The Sunflower House

The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri 336 pages

 

I’m always surprised by the topics or slant writers use when I pick up a new World War II novel. There are so many stories left to be told, and so many atrocities that need to be brought to light, even all these years later.

 

The Sunflower House tackles the baby factories. I have not come across a book about this aspect of the Nazi debauchery before but found it fascinating, sweet and horrific. I learned a bit about the factories and the experiments Himmler enjoyed conducting on adults in Martha Hall Kelly’s fabulous novel, The Lilac Girls. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it.

 

Katrine is the contemporary voice (2006-2010) who is caring for, or trying to care for, her mother after she fell and wound up in the hospital. Katrine discovers a wooden box beneath her mother’s closet floorboards. Pulling it to light, Katrine is shocked to see that is marked with a swastika.

 

Now let’s time travel back to a sleepy German village in 1938. Allina Strauss lives with aunt and uncle after the parents are murdered. They are hiding a secret; a secret no one can ever, ever, ever uncover. All three of their lives depend on it. After her uncle dies from cancer, the Nazis brutally murder her aunt. They arrest Allina, but her Aaryn features and blond hair save her from beatings and a bullet.

 

Allina is sent to Hochland Home to serve the Führer as a nurse. Hochland is one of the “Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population…The women of “pure” blood stayed in Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population, giving birth to thousands of babies who were adopted out to “good” Nazi families.” 

 

Allina is shocked at what she learns, but even more shocked when a high-ranking SS Officer, Karl, wants to become her patron. However, he has secrets of his own that must never be revealed. Eventually Allina and Karl have a sweet romance.

 

This novel at times repulsed me with the mere thought of the baby factories and made me smile when Allina and Karl fell in love.

 

The Sunflower House receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.