Stolen Children: The Kidnapping Campaign of Nazi Germany (2020)
In 2020, the documentary Stolen Children: The Kidnapping Campaign of Nazi Germany delved into a harrowing and largely untold chapter of history. During World War II, the Nazis executed a chilling campaign: tens of thousands of children were abducted on orders from SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. Their fate was unimaginable—ripped from their families, rebranded with new identities, and forcibly assimilated into the German way of life.
One such victim was Alodia Witaszek. Her biological parents were still alive when she was kidnapped as a girl. In the autumn of 1943, Alodia and her little sister were sent to a youth custody camp in Litzmannstadt (now Lodz) to be “Germanized.” The sisters were forbidden to speak Polish in the camp. Countless other Polish children shared their fate, as the Nazis systematically robbed them of their identities. This organized child abduction was part of the Nazi racial policy aimed at transforming “racially valuable” children from the annexed parts of western Poland into Germans.
The documentary sheds light on the trauma these children endured. They were left to grapple with their past alone, their biological roots severed. Some, like Alodia, had living parents who never stopped searching for them. The film captures the heart-wrenching stories of those who survived this dark chapter of history.
The chilling parallels between the orphanages where these children were placed and chicken farms are haunting. Heinrich Himmler, the architect of this cruel campaign, had once been a chicken farmer himself. The institutions became breeding grounds for the Nazi Aryan stock, where Eastern European children with blonde hair and “appropriate” features were selected for Germanization. Foster parents were free to choose any child they found pleasing.
Decades later, some of these victims, now in their mid-80s, continue to seek their roots and come to terms with their stolen childhoods. The legacy of Heinrich Himmler’s Lebensborn racial mania remains etched in their memories, a painful testament to the horrors of war and ideology.
