Slatka
10-23-2007, 06:09 PM
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I have always been fascinated about the impact of Nazism and similar ideologies on the very people these xenophobic values are meant to protect and strengthen.
One of the most unusual programs introduced in Germany by the Nazis was the Lebensborn program - it was also one of the most controversial, even at the time, because it involved what basically amounted to the institutionalized sexual slavery of the most desirable German girls - regarded as genetically perfect, the very image of those to whom Nazism promised everything good in life.
The program began as a series of nurseries designed to raise children to be perfect, Nazi soldiers and citizens. Eventually these nurseries became meeting places for young, German women eager to procreate and help strengthen the master race. Eventually these meeting places became brothels where blond, blue-eyed women from the east - from the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia - were kept in sexual slavery. Eventually German women were kidnapped on the streets of German cities and added to the mix as well. By the time the program reached its peek, thousands of blond, blue-eyed children born in the east were being kidnapped and taken to Germany where they were raised to be the perfect Nazi soldiers and citizens.
The Lebensborn program was often one of the steps involved in processing new arrivals at Nazi death camps, a step long-since forgotten. Those choosing people for labor camps, instead of sending them immediately to their deaths, often chosen children and babies for the Lebensborn program as well.
The 250,000 children kidnapped from the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia who manged to make it successfully through the Lebensborn program largely remained with their adoptive, German parents after the war - only about 23,000 - most kidnapped as young children rather than babies - remembered enough to want to go back to the countries where they were born after liberation. Thousands more - children who didn't measure up to Lebensborn standards, or simply those whose hair and eyes darkened as they got older - were exterminated.
The Lebensborn program has had a lasting effect in Germany. The children have often been the victims of considerable unease and prejudice and many still deal with the emotional problems that come from vague memories of a life in the east before the war, memories they can't reconcile with their lives today.
So, what do you think are the potential, long-term impacts of such a program on all involved?
I have always been fascinated about the impact of Nazism and similar ideologies on the very people these xenophobic values are meant to protect and strengthen.
One of the most unusual programs introduced in Germany by the Nazis was the Lebensborn program - it was also one of the most controversial, even at the time, because it involved what basically amounted to the institutionalized sexual slavery of the most desirable German girls - regarded as genetically perfect, the very image of those to whom Nazism promised everything good in life.
The program began as a series of nurseries designed to raise children to be perfect, Nazi soldiers and citizens. Eventually these nurseries became meeting places for young, German women eager to procreate and help strengthen the master race. Eventually these meeting places became brothels where blond, blue-eyed women from the east - from the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia - were kept in sexual slavery. Eventually German women were kidnapped on the streets of German cities and added to the mix as well. By the time the program reached its peek, thousands of blond, blue-eyed children born in the east were being kidnapped and taken to Germany where they were raised to be the perfect Nazi soldiers and citizens.
The Lebensborn program was often one of the steps involved in processing new arrivals at Nazi death camps, a step long-since forgotten. Those choosing people for labor camps, instead of sending them immediately to their deaths, often chosen children and babies for the Lebensborn program as well.
The 250,000 children kidnapped from the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia who manged to make it successfully through the Lebensborn program largely remained with their adoptive, German parents after the war - only about 23,000 - most kidnapped as young children rather than babies - remembered enough to want to go back to the countries where they were born after liberation. Thousands more - children who didn't measure up to Lebensborn standards, or simply those whose hair and eyes darkened as they got older - were exterminated.
The Lebensborn program has had a lasting effect in Germany. The children have often been the victims of considerable unease and prejudice and many still deal with the emotional problems that come from vague memories of a life in the east before the war, memories they can't reconcile with their lives today.
So, what do you think are the potential, long-term impacts of such a program on all involved?