But in an even darker twist to the Lebensborn program, the strict requirements of racial purity were practically abandoned altogether by Heinrich Himmler when he took his mission to unimaginable extremes… While the program initially excluded children born to foreign women and common (non-SS) soldiers for reasons of racial purity, the Lebensborn later expanded into countries with Germanic populations where parents and children were usually examined by SS doctors before admission.
About 60% of the mothers were unmarried and the Lebensborn allowed them to give birth secretly away from home without social stigma. In most of these cases, the mothers agreed to adoption, but not all were informed that their children would be sent abroad to Germany. Relationships between German soldiers and Nordic women in occupied countries were strongly encouraged, provided both parents were proven to be “racially valuable”. The program also accepted women of Aryan descent who were already pregnant or had already given birth and were in need of aid. The application for admission must be filed prior to 23 September 1936. It is the honorable duty of all leaders of the central bureau to become members of the organisation “Lebensborn e.V.”. Placement and care of racially, biologically and hereditarily valuable pregnant women, who, after thorough examination of their and the progenitor’s families by the Race and Settlement Central Bureau of the SS, can be expected to produce equally valuable children. Support racially, biologically and hereditarily valuable families with many children. The organisation “Lebensborn e.V.” is under my personal direction, is part of the Race and Settlement Central Bureau of the SS, and has the following obligations: 1. The organisation “Lebensborn e.V.” serves the SS leaders in the selection and adoption of qualified children. On 13 September 1936, Heinrich Himmler had written the following to members of the SS: Heinrich Himmler pictured with his daughter in 1938 in Berlin. The program expanded into several Nazi occupied countries including Norway, France and Belgium, resulting in a shameful post-war ostracism of surviving Lebensborn mothers and the mistreatment of their displaced children across Europe after Germany lost the war. Lebensborn, meaning “fount of life” was an SS-initiated program that encouraged anonymous births by unmarried “racially pure” women who were selected to breed with Nazi officers and secure the future of a “super race” for the German Reich. Today, I fell into another dark pool of World War II’s repressed footnotes by discovering the details of the Lebensborn breeding program … a story that I would only recommend for those who, like myself, have that insuppressible desire to learn history’s most uncomfortable truths. I’ve admittedly always been a ‘bad reader’, but outside of class I devoured books on the war as a teenager and still to this day, there seems to be no end to its disturbing secrets buried beneath history’s hidden rocks. If there was one subject that could ever truly capture my attention at school, it was the monster story that was Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.