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The Lebensborn Program

Page history last edited by Smurfette 13 years, 11 months ago

Aryan Race Factors
The Program
Outcomes
Page Views
References

Lebensborn directly translates to "fountain of life" from German to English.The Lebensborn program was a secretive aspect of World War II. It was a program set up by Heinrich Himmler and other German officers in order to increase the ideal population of Aryan people in Germany. The program not only enforced SS officers to concieve with Aryan women in set up homes, but also to kidnap children with the ideal characteristics. Eventually these homes and kidnappings were taking place all over Europe. This program has forever impacted the lives of the many children who do not know the details of their past in these homes.

Aryan Race Factors

The Aryan race was Hitler and Nazi Germany’s idea of a perfect race superior to all others. Aryan women and children were accepted into the Lebensborn program in order to increase the German population (“The ‘Lebensborn’ Program ”). The “traits” of being Aryan were blonde hair and blue eyes, and family lineage traced back at least three generations without any “inferior” races in the family ties (“The ‘Lebensborn’ Program”).To get into the Lebensborn homes, it was preferred that one would have a higher level of intelligence (Shoah Education). Other factors that were taken into account besides hair and eye color were nose shape, lip shape, hairline, toe and fingernail condition, condition of the gentiles, and reactions to neurological testing (Sereny). Automatic disqualifications from the homes were personal habits such as nail biting, routine uncleanness, bedwetting, and farting (Sereny). Heinrich Himmler once stated of the Aryan children, “We are convinced that our philosophy and ideas will reverberate in the spirit of these children who racially belong to us” (Sereny 6).

Heinrich Himmler and his daughter.

The Program

The Lebensborn Program was created in order to increase the population of Aryan people in Germany. It was founded December 6, 1935 by Heinrich Himmler, one of Hitler’s highest officers (“The ‘Lebensborn’ Program”). This program set up many homes all over Europe for Aryan women to have children in secret (“The ‘Lebensborn’ Program”). There were ten homes in Germany, nine in Norway, two in Austria, one in each Belgium, Holland, France, Luxembourg and Denmark (“The ‘Lebensborn’ Program”). The first home was in Steinhoering, a town outside of Munich in 1936 (“The ‘Lebensborn’ Program”). This home was previously a Jewish family home but the residents were sent to Dachau. In these homes, SS officers were encouraged to have children with Aryan women in order to create the preferred appearance of the children. Most of these women were unmarried.

Staff members, mothers, and children in a Lebensborn home.

Some of these homes were also a place for “superior” children from other countries to be “Germanized.” Children who had the wanted racial features would be taken from their homes and parents and sent to these homes to become German citizens. They were often told that their parents abandoned them. In the Lebensborn homes, the children would take classes in German language, history and geography for many hours every day (Sereny).They would also go through many medical inspections each day. The children would truly believe that they were German and that these homes were the greatest place to be. A survivor stated, “Hurt? No, they didn’t hurt me. Why should they hurt me?” (Sereny 12). Even so, many of the children were beaten if they resisted the German way of life.

A German soldier taking an ideal Aryan child from their mother in Poland.

Outcomes

A woman who is a "Lebensborn Child"

Being in this program impacted many of the children later on in their lives. Most of the children born in the homes were born in Norway, not Germany. At the end of the war, most mothers and staff left the homes and the children. It is estimated that 250,000 children were kidnapped and taken to Germany (“The ‘Lebensborn’ Program.”). Up to 100,000 of these children were from Poland (“The ‘Lebensborn’ Program.”). Only about 25,000 were sent back to their families after the war because many of them were either too “Germanized” or didn’t remember life prior to the Lebensborn Program (“The ‘Lebensborn’ Program.”). During the Nuremburg Trial in 1947 of Lebensborn staff and officers, they testified that all documents of kidnapping had been destroyed (Sereny).

Germanized children were very defensive of the Lebensborn. Their memories were mostly joyful and of wondering why the German life was so different. Many of the younger children from these homes do not know the details of their past and have no way of finding out now. “After the war, many of the Lebensborn children grew up scorned as Nazi progeny and tormented by the dark uncertainties about their past,” explained another survivor from the program (Hammer).