Figure 1.--.
|
Figure 1.--. |
The SS by June 1941 had become increasingly skilled a rounding up and evaluating children for Eindeutschung process. The SS was especially occupied with operations to murder Jews in 1941. The Sovit winter offensive of December 1941 had come at a terrible shock to the Wwhrmacht and SS. The SS by the Spring of 1942 could give more attention to Eindeutschung, in fact the losses in 1941 if anything gave more empetus to the need to reclaim available Aryan blood. After the Stalingrad debacle in January 1943, Himmler ordered that transit camps be set up for children and youths of suspects rounded up in anti-partisan operations.
Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and defeated the Polish Army in a few weeks, introducing the world to Blitzkrieg warfare. They divided Poland woth the Soviet Union which after the German success invaded from the east. The occupation of Poland was one of the most brutal in European history. Occupation aithorities, especially the
SS, were under no legal or moral constraints as regards their conduct and the execultion of occupation policies. Poles had no recourse. It was thus in Poland that the SS and other NAZI agencies The SS conducted kidnappings take children children who matched NAZIs developed the procedures to be used in the Eindeutschung program.
The SS by June 1941 had become increasingly skilled a rounding up and evaluating children for Eindeutschung process. The SS was especially occupied with operations to murder Jews in 1941.
The SS by the Spring of 1942 could give more attention to Eindeutschung, in fact the losses in 1941 if anything gave more empetus to the need to reclaim available Aryan blood.
Soviet successes breathed increasing life into the partisan operastions behind the badly extended German lines. German operations against the patisans brought more large numbers of Russian civilans under German control. After the Stalingrad debacle in January 1943, Himmler ordered that transit camps be set up for children and youths of suspects rounded up in anti-partisan operations. The purpose of these camps wa the raciual evaluation of the children.
The results of the racial examinations had enormous consequences.
The children who were found to have Aryan, or as the NAZIs phrased it "racially valuable" blood blood were shipped to the Reich. The younger children went to Lebensborn homes for adoption. The older children were sent to boarding schools in Germany.
The children that were found to be"racially worthless" were sent to concerntration camps for slave labor as "appretices". Unlike the Jews, he expressed purpose here was not murder. Conditions in the camps were so poor that many children died. This did not concern many NAZIs interested in reducing the Slavic population of the East, but other NAZIs were interested in increasing war production. Actually Himmler himself was interested in improving conditions for non-Jewish laborers, but the system set up by the SS was so horrific and the guards so brutal that this was virtually impossible. [Padfield, pp. 441-442] Concerning the non-Aryan children seized, "Their education is to consist of instruction in obedince, diligence, unconditional subordination and loyalty towards the German masters. They must count up to 100, learn to recognize the traffic signsand be prepared for their trade as agricultural workers, fitters, stonemasons, carpenters, etc. The girls are to be trained as workers on the land, weavers, spinners, knitters, and similar occupations." [Himmler, January 6, 1943 in Padfield, p. 443.]
Padfield, Peter. Himmler: Reichsführer-SS (Henry Holt: New York, 1991), 656p.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to Main World War II displaced children page]
[Return to Main military style page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]