Back in June I read and
reviewed Wendy Holden's May 2015 release,
Born Survivors. It tells the stories of three pregnant women whose unborn babies survive their perilous journey in the concentration camps of the Holocaust.
Born Survivors comes out in paperback this May, one year after publication. To bring awareness of these stories and this particular book, I have an interview with
Wendy Holden on the blog today! Welcome Wendy to the blog today!
Please
tell us about your latest book.
Born Survivors tells the story of three young
women pregnant by their husbands during World War Two and praying for a
brighter future. Their babies were born within weeks
of each other, weighing just three pounds, in the most horrendous of circumstances. By the time they
arrived, the Nazis had killed their fathers and their mothers were ‘walking
skeletons,’ living moment to moment in the same concentration camp. Somehow,
all three women managed to survive. Against all the odds, their babies did too.
Seventy years on and now living in America and Britain, these ‘siblings of the
heart’ have come together for the first time to tell the remarkable stories of
the three mothers who defied death to give them life. Born Survivors has been published in
21 countries and translated into 16 languages so far. Without doubt, it is the
most important book I will ever write and it is the first book ever to
chronicle such a story.
How
did you come across the story?
By
luck. I was reading something late one night online about a woman who had died
in Canada in her 90s. She had been a prisoner in Auschwitz – just like my three
mothers –and had given birth to a baby there, which had died. It occurred to me
then that I have never read anything about babies born in concentration camps
and my research led me to Eva Clarke and her mother Anka. She lived just over
one hour from me in Cambridge, England, and having spent an emotional day with
her I asked if she would do me the honour of letting me write her mother’s
story. She reached out, touched my arm, and with tears in her eyes said: “I
have been waiting for you for 70 years.” I told her I believe her story to be
unique and that I have never found anything written about babies born in the
Holocaust before. She told me that until 2010, she believed she was unique too
but then discovered two other babies in America and they had since become very
close. That is when I knew I had to contact them as well and ask if I could
incorporate their stories in this book. Fortunately, they were equally
delighted and thrilled that their mothers’ courage has finally been publicly
honoured. I knew that I had to tell all three stories together in one volume
spanning the war in Europe and Hitler’s attempted destruction of the Jews.
How
do you think they survived?
Each
mother would say simply that they survived because of luck. They were lucky they
were given baggy clothing. They were lucky that they did not succumb to various
diseases that rampaged through the camp. They were fortunate that they didn’t
injure themselves and were dispatched back to Auschwitz. They were lucky that
they were young, fit and healthy before the war and were able to survive the
dramatic weight loss and mice infestation as well as bitter cold and
unendurable living and working conditions. By the
time of their babies were born, each mother weighed less than 70 pounds and
infants under 3 pounds.
How
did you get through the process?
The
only way I could get through the researching and writing of it was to focus on
finding the humanity in the inhumanity. Thanks to the kindness of strangers
during their incarceration, these women and their babies survived. The stories
of the people who risked their own lives to help them restored my faith in
human nature.
Why
are you so interested in history and war?
I
grew up in a family that had been deeply affected by war. My father fought the
Japanese in Burma and my mother’s fiancé was killed aged 19 parachuting into
Germany. She also lived through the London Blitz. Then when I became a
journalist, for a while I was a war correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph and travelled all over
the world covering conflicts. The experience scarred me and I suffered from a
mild form of PTSD following my return to England. What struck me most about all
that I had seen, though, were the great acts of courage and kindness that
people were capable of even in the worst possible circumstances, or perhaps
because of them.
What
other books have you written about war?
Tomorrow to Be Brave tells the true story of Susan
Travers, the only woman in the French Foreign Legion and was published
globally. Behind Enemy Lines tells
Marthe Cohn’s remarkable story of being a Jewish spy who risked her life after
losing a sister to Auschwitz and her fiancé to a firing squad. Till the Sun Grows Cold tells the story
of British teacher Emma McCune who married a Sudanese warlord and was then
killed while carrying his baby. Kill
Switch is the memoir of a British army major who was wrongly imprisoned in
Afghanistan for a crime he didn’t commit. Biting
the Bullet told the story of what it was like to be married to the SAS. Shell Shock details the story of the
mind at war and how the experiences of soldiers at the front shaped modern-day
psychiatry. Mr Scraps is a novella
about a stray dog caught up in the London Blitz. The Sense of Paper was my first novel and tells of a former war
correspondent haunted by her experiences, who loses herself in the work and
materials of JMW Turner to try to reconcile herself with the ghosts of her
past.
Tell
us about your writing routines.
