G. W. September 19th 39. 00 nazi germany invaded poland and for more than 5 years brought terror to much of europe with its ideology of a master race. A central figure in that campaign was right sphere s. S. Heinrich himmler. The leading nazi was obsessed with racial purity and came up with a plan to bolster the socalled arion race between 19411945 children were kidnapped from all over Eastern Europe and forcibly german artist. Historians estimate that 20000 of those children came from poland alone. In nazi run Childrens Homes they learned to speak german their identities were falsified the got trustful before i was named a load here vitesse check from that moment on i was the least civet cat. Those children are now over 80 years old and many of them still know nothing about their roots. Nor do buy me last armies i felt this kind of back and forth also affected my relationships feel. Much of what happened to them is still a mystery. Use of some of our travels as often as he can to the place where his parents are buried. It lies outside changed to hava in southern poland. He was just 9 years old when they died and. Truly i bark i feel im missing the warmth of being around squire father and mother. Were liberal brought up by strangers or something larger forever but all my life ive been missing that warmth that embrace all that. His father usurped was 41. His mother french scieszka 36. When they were murdered by the nazis on the spot. Their son use if is now 86 years old. But he has never forgotten his childhood home. Power. Follow dalby and ski over there was a Village House with 2 rounds it was made of wood and bricks book i was on a good job there was a show you where the stables were and fathers workshop and i could. During world war 2 use of family who didnt use an partisans in the bunker 7 people lived underground here for 2 years is out them both of them there are all of the above this bunker was a pipe for the air came in or not and the jews in the polish protestants got their air through this part of course my parents also gave them food water should be a card merely a product shows they were just going to talk about oh yes. And the whole tragedy and torture took place here. And show you how the. Germans came going to congress soldier house and the interest. Of the knock on the door. And asked if the so frustrated here called mommy actually in violets they started smashing the windows with their rifles. All the planes were broke up she just my mother was crying and took us children out to the young. Children ran behind our mama and papa we were all practically naked under shorts it was 5 oclock in the morning it was september so it was chilly and the germans were the jews were the partisans but also i only went into the barn and they had a pointy metal stick and they stuck it into the straw to see if they would hit a person i would scream and yell or that but there was not enough guy yes that. Stick. On the answer to the germans hit them with anything they could get their hands on. With holes im sure pitchforks. My mother was stabbed in the stomach 3 times with the pitchfork children while she was pregnant flesh to show their mission under 6 their 7th month. Well bashar mama didnt make any more sense she was really just i know. My father had. He been hit with a rifle the whole courtyard was full of blood they dragged my mother here and my father there are kids there. And they still found nothing but. Listen our lives are not now. Its not. Just between the workshop and the stables and. Im not sure. How they got on like that maybe 4 or 6 candidates fell in the middle of the courtyard and at that moment the 1st jewish women came out of. There and. Then they said the other side of the house on friday. After that the soldiers shot use of parents dead and threw their bodies into a pit at the spot where their graves is now. The children survived after witnessing the events. Then they were taken to germany like thousands of other children from 1941 onwards who were deemed to be worthy of being terminated just. Use of sr yanina still lives in germany. Or not is there shes german german ice. All eyes just that she corresponds to the carry on nordic response blond hair and like colored eyes that was what the germans wanted to show our sister was lost to us forever. As a pearl little sister the best one of us was in germany my next of theirs. It was just i was god. Is good in anything give me a good good image you got a good doctor she wanted to keep. Your going im going to help god would be kinda fun being in 220. Just there were given what i was going to be did you not only. Wish. Come on luther king has lived in by dear im in southwestern germany since he retired. Where he originally came from he doesnt know this you know arguably speaking even but everyone feels they security also teach and i want that parents look at nothing to cover it up we dont like to know if i should rather saw systems nieces or os i just dont know i seems to have tried everything. I could to 20 archives but i found nothing youve nothing at all happened before god thinks. This for decades herrmann has been trying to find out who his parents were and where he was born. He always has the support of his partner. Even as a child he felt that there was some mystery when he was 6 years old when he was placed with maria and her money luther king but he sensed that they were keeping something from him that. This stuff out of the way spot was hidden in my foster fathers concert. And those are areas 13 or 14 year old i looked to see what was interesting. Yes i was always curious. And when i saw this i realized more or less what it was a part. Of this. This is my that i already knew that i wanted my real parents but i didnt know how it all hung together. And then