore you with some horrible, careless writing (or is it careless editing?)
Nonsensical fragment: Page 128: "As more blocks were needed, so they were made of local wood."
Page 187: "....Priska, Rachel and Anka still knew nothing each other." (Missing OF maybe?)
Page 204: "....Edita, who wept at the news that the baby had been PART named after her." (emphasis mine)
Page 268: "-Adolf Hitler and his new bride Eva Braun SAT SIT side by side...."
UGH. There are many more errors and they distract from the story.
These three women SHOULD have their stories told. Their survival and the survival of their babies is nothing short of miraculous. The children and grandchildren SHOULD have a record of the horrors of the camps and the triumphant determination of Priska, Rachel and Anka. But they deserve a well-written and thoughtful account and NOT a sloppy, poorly edited book.
(P.S. I'm not a perfect writer and I'm sure my reviews contain errors. But I'm not being paid for this either.)
November 20, 2019
This book is one of those books that is so meticulously researched and the detail is so realistic, it hurts to read it. I think what struck me the most about these stories and the women besides the fact that they were able to hide their pregnancies for so long, is that they were cadavarous humans we have seen with the dead eyes. Their birth stories are told in one chapter which all occurred near the very end of the war. Just to be clear, that time period was the time that the Third Reich were actively destroying all evidence of their crimes, including the prisoners they had starved, mistreated, dehydrated, and abused. The book follows a timeline for each woman that builds to the complete dehumanization of them by the time they enter Auschwitz. Each woman was greeted with the Angel of Death who asked them, "Are you pregnant?" Each woman answered that they were not.
The title of the book indicates that the babies were born but that, surprisingly, is not the take away for me. It was the complete lack of humanity they were born into. Of course, I can't discount the acts of kindness in the village that nearly made me weep, or the women prisoners that somehow fashioned a layette for one of the babies. But the nations, as a whole, turned a blind eye while the guards and SS were completely sadistic. Each of the children's births were so appalling. Unsanitary is a huge understatement. These mothers held on to the ever elusive hope of a better world for their babies. They did not give up although it would have been easier to do so. Yet that was their strength. It is also completely miraculous that they were not selected time and time again to go "left" which was always death.
Reading this book was all consuming. I can not imagine how the author did all of the research and wrote what she did. Most of all, I can not imagine what these prisoners and all of the others endured, lived and died. There really are no words to truly give this book the description it deserves.
The title of the book indicates that the babies were born but that, surprisingly, is not the take away for me. It was the complete lack of humanity they were born into. Of course, I can't discount the acts of kindness in the village that nearly made me weep, or the women prisoners that somehow fashioned a layette for one of the babies. But the nations, as a whole, turned a blind eye while the guards and SS were completely sadistic. Each of the children's births were so appalling. Unsanitary is a huge understatement. These mothers held on to the ever elusive hope of a better world for their babies. They did not give up although it would have been easier to do so. Yet that was their strength. It is also completely miraculous that they were not selected time and time again to go "left" which was always death.
Reading this book was all consuming. I can not imagine how the author did all of the research and wrote what she did. Most of all, I can not imagine what these prisoners and all of the others endured, lived and died. There really are no words to truly give this book the description it deserves.
February 26, 2017
Staggering facts: In six years, the Nazis had killed approximately two thirds of the nine-and-a-half million Jews living in Europe, as well as millions of non-Jews. Only 300,000 of Poland's 3.3 million Jews had survived WWII. The United States eventually accepted some 400,000 refugees but denied many more access to a new life here. Unwelcome anywhere else in the world, many Polish Jews had little alternative but to return to what was by then a Soviet puppet state.
With survival admittedly just a matter of luck, this entirely densely written work of non-fiction, tackled perfectly by Author Wendy Holden, takes us from the beautiful, healthy, grateful, wealthy lives of three Jewish women and their husbands and into their fearful, imprisoned, tortured, starved, sickened, unfathomable life of horrors endured in various concentration camps, German factories, and slave labor camps over Europe under Nazi rule while pregnant and miraculously postbirth. This is an exhausting story of survival, only possible due to people of compassion, mothers who fought for their lives and the lives of their babies, and thankfully American allied intervention and liberation in May 1945, "those tanks with the white stars." The rebuilding of lives where towns and sometimes entire families were destroyed is unimaginably heartbreaking. The reunions between the grown children and their aged liberators are heartbreaking and inspirational. The visiting of Mauthausen where three babies were secretly born and now are adult orphans walking arm and arm as forever 'siblings of the heart' is so incredibly empowering -- Mark, Eva and Hana. I always feel a duty to read Holocaust books; I'm relieved I have finished this one. It's amazing to hear these stories of courageous freedoms. I'm just so fiercely angry they ever had to be written at all.