I
write in my first floor office at my 17th century Suffolk home between 12 noon
and 7pm usually. I sit at the red-leather gold-tooled Victorian desk we
inherited from my husband’s grandfather. Books fill my late father's mahogany
bookcase and the walls are covered with the framed jackets of many of my books,
along with cherished cartoons from friends like Matt as well as framed letters,
photos and cards from clients, colleagues and family. My research books, notes
and papers are spread across an old carved oak desk I also inherited from my
dad - who was my mentor, my inspiration, and my first true love.
Why
do you write?
It’s
not as if I have a choice. I have written something almost every day since I
was able – a diary, a poem, even a few sentences. I penned my first play when I
was six. It was called The Queen’s Birthday
Cake and won a competition to be staged at my school. I carry a notepad
with me and there is also one by my bed to scribble ideas onto in the middle of
the night.
Where
do you get the ideas for your books?
Publishers,
clients or agents who think I might be a good fit usually approach me but I
also generate a lot of books myself. It often starts with a germ of an idea, as
in Born Survivors. With The Sense of Paper, it was a chance
remark by an artist friend who told me he’d mortgaged his house to buy the last
supply of the very watercolour paper that JMW Turner used. That was enough to
set me off and then the character Charlie Hudson emerged from nowhere and
rather took over! When it comes to fiction, I honestly don’t know how a book will
end until I come to it. I read about other writers plotting their book precisely
or having a very clear structure plan and I am envious. Apart from a vague
general idea, I prefer to read the ending as I’m writing it, staring at the
screen in wonder as my fingers type the words almost automatically.
Do
you have any writing rituals?
My
friend and client Goldie Hawn, with whom I have written three books, introduced
me to Ganesh, the Hindu elephant god and remover of obstacles, when I was
working on her autobiography A Lotus
Grows in the Mud. My husband found me a beautiful silver Ganesh in a little
shop in Connecticut, which sits on a shelf near my desk. Whenever I am having a
difficult day, I reach out and rub its little feet, just in case there's any
truth in it.
Which
living writer do you most admire?
There
are far too many to choose from but I am enjoying a lot of new writers and
especially loved All the Light We Cannot
See by Anthony Doerr last year. I also loved Crooked Letter Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, which was the closest I have come to the genius
of To Kill a Mockingbird
in a modern novel. I read a great deal of non-fiction too and love to be
beguiled by the writing at the same time as learning something new, as I was
with Deeper than Indigo by Jenny
Balfour-Paul or pretty much anything by Simon Winchester.
And "passed on" writer?
All
the usual suspects, along with the many wonderful poets whose work feeds my brain.
I am a sucker for E.E. Cummings and for Daphne du Maurier and I’m currently
rereading all the works of Charles Dickens in chronological order to chart his evolution
as a writer.
What
or who inspires you?
Finding
humanity in inhumanity. Generosity. Kindness. Thoughtfulness. And of course,
fine writing. I only hope that one day I can come a little closer to what some
of my personal heroes have already achieved.
If
not a writer, what job would you do?
If
I had my time again, I’d take a fine art degree and put my fledgling and
entirely amateur ability as an artist – inherited from my painterly grandfather
- to much better use.
What’s
your guilty reading pleasure?
Whenever
I am feeling under the weather, I curl up with Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and devour it with great relish.
I have always identified with Jo, and I love everything about her. A few years
ago I visited the author’s home in Concord, Massachusetts, and was deeply moved
by the experience. There is something about standing over an admired writer’s
desk (or in this case, a tiny table) that is very emotional. I felt the same
way when I visited Batemans - the home of Rudyard Kipling – and Patchin Place
in New York where E.E. Cummings worked. I also love the tower at Sissinghurst
Castle, in which Vita Sackville West wrote.
Favorite
city?
My
husband Chris and I lived in New York for a while and have spent some truly
wonderful times there. It was in Manhattan that I threw a glittering launch
party for my first novel in 2006. In the vertiginous Lobby Bar of the Mandarin
Oriental overlooking Central Park, we drank cocktails as I had to pinch myself
to believe it was real. We’ve also had many happy times in Paris and we adore
Rome, to which we fly at least once a year before our annual sojourn in Umbria,
Tuscany or the Marches. I have spent many months in Amman, Jordan, which is the
epitome of all I like about the Middle East, and Essaouira in Morocco is like
nowhere else on earth. Closer to home, I have a special place in my heart for
Norwich, the beautiful many-spired county city of Norfolk, in which I can
happily lose a day.
Thank you Wendy for your time, getting to know you and your work! For more information on Wendy and her books
visit her site.
