Objective:to build an army of "racially pure" Aryans and "renew German blood". To achieve it, in 1935 the Nazis launched a program of ... human breeding. Perfect, fair-haired, blue-eyed children were to be born in the Lebensborn centers. Exactly what Hitler wanted.
- The matter of children is a matter of the nation! - thundered during one of the speeches of Heinrich Himmler. He even imposed a "fertility order" on the members of the SS, obliging them to have numerous offspring (at least four). German women were encouraged to give birth, and abortion for any reason was prohibited by law. All for nothing - newborns were still not enough. Especially the "racially pure" ones.
The low birth rate that had continued since the early 1930s was a thorn in the eyes of the Nazi leadership. Ultimately, the plan to create a mighty race of masters and wipe out the remaining nations from the face of the earth required a significant human "contribution". For this reason, it was decided to establish the Lebensborn - "Source of Life" program.
The assumptions could even be considered noble - increasing the number of births, limiting abortions (although illegally - at that time in Germany about 600,000 per year), providing care for single mothers and - above all - their children. There was only one condition:the parents had to be exemplary of the Aryan race.
Where to get "purebred" children?
The Nazis believed that man's "Aryan" character could be stated at first glance. They determined the purity of the breed on the basis of the color of the eyes (blue or gray), hair (from blonde to light brown), height (tall) and body shape (slender). Health was also important - there was no place for the sick or the disabled in the Third Reich. They were sent to concentration camps without batting an eye. The real Aryan had to be fit, healthy and genetically unburdened. It was these little Germans that Himmler wanted to "breed" in Lebensborn centers.
Himmler in Lebensborn intended to "breed" the ideal Aryans. The picture shows a Nazi propaganda poster.
Delivery houses and orphanages began to be established in 1936 under the auspices of the association "The Source of Life". Initially in Germany, then also in the occupied countries:Austria, Norway, Belgium, France, and finally Poland. There were at least a few Lebensborn centers in our country, incl. in Bydgoszcz, Kraków or Helenówek near Łódź.
In the first years of the association's operation, young German women, who "got into trouble", came under its wing. Even in difficult times just before the war, they did not lack anything. Plenty of food, professional medical care, as such a sense of security. It is not surprising that some women asked for help themselves and willingly agreed to move.
It was all the more so because even in the face of the demographic crisis and the shortage of "racial" children in the Third Reich, unmarried young mothers were frowned upon. If you became pregnant before your wedding, you could be fired from your job. Meanwhile, in the Lebensborn facilities, there were civil registry offices keeping their own files. Thanks to this, it was possible to anonymously get rid of the "problem" - newborns simply received a new identity, and often also parents, because SS-man families were waiting with open arms for little Aryans ready for adoption.
Get impregnated for Hitler
It quickly turned out, however, that there were not enough pregnant volunteers. Besides, not everyone could count on admission to the association. Before Lebensborn took care of the woman, she had to provide a document certifying her origin (known as "Aryan evidence") and fill out a form on hereditary diseases. Then, an appropriately trained doctor assessed the candidate's health.
Also men indicated as fathers of unborn children were required to provide evidence of their "pure blood" (this did not apply only to members of the SS). Even when the admission criteria were relaxed, the number of babies born in "Source of Life" was unsatisfactory.
For this reason, it was decided that Lebensborn would "expand" and take care of ... matchmaking. It was favored by the successes of the Third Reich on European fronts - the conquest of other countries made it possible to "breed" little Aryans on a much larger scale. The Germans had special hopes in the Scandinavian countries, where there was no shortage of tall, slender women with fair hair and blue eyes. And that the Norwegian women were by no means eager to implement Himmler's diabolical plan? Well - and there is a way.
In order to increase fertility, Lebensborn was to deal with the association of "Aryan" couples.
According to some sources, rape was a regular occurrence in Lebensborn homes. Women were forced into relations with SS officers, and when they became pregnant - they were sent to the Third Reich to give birth to new citizens to the glory of the Führer. Because of these rumors, the "Sources of Life" centers went down in history as SS brothels. Some historians, however, contradict this version of events. In their opinion, acts of sexual violence - if at all - were sporadic.
