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Thursday, 17 August 2023

Emma's Review: The Child Who Lived by Ellie Midwood

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

Europe, 1945: I clutch my perfect auburn-haired-baby to my chest, desperate for her to take her first breath. She has to see the world outside the walls of this concentration camp and breathe freedom instead of death, she has to live…

As Lore is pushed through the towering gates of Mauthausen concentration camp, she holds little hope of ever leaving. After being caught using her position as a typist for the SS to try and save her Jewish friends, she is now considered an enemy of the state. Lore knows that for those who commit treason, death is usually the only way out.

But soon, when Lore meets political prisoner Wolf, his burning desire for freedom and unshakable faith in justice ignites a flicker of hope deep inside her heart. Together, they commit the ultimate act of resistance against the brutal SS by falling desperately in love. And when Lore falls pregnant, they know they have to not only fight to survive, but plan to escape.

After secretly giving birth in her barracks, Lore’s heart shatters as she hands her miracle baby over to Wolf, knowing she is too weak to join them. Through tears and whispered promises to meet again, Wolf steps back into the darkness, and Lore is left questioning if any of them will survive, and if they do, will they ever find each another again?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Child Who Lived to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.

Wow is all I can say, The Child Who Lived is such an incredible and powerful book from Ellie Midwood. It’s easily the best story that she has written since The Violinist of Auschwitz and The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz which both blew me away at the time of reading. At just over 280 pages long it’s certainly not epic in terms of its length but yet it packs such a punch. I flew through this in one sitting as I was completely sucked in right from the prologue and what an impact it makes even right from that starting point. 

I could tell that Ellie Midwood poured her everything into the writing of this spectacular story based on true events and people and all the injustice and rage that she felt just radiated from the pages and these feelings soon consumed me too. Not one word was wasted throughout the writing of this story, each so carefully chosen to fuel the plot and drive it on. I thought everything was so expertly plotted and developed and the pace was pure perfection.There were never any lulls or filler in chapters and that’s the way a good book should be.

Yes, the blurb suggests the story is all about a baby born in the most harrowing of circumstances but there is so much more to the book than that and in fact that really only occupies the last quarter or so of the story. Erich Brodbeck is a judge presiding over numerous divorce cases following the conclusion of World War Two. As he sits in his courtroom listening to Heinrich Stroman citing his reasons for divorcing his wife Lore he soon comes to realise that this is not the usual case of infidelity with Heinrich claiming Lore was unfaithful all the years of the war. 

In fact, just scratch beneath the surface that little bit more and a remarkable, inspiring and courageous story is there waiting to be told and Erich can’t help but get Lore to share what she has been through. From this point on the story deftly moves back and forth between the courtroom and Lore’s experiences of war which soon turn out to be horrifying and beyond all imagination. The perfect balance was struck between the courtroom scenes and actually reading of all that Lore went through and at times I even forgot that Erich was listening to Lore as I was consumed by everything that she was recounting.

It all began in 1938 in Vienna where Lore lives with her husband Heinrich where they both work for a bank. Heinrich is a demanding bully and a coward and you can see that Lore longs to be away from him. Her job at the bank is soon gone and she finds herself working at the Central Agency for Jewish Immigration where she is a typist issuing immigration forms. A job which she uses to her advantage and here is where we see her spirit, grit and determination quickly come to the fore. Who would notice an extra form or two or a stamp where there should not be one? She does her best for the countless number of Jews needing to leaving Austria as Hitler’s insane policies start to come to the fore. But someone betrays her and execution is waiting but she is spared and interned as a political prisoner. Her first camp being Ravensbruck which specifically housed women. Supposedly, anyone who passed through the gates of this camp was being sent for re-education but what awaited them there was beyond imagination.

Again as with Ellie Midwood’s previous books no details were spared and it makes for gruesome reading what Lore and so many others endured. There are so many hard hitting scenes of brutality and women being violated and just when you think it couldn’t possibly get any worse you turn the page and more horror awaits you.In a strange way I am glad such detail was included because it only made me care for Lore even more and it allowed the author to highlight her sense of strength. Lore was mighty, fierce  and resilient and she would need all these qualities in order to try and make it out alive. Lore represents so many women of the time. She was a woman of immense integrity and a heroine of the highest order. She was someone with ‘a sharp sense of justice, a rebel with a moral compass always pointing in the right direction in spite of the circumstances’. The Germans tried endlessly to break her and she reached rock bottom more than once through the brutality and torture inflicted upon her but she had hope and love deep in her heart that she would make it through.

The story ramped up another gear when Lore was given the opportunity along with several other women to transfer to Mauthausen camp in Austria. A year of working there with good working conditions and a sufficient supply of food would be provided and once the time was up a release was promised but that was not to be the case. When a camp is described as category three you know it is hell on earth and that’s what Mauthausen proved to be. At this point, I briefly stopped reading just to look up some information about the camp and the information I found and the images I saw were awful. Here Lore has to try and forget who she was in order to survive as a special barracks was set up for her and the other women where inmates could come if given a pass and here is where the sexual slavery aspect of the story came into play. I was totally taken aback and horrified by what I was reading.

Wolf, a former journalist and a kind and considerate inmate who strikes up a connection with Lore,  describes the brothel like this.’It’s the house of the unfortunate who have been punished by the Nazi’s for sins other nations would consider heroism’. There could have not been a more accurate description for it. The instinct for survival kicks in with Lore and she becomes a leader for the women. She was loyal to her friends and the hell she endures only served to make her stronger especially when she falls pregnant but how can she have a baby in such circumstances? ’We ought to stick it out till the end just to annoy them with being alive.’ ‘So the child who wasn’t meant to survive would become a child who lived’. And so reveals the connection to the title but to discover what happens I urge you to read this outstanding book. 

When a very brief prologue has you sitting up and paying attention with your interest piqued you know you are going to be in for a brilliant read and The Child Who Lived quickly turned into a book that I couldn’t leave out of my hands. In the end notes Ellie mentions how authors of historical fiction can bring to light forgotten pieces of history and in this case shed light on the concentration camps from a new angle and she certainly did this with such terrific and intense writing never at all shying away from the gruesome details depicting things in a real and honest way. I had a vague notion that the Mauthausen camp existed but certainly had no idea that women were made to engage in sexual slavery in the manner in which they were at the camp. Just when you think you can’t be shocked anymore by what you read about World War Two here I was reading in horror and shock and everything really hit home at the brutality, aggression, abuse and injustice so many people suffered.

Lore’s story should come with a warning that you will not get any work done once you start reading so do yourself a favour and set time aside to give it the full attention it deserves. As for that twist at the end well I wish I had paid more attention to a certain something at the beginning but when it was revealed I thought yes this is what I have been looking for in my most recent reads. A story that has that twist that you don’t see coming but god it leaves you with the biggest smile on your face and Ellie certainly pulled it off. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending The Child Who Lived. It’s a triumph of a read, brilliantly plotted with excellent character development and packed full of raw emotions all which will leave a lasting impression.

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