The Last Nazis: Children of the Master Race

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'In Nazi Germany in the 1930s, a secret plan was hatched

'to create a master race of blond-haired, blue-eyed children.

'While war raged and millions were murdered,

'these elite children were bred to populate the Reich

'that would rule for 1,000 years.'

Did they want me as a child?

Or just did they want somebody

as an ideological person for the system?

'The project was called Lebensborn,

'and was the brainchild of SS chief Heinrich Himmler.

'He said, "Should we succeed in establishing this Nordic race,

'and from this seedbed produce a race of 200 million, then the world will belong to us.'

The date of my first birthday,

"From your Godfather, H Himmler."

One of the worst criminals in Germany.

'For the Lebensborn children there would be a tragic outcome.'

SPEAKS IN GERMAN

'70 years after World War II began, this film reveals

'what has become of the children who were born to be the master race.

'After a life of lies and deception,

'Guntram Weber finally discovered that he was a Lebensborn child,

'the illegitimate son of a leading SS officer.

'These shocking revelations

'have led him to retrace his father's footsteps

'to the autumn of 1939,

'in an attempt to understand his own past.'

He crossed into Poland.

Carrying his gun.

And carrying a list of people he was going to arrest and kill.

And he knew what he was going to do. And he wanted to do it.

'One stop on Guntram's journey will be the home in Poland

'where he spent early childhood.

'But this was no ordinary upbringing

'with a mother, father, brothers and sisters.'

I spent my earliest 15 months here and I know next to nothing about it.

There are lots of secrets connected with that.

And most of them are unpleasant.

This is strange.

The floor looks... I don't know.

Familiar. Familiar.

'Guntram's first home was one of 30

'built across the German empire by Heinrich Himmler from 1935 onwards.

'Their purpose to nurse a special class of illegitimate children

'capable of becoming the new master race.

'This project Himmler called Lebensborn or "fountain of life".

'Like Guntram Weber, Gisela Heindenreich was brought up in a Lebensborn home.'

Himmler first said, "We have to avoid abortions.

"Because too much of this precious German blood is getting lost."

Then he said, "We make an institution called Lebensborn to help women who are pregnant."

Now, here's the "but".

"Only to women of good blood."

This was what Lebensborn actually was.

They accepted only women fitting the racial "correct" type.

WOMAN SPEAKS GERMAN

'Every last detail of the Lebensborn project was overseen

'by Himmler's watchful fanatical eye.

'Himmler had rapidly risen to become head of the SS and the Gestapo.

'Born into a middle-class Catholic family,

'he became a chicken farmer with a particular obsession

'for the breeding of genetically pure white hens.

'It was natural for Hitler to entrust him

'with the Nazis' programme to create a new master race.

'But who would be the sexual engine behind this patriotic procreation?

'Himmler's very own SS.

'Hitler said, "I do not doubt, within 100 years

'"all the German elite will be a product of the SS."

'They became simultaneously an instrument of terror

'and the genetic seed for the so-called "Aryan race".

'Together with specially selected blond-haired blue-eyed wives,

'they were encouraged to have large families.

'But Himmler soon realised

'that the strictures of married life slowed up the breeding process.

'He encouraged his men to extend their carnal duties beyond the marital bed,

'with Lebensborn on hand for the new single mothers and their children.

'Himmler said,

"I have systematically defied existing laws and explained to my men

"that children are always a blessing.

'"Now my men tell me with shining eyes

'"that they have just had an illegitimate child.

'"The girls regard it as an honour, not a disgrace."'

GISELA:
Like never before in their life, they had an importance,

which they had not had before.

You were selected to be somebody who will have a child.

The child will be an Aryan child.

This child will be part of the so-called master race

so you are important yourself.

They had evenings with music and dances,

but also with training of Nazi ideology.

I had contact with women who said it was the best time of their life.

They had nice stuff.

Everything was OK.

They felt like, "You are a sister of mine. We have the same ideology."

'For the Lebensborn children themselves,

'their daily routines were tailored to serve the Reich

'and prepare them for their destiny.'

GUNTRAM:
Imagine 30 babies in one room,

where the nurses are instructed not to answer signals from the babies.

As a baby, you would utter certain desires. The desire to be fed.

The desire to be cleaned. The desire for warmth, for cuddling.

For whatever.

Your desires would not be answered.

And that was...that was...programme.

It was not just, you know, that they forgot.

It was a programme

to break your will.

Once you have broken a person's will you can install your own order.

'In Lebensborn homes, fathers remained anonymous.

'The Reich was the authority.

'Himmler even became Godfather to a carefully selected few.'

'Guntram Weber's mother refused to reveal his father's identity.

'As he grew up in post-war Germany,

'the desire to know where he came from grew ever stronger.'

I was consciously looking to solve the secrets

that my mother and my stepfather and the older generation left me with.

I had questions about myself.

So, one day, when there was no-one else in the house,

I went and I opened the wardrobe

and I looked at the strongbox and the key was on it.

So I took it, unlocked it, looked in...

SHARP INTAKE OF BREATH ..found lots of papers.

None about myself.

None about myself, but I found a silver cup.

It gives the date of my first birthday

and then it says, "From your Godfather, H Himmler."

I knew the name Himmler, even at 15 and 16.

And I knew the man was a...

was a...criminal,

one of the worst criminals in Germany.

That indicated that my father must have been high up,

somewhere close to Himmler.

'Himmler was Godfather to at least 50 Lebensborn offspring

'sired by his closest SS colleagues.

'He himself practised what he preached,

'producing two illegitimate children of his own.'

There was a shelf at the library with new acquisitions.

I would go through all the books that came out

about national socialism.

I was especially interested in looking at the photos.

Um...

And I, er... I tried to determine whether there was any similarity

between myself and people on those photos.

'It wasn't until many years later

'that Guntram's stepfather finally told him who his real father was.

'Ludolf von Alvensleben,

'a dedicated Nazi, a high-ranking SS officer

'and Himmler's adjutant.

'In 1939, Alvensleben proved his loyalty to Hitler

'and the Nazi regime in the most brutal fashion.

'On 1st September 1939, Germany invaded Poland

'and started World War II.

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