The kidnapping campaign of Nazi Germany | DW Documentary

September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland and for more than five years spread terror across much of Europe with its ideology of a master race. A central figure in that

campaign

was Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, the leading Nazi, he was obsessed with racial purity and devised a plan. To reinforce the so-called Aryan race between 1941 and 1945, children were kidnapped from all over Eastern Europe and forcibly Germanized. Historians estimate that 20,000 of these children came from Poland alone in children's homes run by the Nazis. They learned to speak German. Their identities were counterfeit before I was called alodia VIII taschek from that moment on I was ELISA vodka is a big girl those children are now over 80 years old and many of them still do not know anything about their roots this restlessness I felt this kind of back and forth also affected my relationships Interestingly, much of what happened to them remains a mystery.

Yussef Silva travels as often as he can to the place where his parents are buried. It is located on the outskirts of Hava, in southern Poland. He was only nine years old when Shuya and Brock died. I miss the warmth of being raised by a father and a mother, we were raised by strangers who were something like family, but all my life I have missed that warmth that hugs his father Yusuf was 41 years old his mother Francesca was 36 when they were murdered by the Nazis in this place his son Yusuf is now 86 years old but he has never forgotten his childhood home there was a town house with two rooms it was made of wood and bricks let me show you where the stables and his father's house were. workshop in the bunker during the Second World War Yusuf's family hid Jews and partisans in the bunker seven people lived here underground for two years above this bunker there was a pipe through which the air entered and left and the Jews and partisans Poles took air through this pipe, of course, my parents also gave them food, so new technology and all the tragedy, beatings and torture took place here.

I'm sure your halia Samehada was huge, the Germans came in two cars, soldiers and dr. V they knocked on the door if they live here so quickly they began to break the windows with their rifles all the glass was broken my mother was crying and she took us children out to the yard the children ran after mom and dad we were all practically naked shirts it was five o'clock in the morning it was September so it was cold and the German said where are the Jews, were the partisans they entered the barn they had a pointed metal stick and stuck it in the straw to see if they would hit a person who was shouting yes Nima Chicago said onion the Germans beat them with anything they could get with hoes and pitchforks my mother was stabbed in the stomach three times with the pitchfork she brought Georgia was pregnant in the sixth or seventh month my father was hit in the head he had been here with a rifle the old yard was full of blood they dragged my mother here my father there when they were children there and they still didn't find anything safe this doesn't need help there won't be any help between the workshop the stables and our house an impressive doorman but I had to go out there like that Once four hand grenades fell in the middle of the courtyard and at that moment the first Jewish women came out of the bunker, hit each other and hit each other and then stood on the other side.

From the burning house a little boy threw it after that the soldiers shot dead Yusuf's parents and threw their bodies into a hole in the place where his grave is now. The children survived after witnessing the events and were later taken to Germany like thousands of other children. from 1941 onwards who were considered worthy of being Germanized use of sister Yanina still lives in Germany she is Germanized corresponds to the pure Nordic race with blonde hair and light eyes who was with the Germans our sister was lost forever uh demands a survey , but as a sister, the best of us is in Germany, it was God, too, the filthy Amishman Birkin gets an illegal visa, that's a good game here, Tommy defends carbon, the nicest from the hinterland to SUNY, see also taken a look to tune integrity to keep down albums with theft Herman Luther King has lived in Bad Dürkheim in southwestern Germany since he retired where he originally came from he doesn't know he knows it again even though everyone is this curious about knowing what their parents are, they look like sisters, our nieces are ours.