With survival admittedly just a matter of luck, this entirely densely written work of non-fiction, tackled perfectly by Author Wendy Holden, takes us from the beautiful, healthy, grateful, wealthy lives of three Jewish women and their husbands and into their fearful, imprisoned, tortured, starved, sickened, unfathomable life of horrors endured in various concentration camps, German factories, and slave labor camps over Europe under Nazi rule while pregnant and miraculously postbirth. This is an exhausting story of survival, only possible due to people of compassion, mothers who fought for their lives and the lives of their babies, and thankfully American allied intervention and liberation in May 1945, "those tanks with the white stars." The rebuilding of lives where towns and sometimes entire families were destroyed is unimaginably heartbreaking. The reunions between the grown children and their aged liberators are heartbreaking and inspirational. The visiting of Mauthausen where three babies were secretly born and now are adult orphans walking arm and arm as forever 'siblings of the heart' is so incredibly empowering -- Mark, Eva and Hana. I always feel a duty to read Holocaust books; I'm relieved I have finished this one. It's amazing to hear these stories of courageous freedoms. I'm just so fiercely angry they ever had to be written at all.
January 1, 2019
(...)
Uma das coisas que adorei neste livro foi que, apesar de o livro ser sobre estas três mulheres pois estavam as três grávidas, eram mulheres que vinham de meios muitíssimo diferentes, por isso a forma como "viam" e sobreviveram foi diferente, dependendo das línguas que falavam, educação, entre outros. Foram estes diferentes pontos de visão que tornaram o livro tão rico e brutal. As descrições estão fantásticas, dando para compreender perfeitamente como era o ambiente, pelo menos de forma teórica. Senti o medo que aquelas mulheres viveram e vi como aquelas pessoas, que tinham que fazer de tudo para sobreviver, passavam, por vezes, por cima dessa sua sobrevivência para ajudar outros.
É um livro muitíssimo forte, mas é um relato fantasticamente bem narrado e os três diferentes pontos de vista são uma mais valia para toda a história. Adorei e recomendo!!
Opinião completa em http://blocodedevaneios.blogspot.pt/2...
Uma das coisas que adorei neste livro foi que, apesar de o livro ser sobre estas três mulheres pois estavam as três grávidas, eram mulheres que vinham de meios muitíssimo diferentes, por isso a forma como "viam" e sobreviveram foi diferente, dependendo das línguas que falavam, educação, entre outros. Foram estes diferentes pontos de visão que tornaram o livro tão rico e brutal. As descrições estão fantásticas, dando para compreender perfeitamente como era o ambiente, pelo menos de forma teórica. Senti o medo que aquelas mulheres viveram e vi como aquelas pessoas, que tinham que fazer de tudo para sobreviver, passavam, por vezes, por cima dessa sua sobrevivência para ajudar outros.
É um livro muitíssimo forte, mas é um relato fantasticamente bem narrado e os três diferentes pontos de vista são uma mais valia para toda a história. Adorei e recomendo!!
Opinião completa em http://blocodedevaneios.blogspot.pt/2...
February 12, 2017
"Eles levaram o nosso orgulho e nós fizemos o melhor que pudemos. mas nunca mais fomos os mesmos." - pág. 66
"Se não uivássemos com os restantes lobos, acabaríamos num campo de concentração." - pág. 209
"Perdemos tudo e todos. Se perdermos a nossa humanidade, perderemos a única coisa que não tínhamos de perder" - pág. 358
"Quantas mais pessoas souberem o que aconteceu, menos provável é que volte a acontecer, espero eu. Esta é uma história que deve ensinar às pessoas o que não pode acontecer outra vez. (...) É muito importante recordar todos aqueles milhões de pessoas que foram mortas. E, especialmente, todos aqueles que nunca tiveram ninguém para os recordar, porque todas as suas famílias e todas as suas comunidades forma destruídas. É nosso dever contar essa história e tentar prevenir que tais atrocidades voltem a acontecer, uma e outra vez." - págs. 378-379
"Se não uivássemos com os restantes lobos, acabaríamos num campo de concentração." - pág. 209
"Perdemos tudo e todos. Se perdermos a nossa humanidade, perderemos a única coisa que não tínhamos de perder" - pág. 358
"Quantas mais pessoas souberem o que aconteceu, menos provável é que volte a acontecer, espero eu. Esta é uma história que deve ensinar às pessoas o que não pode acontecer outra vez. (...) É muito importante recordar todos aqueles milhões de pessoas que foram mortas. E, especialmente, todos aqueles que nunca tiveram ninguém para os recordar, porque todas as suas famílias e todas as suas comunidades forma destruídas. É nosso dever contar essa história e tentar prevenir que tais atrocidades voltem a acontecer, uma e outra vez." - págs. 378-379
February 5, 2022
Um livro muito cru, um livro que mostra o quanto o ser humano consegue ser cruel e violento,uma obra que nos destroe a cada narração.