i read this document that said father ted mother dead. Carmen luther kings birth certificate issued by nazi officials there are dashes where the names of his father and mother should. Be. His place of birth is listed as broken invertigo the site of one of the nazi run orphanages where the identities of the abducted children were covered up. In. The 1st place i went looking and i spoke to the can take it that he was still alive i asked him if anybody else took place here like it said in the document and he said no no but ever took place you. Need to step through food and found since then harriman has discovered that he was probably called roman russia tough skinned before he was placed with his foster parents was he really born on january 20th 1036 he has his doubts. I might be a year older or younger maybe im just 36 years old. Theyre just standard documents from ward was january the 21st. I dont want to say i know. The central polish city of woodchip was probably the 1st station in his life. Come on still doesnt know who gave him up to this orphanage. But he does know that the nazis took him from here to germany. To be that youve been into a lot of good luck youll be going. On all this by. Boredom i am. Not going north. You bring this guy was on the bed and you know what you call him order given me. I do not. Want i didnt know if you have it on. Critical mind. Im going to be a bold but i am not going to be able to do this. Story also has ties to woods. She was 5 years old when she was brought to the youth Detention Camp in lets munched as woods was called during the nazi occupation. Today shes meeting up with her friend bob. The 2 women have a lot in common. Their parents in life have been very similar. Theyve come to a school located on the site of the camp. The School Director is showing them a room that commemorates the thousands of children who were interned here. Like who was brought here in 1943. By this. Oh you have a great man. Well shall we need to find him really applied to st its over here we should turn the map around like this what i thought that means my house must have been here. How well you remember everything of course have you ever heard of the children from dr b. Tash x. Group i am of you. Father was a resistance fighter executed by the nazis her mother was deported to auschwitz for her husbands actions and ended up in the machinery of the german occupiers oppression people and how long were you in the camp possible. I was probably here for around 8 or. Before that in the race office in poznan and they had determined that i corresponded to the so called area. Jets and the germans wanted to german eyes children of the area and race. That are said get away yourself right. 3 people. 3 life stories. With this in common. All 3 are victims of heinrich humors racist mania. The race fear s. S. Visited occupied poland in 1941 and traveled through the vote to go district. In 1039 poland had been carved up between the soviets and the germans. Sections of the western part of the country including the socalled racecar to lie and were incorporated into the german riteish other regions were placed under german civil administration. Kamal as vision was to make sure many of the mightiest nation in the world. By bolstering the population with new progeny from abroad mainly from Eastern Europe. In the bundesliga sheaf in berlin are hundreds of documents that show the gradual development of humor strategy for the organized abduction of children. After his trip through far to go himmler wrote to the go later i took riser. I believe it is right that small children of especially good race from polish families because elected and brought up by us and special not to large childrens nurseries and orphanages. I would advise starting with 2 or 3 such institutions so as to gather experience. Is about hina mine is a professor of contemporary history at the university of manchester. She has studied the subject of the stolen children for a number of years. She set up a europe Wide Research project and with colleagues analyzed 17000 files of foreign children found by the allies in germany after the war. On historians want to reconstruct the roots taken by the stolen children and with them as slaves but the fact that the nazis deliberately concealed their identities makes that a formidable task on it. As it would and that did that and with the calculations like done based on the reports of how many children were transported and how many were found after the war i would estimate the number to be around 20000 polish children behind each one of those numbers is an individual story as a life thrown into turmoil and set on a completely different course and then fall off the norm. There are many myths about the forced german ization of foreign children one account is that they were ethnic germans that is children of german ancestry who lived outside the german reich and that only very few children were brought to germany at all. But him plan did have a system as the rights commissioner for the consolidation of german nationhood he helps to issue directives 6071. 00. It stated. First all children and formerly polish orphanages are to be taken and placed in accommodations after that operation is concluded children living with polish foster parents will be examined. The directive was signed by all rich private himmlers direct subordinate. Later at the nuremburg trials he claimed that there had never been a concrete plan. The directive 6071. 