I just do not know. I tried everything in twenty files but found nothing. You have nothing at all. We have good organic components for decades. Herman has been trying to find out who his parents were and where. he was born he always has the support of his partner Hannah Laura even as a child he felt that there was some mystery he was six years old when he was placed with María and Harriman Rudy King but he felt that they were hiding something from him this pile was hidden in my father's closet adopted I was thirteen or fourteen years old I looked to see what was inside and when I saw this I realized more or less what it was I already knew they weren't my real parents but I don't know how it all fit together and then I read this document that said dead father Harriman's dead mother luda Kings birth certificate issued by Nazi officials there are dashes where the names of her father and mother should her place of birth appears as Brooke au in bathrobe go to the site of one of the orphanages run by the Nazis where the identities of The kidnapped children were undercover was the first place I went and spoke to the caretaker, even though he was still alive.

I asked him if there was any birth here in Brooklyn like it said on the document and he said no one has happened since. Herman found out that he was probably called Tomsky Roman Russia before he was placed with his adoptive parents. If he was really born on January 20 1936. You have your doubts. Younger, maybe me." I'm only 36 years old. Woods's birthday was January 21st. I don't want to say black. The central Polish town of Woods was probably the first station in his life. Herman still doesn't know who turned him into this. orphanage but he does know that the Nazis took him from here to Germany in me, that still Gail Wynand we, who the Bluths must be forgetful, turn to Oracle, the respected Spain or Mary Ellen, that sign of Jiménez causal melon in a nearest tourist, all a Phoenician is stand I had a dream last time, once again, nothing if you become the commander currently opposing the third.

Any six-story Vita alodia also has ties to wood. She was five years old when she was taken to the juvenile detention camp. Wood was called during the Nazi occupation today she will meet with her friend Barbara Petrovic the two women have a lot in common their paths in life have been very similar they have come to a school located on the site of the camp the director of the school is showing them a room that commemorates the thousands of children who were interned here like alodia that was brought here in 1943 you have a big map we need to find Amelia Platters Street it's this way we should go around them so that means my house must have been here how well you remember everything, of course, have you ever heard of dr. group V - field I was probably here about eight weeks before the Poznan career office determined that I corresponded to the so-called Aryan race planes and the Germans wanted German eyes for children of the Aryan race.

I will say, are you afraid of my news? Very well, three people, three life stories with this in common, all three are victims of Heinrich Himmler's racist mania. The SS Reichsführer visited occupied Poland in 1941 and toured the Vertigo district in 1939. Poland had been divided between the Soviet and German sections of the Soviet Union. The western part of the country, including the so-called rice. The island of Givat was incorporated into German rice. Other regions came under German civil administration. Himmler's vision was to make Germany the most powerful nation in the world by reinforcing the population with new progeny from abroad, mainly from In the sleeve of the Eastern European package in Berlin are hundreds of documents showing the gradual development of Himmler's strategy for the organized

kidnapping

of children after their journey through Vata Gal Himmler wrote to the Gauleiter otto Kaiser I think it is right that small children of especially good breed from Polish families should be collected and raised by us in special not very large nurseries and orphanages .

I would advise starting with two or three of these institutions to gain experience. Isabelle Hyneman is professor of contemporary history at the University of Münster. She studied the issue of stolen children for several years, created a European-wide research project and analyzed with her colleagues 17,000 files on foreign children found by the Allies in Germany after the war. Historians want to reconstruct the routes of the stolen children. children, but the fact that the Nazis deliberately concealed their identities makes it a formidable task. With the calculations I have made based on reports of how many children were transported and how many were found after the war, I would estimate the number to be around 20,000.

Polish children, behind each of those numbers there is an individual story of a life immersed in confusion and headed in a completely different direction. There are many myths about the forest Germanization of foreign children. One account is that they were ethnic Germans, that is, children of German descent. who lived outside the German Reich and that only very few children were brought to Germany, but Himmler's plan did have a system as Rice Commissioner for the consolidation of the German nation, he helped issue directive 67 which established first all children and before publishing the orphanages will be taken to accommodation after the operation is completed the children living with Polish adoptive parents will be examined the directive was signed by Ulrich criticized Himmler's direct subordinate later at the Nuremberg trials he claimed that there had never been a concrete plan directive 67 I went to all the high-ranking SS and police leaders and the corresponding SS leaders related to racial and settlement policy so that the SS apparatus knew how it worked.

