Der "Lebensborn e.V.": Ein Instrument Nationalsozialisticher Rassenpolitik
Title | Der "Lebensborn e.V.": Ein Instrument Nationalsozialisticher Rassenpolitik |
Publication Type | Book |
Year of Publication | 1985 |
Authors | Lilienthal, Georg |
Number of Pages | 264 |
Publisher | Fischer |
City | Stuttgart |
Abstract | Lebensborn e.V. was an organization, founded in 1935 by the SS, the Nazi Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron) in Nazi Germany. It pursued the goals of creating a "racially pure" and "healthy" Aryan elite. Lebensborn provided welfare to its mostly unmarried mothers, encouraged anonymous births by single women at their maternity homes, and mediated adoption of these children by likewise "racially pure" and "healthy" parents, particularly SS members and their families. With the outbreak of war, Himmler's fears about the declining birth rate deepened. In the autumn of 1939, he urged SS men to produce more children, whether in or out of wedlock. Bourgeois morality must be subordinated to the fitness of the nation, and the offspring would be cared for in Lebensborn homes if necessary. During the early stages of the war, Lebensborn played a key role in Himmler's policy to 'germanicize' Northern and Western Europe. While the SS was establishing new units in the occupied countries, staffed by Nazi sympathizers from the local populations, Lebensborn homes were founded (especially in Norway) in order to provide care and an ideologically sound upbringing for the children of German soldiers and foreign women. In this way Himmler hoped not only to replenish Germany's racial stock but also to draw all 'germanic' peoples into a grand alliance. |
Translated Title | The "Lebensborn e.V.": An Instrument of National Socialist Racial Policy |
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- WorldCat