Submitted by:  Annette Timm
         annette.timm@BERLIN.DE

The misinformation in the AP wire story (and I do not know whether or not
it accurately reflects the original ARD report) should not be allowed to
stand without comment on this list. I was, I admit, slightly unnerved by
the description of the Lebensborn homes as "mating places" where
"Aryan" women were encouraged to attempt to become pregnant by SS men.
Suddenly I wasn't sure that what I had been telling students (that the myth
of Lebensborn homes being stud farms had been somehow conjured up in the
popular culture and has no basis in historical reality) was really true.

My dissertation deals with population policy, but concentrates on issues of
fertility. I had therefore relied on secondary sources for information
about Lebensborn, and dealt with it only in passing. It had very quickly
become clear to me that the homes were, in fact, maternity homes and thus
fell outside the purview of my project. Still, a report of new research on
the subject was enough to make me feel insecure about this assumption. My
insecurity was short-lived. Even the most cursory of Internet searches (let
alone a trip to the library) immediately reveals that the Lebensborn homes
were not stud farms disguised as maternity homes -- they *were* maternity
homes, albeit maternity homes based on racist thinking and eugenic
practices. Lebensborn provided unwed mothers-to-be (who could prove both
their own and the biological father's racial "purity" and genetic health)
with a secret place to have their babies and put them up for adoption. The
idea was to protect these producers of "valuable genetic material" from the

scorn and ostracism that they would otherwise have faced, while making
sure that the "Aryan" children were given appropriate homes.  Crimes were
certainly perpetrated. Babies born with defects, for instance, were killed.
But "maternity home" is still the best description of what went on in
Lebensborn homes.  A full-length, scholarly, well documented debunking of
the Lebensborn-as-stud-farm myth is
available on the internet.
See: FRANZ W. SEIDLER, "LEBENSBORN E.V. DER SS: Vom Geruecht zur Legende" at


http://www.vho.org/D/dsdv/Seidler.html

See also:


http://www.gondwana.de/jungle/anti/schmitz.html

for a review of: Dorothee Schmitz-Koester: _Deutsche Mutter, bist du bereit
... . Alltag im Lebensborn_. Berlin: Aufbau, 1997.  Schmitz-Koester is a
Bremen journalist -- in other words, someone who might have been happy to
reveal evidence of forced or voluntary mating practices had she found any.
The book is based on historical research and oral interviews.

I'd be happy to hear any theories about why this misinformation about
Lebensborn continues to be propagated. I'd also, of course, be grateful to
hear from anyone who has encountered even a shred of historical evidence
about Nazi breeding programs, since this moves the issue back into the
spectrum of my research interests. My strong suspicion, however, is that we
have here a compelling example of how historical myths are perpetuated.
Planning sexual encounters for the purpose of breeding perfect children is,
of course, an incredibly seductive idea. Hollywood has picked it up several
times. (Most recently in
an indie film: "Lebensborn," directed by David Stephens, USA 1998. See

http://www.indiepix.com/Lebensborn/title.htm
for a synopsis.) Much more surprisingly, research institutes like the Simon
Wiesenthal center also continue to spread misleading information about
Lebensborn, calling it a "a program to produce an Aryan master race by
pairing males and females selected for their perfect Aryan features." See:


http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/gallery/pg40/pg5/pg40541.html

(The word "pairing" suggests an active attempt to match-up couples. In
actual fact, Lebensborn only intervened in the process after the pregnancy
had already occurred.)

Perhaps we must also consider that the myth might be gaining new life in
light of present-day fears about the future of DNA technology. But
historians should know better than to fall into this trap.


Annette Timm
Postdoctoral Fellow
Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies
Freie Universitaet, Berlin
Garystr. 45
D-14195 Berlin
Germany
Office Tel./Fax: (030) 838 6671
E-Mail: annette.timm@berlin.de

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