It was part of a supposedly rational policy of occupation and Germanization. which was imposed mainly in occupied Poland, but also in other occupied and annexed regions of Europe, today experts believe that around 50,000 children were kidnapped throughout Europe. There are known cases in present-day Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, but the largest group was from Poland because the

kidnapping

machinery began in the vertical district, first the orphanages were searched, then child welfare officials summoned all the children living with adoptive parents for inspection there were precise guidelines for what a racially appropriate child was supposed to look like 21 characteristics were examined, including growth patterns the back of the head the bridge of the nose and body hair officials were looking for the so-called Aryan types classified as pure Nordic purif aliens or failed Nordic even what the Nazis could not use were the unbalanced hybrid types and finally they also took the children away from their biological parents as alodia vataj ik they took her to a racial examination after she her mother was deported and then, in the fall of 1943, she was taken to the youth detention camp in Lutz, drilled to be Germanized.

This monument remembers the thousands of children who lived here and were forced into forced labor. Memories come back when Alodia is here. She was taken to the camp along with her little sister Daria. Nirvana bought a while ago in Polanco. Right away we were not allowed to speak Polish. We whispered to each other in Polish. But of course we couldn't make it obvious that we were talking. They punished us for each infraction. Each boss had a club and they shouted at us very loudly. We were afraid of the shouting and of course the strong beatings of those from the Zhenya Pillar Pagoda at 6:00 a.m. . m. they woke us up, took roll and counted us in German, which was difficult for us, we didn't know the numbers, so the roll call used to take a long time, but it had to continue until our The supervisor had counted the entire group of children and Many times when they passed by the barracks where we slept they found dead children in the beds there there was an orgy that looked for museums then they called it lits monster it was the first place for Oh luli was sent most often Brooke university Oh bad poet seen thousands of children were channeled through these Nazi homes each station represented another step in hiding the child's true identity dates of birth names were changed they became more German sounding elodea v taschek became Alisa Vika her friend Barbara became bearable they were forced to forget Their origins were ultimately both placed in German families whereParadoxically, they lived the happiest years of their childhood.

The OVA of Yusuf lives in the center of chintz. Tahoma, even now, he cannot accept that his sister Yanina loves the nation that caused so much suffering to her family. These are the letters from Germany from my sister. she didn't want to appear in person in this film or get involved with the family history which is evident in her letters Joseline's regular salesman when you come to see us please please don't talk about politics or the war Anita all her letters are signed with her Polish and His German name is so Germanized that he even writes in his letters that he should not talk about politics or our history because he is ashamed.

He does not want to know anything about Poland or the memory of his family. She lives her life there in Germany. I am sure that after the murder of her parents, the five Silva children were taken to court. Cal now grew up: in Silesia, Yanina was taken from there by a woman from Hanover who adopted her. Her name was changed to Anita. No official records were preserved in this regard, so Yanina was not found after the war, but her brothers were. I never stopped looking, it was 20 years before Yusuf saw her again, since then they have seen each other regularly.

Good morning, my dear sister, are you at home or out for a walk? Yeah, I mean, you had lunch and you're probably tired. I really want to see you soon. I will leave the opportunity to cover tomorrow at 12:00. Okay, goodbye, my dear sisters kiss, thank you. You know, shut up. I see, now you have heard her voice. Yussef's sister was taken to Germany shortly before the end of the war; she did not undergo racial testing. The longer the war lasted, the less attention German officials paid to the rules and guidelines. Nina's kidnapping was an act of pure despotism in the southwestern German city of Freiburg.

Luther King is visiting Christophe Schwartz Schwartz is a teacher but he has been helping Herman for years. The two want the German government to recognize the kidnapped children as victims of the Nazi regime so they can receive compensation. Shewhart founded an association that represents the interests of children and he and Herman have filed lawsuits together so far without success as a last resort they have turned to the highest court in Germany the Constitutional Court is the letter I received now I have to wait for a date yes and I would suggest that you write another letter to the Constitutional Court saying that they should speed things up a bit considering your age.