00 went to only high ranking leaders of the s. S. And the police and the corresponding s. S. Leaders concerned with race and settlement policy so that the s. S. Operators would be aware of how it worked it was a part of a supposedly rational occupation and gemini ization policy that was imposed mainly on occupied poland but also one other occupied and next to each and. All possible. Today experts believe that our own 50000 children were abducted from across europe. Cases are known from todays ukraine the Czech Republic and slovenia. But the Largest Group was from poland because the machinery of the abduction started in the bar to go district. First orphanages were searched then Child Welfare officials summoned all children living with foster parents for inspection. There were precise guidelines on how a racially suitable child was supposed to look 21 characteristics were examined including growth patterns the back of the head the bridge of the nose and body hair the officials were looking for socalled arion types classified as pure nordic purif alien or nordic failure and what the nazis couldnt use were unbalanced hybrid types. And finally children were also taken away from their biological parents like. She was taken for racial examination after her mother was deported then in the autumn of 1943 she was brought to the youth Detention Camp in litzmannstadt to be germanized. This memorial recalls the thousands of children who lived here and were forced to do hard labor. I knew it. Was a book the memories come flooding back when all over your stands here. She was brought to the camp together with her little sister daria. Nirvana brought some ago part all of course straight away we werent allowed to speak polish. Wed whisper to each other in polish but of course we couldnt make it obvious that we were speaking. Of our Public School i knew we were punished for every infraction. Each couple had a club and they shouted at us very loudly. We were scared of the yelling and of course the severe beating. By ear outs of the pedal. I think so they work us full roll call. Counters off in germany which was hard for us we didnt know the numbers. And thats why the roll call used to take a very long time wash with some of our time. I missed that but it had to keep going until our supervisor had counted the entire group of children to hold off. The t. V. Show. And often when they went through the barracks where we slept. They would find their children in the beds. Oh yes they are so. No. Then called was the 1st place where all of you were sent. More followed. Brooke ill. Bide protein. Thousands of children were funneled through these nazi run homes. Each station represented a further step to conceal the childs real identity. Dates of birth were changed names were made more german sounding. Follow the a veto became a lead civic. Her friend barbaro became bearable. They were forced to forget their origins finally both were placed in german families where paradoxically they experienced the happiest years of their childhood. Use of salva lives in the center of chance to hold. Even know he cant accept that his sister yanina loves the nation that caused his family so much suffering america has 5 days of their letters from germany from my sister. Which she did not want to appear in person in this film or engage with the familys history thats apparent in her letters. Theres a line vendor by your society so when you come to see us please please dont talk about politics or about the war. Wars you love and kisses. Yes. All her letters are signed with her polish and her german name on a stock. Shes been so german iced that she even writes in her letters that i shouldnt talk about politics or our history show you because shes embarrassed. You can still get on a ship that was she doesnt want to know anything about poland or the memory of her family. Or when you know she lives her life there in germany she is 4 years richard. After the murder of their parents the 5 silva children were brought to court now grown cool in silesia. You know nino was taken from there by a woman from hanover who adopted her her name was changed to anita no official records about this were preserved which is why you know it was not found after the war but her siblings never stopped looking it was 20 years before use of saw her again since then theyve met up regularly. How they all out o. My good day my dear sister. Are you would home or out for a walk. Here is thought i had lunch and youre probably tired just last year im looking forward so much to seeing you soon as the were from the jets. Yeah you look at all theyll be living a chance to hope for tomorrow or 12 but no one of us they. Shake or goodbye my dear sister. Banks. You know for sure the bars for you so now youve heard her voice. Use of sr was carried off to germany shortly before the end of the war she didnt undergo a racial examination the longer the war went on the less attention the german officials paid to rules and guidelines. Ninas abduction was an act of pure despotism. In the southwestern german city of fribourg hermeneutic king is paying a visit to crystal shot this isnt. Schwartz is a teacher but for years he has been helping him on the to want the German Government to recognize the kidnapped children as victims of the nazi regime so that they can receive compensation. She wants founded an association representing the childrens interests and he and herrmann have filed lawsuits together so far with no success. As a last resort theyve approached germanys highest court the Constitutional Court. This is this is nice is the letter i received this. Just processing it. And now i have to wait for a day i mean. How money is right for your son and id suggest that we write another letter to the Constitutional Court saying they should speed things up a little in consideration of your. Own zone of us who are not. Those initial toil i think its great that his age he still are prepared to fight for justice even though its only about the symbolic sums of 2500 euros from really its a joke. According to germanys act regulating compensation