Gostei muito e dificilmente irei esquecer.
Gostei muito e dificilmente irei esquecer.
February 2, 2018
Book read for three different projects: #Hol73; #VozesdoHolocausto; #LeiturasdoHolocausto3
It seemed like an history lesson, well told and well written. It is hard to believe that such atrocities took place and that is why it is so important to never forget what happened, paying respect to the victims and making sure that will never happen something similar.
"No day shall erase you from the memory of Time"
Despite all this, I could not give the 5 stars as I read "Night", from Elias Wiesel before and the writing is just poetic and beautiful. Plus, reading stories of the Holocaust all in a row makes me feel not as shocked as I should be. I am not sure if I can put it correctly in words, but it makes the story seem banal. Like something that happened a long time ago and will not happen again.
I do prefer non-fiction over fiction, regarding Holocaust, as it makes it fair to the survivors. This is a very strong story of courage, endurance and faith in life, will to survive and family ties, that despite all the adversities it is possible to keep on living!
It seemed like an history lesson, well told and well written. It is hard to believe that such atrocities took place and that is why it is so important to never forget what happened, paying respect to the victims and making sure that will never happen something similar.
"No day shall erase you from the memory of Time"
Despite all this, I could not give the 5 stars as I read "Night", from Elias Wiesel before and the writing is just poetic and beautiful. Plus, reading stories of the Holocaust all in a row makes me feel not as shocked as I should be. I am not sure if I can put it correctly in words, but it makes the story seem banal. Like something that happened a long time ago and will not happen again.
I do prefer non-fiction over fiction, regarding Holocaust, as it makes it fair to the survivors. This is a very strong story of courage, endurance and faith in life, will to survive and family ties, that despite all the adversities it is possible to keep on living!
November 20, 2019
this book tells about for the first hand, an amazing true story about 3 womens who were victims of the Holocaust, who they were very much alone on this horrendus circumstances without their beloved one who had to face difficulties to be alive on the most darkest event of our mankind history.
What are the chances to be alive, specially pregnant during the concentration camps and hide from nazi authorities ?! It shows the strenght of those ladies who went from losing their family members, witnessing horric crimes and discovering they were pregnants in the middle of these caos.
I do recommend to read this book, speacially if you have interest on WWII and Holocaust. 5 🌟
What are the chances to be alive, specially pregnant during the concentration camps and hide from nazi authorities ?! It shows the strenght of those ladies who went from losing their family members, witnessing horric crimes and discovering they were pregnants in the middle of these caos.
I do recommend to read this book, speacially if you have interest on WWII and Holocaust. 5 🌟
April 26, 2016
Unforgettable, Heartbreaking, Compelling, Moving & Inspiring! A Truly Amazing Read! I Loved It!
June 13, 2015
‘Good morning pretty lady, are you pregnant?’ These where the infamous words from Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death, at Auschwitz II–Birkenau concentration camp. If found to be pregnant then - with a flick of Mengele’s glove - the women would have been taken away to face certain death in the gas chambers.
Born Survivors is the story of Priska, Rachel and Anka, three women who had never met but were transported to the camp late on during the war. The book tells the story of how at the beginning they believed they would be fine and survive, then as the Nazis moved in to their respective countries how they then tried to stay free from capture.
All three young women were married by the time they entered Auschwitz that day in 1944. Little did they know what was to lie ahead for each of the three women and this is their story in a new book Born Survivors by Wendy Holden.
All three women were pregnant as infamous trains transported them to be met by brutal SS guards with their ferocious guard dogs. During the coming hours they were stripped and their heads shaved before standing naked as Mengele went through the selection process. When each of the women were asked if they were pregnant they instinctively replied “Nein” which saved them from the gas chambers.
All three women who were separated from their husbands with no knowledge of their whereabouts were deemed fit for slave labour. None of them knew from one day to another whether they would face being selected for the gas chamber or work.
This was just the beginning for each of the three women. Their food rations could only be described as dishwater and crumbs of bread. Living conditions deteriorated by the day as did their health. Priska, Rachel and Anka managed to hide their pregnancies from their fellow inmates, knowing if they were found they would face certain death at the hands of Nazi killing machine.