I think it's great that at his age he is still willing to fight for justice even if it's only for the symbolic sums of 2,500 euros, it's actually a joke. According to German law regulating compensation for National Socialist injustice, this is the child to which non-Jewish victims are entitled. Cameron Luther King considers himself part of that group. For me, it's not about the money, it's about the recognition that this is a crime. What makes me angry is that his strategy is to wait until nature takes care of it. The German government argues that the abductions can be seen as general collateral damage of the war and that therefore there can be no claim for compensation and it is often argued that the abducted children were treated well unlike other victims that was true in Hermann's case his adoptive German parents were rich his mother was a teacher and director of the regional German Girls' Association his father was a high-ranking teacher both were members of the Nazi Party Hermann graduated from school He studied at university and became in mechanical engineering, but his parents never told him about his chintz background.

Tahoma Yusuf Silva is in service for the last 30 years. He has been working for an organization for victims of Nazi persecution. He

campaign

s for them to receive. compensation poland has a series of funds from which germanized children or children of mothers who were forced workers receive small payments like this woman from now on will receive 50 euros a month dear lady this is excellent this letter says that it will reach at least 212 samples, so we were able to help you with your probably friend Bardock. In the early 1990s, Germany paid 500 million German marks to Poland as a humanitarian gesture, as it was called then.

Yousef wanted to request money for his brothers, but they needed delicious consent my sister responded no no no I will not steal money from the German people because I am Barbara has invited allo dia to her house they want to talk about the stories of their lives that they ended up taking a similar course We As sisters for a long time, we didn't know if we were German or Polish, but I feel like we were both very lucky to end up in families that treated us like their own children. I said no? Her name is Barbara.

She was three years old when the Nazis examined her and approved her Germanization in 1942. She was placed with a German foster family and she grew up as bearable in a slang as Alodia. She had to return to Poland after the war. She was 10 years old at the time. I always say that. my war started after I came back yes, I say the same thing my parents were no longer alive there was nothing left I was an unwanted child who was taken from here to there you couldn't speak Polish anymore, right, I couldn't speak the language anymore I was this Hitler girl, a certain German pig for us children, our return was disastrous, but it was understandable that Poland wanted its children to return after the war, you mean, yes, the houses exclaimed that it seemed extremely complicated for the powers Western allies made child welfare the point of reference.

On the one hand, on the other hand, there was the justified demand of the Polish state to return our children. The authorities found themselves in a complicated legal mess in terms of international law and violations, but Finn Alodia has returned home, he lives in the attempt. God, that's 170 kilometers northwest of Wood for years has been giving public lectures as a witness to history in a few days he will travel to Germany again to tell the story of his life, not the album "I am amethyst here on the album." It is the photograph taken with my new German that chose me lava martini medica mrs.

