A Desperate Hope

The Midwife Of Berlin by Anna Stuart is a powerful historical novel that consumed me.

Much of the action is set in 1961 Berlin, at the height of the Cold War. It is a time of division as east separates from west.

The Nazi reign of terror has gone, only to be replaced with a Soviet one.

As the Berlin Wall is erected, lives and families are torn apart. ‘Lists’ begin to appear, making defection necessary.

The East is living under communism. It is a nice idea in theory but doesn’t work in practice.

Similarly, lives were ripped apart in World War II by the Nazis. Babies born in Auschwitz were torn from their mother’s arms. Secretly, these babies were tattooed in their armpits with their mother’s number, in the hope that after the war, women could find their babies. “Hope is the greatest pain but also the greatest strength.”