Sunflower House

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Average customer rating 5 (2 comments)

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We meet Allina in present day and at 86 years old when her daughter brings her home from the hospital. While her mother was resting, Katrine went upstairs to clean up what her mother had fallen on and came across a box with papers inside and with a swastika on top. Was my mother a Nazi? When she looks up, her mother is in the doorway Her mother decides that she needs to tell her daughter how they got to America and what she dealt with while she was in Germany. We are taken back to 1938 when Allina‘s village is raided and all the residents were slaughtered. A German officer saved Allina from it all, but she said she would rather have perished with everyone else than to go through what she had to go through. The officer took her to "Hochland Home" which was the first Lebensborn facility where German women were required to have babies to German officers to make sure the “perfect” race was not wiped out. The rules and guidelines enforced by Heinrich Himmler for the women and especially the babies and children made Allina sick. They were so strict and uncaring. SUNFLOWER HOUSE is a heartbreaking but enlightening read where secrets were kept for years and where the reader can’t believe it happened. A marvelous debut - wonderful research, pull-you-in writing, and some tender moments despite what was going on. Thank you to the publisher for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

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A read that brings to light some of the atrocities that happened during the reign of terror of WWII. This is a fictional read, based on truth, and the author brings this story alive, she gives us main characters that are fictional, but based on Lebensborn Program, a real program that was in place to make a strong Aryan race of people. The author brings to light the horrible, sterile conditions these poor babies lived in, and what happens to those that don't make the cut. I really loved the way this story begins, and then how it is told, what a great opening to share this horrible time in the world's history. The author also give us some great notes at the end of this book, and such insight into the horrible happenings that were occurring! A story that would make a great movie, and should be a mandatory read! I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher St. Martin's Press, and was not required to give a positive review.