The life of a middle-aged New Jersey woman is upended when she inadvertently comes across a wooden box marked with a Nazi swastika hidden under the floorboards of her elderly mother’s home. Inside the box are letters, photographs, and mementos of a life lived long ago. Who was her mother, what was her Nazi past, and how will it affect her daughter?
The book The Sunflower House tells the story of the mysterious contents of the box within the context of a historical romance novel set during World War II. One would be hard-pressed to find a more unlikely setting for a WW II-era love story than the Lebensborn nurseries, where official government nurses and staff raised the offspring of SS officers and “racially pure” German women as part of Nazi Germany’s secret breeding program.
Yet, this is the backdrop of author Adriana Allegri’s debut historical novel. She has fashioned a remarkable story that flows naturally and believably.
Growing up in the German village of Badensburg, Allina Strauss [the main character in the novel] is roused from her idyllic childhood of strudel, books, and languorous picnics with friends when her town is attacked and ransacked by brutal SS forces in search of those who have sheltered Jewish families.
Her aunt and uncle who raised her are murdered, her fiancé has gone, and Allina soon learns that her birth mother was Jewish, making her Mischling, a pejorative legal term used in Nazi Germany to denote persons of mixed Aryan and non-Aryan ancestry.
Allina is raped by a cruel SS officer during the attack on Badensburg, who sends her to Hochland Home, a state-run home for children of the Lebensborn program, with the presumption that she has become pregnant from their encounter. When it turns out that she is not pregnant, Allina hides her Jewish origins and becomes a nurse at the home, where she cares for the children and their mothers.
There, she meets Karl von Strassberg, a high-ranking SS officer who has his own family secrets. Though she is initially loath to form any type of friendship with an SS officer, Allina develops a strong relationship with Karl. They become determined to save the children in the Lebensborn home who have been placed in the section for neglected and “slow” children. The Lebensborn staff approve of Allina and Karl’s relationship, not realizing the couple’s true intentions.
A well written story of love
The Sunflower House is a well-written story of love amid the harsh reality of the difficult conditions faced by the protagonists. While some elements of the tale strain credulity slightly, the author’s incorporation of accurate historical details makes the story more believable.
One can easily imagine the sheer terror that Allina encounters when her town is invaded and pillaged by the SS, and the shock experienced by Allina’s daughter when she finds her mother’s Nazi past literally buried underground.
BADENSBURG, WHERE the opening sections of the story are set, is fictitious. Allegri notes that it is similar to other villages of the time in the Rur Eifel region in Western Germany, which was a popular vacation destination, and did harbor anti-Nazi youth movements.
While most of the characters in the novel are fictional, historical figures appear in the book, such as SS head Heinrich Himmler and his wife, Marga; Sir Nevile Henderson, Britain’s ambassador to Germany from 1937 to 1939; and Gregor Ebner, medical head of the Lebensborn homes, lending it an air of authenticity.
Excerpts from Hitler’s 1939 address to the Reichstag are translated from the original text, and references to a failed plot to kill Hitler are based on two actual assassination attempts that took place.
Frequently, novels portraying Nazi characters depict one-dimensional characters who embody the essence of evil. While The Sunflower House does have its share of such characters, many of the book’s figures, particularly the women living in the Lebensborn homes, are presented as complex individuals with both positive and negative aspects.
While The Sunflower House is captivating, the author’s notes at the book’s conclusion are of great interest as well. Allegri discusses the notorious Lebensborn program, and provides the reader with a list of resources with more information about the project. In addition, she points out the sections of the book that are historically accurate, as well as those sections that are fictional.
The author also discusses the status of Germans who were Mischling, with Jewish parents or grandparents, who had to hide their identities to survive. Perhaps most fascinating, she writes that as many as 150,000 men, including decorated veterans and high-ranking German officers, were Mischling, and that Hitler exempted them as long as they denied their heritage.
Readers interested in a novel of romance set amid the tragedy and destruction of the Holocaust will find this book rewarding.
- THE SUNFLOWER HOUSE
- By Adriana Allegri
- St. Martin’s Press
- 336 pages; $29