Bizarre Lebensborn facts: Part 2
Fathers, employees, children, and homes outside Germany
To Look Upon the Sun is almost here! We have a publication date now: April 10. It’ll be available for preorder soon.
And check out this cover! It’s real!
I’ve been working on this book obsessively for nearly four years and looking forward to this launch for just as long.
One really crucial element of a successful launch means I need to ask for your help.
Reviews are everything, especially for a new author. They help the book reach readers. It would be difficult to exaggerate how essential they are, but I’ll just say, they’re very, very, very important.
If you’re interested in the story of a young, determined woman navigating indoctrination and pregnancy, trying to be an evil regime’s idea of perfect while surviving its scrutiny, and along the way making unlikely friendships and interrogating her own identity, this novel might just be for you.
To receive a free copy in exchange for a review, just reply to this message and let me know! I will always and forever be grateful.
Bizarre Lebensborn facts
A while ago, I shared some wild facts about Lebensborn, the secretive Nazi maternity home I wrote about in To Look Upon the Sun.
Now, with the novel almost out, I decided it’s time for part two. Truly, the more you learn about this program, the more disturbing it becomes.
Employees
The employees were called Schwestern, which was the term used for sister, nurse, or nun. Nurses were usually girls employed before or after giving birth, as reward for their services. They were untrained ward assistants and became members of “fraternity of blood” a.k.a. the SS.
They often became pregnant again 10-15 months later by a doctor or SS visitors. One woman was so aggressive in pursuing a doctor that a complaint was filed about her.
If a Schwester’s baby was “abnormal,” she would have to give up her job and undergo an investigation to determine if she was fit to continue making babies for the SS machine.
Fathers, a.k.a. “originators”
Lebensborn existed to repopulate Germany with Aryans. So many had been killed on the battlefield in WWI and so many more would be killed in WWII—Lebensborn’s job was to make up for those deaths.
In 1942, SS head Heinrich Himmler’s “Special Order” determined that if an SS family had only one son left, he would be withdrawn from the battlefield long enough to find a mate and impregnate her to “improve his lineage.”
If an SS officer had not impregnated his wife in the previous two years, and the wife was under 40, he had to provide a memorandum as to why a child hadn’t been conceived. If the reason wasn’t good enough, he would not be eligible for a promotion.
All SS men had to pay a subscription to Lebensborn until they had four children. The fee was so high that they were forced to marry and procreate.
Before SS men were allowed to marry, their wives had to be approved by Himmler himself. The application included detailed information on their genealogy and a photograph with the bride-to-be in a swimsuit.
Homes outside Germany
In addition to several homes inside Germany, over 20 homes were established in invaded countries, for the babies fathered by German soldiers. Norway especially had a large Lebensborn presence: 8,000-12,000 babies were born in Lebensborn homes there.
After the war, these mothers and children were ostracized: their hair was cut off and they were paraded through the streets and shamed. According to one account I read, a woman’s nipples were cut off.
The children
After the war, Lebensborn children were stigmatized and treated horribly. Even their adoptive parents did not treat them with love. They said things like, “It would have been better if you were run over by a lorry.” When they walked into a room, people would stop talking. People called them “SS bastards.”
Often, the children didn’t know they were Lebensborn babies until later. Many of them have gone on to uncover their pasts. They learned which homes they’d been in, and who their SS fathers were and what crimes they’d committed. They meet at the old Lebensborn home in Wernigerode (where my main character ends up) to have reunions with other Lebensborn children.
Starting in 1942, children from invaded countries were kidnapped—literally torn from their parents’ arms—to be “Germanized” and adopted by German families. This happened to many thousands of children. Many didn’t survive the Germanization process, and those who did forgot their origins completely, though some of them discovered the truth in adulthood.
This is just the tip of the iceberg re: Lebensborn’s disturbing strangeness. Even with everything we know about Nazi cruelty, sometimes it’s hard to believe something this twisted was real.
To learn more about the kidnapping side of Lebensborn, I recommend the memoir of Ingrid von Oelhafen: Hitler's Forgotten Children.