Der "Lebensborn e.V.": Ein Instrument Nationalsozialisticher Rassenpolitik

TitleDer "Lebensborn e.V.": Ein Instrument Nationalsozialisticher Rassenpolitik
Publication TypeBook
Year of Publication1985
AuthorsLilienthal, Georg
Number of Pages264
PublisherFischer
CityStuttgart
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 TitleThe "Lebensborn e.V.": An Instrument of National Socialist Racial Policy
Entry by GWC Assistants / Work by GWC Assistants : 
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1051238089

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