Book Description
Naomi Demetriou has survived three years behind the walls of Auschwitz. Torn apart from her family, every breath could be her last. She’s learnt to survive by secretly trading the clothes she’s forced to sort through in exchange for food. But when an SS officer singles her out, her life becomes even harder. And then she discovers she’s pregnant…
With the support of Ana, the kind midwife, and the other mothers in Barrack 24, Naomi does the impossible and gives birth to a tiny baby boy. Hiding in the shadows, Naomi vows to do whatever it takes to keep baby Isaac safe. With rumours circulating of an Allied invasion, Naomi holds onto the hope the camp will be liberated. And she dreams of returning to her house by the Greek sea with her son.
But the day comes when Naomi hears heavy footsteps and the harsh voice of an SS guard. ‘Out! Now! You can’t take anything with you!’ She’s shoved into a line of people being marched out of the iron gates. Thick snow falls around them. Tears sting in Naomi’s eyes.
It all happened so fast. And she was unable to grab the bundle of blankets containing her little boy. But Ana is still there, will she and the other brave women be able to save him?
***
Elise’s Thoughts
The Last Baby in Auschwitz is a very gripping and compelling novel. Inspired by true stories, this novel shows how the characters remained courageous in a time of unimaginable darkness. There is fear of not only losing their country, but also family, and who they are as they fight to survive the hellhole of Auschwitz.
The story follows two young cousins from a Jewish Greek family as each fight to survive. Naomi Demetriou is separated from her escaping family and captured by the Nazis. Lieke Demetriou is rounded up with her father, mother, and brother and sent to Auschwitz. Lieke’s mother is Austrian and has spoken to her daughter in German, so they are both bilingual. Because of this, Lieke and her mother are among the few prisoners chosen to work in the camp offices. Yet her father and brother are separated from them and forced into slave labor.
Throughout the years, the cousins occasionally speak to each other, at Auschwitz, and remind the other that as Naomi’s mother told them, their family ties are like a spider’s web and even when destroyed, the spider will keep rebuilding them. Now three years in Auschwitz these sixteen-year-olds learn to survive.
Naomi ‘s life gets even harder after she is singled out by a German SS officer who constantly takes her for his own sexual pleasure. She survives by thinking of her mother’s words and using the “gifts” he gives her to help others.
After discovering she is pregnant by him, Naomi vows to give birth and keep the baby. She is aided by Ana, the kind midwife, Ester, and others in Barrack 24. They hide the pregnancy and then the baby from the evil Kapo, Klara. Hearing rumors of an Allied invasion, Naomi holds onto the hope the camp will be liberated, and dreams of returning to her house by the Greek sea with her son.
Naomi and Lieke stories are ones of survival, resilience, and hope even during the dark times, enduring the evils of the Nazis with their total lack of humanity and cruelty.
***
Elise Cooper: Do you think this book is relevant today?
Anna Stuart: There is a huge antisemitism in Britian, and it is truly shocking. It is not seen as terribly serious. This is why these types of novels are relevant and important. It is very easy to forget about the Holocaust, and I don’t know why. It should not be forgotten considering the burning of people of all ages, the rapes, and the working of people to death.
EC: Idea for the story?
AS: I wrote Midwife of Auschwitz, the first book in the series that tells the story of Ana Kaminski and Ester Pasternak. This was followed by Midwife of Berlin. Naomi was also in the first book as a young counterpart to the others. When doing my research for these books I read about the Greek Holocaust. I really wanted to write about Naomi and what happened to the Greek Jews which is why I wrote this story. The overall thread is friendship and family and holding onto people.
EC: Were Greek Jews treated like the rest of Europe by the Nazis?
AS: The Nazis had a level of excessive disdain for them. They were considered more Eastern. They raped and pillaged the Greeks. The disparity between how the Jews were treated and the non-Jewish Greeks was much less than in other places.
EC: What was true in the story?
AS: There was an Italian zone in Greece, more of a safe zone for the Jews. The Italians in charge resisted deporting the Jews until the Germans took over Athens. The Italians did not consider the Jews the root of all evil as the Nazis were.
Black Sabbath was also true. The Nazis ordered the Jewish men to Platia Eleftherios, Freedom Square. They made the men do humiliating and meaningless exercises, forced into relentless calisthenics, and men were forced to drag one another across the square in races where the Nazis bet. Losers were shot. Those that lived were rounded up and sent into slave labor.
The Jewish Ghetto was interesting for me. They were transient camp ghettos, briefly lived in, because they were deported so quickly in an inhumane way. Some believed that the Germans were selling them land in Poland to get them to go quietly. It was the same trick they played when they offered people soap to supposedly go into the showers, but it was the gas chambers.
EC: How would you describe Naomi?
AS: A risk-taker, brave, determined, soft-hearted, cunning, independent, and tough. Once she got to Auschwitz, she felt humiliated, a slave laborer, bitter, lonely, and escaped through her memories. The way she coped is to try to find the positives. For example, her rapist gives her gifts that she passes on to others to help them survive. Ana and Ester were her mother’s substitutes. They were her new adoptive family.
EC: How would you describe Naomi’s mom, Agata?
AS: She seems to be one of the few who connected the dots. She is from Polish origin. She is tough but leaves Naomi with words of wisdom, such as, “Your body is your own,” that Naomi thinks about why being raped, trying to keep a part of herself.
EC: What is the role of the spiders?
AS: Naomi associated it with her mom Agata, a connection. Her mom told Naomi spiders are resilient creatures. They create these amazing webs. It is a symbol. The friendships in Auschwitz were a web that held together. These women clung onto each other. Just as the saying goes, “spinning the family web.”
EC: How would you describe Lieke?
AS: She is daring, hopeful, has a dry-wit, cynical, bold, protective, and resilient. I wanted a character who is Jewish, Greek, and can speak German. She speaks the language of the enemy, which ultimately saves her family. As the story progresses, she becomes stronger.
EC: What is the role of Mala?
AS: Mala is a real person. I kept her as a real person. She worked as an administrator in Auschwitz. She could have just stayed safe but did everything she could do help others. She helped link up Naomi and Lieke. She contrasts with the Kapos like Klara, also based on a real person, and Grunwald. The Kapos figured out to survive Auschwitz as they went over to the dark side.
EC: Why did you have Naomi want to keep the baby boy, Issac?
AS: Although he was a reminder of her rape, Naomi tried to divorce Issac from the Nazi father. She sees Isaac as a bit of her. Isaac became a symbol of saving all the babies who were lost. It is a defiance that proves love can win. Naomi is a positive person who saw Isaac as only hers.
EC: Do you only write Holocaust stories?
AS: I started writing Medieval novels under my real name, Joanna Courtney. My first series is called, “The Queens of Conquest.” Then the series, “Shakespeare’s Queens” and I have just finished a book in a new series “Women of the Ancient World,” titled “Cleopatra & Julius”.
EC: Next books?
AS: Midwife of Berlin is the sequel to the first book, Midwife of Auschwitz. It is set in Berlin in 1961. It explores what happened to Ester’s baby, taken away from her, in Auschwitz. Both are published now. The other books in the series that are also out are The War Orphan and The Secret Message. The Children on the Train is about the saving Jewish German children in 1938/39 and will be published in September.
THANK YOU!!
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
