| Formation | 12 December 1935 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Heinrich Himmler |
| Dissolved | 1945 |
| Headquarters | Munich, Germany |
Membership | 8,000 (1939) |
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| Nazism |
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| This article is part of a series on the |
| Eugenics Movement |
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Lebensborn e.V. (literally: "Fount of Life") was a secret, SS-initiated, state-registered association in Nazi Germany with the stated goal of increasing the number of children born who met the Nazi standards of "racially pure" and "healthy" Aryans, based on Nazi eugenics (also called "racial hygiene" by some eugenicists). Lebensborn was established by Heinrich Himmler, and provided welfare to its mostly unmarried mothers, encouraged anonymous births by unmarried women at their maternity homes, and mediated adoption of children by likewise "racially pure" and "healthy" parents, particularly SS members and their families. The Cross of Honour of the German Mother was given to the women who bore the most Aryan children. Abortion was legalized (and, more commonly, endorsed) by the Nazis for disabled and non-Germanic children, but strictly punished otherwise.
Set up in Germany in 1935, Lebensborn expanded into several occupied European countries with Germanic populations during the World War II. It included the selection of "racially worthy" orphans for adoption and care for children born from Aryan women who had been in relationships with SS members. It originally excluded children born from unions between common soldiers and foreign women, because there was no proof of "racial purity" on both sides. During the war, many children were kidnapped from their parents and judged by Aryan criteria for their suitability to be raised in Lebensborn homes, and fostered by German families.
At the Nuremberg trials, much direct evidence was found of the kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany during the period 1939–1945.