Lebensborn

             Lebensborn was a Nazi program whose goal was to create a master race because the Nazis were planning for a "thousand- year Reich". Lebensborn literally means "spring" or "fountain of life". It was established and controlled by Heinrich Himmler. He created it on December 12th, 1935. Its objective was to give racially pure young girls the opportunity to give birth in secret. The child was then given to the SS, which was in charge of the child's education and adoption. In the beginning, the Lebensborn consisted of SS nurseries. But in order to create a "super-race", the SS transformed these nurseries into meeting places for racially pure German women who wanted to meet and make children with SS officers. If the baby was handicapped or impaired, it would be allowed to starve or otherwise terminated. Suitable Aryan families were allowed to adopt healthy babies. In some cases they were SS families.
             The Lebensborn program was transformed into a much larger effort by kidnapping large numbers of foreign children. Lebensborn homes were established in other countries. These kidnappings were organized by the SS in order to take by force children who matched the Nazi's racial criteria, which was Nordic, Alpine, or Westphalian blood, blond hair, blue eyes, and a narrow nose. Polish, Czechoslovakian, Norwegian, and French children were kidnapped. Thousands of children were transferred to the Lebensborn centers in order to be "Germanized". In these centers, everything was done to force the children to reject and forget their birth parents. The SS nurses tried to persuade the children that they were deliberately abandoned by their parents. The children who refused the Nazi education were often beaten. Most of them were finally transferred to concentration camps and exterminated. The others were adopted by SS families. Also many children were not of suitable Aryan background and those were also sent to a c...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Lebensborn. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 09:10, April 18, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/2595.html