Between 1941 and 1945, children were kidnapped from all over Eastern Europe. 200,000 of them came from Poland alone, 50,000 from all across the rest of Europe. Cases are known from the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Slovenia. After the war, those whose origins could be traced returned to their homelands.
Obsessed with racial purity and the Aryan race, Himmler and his aides prescribed precise guidelines on how a racially pure child was supposed to look like. Twenty-one characteristics were examined, including growth patterns, the back of the head, the bridge of the nose, and body hair. Those who passed the “Germanization” criteria were integrated into the Lebensborn programme.
Hermann Lüdeking, Jozef Sowa and Alodia Witaszek shared the same fate, as they were raised in Nazi-run homes and their identities were changed. Hermann Lüdeking was placed with a German family at the age of six, and he has worked for years to recover the traces of his early family life. Alodia Witaszek was five years of age when her life forever changed. The film follows her as she visits the grounds of the camp in which she spent eight weeks. Jozef Sowa’s parents were murdered by Wehrmacht soldiers in Poland in 1943, and he and his four siblings were taken to Germany. All but his younger sister Janina managed to return to Poland. This DW Documentary is available on YouTube.