Disciplines
History, Archaeology (100%)
Keywords
Germanization,
National Socialism,
Children Homes,
Polish Children,
Kidnapping,
"Ostmark"
Abstract
Heinrich Himmler, acting in his capacity as "Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Foldom",
ordered the selection of "racially valuable" polish children for "Germanization" - the Teutonic blood had to be
collected even if it meant kidnapping children.
For this reason polish children from orphanages, schools, forster parents, parents who refused to sign the
"Volksliste" and parents who had been murdered or sent to forced labor or concentration camps had to have a
"racial" examination - children who possessed the Nordic features were regarded as suitable for the
"Germanization" and were distributed in special children homes. At these special children homes the children were
forced to give up their own identity step by step: the children got new German names and had to learn German,
moreover contact with relatives at home was painfully forbidden. In Austria, known as "Ostmark" during National
Socialism, two special places were found, where polish children were confronted with "Germanization practices":
the children home "Alpenland" in Oberweis next to Gmunden and the resettlement camp "Parsch" in Salzburg.
After a "successful Germanization" the children were placed in German and Austrian forster families. There the
children were treated in different ways: some children became a part of the family, they felt safety and comfortable
and were treated like their own children. Other polish girls and boys were treated badly: the forster families took
advantage of their defencelessness, they abused and beat the polish children, they reagard them just as cheap
labourer.
After the war only a small number of such kidnapped children was tracked by the several tracking services like
UNRRA, IRO or the Polish Red Cross. But further problems arose when German and Austrian forster families or
the children themselves opposed the repatriation to Poland. Being back in Poland, the polish children were
regarded as children of the enemy - regarded as "German" of the polish society.