N4L 107: "Born Survivors" by Wendy Holden

SUMMARY

In her book Born Survivors, bestselling author Wendy Holden pulls back the curtains on the gripping true story of three young Jewish mothers who manage to conceal their pregnancies as they enter a concentration camp, narrowly escape the knife of Dr. Josef Mengele, and bravely give birth in appalling conditions to babies weighing under three pounds each. Miraculously, all three mothers leave the camp alive and go on to build new lives with their children after World War II. Unlike much Holocaust literature, this is a book with a happy ending—truly an “Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance, and Hope.” Sixty-five years later, the three “miracle babies,” with the help of Holden, share this inspirational story of their three mothers who defied death at the hands of the Nazis to give their “born survivors” a life filled with love, hope, humor, and happiness. Today, their legacy is to be the voices of the voiceless and the last-ever survivors of the Holocaust.  

KEY POINTS

Weighing no more than 70 pounds, three young Jewish mothers give birth to “born survivors” while en route from Auschwitz to a gas chamber in Mauthausen. When the Nazis discover pregnant women among the prisoners, they typically gas them or take and kill their newborn babies almost immediately. Even Dr. Josef Mengele doesn’t detect the pregnancies, allowing the born survivors a chance at life. In a small Czechoslovakian town, the people make 3000 loaves of bread and some potato soup, undoubtedly saving the lives of many of the prisoners trapped in the "death train." The Nazis run out of gas to use in their gas chambers, making it impossible to exterminate thousands of Jewish prisoners—the greatest miracle of all! Compassion among the Allied troops moves them to share their food rations, which ends up unwittingly killing thousands of starving prisoners. After the war, the mothers teach their children to nurture a sense of humor, compassion, and forgiveness. School children today are gripped by hearing this true story and by being in the presence of someone who should have been murdered as a baby.

QUOTES FROM HOLDEN

“I can’t help thinking [giving birth] must have been the worst moment for each of [the mothers] because, up until then, they’d been able to keep their babies a secret inside of them….There was nothing they could do to stop it; there was nothing they could do to protect this infant they were about to deliver.” “All three ‘babies’ are twinkly-eyed, life-enhancing, joyful people. They’re the kind of people, when you think about them, you smile. When you know you’re going to meet them, you anticipate it with great relish. And everybody feels that way in their company.” “They could have so easily grown up bitter and the kind of people who see the glass half empty rather than half full.” “We are in a dangerous situation in the world at the moment with the rising global nationalism and hate speech… There needs to be this compassion and understanding and tolerance that emanate from the book.”

BUY Born Survivors: Three Young Mothers and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance, and Hope

RECOMMENDATION

Watch a book & author night with the “babies” and Wendy Holden held at the Illinois Holocaust Museum.

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