The emaciated and lice-ridden women faced afurther ordeal as they were selected to help the German war machine by being transferred to Freiberg working as slave labours in a factory making parts for aircraft. During their time here the allies were advancing and bombing raids were daily, during which the women were locked in a room on the top floor of the factory while their Nazi captors hid in shelters. As their health deteriorated and being so thin the three women still managed to hide their secret. Rachel who shared a bunk with her sisters did not even dare tell them out of fear.
Then on April 12 1945 Priska gave birth to Hana on a plank laid on a table. The Nazi captors even joked and had bets as to what the sex of the baby would be.
With little food and water, the newborn was vastly underweight at 3 pounds. Then along with the other 1000 or so women they were evacuated from the factory as the Russians and Americans closed in. They were boarded onto trains with little or no food and water. How mother and baby survived on meagre rations living in rags at this time no-one knew. Nor did they know their destination with Allied bombing raids causing great confusion as bombs fell.
Rachel weighing under 70lbs and in one of the crammed open coal wagons with little food and water she gave birth to a baby boy she named Mark. They were halfway through their 17 day journey in hellish conditions when she went into labour, with only a rusty blade to sever the umbilical cord. In hope of saving her baby she told her guards the baby was born on Hitler’s birthday (April 20), so the SS guards joked ‘another Jew for the Fuhrer’.
Their final destination was the infamous Mauthausen Camp (known as the Bone-Grinder) situated in Austria close to the Danube. This camp had the reputation of being the final destination - once through the gates you entered hell never to leave alive. Many in Mauthausen died from the appalling conditions including hard labour, lack of food, illness, being gassed or from the sheer brutality of the SS guards.
It was on the final part of the journey to the camp that Anka gave birth to baby Eva on the back of a cart filled with the dead or dying women after being pulled off the train.
The war was close to its end and the Allies were closing in on the Nazi regime and the hilltop camp. The guards herded many of the latest arrivals into the gas chambers only to realise they had run out of Zyklon B crystals used to gas those they wanted to kill.
Within days the Americans arrived, spearheaded by the US Thunderbolts headed by Sgt Albert J. Kosiek a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. A hardened soldier, he had seen and witnessed much but nothing could prepare him or his men for what they found at Mauthausen. Many of the men broke down when the sheer horror unfolded in front of their eyes. The war was finally over, Priska, Rachel and Anka though nothing more than skeletons had survived with their babies despite the horrors that they were born into. Born Survivors indeed.
Many of the American servicemen who liberated the camp refused to speak of what they found at Mauthausen. The sheer horror would never leave them and would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
The three mothers who defied death to give life were eventually allowed to leave and head home to try and find their husbands and rebuild their lives. Their journeys would end in heartbreak as their husbands were never to return and their homes and possessions all gone. Some of the women would be ostracised and had to move on to find a new home.
Priska, Rachel and Anka are sadly no longer alive but their memory lives on in their children Hana, Mark and Eva, almost certainly the last living survivors of the Holocaust.
Just very recently, on 10 May 2015, the Austrian authorities marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Mauthausen in the presence of relatives of survivors and those still alive who helped liberate the camp. Also present were Hana, Mark and Eva, celebrating the day the Americans arrived to set them free.
The legacy of Priska, Rachel and Anka will live on through their children and their grandchildren and they deserve that.
Born Survivors is a book of defiance, courage and hope. The author Wendy Holden deserves the plaudits for the painstaking research for this book and also the accolades that surely will come.
For this reviewer I shed tears at the close of this book and the profound effect it has had on me. I for one will remember Priska, Rachel and Anka and their courage to defy death to bring life.
I would like to thank both Wendy Holden and the publishers Sphere (Little, Brown Book Group) for giving me the opportunity of reviewing one of the most important and historically significant books of 2015. This is a book that deserves to be read.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Born Survivors is the story of Priska, Rachel and Anka, three women who had never met but were transported to the camp late on during the war. The book tells the story of how at the beginning they believed they would be fine and survive, then as the Nazis moved in to their respective countries how they then tried to stay free from capture.
All three young women were married by the time they entered Auschwitz that day in 1944. Little did they know what was to lie ahead for each of the three women and this is their story in a new book Born Survivors by Wendy Holden.
All three women were pregnant as infamous trains transported them to be met by brutal SS guards with their ferocious guard dogs. During the coming hours they were stripped and their heads shaved before standing naked as Mengele went through the selection process. When each of the women were asked if they were pregnant they instinctively replied “Nein” which saved them from the gas chambers.
All three women who were separated from their husbands with no knowledge of their whereabouts were deemed fit for slave labour. None of them knew from one day to another whether they would face being selected for the gas chamber or work.
