“In the summer of 1942, parents across Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia were required to submit their children to medical checks designed to assess racial purity. One such child, Erika Matko, was nine months old when Nazi doctors declared her fit to be a “Child of Hitler”. Taken to Germany and placed with politically vetted foster parents, Erika was renamed Ingrid von Oelhafen. Many years later, Ingrid began to uncover the truth of her identity.” (Ingrid von Oelhafen, Hitler’s Forgotten Children: A True Story of the Lebensborn Program and One Woman’s Search for Her Real Identity, Dutton Caliber (publishing), 2016)
Ingrid Von Oelhafen holding the first official document of her existence, a vaccination certificate issued by Lebensborn
Ingrid/Erika discovered her true identity only at the age of 58. In 1999, she was contacted by the Red Cross about meeting her birth relatives. An investigation led her to the Matko family in today’s Slovenia where a DNA test confirmed the relationship. She also discovered a woman living in Slovenia under her birth name. Together with the award-winning author and investigative journalist Tim Tate she wrote a memoir in 2016.
An estimated 600 children were snatched for the Lebensborn programme from their parents in Slovenia’s Celje area alone.
