Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Poland, 1944 When twelve-year-old Marta and her little sister Joanna are snatched while out shopping for food and pushed into an army truck with a swastika on the door, they are heartbroken. Terrified they will never see their mother again, the little girls cling to each other as the truck full of stolen children rumbles through the countryside.
But worse is yet to come. When they arrive at their strange new home, tears streaming down their cheeks, Marta is sent into a separate room. As she is measured, her blonde hair and blue eyes exclaimed over, she doesn’t realise she has seen her sister for the last time. Later, as she sobs alone in the chilly dormitory, her only crumb of comfort is the memory of a kind German nurse who took a photo of the two sisters, and promised Marta she will do what she can to find Joanna.
Berlin, 2005 In her cosy sitting room, seventy-year-old Marta freezes. The woman on her television talking about lost children is someone she could never forget. Margarete Weiss is the nurse who took the photo of her and Joanna, the photo with the secret message on the back…
Marta has never been able to find her younger sister and has buried herself in work so as not to be haunted by the ghosts of her past. But, seeing Margarete’s blue eyes again, a shoot of hope takes root in her heart. Margarete may not have been able to prevent the sisters being separated during the war. But might she be able to help Marta find out what happened to Joanna now?
The Stolen Sisters is the second and concluding part in Ann Bennett’s World War Two Orphanage series and it more or less follows on from where the previous book left off. Which I must say I was glad of because the first book had left the reader with an ending that although solved some plots there were plenty of unanswered questions and one or two were particularly pressing on my mind. Starting this new book, I fervently hoped that I would get the answers to the burning questions that had lingered long in my mind since the time that I had last left Margarete.
OK, the answers didn’t manifest themselves straightaway and initially I was worried as the focus turned to two young children Martha and her sister Joanna. I wanted to know where was Margarete and would the author reveal what had kept me in suspense? I needn’t have worried Anne Bennett had the entire book plotted out so well and she knew that her readers wanted answers and she expertly gave them to us whilst at the same providing us with a new aspect to the Lebensborn programme which I hadn’t known anything about. With this book I got an interesting history lesson alongside a story packed full of emotion, loss, heartbreak and trauma.
Strictly there is no necessity to have read book one, The Orphan List, prior to reading this book but I would urge you to read it if only to gain an even deeper appreciation for Margarete and all that she did in the war. She stood true to her beliefs and did her very best to thwart the Nazi’s in their Germanisation programme. Yes, she may have worked for a war machine, but she had no other choice. For if she did not, the consequences would have been dire. So, she did the next best thing and kept records of everything she partook in, in the hopes of one day reuniting families and mothers and their lost children. I did feel though that we didn’t get as deep inside Margaret’s head as we had in book one and I can only say this because I can compare and contrast her character and actions between the two books. I felt it was almost as if the majority of her story had been told and at times the author was thinking what can I do with her? It didn’t come across like this the entire time but I did feel that I wanted to delve deeper into her time with the Lebensborn programme when she became involved in the Germanisation of young children from different European countries such as Ukraine and Poland. I suppose given the fact that the more personal side of her story was apparently resolved we couldn’t venture much down that avenue.
The story opens with a brief prologue as we meet two sisters Martha and Joanna who live in Krakow in Poland. They set out on their daily excursion to the market. It’s March 1944 and food is scarce and the Nazi’s are in full power. Their father is working in a local factory and their mother is at home sick so Martha, the elder of the two, takes on the motherly role and does what she can to keep the house going. Whilst battling through the crowds at the market the pair are seized by the Nazi’s and put abroad a truck with other children. They are taken to the Camp for Polish Children and Youth in the Lodz Ghetto where they undergo tests to see if they qualify for the Germans Lebensborn programme which is searching for children that fit their Aryan criteria of blue eyed, blonde haired children who will boost the declining German population. I had never heard of this aspect of the programme before and to be honest it was a real eye opener. Just when you think the actions of the Nazi’s couldn’t get any worse and that you have read it all having read countless books set during this time period here comes another aspect to the war that was brutal, traumatic and shocking.
It really hit hard for me that innocent young children who weren’t even Jewish were taken from their families. Literally snatched and separated from the people they loved and not knowing whether they would ever see them again. I say not even Jewish because we all know the Nazi’s wanted nothing to do with Jewish people and a target was placed on their backs as they were believed to be inferior. But yet the Nazi’s still felt the need to target many more innocent young people and claim them as their own all for status and to create this great Aryan race that had featured so long in their ideology and mythology. It as barbaric and insane and in this case it lead to the separation of Joanna and Martha given that Joanna didn’t pass the tests because of her heritage. The story then splits in two following Martha and Joanna as they venture down different paths. Paths not of their own making or longing but rather destinies forced upon them by the hatred, greed and evil ways of a group who stole the childhoods of so many and tore families and so many different groups apart.
Joanna really matured and grew throughout the book despite the fact that she was only 10 (although at one stage it did say she was 14 and then went back to 10 again so I was a little confused about this) but I suppose she had no choice given where she eventually ended up. The details of which I won’t go into as it would ruin the story. Suffice to say these scenes were very written and written through the eyes of a very young child who has no clue as to what is going on where she is. Some of the questions she initially asked had me cringing as I thought surely you know what is going on. But I had to step back and think I am reading it from a historical viewpoint, and I have all the answers and the information. This was unfolding for Joanna in real time and she weren’t aware of what awaited her. I loved how she remained steadfast and strong throughout the hardships, anguish and torture and the one thing she wanted was to one day be reunited with her sister and hopefully her parents too. She clung to this belief but honestly where she found herself I couldn’t see this coming to fruition.
Martha finds herself sent to one of many homes where the Germanisation process takes place and here is where she once again meets Margarete having previously meet her at the ghetto home in Lodz. Margarete is kind, caring and compassionate and she hates to see what the children are forced to go through, and I admired her courage, bravery and tenacity in going against an ideology that she had no faith nor could not stand. A special relationship is struck up between Margarete and Martha but Martha does herself no favours when she resists and bucks against the programme. It takes her some time to comprehend that although it goes every ounce of her being she may well be better off to just go with things as long term it may enable her survival instead of being sent to somewhere where there may be no coming back from. I could feel her sorrow and the strain at being separated from Joanna and I hoped the story would have a positive outcome but the way things developed I wasn’t at all sure if this could be possible. Martha’s path takes her into the heart of a country that she has no wish to go to and I was appalled that this was going on during the war and it led to consequences that echoed down for many years and through several generations. I found Martha to be obstinate yet also resilient, but I couldn’t say that I preferred one sister over the other as they were both equally well written and I became deeply invested in both their stories.
The Stolen Sisters was an absorbing read and fitting conclusion to this two part series. It provided me with the answers I had needed whilst at the same time introducing me to another aspect of the war that I knew nothing about. Yet now, I feel fully informed and have a deeper appreciation for all that the people who lived through those times went through. I will admit given how well the two books had been developed I did find the ending to this one quite rushed. With loose ends being tied up rather too quickly and conveniently. I would have loved another chapter or two to allow for some more development, explanation and consideration to allow the characters to absorb what they had learned. But look, this is a minor thing as overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and certainly look forward to reading whatever Ann Bennet has next in store for us.
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