This was just the beginning for each of the three women. Their food rations could only be described as dishwater and crumbs of bread. Living conditions deteriorated by the day as did their health. Priska, Rachel and Anka managed to hide their pregnancies from their fellow inmates, knowing if they were found they would face certain death at the hands of Nazi killing machine.
The emaciated and lice-ridden women faced afurther ordeal as they were selected to help the German war machine by being transferred to Freiberg working as slave labours in a factory making parts for aircraft. During their time here the allies were advancing and bombing raids were daily, during which the women were locked in a room on the top floor of the factory while their Nazi captors hid in shelters. As their health deteriorated and being so thin the three women still managed to hide their secret. Rachel who shared a bunk with her sisters did not even dare tell them out of fear.
Then on April 12 1945 Priska gave birth to Hana on a plank laid on a table. The Nazi captors even joked and had bets as to what the sex of the baby would be.
With little food and water, the newborn was vastly underweight at 3 pounds. Then along with the other 1000 or so women they were evacuated from the factory as the Russians and Americans closed in. They were boarded onto trains with little or no food and water. How mother and baby survived on meagre rations living in rags at this time no-one knew. Nor did they know their destination with Allied bombing raids causing great confusion as bombs fell.
Rachel weighing under 70lbs and in one of the crammed open coal wagons with little food and water she gave birth to a baby boy she named Mark. They were halfway through their 17 day journey in hellish conditions when she went into labour, with only a rusty blade to sever the umbilical cord. In hope of saving her baby she told her guards the baby was born on Hitler’s birthday (April 20), so the SS guards joked ‘another Jew for the Fuhrer’.
Their final destination was the infamous Mauthausen Camp (known as the Bone-Grinder) situated in Austria close to the Danube. This camp had the reputation of being the final destination - once through the gates you entered hell never to leave alive. Many in Mauthausen died from the appalling conditions including hard labour, lack of food, illness, being gassed or from the sheer brutality of the SS guards.
It was on the final part of the journey to the camp that Anka gave birth to baby Eva on the back of a cart filled with the dead or dying women after being pulled off the train.
The war was close to its end and the Allies were closing in on the Nazi regime and the hilltop camp. The guards herded many of the latest arrivals into the gas chambers only to realise they had run out of Zyklon B crystals used to gas those they wanted to kill.
Within days the Americans arrived, spearheaded by the US Thunderbolts headed by Sgt Albert J. Kosiek a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. A hardened soldier, he had seen and witnessed much but nothing could prepare him or his men for what they found at Mauthausen. Many of the men broke down when the sheer horror unfolded in front of their eyes. The war was finally over, Priska, Rachel and Anka though nothing more than skeletons had survived with their babies despite the horrors that they were born into. Born Survivors indeed.
Many of the American servicemen who liberated the camp refused to speak of what they found at Mauthausen. The sheer horror would never leave them and would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
The three mothers who defied death to give life were eventually allowed to leave and head home to try and find their husbands and rebuild their lives. Their journeys would end in heartbreak as their husbands were never to return and their homes and possessions all gone. Some of the women would be ostracised and had to move on to find a new home.
Priska, Rachel and Anka are sadly no longer alive but their memory lives on in their children Hana, Mark and Eva, almost certainly the last living survivors of the Holocaust.
Just very recently, on 10 May 2015, the Austrian authorities marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Mauthausen in the presence of relatives of survivors and those still alive who helped liberate the camp. Also present were Hana, Mark and Eva, celebrating the day the Americans arrived to set them free.
The legacy of Priska, Rachel and Anka will live on through their children and their grandchildren and they deserve that.
Born Survivors is a book of defiance, courage and hope. The author Wendy Holden deserves the plaudits for the painstaking research for this book and also the accolades that surely will come.
For this reviewer I shed tears at the close of this book and the profound effect it has had on me. I for one will remember Priska, Rachel and Anka and their courage to defy death to bring life.
I would like to thank both Wendy Holden and the publishers Sphere (Little, Brown Book Group) for giving me the opportunity of reviewing one of the most important and historically significant books of 2015. This is a book that deserves to be read.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
April 16, 2015
I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.
This book tells the story of three separate women who were all in the very early stages of pregnancy in 1944 when they were separated from their husbands, imprisoned, and sent to Auschwitz. Through sheer luck, all three women escaped being gassed and as the war drew to a close, all three were sent to Mauthausen concentration camp through a hellish train journey that killed hundreds. Remarkably, all three women gave birth to live children and escaped with their lives. The three women never knew they had fellow expectant mothers in the camp with them. As adults, their children discovered they were not the only baby born in the camp and connected and shared their stories. Today they are considered some of the last living survivors of the Nazi concentration camps.
