When did Lebensborn offically cease or stop?
- Mark in Cleveland, Tn.
- Member
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- Joined: 27 Jul 2004, 02:30
- Location: Cleveland ,tennessee
When did Lebensborn offically cease or stop?
When did this program cease ? And if a date, did it continue *unoffically* beyond that?
Re: When did Lebensborn offically cease or stop?
According to my book, Master Race (by Catrine Clay and Michael Leapman):
(sorry, I don\¨t have it in english, thus the translation is not 100 accurate)
Because Lebensborn homes were a Nazi creation, they coudn't survive the end of movemet that had created them. In both occupied lands and Germany itself, they keep working until the last moment, until the enemy was just a few days ahead. First, the homes west of Germany ceased to exist. Before the end of 1944, homes in Frabce, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg were closed. Usually, the youngest kids were evacuated without their mothers into another homes, placed nearer to the heart of Reich, mostly Wiesbaden. The mothers to be could also run east, but mostly were left on spot, to the "liberators".
As for Eastern front, Bad Polzin was conquered during February 1945. The inhabitants were moved to Wiesbaden, but just in one month time they had to move again, to Ansbach near Nürnberg. There, the ever-growing numbers of kids refugees stayed just for 4 weeks. The fast attack of US Army forced them to the last refugee in Steinhöring. When the Americans reached it, May 1945, they found almost 300 kids and couple of mothers of different nationalities.
By the way, the book says that Lebensborn was one of the top priorities of Himmler himself, that's why the homes were kept until the very end. The inhabitants also had access to as much fruits and chocolate as possible. I generally recommend this book to anyone interested in Lebensborn programme.
(sorry, I don\¨t have it in english, thus the translation is not 100 accurate)
Because Lebensborn homes were a Nazi creation, they coudn't survive the end of movemet that had created them. In both occupied lands and Germany itself, they keep working until the last moment, until the enemy was just a few days ahead. First, the homes west of Germany ceased to exist. Before the end of 1944, homes in Frabce, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg were closed. Usually, the youngest kids were evacuated without their mothers into another homes, placed nearer to the heart of Reich, mostly Wiesbaden. The mothers to be could also run east, but mostly were left on spot, to the "liberators".
As for Eastern front, Bad Polzin was conquered during February 1945. The inhabitants were moved to Wiesbaden, but just in one month time they had to move again, to Ansbach near Nürnberg. There, the ever-growing numbers of kids refugees stayed just for 4 weeks. The fast attack of US Army forced them to the last refugee in Steinhöring. When the Americans reached it, May 1945, they found almost 300 kids and couple of mothers of different nationalities.
By the way, the book says that Lebensborn was one of the top priorities of Himmler himself, that's why the homes were kept until the very end. The inhabitants also had access to as much fruits and chocolate as possible. I generally recommend this book to anyone interested in Lebensborn programme.