How relevant do you think motherhood or childlessness is to the main characters’ stories or to who they are as people?

Women have often been viewed in terms of their relationship to motherhood, whether or not they want to have children. In Resistance Women, this is seen in the unsolicited opinions that the female characters endure about their childless state from both men and women. Greta eventually has a son, Ule, with Adam, while Mildred struggles for years to conceive a child with Arvid. How relevant do you think motherhood or childlessness is to the main characters’ stories or to who they are as people?

I think especially in this novel, that the subject of motherhood or the lack there of was unavoidable since the Nazis ideal for Aryan women was to be a mother and homemaker. On the other hand for Jewish women, it was whether they could or would have children during a time of persecution. The time period also had a role to play in the expectations for women to have children even though more and more women were highly educated and working outside the home.

Mildred's miscarriages were so tragic for her while Greta's son was a ray of sunshine and I think these events brought the two of them closer together.

Life goes on even during the hardest of times. My heart went out to Mildred who wanted to be a mother so desperately. I also felt for Greta getting pregnant and trying to raise a child during those times. She was risking her life every day. I found it heartbreaking when she was separated from Ule and imprisoned and went years without seeing him.