30 Jun Two Lives
(2012) This German film is the story of a Norwegian child who was sent to Germany during WWII, then was reunited with her mother several years later. The story is based on an SS supported program, “Lebensborn,” that began in the 1930s. Founded by Heinrich Himmler, it grew from the desire of the Nazis to build a master Aryan race. SS and Wermacht officers, married or not, were encouraged to bed racially pure women. The resulting babies were adopted into this program. The Germans were losing so many young men to the war. This was one way to selectively replace their numbers.
There were more than 10,000 Lebensborn babies born in Norway alone. The young women with predominantly blond hair and blue eyes and Viking ancestry were ideal mothers if they could prove a “pure” family lineage back three generations. You can read more about the program here.
Once these babies had grown into adults, they were sometimes recruited by the East German intelligence service to return to their birth countries as spies.
I wonder how could this have happened more than 10,000 times in Norway? I imagine the young girls were entranced by the handsome officers who had been ordered to be charming and seductive. They also promised favors, extra rations, money for clothes.
In the end, everyone suffered. The women were condemned for having “slept with the enemy.” The children were often mistreated, and still, seventy years later, the suffering continues. Just google “Lebensborn” to read their stories.
In Two Lives Norwegian actress Liv Ullman plays the mother whose baby daughter was taken from her after a love affair with a German officer. Based on a recent event, the story takes some unexpected twists and turns that only emphasize the tragic consequences of Lebensborn.
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