Luiza had no children of her own, give me a wife admitted coochie Luise doll took the six year old girl to her home in Stendhal in Saxony-Anhalt the girl started going to school there and led a comfortable life as a much loved only child for years, he was surprised. Louisa and her husband Vilhelm Doll received a letter from the Polish Red Cross that devastated the family. Louisa Doll wrote this in response. If the child's mother is alive, we are prepared. of the mother is terrible suffering and uncertainty during the years of separation to return the child safely, of course, the biological mother has the first right and with great regret I will give up the child whom we have come to love and cherish. allô Diaz Polish mother Helene Evita shock had survived Auschwitz and with this photograph she searched all over the world for her two daughters and found them can rot Ramallah through most of the time yes when the news came that she was a stolen Polish girl and I had to return to my country of origin my muti started talking to me about my brothers whom I had forgotten over the course of the four years October my options those who are new Zappa so that's why I was not so reluctant to return to Poland I was not afraid nor ischemia buoyancy a new toga but returning was difficult alodia had forgotten her native Polish but could communicate with her mother Halina who spoke excellent German alodia was lucky to keep in touch with her German moti and the two women also became friends alodia was now a daughter the two now under mom I listened to two moms and these two moms loved each other very much they understood each other Ali girlfriend Scheck believed the dolls when they said they didn't know who ELISA really was Louisa doll wrote to the Polish Red Cross elitsa I was born in Poznan and after fell ill in a university orphanage, she was taken to the Bod Pod scene, there I picked up little Aleta on April 25, 1944, through the former Lebensborn Association, the girl was given to me as a pure German. boy with German name as East German orphan of his adoption Herman Luther King's adoptive mother must have known that he was not a German boy, she got him in December 1942 from a zonin visa, a Lebensborn house in Carranza Lee, a village near Leipzig, its name then was Roman Russia, the tough ski Lebensborn was a pet project of Heinrich Himmler, it provided a place for single women to have their babies and let them raise, the aim was to boost the population area aria and Visa also served as an institution for children like Hermann. who were kidnapped in Poland, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union to be taken to Germany.

Herman was one of the first children here to be given to families loyal to the Nazi regime. Remember how it came about I always played with my friend from Allah and we ate together then a nurse came and said you two have to go to the head nurse so we went up there and the head nurse was sitting and an elegant lady was there Standing later, I learned that it was my adoptive mother who was wearing it. a hat with a veil and the head nurse said okay, are you looking? You can choose one of the two children and she said right away I will take little Haman, he is so pale that I will make him fat and the head nurse said like this. sign here and then you can take the child, she took my hand and we went out and took the train to lemco and most westfalen liver that's how it was like on a chicken farm I want that chicken that doesn't look so good that's how they did it with the kids in at that time and Pearman was happy to have someone to take care of him and got along well with Maria Luther King, but once he started trying to find out about her background, she became separated from him.

When she died in the late 1980s, he did not attend her funeral at the Nuremberg trials. American prosecutors attempted to bring charges for the abduction of foreign children for Germanization purposes, but the court challenged the charges by acquitting the defendants of that crime and outlining the Lebensborn organization. As a Dannenberg welfare institution, in this sense the Nuremberg trial can be considered to have made a tragic legal error by classifying Lebensborn, which ran these children's homes, as a purely charitable organization and equipping those involved with charges from the point of current view, which was a blatant miscarriage of justice Casa feels entitled check alodia vataj is on her way to the city of Freiburg she knows Germany well she often visited her adoptive parents today here she is giving a talk to the students of the Catholic University of Sciences Applied as always a living witness she tells the story of her life in German and that is why they gave us new names and surnames until then they had allowed me yova taschek and now I was a little Khalid sir with alodia says that his lectures have also been a way of therapy for her a way to accept her own past you said that your stay in Germany shaped you and yet you consider yourself polished.

Would you say that Germany is also your homeland in a way? I think it s true. It's just that I love it. Come back here and I always say that every country has very good people and very bad people. The learning from the six-story Alodia Vataj facility is also positive, with a lot of understanding on both sides and hopes to continue telling it for as long as possible today. Yusuf Silva heads to the family reunion with his sister Yanina. I'm glamorous about the trip. I didn't sleep well last night, yes, but yes, yes, Barwon, family history is probably going to be a topic at the meeting.

Yussef can. I don't forgive Yanina for denying that she is polished, but he says that she is and will always be his sister, so Gina brought out a young girl, everyone in the family loves her, she is warm and empathetic, we call her princess because she is very sensitive, so kind and warm, heart-stopping. I said it's not Herman Luther King has received a letter from the German Constitutional Court another defeat he has lost his fight for compensation but he will continue to search for the roots of the parts of his life that the Nazis hid from him I don't think I will discover anything, but I will continue searching, who knows, maybe he'll find a nugget even in his mid-80s.

Not knowing who his parents were is a source of unease that Herman says will never leave him.