Lebensborn Program (Nazi Birthing Farms)

Guntram Weber's voyage to this charming village, where horse-drawn carts and half-timbered buildings are the norm, was long, painful, and not at all redemptive.

Mr. Weber learned four years ago that his father was not a young soldier who died honorably on the battlefield during World War II, as his mother had told him. Rather, he had a high-ranking position as an SS officer, where he was responsible for the killings of tens of thousands of people while stationed in the area that is now western Poland.

Mr. Weber's voice was heavy with wrath and sorrow as he stated, "He died peacefully in Argentina, with his old comrades standing at his grave and raising their right arms." "A racist will always be a racist."

Mr. Weber, who is 63 years old, delivered his tale to a room full of primarily gray-haired men and women. The room was quiet, and although there were some sympathetic nods, there was not much astonishment. The majority of them had their own stories of deception and discovery, personal histories that turned out to be homemade fairy tales, with the grim reality hidden under layers of quiet.

These infants are the result of the Lebensborn program, which was created by the SS to promote Aryan characteristics. On this cold weekend, they came together in a corner of central Germany to tell their memories and, for the first time, to openly discuss the agony of discovering that they had been groomed to become the next generation of Nazi elite.

Gisela Heidenreich, a 63-year-old family therapist from Bavaria, whose mother was unmarried and whose father was a top SS commander (a fact she learned later in life), remarked, "This is the opposite example of the Holocaust." "The goal was to advance the Aryan race by any means necessary."

Lebensborn, which translates to "spring of life," is the name of a network of clinics located across Germany and its adjacent countries. These clinics were established with the purpose of providing a place for pregnant women, most of whom were unmarried, to give birth in private. The physicians and nurses who cared for them were hired by the SS, which was the Nazi Party's dreaded paramilitary organization.

One of these clinics is located at the top of a mild slope in Wernigerode, a little town that is far away from the Harz Mountains. The structure, which has been abandoned for a long time, was part of a sad homecoming tour for the about 40 individuals who showed up for the meeting of an organization called Traces of Life.

In order to be admitted into the Lebensborn program, pregnant women had to have the correct racial traits, which included blonde hair and blue eyes, verify that they had no genetic problems, and provide proof of the father's identification. The father also had to satisfy identical requirements. They were had to pledge their loyalty to Nazism and were taught Hitler's beliefs while they were living there.

A lot of the dads were SS officers who had families of their own. Heinrich Himmler, who was the leader of the SS, urged his troops to have children with women they were not married to in order to create a German master race.

Between 1936 and 1945, around 6,000 to 8,000 individuals were born at these clinics in Germany. Due to the program's secrecy, the majority of people were not informed of the circumstances of their births or the identities of their fathers for decades. This information was not included on their birth certificates. There are still some people who are unaware of the reality.

Researchers have only been able to chronicle the Lebensborn initiative in the past 20 years, when the wall of silence that surrounded it started to crumble. They have dispelled certain salacious rumors, such as the idea that these clinics were Nazi brothels filled with blonde-haired women who were prepared to have children with SS men.

Dorothee Schmitz-Köster, who has authored a book on Lebensborn, said, "The children were conceived in all the usual ways: love affairs, one-night stands, and so forth." "At that time, abortion was illegal in Germany, and in many instances, the women did not want to keep their babies."

Some of the moms placed them for adoption with SS families. Some people reared the children by themselves, informing them that their dads had died in the conflict. In postwar Germany, women who had given birth to illegitimate children in a strongly Nazi environment suffered a double shame.

According to their children, many people spent their lives in a state of dismal quiet. Some people acquired psychological difficulties or began drinking alcohol. The youngsters also found the revelation of the truth to be equally distressing.

Mr. Weber, a creative writing instructor in Berlin, is still having a hard time accepting the roots that he has lately discovered. He discovered the truth after receiving some indications from family members and doing investigation. One of the most terrible things he discovered was that Himmler was his godfather.

Ms. Schmitz-Köster said, "The majority of them grew up aware that they had a secret." They were upset with their moms because they had been deceived or left behind. Some people feel ashamed. Additionally, there are a few people who take pride in being Lebensborn. They believe that they are members of an elite group.

Life was much more difficult for Lebensborn children who were born outside of Germany. For instance, in Norway, which was conquered by the Nazis, the SS set up a clinic because Himmler thought that Scandinavians looked good. After the war, those infants, who were born to Norwegian women and German troops, were labeled as offspring of the enemy and subjected to merciless persecution.

In Nazi-occupied nations, other children who matched Himmler's harmful racial criteria were taken from their homes as babies and transferred to Germany, where they were reared by proper Nazi families.

If anything, the reunion demonstrated that racial engineering has its limitations. The Germans here looked much like the Germans at any other meeting of older Germans: the males had salt-and-pepper beards and balding heads, while the ladies wore eyeglasses and had frosted hair.

Ms. Heidenreich, a tall lady with beautiful blond hair and sparkling blue eyes, added, "I really am an exception."

Ms. Heidenreich, the first of the Lebensborn children to publish a book about her experience, claims that the program, despite its dark nature, has parallels in the world today. She points out that with the progress being made in genetics, parents who are selective may soon have the ability to choose the characteristics of their unborn offspring.

She said that, in light of such likelihood, the atrocities committed during the Nazi period should not be forgotten and allowed to fade into history. She added, "If we begin to engineer babies with blonde hair and blue eyes, can we only blame Hitler for that?"

Even though her parents were German, Ms. Heidenreich was born at a clinic in Oslo. Her mother decided to give birth there in order to be as far away as possible from the hamlet in Bavaria where she had grown up. Ms. Heidenreich was not informed about her history, but she grew skeptical after viewing a program on television about the Lebensborn children.

Today, she struggles to come to terms with the fact that her mother, who was a devoted Nazi in her earlier years, became a nice person in her latter years. She stated, "She was a wonderful grandmother, even though she was a terrible mother."

Not everyone has had a difficult experience. Ruthild Gorgass, who was born here, stated that when she was a teenager, her mother informed her about the circumstances of her birth. Ms. Gorgass had occasional communication with her father, who was a manager at a chemical business and had another family.

Her mother gave her a picture book that had a record of her time spent at Wernigerode. Despite the fact that she had previously stated her dislike for her daughter's naming ceremony, in which the newborn was put before an altar depicting a swastika, she remembered it as a perfect occasion.