for National Socialist injustice that is the sum to which non jewish victims are entitled. To come on new day king considers himself a part of that group. Is good enough for me its not about the money but about the recognition that this was a crime with me thats what gets me mad he used the strategy is to wait until nature takes care of it or by then its over the. German government argues that the kidnappings can be seen as general Collateral Damage of war and that therefore there can be no claim to compensation. And its often argued that the kidnapped children were well treated in contrast to other victims. That was true in herremans case his german foster parents were wealthy his mother was a teacher and head of the Regional Association of german girls. The father was a high ranking teacher both were nazi party members. Came and graduated from school studied at university and became a mechanical engineer. But the parents never spoke to him about his background. Back in chains to hoffa. Is on duty. For the past 30 years hes been working for an organization for the victims of nazi persecution he campaigns for them to receive compensation but. Poland has a number of funds from which the germanized children or the children of mothers who are forced laborers receive small payments. Like this woman from now on shell get 50 euros a month. For her by not offering dearly on sky this is actually until several hours or this letter says you will get at least 212 swatches the last show so weve been able to help here we are here saying shared by new probably by about a buyout dark. In the early 1990 s. Germany paid 500000000. 00 each marx to poland as a humanitarian gesture as it was called back then. Use if wanted to apply for money for his siblings but they needed to his consent. Not that much historians are on no no no i will not steal money from the german people because i am dramatically i said yes. Barbara has invited a load here to her home they want to talk about the stories of their lives that wound up taking such a similar course. But they actually asked we all kind of like sisters. For a long time we didnt know if we were german or pay less. But i feel as though we were both very lucky to change stations but there are a few issues that we ended up in families that treated us like their own children and i said questioning. What. Could. Barbaro was 3 when the nazis examined her and approved her for a german ization. In 1902 she was placed with a german foster family and grew up as bearable in limbo. Like a lot of years she had to return to poland after the war. She was 10 at the time. Oh yeah thats the movie room lawyer boy and actually if i always say that my war started after i went back yes i say the same. My parents were no longer alive there was nothing left. I was an unwanted child he was shunted around here and there you couldnt speak polish and write i couldnt speak the language anymore i was this hitler girl ride german swine for us children our return was disastrous but it was understandable that poland wanted its children back jackie. After the war you mean yes. Has extreme she think its extremely complicated and the western allied powers made the childs well being the benchmark on the one hand and on the other hand there was the justifiable demand of the polish states that said give our children back to your thirties found themselves and a complicated legal model in terms of international law. Violation the feeling. Alone here is back home again she lives in big gosh thats 170 kilometers northwest of roads. For years shes been giving public lectures as a witness of history. In a few days shell be traveling again to germany to tell the story of her life. Not them out there in the album is the 1st aircraft taken with my new german motif picked me out. More. Mrs louise that. She didnt have any children of her. Adult took the 6 year old to her home in stendhal in saxony on her. Little girl started going to school there and lead a comfortable life as a much loved only child. 4 years later came the shock. Louise and her husband bill home guard received a letter from the polish red cross which tore the family apart. Louisa dahl wrote this in response. If the mother of the child is alive we are prepared in view of the mothers terrible suffering and uncertainty during the years of separation to return the child safe and sound to her. Of course the biological mother has the 1st right and with a heavy heart i will give up the child whom we have come to love and cherish. d polish mother. Had survived our schwarz. And with this photograph searched the world for her 2 daughters. And found them. When the news came that i was a stolen polish child and had to go back to my home country. And there my musi began to tell me about my siblings who i had forgotten in the course of the 4 years they still october me obsessed headed out on the ocean so for that reason i was not so reluctant to return to poland. That i had. Spotted of i wasnt afraid of a tall skinny a boy or girl. But going back was hard. Had forgotten her native polish. But she could communicate with her mother who spoke excellent german. Only was lucky that she maintained contact to her german morty. And the 2 women also became friends. It was now daughter to both of them. I had 2 moments. And these 2 mamas loved each other very much but they understand each other and we all. Believe the dolls when they said they had not known who elites are really was. Wrote to the polish red cross. Was born in poznan and after she became ill in a Childrens Home in college was then brought to bad cold scene. That is where i picked up little on april 25th 1944 mediated by the former labor Born Association the child was placed with me as a pure german child with a german name as an eastern