Children of the Master Race

In 1935, Heinrich Himmler established the Lebensborn (spring of life) programme, an obscene solution to Germany’s falling birth rate. The scheme involved secret birthing homes, the kidnapping of thousands of children and the murder of tiny babies. Its aim was to spawn a ‘racially pure’ generation to rule Hitler’s Reich, which was to last for a Germany and in the countries it occupied, Himmler set up a series of 25 birthing homes where ‘racially pure’ unmarried women could give birth to ‘genetically valuable’ Aryan babies, who would then be cared for by the state.