In December 1935, a programme was initiated in Germany to provide the Third Reich with a new generation of leaders and future elite: Lebensborn (Source of Life). The birth rate in Germany had fallen dramatically after World War I, and the Nazis tried to reverse the trend by all possible means: abortion was banned, contraceptives suppressed, and incentives and tax breaks devised for families with children. SS officers were encouraged to procreate as much as possible, including out of wedlock. Within this setting, Lebensborn had a special task — to increase the number of so-called “Aryan” offspring. In several Lebensborn homes spread across Germany and Austria, Norway, Belgium and France, married or unmarried women could give birth to their children if they met the requirements of the Aryan race. The architect behind the plan, Heinrich Himmler, aimed to improve the “racial quality” of the new empire with blue-eyed, blonde-haired, light-skinned children. When the programme proved insufficiently effective, thousands of children were kidnapped from Eastern Europe and taken to Germany to be “Germanised.” After the war, the children from these homes and families were often stigmatised and sometimes mistreated or abused. Many grew up with secrets.
Angeniet Berkers (NL) documented the stories of nine individuals who are now in their seventies and eighties. In her archive research, she found objects and many documents that show how nationalist ideas permeated the nurseries in an eerily organised way. The book focuses on the major events of this history but especially on the personal consequences for those involved.
Berkers is responsible for the research, photography and text. Dr Ingvill Constanze Ødegaard contributes an essay, with advice from Dorothee Schmitz-Köster and Ødegaard. Translations are by Vicky Morrison and Honey Jones-Hughes; design by Rob van Hoesel; cartography by Carel Fransen.
Published by The Eriskay Connection in 2024 as a 272-page English hardcover, 208 × 288 mm, first edition of 1000 copies, ISBN 9789083357164.