This is evidenced, inter alia, by the programme's negligible effectiveness. As Dr. Joanna Lubecka from the Institute of National Remembrance said in an interview with Artur Wróblewski quoted in the book Now you are Germans. The Shocking Fate of Plundered Polish Children :“An estimated 11,000 babies have been born under the Lebensborn program. Let's be honest:it was a drop in the ocean of needs. ”
Let's make ourselves a German
The problem grew, all the more so as it was necessary to somehow compensate for the losses associated with the war. The number of soldiers of the Third Reich who died on the fronts grew - contrary to the natural increase. So the Nazis began to look greedily at the conquered nations. The new operation, for which the Lebensborn houses were responsible, was called "the robbery of valuable blood."
In order to compensate for the loss of lives suffered during the protracted war, the Germans began to rob Polish children on a massive scale.
“In 1940, screening tests for the Polish community were carried out in Poznań. It was then decided that the number of people meeting the Nordic criterion did not exceed 15-18 percent. Later it was estimated that it could be as high as 20-25 percent. Hitler, of course, ordered the research to be classified, but it was a signal that there was a base to obtain children from Poland ", says Artur Ossowski in the book Now you are Germans .
Also in the case of the stolen "Aryans" there were strict selection criteria:"During the research, children who had the characteristics of the Nordic race were selected. The children were examined for their external appearance, skull structure, orbital spacing, hair and eye color. Those at the appropriate age were qualified for Germanization ", reports the historian Agnieszka Jaczyńska in the pages of the same shocking publication.
It is estimated that in total, during World War II, the Germans kidnapped from 50,000 to 200,000 Polish children. Only 15-20 percent of them returned to the country after 1945. Those who stayed often did not know the truth about their origins until the end of their lives. The Nazis also undertook similar actions in other occupied countries - tens of thousands of little Poles, Russians, Czechs, Ukrainians and Belarusians passed through the houses of the "Source of Life" association.
Letter sent by Lebensborn to Charles Müller, stating that two boys were found for them, and he would be able to choose one for adoption. They were Polish children who were taken from their parents and then the birth certificates were forged.
The stolen children were sent to Lebensborn centers in the areas occupied by the Third Reich. There, they were brainwashed:punished for speaking in their native language, their names and surnames were changed to more "German" and regular Germanization was carried out. When it was decided that they deserved the title of a citizen of the Third Reich, they were put up for adoption to German families (we wrote more about this in another article) .
Death in "Source of Life"
But you can still say that the stolen babies were lucky - if, of course, they successfully passed the procedure of Germanization in the homes of "Sources of Life". They usually went to loving families who looked after them well. Many adoptive parents after the war swore that they had no idea that the adopted orphan was not an orphan at all. The remaining children, for whom - for various reasons - there was no place in the Third Reich, a fate worse than death awaited.
This is perhaps the darkest page in the history of Lebensborn. Unwanted little ones, not quite "Aryan" or not able to be germanized, were simply disposed of. In the concentration camps to which they were sent, they were starved and forced to work beyond their strength. More than once they fell victim to the brutal experiments of degenerated Nazi doctors. As one of the heroes of the book says, Now you are Germans. The Shocking Fate of Plundered Polish Children :"You don't have to be killed to die."
An appeal at the Educational Camp for young Poles of the Security Police in Łódź. Children who were not "Aryan" enough went there.
After the war, the Lebensborn association was accused of crimes against humanity. The organization's leadership sat on the dock during the eighth of the twelve Nuremberg trials. However, despite the overwhelming evidence (including the testimony of the abducted Poles), the court recognized "The Source of Life" as a "care institution". Those responsible for destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of children have not been punished.
What about residents of Lebensborn houses? Today they are approaching eighty. Many never met their real parents, but bore the stigma of a "Nazi-bred child" for most of their lives.