Like any book about the Holocaust, this book is incredibly emotionally difficult to read. Throughout, I was continually struck by the sheer luck and chance that meant the survival of Priska, Rachel, and Anka and their three children. Thousands just like them perished. Many, many pregnant women were killed before they could deliver, miscarried before full-term, were subjects of inhumane experiments under Nazi physician Mengele, or their children were taken from them and killed through a variety of atrocious means. It is nothing short of a miracle that these three individuals were spared similar fates. It's also nothing short of a miracle that severely malnourished women were able to give birth to live babies that were capable of survival and healthy growth. "I will never forget the look on his face when he stared at this pregnant corpse, weighing maybe sixty-five pounds and most of it belly...a scarcely living skeleton without hair and dirty as you can imagine" (235). All of the babies were only around three pounds at birth. Most of their survival was indeed sheer chance, such as their denial of pregnancy when being questioned by Mengele or the fact that the random clothes the three women were thrown after being stripped of their own clothing were large, baggy items of clothing that concealed their growing stomachs.
Although the three women were strangers and never knew one another, their stories were eerily alike. So alike, in fact, that I had hard time as a reader differentiating between the three women. Each of their individual childhood and family stories is shared in the first section of the book and later chapters, once the women were in the camp, blend their stories together as they suffer the same fate, making it more difficult for me to keep their stories separate.
Despite the horror of these women's stories, I feel fortunate to be able to read their story. Despite the atrocities they endured, they managed to survive and also save their children, who marked a new beginning for their life after the war. Sadly, each woman lost the majority of her family and all their husbands died in the camps. It was such a bittersweet poignant moment to read how each women desperately hoped their husband would return, but knowing the chances were slim to none. Additionally, I was especially moved that the three children of the women in this story wrote the forward to this book, recognizing that their mothers' stories are now preserved so anyone can witness the ordeal they endured and survived.
This book tells the story of three separate women who were all in the very early stages of pregnancy in 1944 when they were separated from their husbands, imprisoned, and sent to Auschwitz. Through sheer luck, all three women escaped being gassed and as the war drew to a close, all three were sent to Mauthausen concentration camp through a hellish train journey that killed hundreds. Remarkably, all three women gave birth to live children and escaped with their lives. The three women never knew they had fellow expectant mothers in the camp with them. As adults, their children discovered they were not the only baby born in the camp and connected and shared their stories. Today they are considered some of the last living survivors of the Nazi concentration camps.
Like any book about the Holocaust, this book is incredibly emotionally difficult to read. Throughout, I was continually struck by the sheer luck and chance that meant the survival of Priska, Rachel, and Anka and their three children. Thousands just like them perished. Many, many pregnant women were killed before they could deliver, miscarried before full-term, were subjects of inhumane experiments under Nazi physician Mengele, or their children were taken from them and killed through a variety of atrocious means. It is nothing short of a miracle that these three individuals were spared similar fates. It's also nothing short of a miracle that severely malnourished women were able to give birth to live babies that were capable of survival and healthy growth. "I will never forget the look on his face when he stared at this pregnant corpse, weighing maybe sixty-five pounds and most of it belly...a scarcely living skeleton without hair and dirty as you can imagine" (235). All of the babies were only around three pounds at birth. Most of their survival was indeed sheer chance, such as their denial of pregnancy when being questioned by Mengele or the fact that the random clothes the three women were thrown after being stripped of their own clothing were large, baggy items of clothing that concealed their growing stomachs.
Although the three women were strangers and never knew one another, their stories were eerily alike. So alike, in fact, that I had hard time as a reader differentiating between the three women. Each of their individual childhood and family stories is shared in the first section of the book and later chapters, once the women were in the camp, blend their stories together as they suffer the same fate, making it more difficult for me to keep their stories separate.
Despite the horror of these women's stories, I feel fortunate to be able to read their story. Despite the atrocities they endured, they managed to survive and also save their children, who marked a new beginning for their life after the war. Sadly, each woman lost the majority of her family and all their husbands died in the camps. It was such a bittersweet poignant moment to read how each women desperately hoped their husband would return, but knowing the chances were slim to none. Additionally, I was especially moved that the three children of the women in this story wrote the forward to this book, recognizing that their mothers' stories are now preserved so anyone can witness the ordeal they endured and survived.
