My Enemy's Cradle
Sara Young, 2008
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780156034333
Summary
Cyrla's neighbors have begun to whisper. Her cousin, Anneke, is pregnant and has passed the rigorous exams for admission to the Lebensborn, a maternity home for girls carrying German babies. But Anneke's soldier has disappeared, and Lebensborn babies are only ever released to their father's custody—or taken away.
A note is left under the mat. Someone knows that Cyrla, sent from Poland years before for safekeeping with her Dutch relatives, is Jewish. The Nazis are imposing more and more restrictions; she won't be safe there for long.
And then in the space of an afternoon, life falls apart. Cyrla must choose between certain discovery in her cousin's home and taking Anneke's place in the Lebensborn—Cyrla and Anneke are nearly identical. If she takes refuge in the enemy's lair, can Cyrla fool the doctors, nurses, guards, and other mothers-to-be? Can she escape before they discover she is not who she claims?
Mining a lost piece of history, Sara Young takes us deep into the lives of women living in the worst of times. Part love story and part elegy for the terrible choices we must often make to survive, My Enemy's Cradle keens for what we lose in war and sings for the hope we sometimes find. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Aka—Sara Pennypacker
• Birth—1951
• Where—Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Marietta College (Ohio)
• Awards—Golden Kite Award (for Pierre in Love)
• Currently—Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA
Under the name Sara Pennypacker, Sara Young has written seven books for children, including the acclaimed "Stuart" series (Stuart’s Cape) and the "Clementine" series. She lives on Cape Cod. (From the publisher and Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Young's youthful characters—especially her heroine, Cyrla—are utterly believable, their longings, fears and hopes etched with an authenticity and sense of urgency that make this story vibrate on the page.... Intensely romantic in a way that only wartime fiction can be. And it invokes, with a bit of an ache, Anne Frank's optimistic belief in happy endings.
USA Today
Children's-book author Young (who, as Sara Pennypacker, penned the celebrated "Stuart" series) makes a stunning adult debut with this beautifully told and heart-wrenching novel set in WWII Europe. Cyrla, half-Jewish, is no longer safe hiding in the home of her Dutch relatives under the increasingly harsh Nazi occupation. When cousin Annika, whom Cyrla closely resembles, becomes pregnant by a German soldier, Annika's father enrolls her in a Lebensborn, a birthing center for Aryan children, where the slogan is "Have one baby for the Führer." In a tragic turn of events, Cyrla discovers her only chance of survival is to hide in plain sight: she must assume Annika's identity and live in the German Lebensborn until rescued. Within the Lebensborn's walls, mothers-to-be receive proper nutrition and medical care until their children are taken from them for adoption into Aryan families The horrors Cyrla witnesses are softened only by her resounding optimism and strength.
Publishers Weekly
One of the lesser-known aspects of the Nazi regime was the Lebensborn program, which promoted the expansion of the "master race" by encouraging German women and those who were racially "pure" in its occupied countries to bear as many children as possible. Young explores the experiences of these women in her fictional story of Cyrla, a young Polish/Dutch woman who enters a Lebensborn maternity home in place of her cousin Annika, who died tragically. Unbeknown to the officials, Cyrla is half Jewish and must walk a tightrope as she plots her escape. Despite a few too many far-fetched plot contrivances, the subject matter is of immediate interest and sympathy. At the book's outset, Cyrla is strident, idealistic, and foolishly outspoken, but as she matures she begins to understand the complexity of the world around her and the people she has known. An unexpected development midway through the novel helps make this a real page-turner. Recommended for most public libraries.
Christine DeZelar-Tiedman - Library Journal
Secrets of betrayal, love, and honor drive the plot in this riveting historical novel about a young woman caught up in the Nazi Lebensborn program.... Cyrla's intimate, first-person narrative reveals the horrific history through unforgettable individual experience of guilt and sacrifice. Readers will be haunted by the intricacies of friends and enemies in a story that has been seldom told.
