Lebensborn provided welfare to its mostly unmarried mothers, encouraged anonymous births by unmarried women at their maternity homes, and mediated the adoption of children by likewise “racially pure” and “healthy” parents, particularly SS members and their families.
Initially set up in Germany in 1935, Lebensborn expanded into several occupied European countries with Germanic populations during the Second World War. It was responsible for the selection of “racially worthy” orphans for adoption and the care of children born to Aryan women who had been in relationships with SS members. It originally excluded children born from unions between common soldiers and foreign women, because there was no proof of “racial purity” on both sides. During the war, many children were kidnapped from their parents and judged by Aryan criteria for their suitability to be raised in Lebensborn homes and fostered by German families.
At the Nuremberg Trials, much direct evidence was found of the kidnapping of children by the Nazis across Greater Germany during the period 1939–1945.
Check out the Lebensborn brochure.