April 22, 2015
Today's post is on Born Survivors: Three Young Mothers and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance, and Hope by Wendy Holden. It is 400 pages long and it published by HarperCollins. The cover is blue with two pieces of razor-wire and three birds on it. The intended reader is someone who is interested in World War II history, women's history, and survival against all the odds. There is no language, no sex, and some violence in this book. The story is told from third person with first person interviews, letters, and other first hand resources. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- A remarkable inspirational story about three expectant mothers who defied death at the hands of the Nazis to give their children life.Among millions of Holocaust victims sent to Auschwitz II- Birkenau in 1944, Priska, Rachel, and Anka each pass throught its infamous gates with a secret. Strangers to each other, they are 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 are privately determined to hold on to all they have 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 the 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 scrutiny of Dr. Josef Mengele; then to a German slave-labor camp where, half-starved and almost worked to death, they struggled to conceal their condition; and finally, as the Allies closed in, their hellish train journey with thousands of other prisoners to the Mauthausen death camp in Austria.Sixty-five years later, the three 'miracle babies' meet for the first time at Mauthausen for the anniversary of the American liberation. 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.
Review- -A heartbreaking but up-lifting story about survival. I think knowing that the women and babies survived helped to make this story bearable. The story is very intense and at times frightening. These women face some of the most terrifying men and environments known and they survive. Not only do they survive during but after they go on to have lives with their children, grand-children, and great-grand-children. The odds were against the women and their babies but they did it. With help from family or friends they survived. The children were born either on the way or in Mauthausen just days before the Allies freed them. The death toll that they survived is always there in the background. Holden will give how many people died each day before the Allies arrived. The little things that went their way or against the Nazis will. Everything that added up to the impossible and one incredible story.
I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I was given this book by HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.
From the back of the book- A remarkable inspirational story about three expectant mothers who defied death at the hands of the Nazis to give their children life.Among millions of Holocaust victims sent to Auschwitz II- Birkenau in 1944, Priska, Rachel, and Anka each pass throught its infamous gates with a secret. Strangers to each other, they are 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 are privately determined to hold on to all they have 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 the 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 scrutiny of Dr. Josef Mengele; then to a German slave-labor camp where, half-starved and almost worked to death, they struggled to conceal their condition; and finally, as the Allies closed in, their hellish train journey with thousands of other prisoners to the Mauthausen death camp in Austria.Sixty-five years later, the three 'miracle babies' meet for the first time at Mauthausen for the anniversary of the American liberation. 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.
Review- -A heartbreaking but up-lifting story about survival. I think knowing that the women and babies survived helped to make this story bearable. The story is very intense and at times frightening. These women face some of the most terrifying men and environments known and they survive. Not only do they survive during but after they go on to have lives with their children, grand-children, and great-grand-children. The odds were against the women and their babies but they did it. With help from family or friends they survived. The children were born either on the way or in Mauthausen just days before the Allies freed them. The death toll that they survived is always there in the background. Holden will give how many people died each day before the Allies arrived. The little things that went their way or against the Nazis will. Everything that added up to the impossible and one incredible story.
I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I was given this book by HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.
February 29, 2016
The Born Survivors of the title are Eva, Mark and Hana, babies born in April 1945 in Mauthausen, a nazi concentration camp. But perhaps the title applies equally to their amazing mothers whose strength and determination to protect their unborn children was incredible.
It is sobering to read again of the terrible experiences of the Jewish people during the second world war and distressing to say the least to read about the horrendous conditions in the Nazi camps. In Born Survivors, Wendy Holden first introduces us to each of the mothers Priska, Rachel and Anka as we learn of their lives prior to their internment in the camps. This book is clearly meticulously researched and their journeys to the camps, as well the terrible conditions endured while there, are vividly described. The inhumanity of the Nazi soldiers is evident and it is so important that people never forget what happened in these camps in the hope that the world never allows it to happen again. But what also shines through is the strength of the human spirit and the selflessness of some people to help others, even while in the depths of despair themselves.
It is truly a miracle that first the mothers and then their babies survived against all the odds. It is also amazing that 65 years on, these three children all met and have found a sense of kinship. Their mothers did not meet in the camps and the children were unaware of each other, believing that no other babies born in the camp had survived. They were brought together through a website for The 11th Armored Division (The Thunderbolts) who had liberated the camp in May 1945.
