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The National Socialists attempted in the course of their racial policy to promote so-called “hereditary” descent. The maternity homes of the SS “Lebensborn” association, whose aim was to increase the birth rate of “Aryan” children, played a central role. The largest “Lebensborn” maternity was in Feichtenbach, near Pernitz (Lower Austria). Historians are now looking for contemporary witnesses who can provide information on the history of the “Heim Wienerwald” between 1938 and 1945.
The focus of the National Socialist racial policy was not only the destruction of “unworthy” life, but also the increase in the number of births of children of “Aryan” origin. To this end, the SS association “Lebensborn”, founded in 1935, maintained nine maternity homes between 1936 and 1945 in what is now Germany, and 15 more were operated in Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and Norway.
Postcard with a view of the “Wienerwald” house in “Lebensborn”
Helga S., Vienna
There were also rumors that the SS men and preferably the blue-eyed blonde women from the German Girls Association were “herded together” for the purpose of procreation. But this is historically untenable, he said on Wednesday in a broadcast from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for War Impact Research in Graz, which wants to work on the history of the “Heim Wienerwald” in a research project.
Investigators seek contemporary witnesses
About 1,300 children were born in the “Sanatorium Wienerwald” pulmonary sanatorium, which was built by two Jewish doctors in 1904 and “Aryanized” by the Nazis in 1938. To this day, relatively little is known about mothers and children. Researchers assume that many came not only from the area of what is now Austria, but also came from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway and later returned there.
Project director Barbara Stelzl-Marx and her colleague Lukas Schretter want to know more about the history of the place and how it was managed after the war, as well as the social structure of the mothers, the biographical background of the fathers, the staff, the daily life at home and, above all, about children. and discover their other resumes. To do this, historians not only look for contemporary witnesses, but also men and women who were born in the “Heim Wienerwald” and want to tell their life stories. Scientists are also interested in photographs, objects, and documents related to the history of the home.
Thousands of children born
An estimated thousands of children were born in the approximately two dozen “Lebensborn” maternity homes. There, anonymous births of unmarried women who were considered “biologically valuable hereditary” by the criteria of Nazi racial ideology were made possible, but adoptions were also carried out. In addition, children of married couples were born in the homes. From 1943 onwards, the association also participated in the “Germanisation” campaign for hundreds of children, especially in what is now Poland.
After 1945, according to historians, many “Lebensborn” children faced the consequences of their origins and tried to find out more about the circumstances of their conception, birth, and early life. The “Heim Wienerwald” was expanded after the Second World War and was used, among other things, as a children’s rest home for the Vienna Youth Welfare Organization, a holiday home for the Federation of Trade Unions and a rehabilitation center for the Vienna Regional Health Insurance Fund. Today it is in ruins.
Investigators ask contemporary witnesses to contact them by phone at +43 (0) 316 / 380-8272 or by email at [email protected]; Internet: https://bik.ac.at/
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