Booklist
In children's author Young's first novel for adults, a Polish Jew in World War II Holland finds temporary safety in the Lebensborn, a maternity home the Nazis set up to breed Aryan babies. Cyrla's deceased mother was a Dutch Christian, and in the late 1930s Cyrla's Jewish father sends her from Poland to live in Holland with her Christian aunt's family. When the novel opens in 1941, Cyrla's cousin and best friend, Annika, has fallen in love with a handsome young German officer, Karl, and become pregnant. To avoid disgrace she agrees to enter a nearby Lebensborn, but she commits suicide before she can go because Karl has refused to take responsibility for the pregnancy. By now Germans have begun rounding up Jews. Although distraught, Annika's mother plots to save Cyrla by having her take Annika's place at the Lebensborn. Cyrla goes to Isaac, the Jewish activist she's been in love with for years. He claims he's incapable of love but agrees to impregnate her, then arrange for her safe exodus. Eleven days later, a pregnant Cyrla-her easy fecundity is the novel's first but not last credibility stretch-leaves for the Lebensborn though not before she is savagely (and gratuitously) raped by an SS soldier. In the Lebensborn, Cyrla carries on her charade as Annika while waiting to hear from Isaac. Then Karl shows up. It seems Annika never told him she was pregnant; he broke up with her first because he was already in love with Cyrla. Karl, who hates the Nazis, takes great risks to help Cyrla. Despite her initial distrust, she eventually acknowledges she loves him. Their far-fetched romance is at odds with the well-researched description of the Nazi maternity program, and although Young tries toavoid stereotyping, many of the supporting characters are two-dimensional at best. Earnest but ultimately sentimental rather than profound.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Cyrla is half Jewish and half Dutch, and grew up in Poland, but she often feels out of place no matter where she is. Does her sense of identity and nationality change throughout the novel? How does her personal struggle reflect the broader issues of identity that Europeans faced as the Germans continued to invade other nations and worked to replace each country’s sense of nationalism and heritage with their own?
2. Cyrla states that when she moved to Holland her family members “denied the Jewish half” of her. How does this affect Cyrla’s own attitude toward her religion? How does she retain this part of her heritage even though she can no longer observe religious holidays? How does the fact that Cyrla needs to hide her religion affect her relationship with Isaak?
3. Cyrla’s father tells her that he is sending her to Holland so that she can find her late mother’s place in her life. What distinction does the novel draw between families drawn together via their maternal relations versus the single-sided importance of the paternal bloodlines in the Lebensborn? Compare and contrast the different models of motherhood exemplified by Anneke, Cyrla, Aunt Mies, and the women at the Lebensborn. How does the attitude of the mothers from occupied countries differ from that of the German mothers?
4. Cyrla and Anneke look so alike that Cyrla can pass for her cousin at the Lebensborn. What other traits do the girls have in common? What is different about them?
5. When she tries to convince Isaak one last time to flee to England with her, Cyrla accuses him of being heroic to avoid being brave. Do you think there is a difference between heroism and bravery? Why or why not? Give examples of each from the novel.
6. The author offers the meanings of the names of several characters in the novel. How well do these names suit the characters to whom they are given?
7. As her departure date for the Lebensborn approaches, Cyrla observes that joy is something to steal. How do the characters in this novel steal joy despite the dark realities of World War II?
8. On page 26, Cyrla reflects on the stark contrast between boy soldiers who miss their sisters and long to sit in cafés with girls and the men who force young Jewish girls to wrap filthy latrine-stained blouses around their heads. The roles that men play in times of war are complicated, and the roles of men in this novel are no different. Compare and contrast the different models of manhood exemplified by these characters.
9. The Germans are portrayed as being as methodical about reproduction and birthing as they are about everything else in the war. Describe life at the Lebensborn—how does it compare to methods of animal husbandry or the operation of factories? What purpose does this serve for the Germans? For the novel?
10. On page 221, Cyrla wishes that her friend Leona’s infant son—and all the infants, by implication—will somehow escape “the poison of abandonment that tightens hearts into knots.” Which characters in this novel have been abandoned? How has abandonment affected them? How does the historical information given in the Author’s Note affect your understanding of this theme?
11. Cyrla finds herself torn between two men, both of whom seem unavailable to her, at least at first. What does it take for Cyrla to finally let go of one and give her heart to the other? How does wartime influence Cyrla’s realization and expression of sexuality? How does it affect the other female characters?
12. As an occupied people, the Dutch must choose to what extent they will compromise their own consciences in order to abide German laws. To what degree do Cyrla’s uncle and Karl collaborate with the Nazis? Does toeing the line necessarily make one a collaborator? By contrast, what do several characters in this novel risk by defying the Germans in order to help one another? Why do they do it?
13. This story is told from Cyrla’s point of view. Do you think Cyrla is a reliable narrator? Identify moments where Cyrla’s interpretation of events does or does not match your own opinion of what is happening or what has happened.
14. During World War II, millions of men and women were shuffled from place to place by the Germans, or were forced to flee their homes for safesty. Define Cyrla’s concept of home and describe how she carries this feeling with her in each new place she finds herself. Where does she ultimately decide “home” is, and why?
(Questions issued by publisher.)