Europe
16:51 REVISITED © FRANCE 24
Issued on: 08/11/2024 - 13:01
From the show
Issued on: 08/11/2024 - 13:01
From the show
The Lebensborn programme, meaning spring or source of life, was one of the most secret and incredible projects of the regime in Nazi Germany. Its aim was to give birth to children who were seen as "perfect" in the eyes of the Nazis. These so-called Aryans – tall, blond and blue-eyed – were representatives of the "master race" that Adolf Hitler dreamed of. Our correspondent Anne Mailliet investigated this terrifying project and tracked down victims who are today more than 80 years old.
In 1935, SS leader Heinrich Himmler launched the Lebensborn programme and set up a network of nurseries in Germany, Austria, Norway and France. Women who were carrying a child fathered by a member of the SS were invited to go to these centres towards the end of their pregnancies to give birth. All had to pass pseudo-scientific tests to prove that they met the "racial purity" criteria defined by the regime. These baby factories were aimed at increasing the population and building the Third Reich's future elite.
The Lebensborn project was brought to a halt with the Liberation and the fall of the Nazis. But in the space of nine years, around 20,000 babies were born in the Nazi maternity hospitals.
Most of the children born as a result of this project, who are now octogenarians, only discovered their true origins much later; sometimes only a few years ago. To this day, they are the last category of victims of Nazism not to have been officially recognised. Only Norway has granted them the status of victims.
"STALINGRAD"
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