german orphan for adoption. Cameron luther kings foster mother must have known that he was not a german child she got him in december of 1942 from zone and visa elevens born home in corins ollies a village near leipsic. His name then was roman russia topsy. Levens born was a pet project of heinrich himmler. It provided a place for unmarried women to have their babies and leave them to be raised the goal was to boost the area and population. Zone and visa also served as an institution for children like airman who were abducted from poland yugoslavia and the soviet union to be taken to germany. Herrmann was one of the 1st children here to be given away to families loyal to the nazi regime. He remembers how it came about. But. I used to always play with my friend all along. And would be together isnt. All and then a nurse came and said you 2 have to come along to the head not us. So we went up there and the head was sitting with at an elegant lady was standing. Later i knew it was my foster mother. She wore a hat with a veil. And the head nurse said. You can pick one of the 2 children it was and she said right away take little hammer. Hammer you are funny amount. And the head nurse said so just sign here and then you can take the child with. d it. And she took my hand and we went out and took the train to let me go in the fall and let her. Go thats how it went. So one of the these are you know like a chicken farmer and i want down chicken that one doesnt look so good but i like that. Thats how they did it with the children. At the time here man was just happy that he had someone to take care of him and he got along well with maria luther king. But once he started to try and find out about his background she broke away from him. When she died in the late 1980 s. He did not attend her funeral. At the nuremberg trials american prosecutors tried to press charges for the kidnapping of alien children for purposes of german ization. But the tribunal contested the charges according the defendants of that crime and describing the livin sporn organization as a welfare institution. That dont back up in this respect the nuremberg trials can be seen to have made a tragic legal mistake to classify labels go on which ran these Childrens Homes as a purely Charitable Organization and equipped those involved with the challenges from todays point of view that was that related to the judicial era casa feel and child on. A lot of return is on her way to the city of fribourg. She knows germany well. She often visited her foster parents here. Today shes giving a talk to students of the Catholic University of applied sciences as a living witness. As always she tells her life story in german all that will happen and that is why they gave us new 1st and last names. Until then i had been. And now i was early to say if i leave it. Here live says her lectures have also been a form of therapy for her. Its a way of coming to terms with her own past but i guess that. Youre meant to be inside you said that your time in germany shape she says and yet you still consider yourself polish. Would you say that germany is also your homeland in a way on. Yes i think thats true it is that for me i love to come back here and comments over it and i always say every country has very good people and very bad people and they should. Follow the of the taj next story is also a positive one with lots of understanding on both sides and she hopes to keep telling it for as long as she can. Today use of salva is setting off to the family get together with his sister yanina. But im going to have this about the journey that i didnt sleep or a last night you know sports a spa and. The Family History is likely to be a topic of the gathering. Use of cant forgive yanina for denying that shes polish but he says she is and will always be his sister. Saw to gin up all the young everyone in the family loves her yes shes warm and empathetic bonzo about the recall or the princess because shes so sensitive so nice and warm article our stock of your pocket costs. I am an luther king has received a letter from the german Constitutional Court another defeat he has lost his fight for compensation. But he will continue to search for his roots for the parts of his life that the nazis hid from him. Because he was how i dont think ill find out anything but ill keep looking. Who knows maybe ill find a nugget so i will have you know of none koran. Even in his mid eighties not knowing who his parents were is a source of unease that hammond says will never leave him. Its better than any thriller. New ways to buy crime. Crime scenes are preserved in virtual form break ins can be predicted in advance and autopsies conducted without a scalpel what used to be Science Fiction has now become reality for the high tech law enforcement. Close up. In 30 minutes on d w. Ah im going crazy thing in all the time. How to handle our new lives in times of the corona and then x d w reporter. Just like everyone else and shes looking for answers and thankfully with the help of dreaming that if you are one. Of these folks thank you this is not life as we know it but were all in this together our new web series. Has a virus spread. Why do we panic. And when will. You just 3 of the topics and weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the coronavirus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you can get your podcast you can also find us at dot com slash science. This is t w news coming to you live from berlin u. S. President dont trust says china could have stopped the coronavirus before it swept the world as number of cases in america approaches 1000000 trump insists all parts of the country are doing well also on the program as spain allows children to go out after 6 weeks of confinement there warning so