They thought of everything

Discussion in 'The Holocaust' started by Za Rodinu, Jun 30, 2009.

  1. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    Thank goodness for Google Books.

    Children of WW2, The Hidden Enemy Legacy
    page 167

    Between Extermination and Germanization:
    Children of German Men in the Occupied Eastern Territories, 1942-45
    Regina Mühlhäuser

    On 8 September 1942 the commander of the 2nd Armoured Division, General Rudolf Schmidt, submitted a report to Hitler in which he estimated the number of 'racially mixed children' (Mischlingskinder) expected in the 'occupied Eastern ter¬ritories' to be about 1.5 million per year. His extrapolation was based upon a rather simple arithmetic operation. He assumed that half of the six million German men stationed in 'the East' had sexual encounters with local women.2 A pregnancy would be the natural consequence in half of the cases. To further simplify the matter, he arrived at the conclusion that 750,000 half-German girls and 750,000 half-German boys would be born each year.3 One week later, at field headquarters on 16 September 1942, the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germandom (Reichskommissar zur Festigung des deutschen Votkstums; RKF), Heinrich Himmler, presented to commanders of the SS and police the figure of at least one million 'soldiers' children' (Soldatenkinder)* As soon as the Nazis started to register the children in 1943, however, these extremely high estimates proved to be false. Rather, they served the megalomaniac Nazi vision of a 'racial restructuring in the East' (rassische Neuordnung im Osten). Gigantic resettlement programmes, expulsions, 'racial inspections', and 'Germanization' programmes were meant to realize the policy of 'selection and extermination' (Auslese und Ausmerze).

    The children of German fathers - of soldiers, members of the SS, the police, and the occupation authorities - were first and foremost considered a risk for the racial and societal order. In the theory of Nazi 'racial hygiene', 'racially mixed children' had been established as 'undesirable'. They served as symbol and evidence for a lack of 'racial awareness' among Aryan men, and were generally perceived as a direct threat to the purity of the Aryan race and to national vitality. In order to prevent the birth of 'racially mixed children', sexual encounters6 of German soldiers and women ‘of alien races’ (artfremde Frauen) or ‘ethnically alien’ women (fremdvölkische Frauen) were subject to controls and penalties.

    Despite such regulations, however, children of German fathers were born in the 'occupied Eastern territories', and various Nazi authorities felt the need to make them objects of their population policies in 'the East'. First of all, the Nazis feared that the 'Eastern peoples' (Ostvölker) would profit from the 'share of Aryan blood' of the German fathers. In order to prevent strengthening the enemy, they reasoned, the 'racially mixed children' needed to be claimed for the 'German Volk commu¬nity' (Deutsche Volksgemeinschaft). Furthermore, the children of German fathers were seen as a human resource and in terms of their military and economic potential. Various Nazi officials harboured interests to 'render the children useful' (nutzbar machen), i.e. to balance the relatively low birth rate in the 'old Reich', and strengthen future military campaigns.

    The debates about the implementation of action in order to deal with the chil¬dren and their parents reveal conflicting interests and practices within the German bureaucratic and military institutions. At any rate, the Nazis planned to locate, reg¬ister and select the offspring of German men. The children designated as 'racially undesirable' were supposed to be left with their mothers to become objects of the extermination politics directed against 'ethnically alien people' in 'the East'. By contrast, the children designated as 'racially fit' were supposed to be 'inserted into the body of the German people' (in den deutschen Volkskörper eingefügt), and transferred to the Reich. They should become part of the Nazi 'Germanization' programme, and grow up in children's homes or foster families. Still, even the 'racially desirable' children posed a threat to the 'German Volk community' by transgressing racial boundaries and classifications. For the purpose of keeping them under control, the Nazi authorities thus began to discuss a range of measures and regulations regarding language skills, education, their names and the treatment of their mothers.

    When the German army had to start its retreat after the defeat of Stalingrad at the beginning of 1943. however, few of these plans were realized in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. The only measure actually implemented was the 'registration of extramarital children of Reich German fathers', and even this was not carried out in all occupied regions. Furthermore, the number of children registered by July 1944 was extraordinarily low. Even taken into account the unavailability of exact figures because of various problems during the process of registration, the results were extremely disappointing. Still, the fantasies about the impact of the children of German men remained vital until 1945.
     
  2. Wolfy

    Wolfy Member

    Wow, they really thought their seed was superhuman.
     

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