This is a remarkable story and despite the terrible events it recounts, it is completely compelling. Wendy Holden has written a superb account of a shocking time in the world's recent history in a very respectful way. It is a story of bravery, strength and love against a backdrop of fear and despair and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
It is sobering to read again of the terrible experiences of the Jewish people during the second world war and distressing to say the least to read about the horrendous conditions in the Nazi camps. In Born Survivors, Wendy Holden first introduces us to each of the mothers Priska, Rachel and Anka as we learn of their lives prior to their internment in the camps. This book is clearly meticulously researched and their journeys to the camps, as well the terrible conditions endured while there, are vividly described. The inhumanity of the Nazi soldiers is evident and it is so important that people never forget what happened in these camps in the hope that the world never allows it to happen again. But what also shines through is the strength of the human spirit and the selflessness of some people to help others, even while in the depths of despair themselves.
It is truly a miracle that first the mothers and then their babies survived against all the odds. It is also amazing that 65 years on, these three children all met and have found a sense of kinship. Their mothers did not meet in the camps and the children were unaware of each other, believing that no other babies born in the camp had survived. They were brought together through a website for The 11th Armored Division (The Thunderbolts) who had liberated the camp in May 1945.
This is a remarkable story and despite the terrible events it recounts, it is completely compelling. Wendy Holden has written a superb account of a shocking time in the world's recent history in a very respectful way. It is a story of bravery, strength and love against a backdrop of fear and despair and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
November 23, 2017
"Esta é uma história que deve contar às pessoas o que não pode acontecer outra vez."
É História, todos sabemos o que aconteceu e como aconteceu. Mas ao contrário de milhões de outras histórias sobre esta guerra, a história - real - narrada neste livro é uma história de sobrevivência. É um relato duro, sem filtros, com cores e cheiros, contado a três tempos - antes, durante e depois - e a 3 vozes - Priska, Rachel e Hanka. É um livro muito bem escrito, detalhado - percebe-se todo o trabalho de investigação que a autora realizou - e com descrições impressionantes. Talvez não conte nada de novo, é certo, talvez a história dentro da história se repita, é certo...mas é para que não nos esqueçamos, porque ainda há pouco mais de um dia li uma reportagem que continha um relato semelhante...e que aconteceu "ontem", não foi há 70 anos. É um livro que tem de ser lido para que não nos esqueçamos das coisas que somos capazes de fazer - boas, maravilhosas, corajosas e más, péssimas, horríveis.
Termino com uma citação da autora, referindo-se aos bebés - hoje com mais de 70 anos - nascidos nos campos de concentração: "Os fantasmas das suas mães e dos milhões que morreram durante a guerra exige que as suas histórias sejam contadas e recontadas, para que nunca sejam esquecidas."
É História, todos sabemos o que aconteceu e como aconteceu. Mas ao contrário de milhões de outras histórias sobre esta guerra, a história - real - narrada neste livro é uma história de sobrevivência. É um relato duro, sem filtros, com cores e cheiros, contado a três tempos - antes, durante e depois - e a 3 vozes - Priska, Rachel e Hanka. É um livro muito bem escrito, detalhado - percebe-se todo o trabalho de investigação que a autora realizou - e com descrições impressionantes. Talvez não conte nada de novo, é certo, talvez a história dentro da história se repita, é certo...mas é para que não nos esqueçamos, porque ainda há pouco mais de um dia li uma reportagem que continha um relato semelhante...e que aconteceu "ontem", não foi há 70 anos. É um livro que tem de ser lido para que não nos esqueçamos das coisas que somos capazes de fazer - boas, maravilhosas, corajosas e más, péssimas, horríveis.
Termino com uma citação da autora, referindo-se aos bebés - hoje com mais de 70 anos - nascidos nos campos de concentração: "Os fantasmas das suas mães e dos milhões que morreram durante a guerra exige que as suas histórias sejam contadas e recontadas, para que nunca sejam esquecidas."
January 14, 2019
I tend to avoid books about the Holocaust. I'm aware of the facts of that historical event. My father served in Europe in WWII. I think it's important to be aware, but I don't especially like to read books about it.
I'm glad I read this one.
Born Survivors is a phenomenal story, not just about suffering and depravity and 'man's inhumanity to man'--though it does include those things. But more than that, down deep beneath the things we'd rather not revisit are stories of courage and compassion and sacrifice.
Highly recommend (with the caveat that it does include gruesome historical facts, etc).
Honestly I think we should all read a book about the Holocaust every few years. It sharpens your perspective and remembering goes a long way toward ensuring it doesn't happen again.
I'm glad I read this one.
Born Survivors is a phenomenal story, not just about suffering and depravity and 'man's inhumanity to man'--though it does include those things. But more than that, down deep beneath the things we'd rather not revisit are stories of courage and compassion and sacrifice.
Highly recommend (with the caveat that it does include gruesome historical facts, etc).
Honestly I think we should all read a book about the Holocaust every few years. It sharpens your perspective and remembering goes a long way toward ensuring it doesn't happen again.
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