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Submitted by: Ursula Duba
duba@RCN.COM
[The following is from a recent AP wire story, also reported by dpa,
submitted by a subscriber. - ed.]
Hitler Race Project Records Revealed
BERLIN (AP) - Records of children born under a Nazi project to breed a
German master race will be opened to the children now trying to track down
their roots, a spokesman from the federal archives said Wednesday. A
television report said the archives held files of some 1,000 children born
from Adolf Hitler's quest for a race of blond, blue-eyed and tall Germans.
The files could help some identify the parents of those children who did
not meet the Nazi racist criteria and were sent to orphanages, ARD public
television said.
An archives spokesman, Wilhelm Lenz, confirmed that the agency has records
on some of the children, but he said many files were incomplete and he
could not confirm the figure of 1,000.
Under the breeding program known as Lebensborn, or Fount of Life, women
deemed by the Nazis to fit the ideals of the German race were mated with
selected men to ``bear a child for the Fuehrer.'' The mating places were
officially disguised as maternity homes. ARD said around 7,000 children
were born in the program - although numbers have never been verified.
The television station, which was to air the program Thursday, said its
reporters discovered the previously little-known records at the archives.
Lenz said archive officials had long been aware of the files. But since
they are such a ``highly sensitive issue,'' they have not been open to the
public or media, he said. If someone wants access to find relatives ``they
must apply,'' to do so, he said.
AP-NY-11-17-99 1913EST
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