Book 198: Born Survivors by Wendy Holden

I'm no expert on the Holocaust, but I have read quite a few books and consider myself relatively knowledgeable on the topic. I was quite surprised when I discovered this book and an entire new set of stories underlying those I had already heard.

Mauthausen was one of the many camps that were liberated by the Americans once Germany surrendered at the end of World War II. It was in Austria, near the Danube River, and housed many Polish and Czechoslovakian citizens, the majority of whom were Jewish. Among those imprisoned in Mauthausen were three pregnant women whose lives were shattered by the Nazi occupation of their home countries.

Born Survivors contains three miraculous stories - those of Rachel, Anka, and Priska - who somehow became pregnant (by their husbands, of course) and carried their babies to term while imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. These three women knew nothing of each other but shared identical [unfathomably horrible] living situations on other sides of the camps. They gave birth within days of each other to the youngest living concentration camp survivors: Eva Clarke, Hana Berger Moran, and Mark Olsky, who reunited years later and told their stories to author Wendy Holden.

You know how movie critics give pat reviews for movies they feel good about? This is not one of those reviews. When I say this book was a TRIUMPH, I mean it. Wendy Holden somehow assembled the three mothers' stories, the stories of their children, and each family's histories and facts related to their incarceration, and their families' deaths. I was in awe of her ability to recant each woman's story individually and then tie them all together at the end. I was simultaneously in awe of the women's ability to survive such dire circumstances and the biological and spiritual resolve to carry their children to term, deliver them into the world, and see to it that they all survived despite the brutality of their Nazi captors. Further, I was in awe of how these babies became aware of each other through the common connection of the soldiers of the U.S. Army's 11th Armored Division, their liberators.

Here's an article that discusses the reunion of the three "babies" of Mauthausen and the fascinating instantaneous bond they all shared upon meeting each other.

I came away from this book with a deeper appreciation of the resilience of the human spirit and the interconnected and interdependent nature of life itself. I hope you will pick up Born Survivors - it will change you.