German officers
examine
Polish children of all ages, to determine whether they qualify as
"Aryan." Approximately 50,000 Polish children were taken from
their
families, transferred to the Reich and subjected to "Germanization"
policies. An estimated 250,000 children may have been
stolen from their homes in Nazi conquered lands in Eastern Europe, in
order to be evaluated to qualify to become “Aryan.” Those who
failed
to meet the standards were transported to work camps if they were
judged physically able to perform useful duties. If not, they
went
East, back to Poland for the final solution. *
A child who has
been selected for deportation, bids farewell to his family through the
wire fence of the central prison, during the "Gehsperre" action in the
Lodz ghetto. The Gehsperre (or Sperre) action was the deportation
action that took place in the Lodz ghetto between September 5 and 12,
1942, which resulted in the transport of over 15,000 Jews, mostly
children under the age of 10, the elderly and the infirm, to their
death in Chelmno.*
*
Used with permission of the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum, www.ushmm.org
The views or
opinions expressed in this book and the context in which images are
used, do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of, nor imply
approval or endorsement by, the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum. to whom we are grateful for the use of their images.
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...continued
from main page

...contribute a newborn
child to Hitler’s new Lebensborn Program and further the Aryan
race.
Lorentz is skeptical, but with urging, eventually relents.
A
nurse in Trondheim in 1940 when Norway is invaded, working with
Norway's Resistance, Karin captures the heart of Svente, an injured
Resistance fighter. Once he's healed, they set out through
Norway's mountain forest for a remote hideout. But their campfire
is spotted by a passing Nazi aircraft and paratroopers are dropped in
the darkness.
Alena is pregnant with their
second child. Confronted by Lorentz,
adamant they keep this child, Alena finally relents. When
their daughter is three, returning unexpectedly on his first furlough,
longing for marital bliss, Lorentz finds his daughter has disappeared
and Alena is living with another man.
Fast forward
to 1965...
Living in Norway with her
husband, Karin is reading the Sunday papers
when an article catches her eye: fourteen Nazi-era nurses are on trial
for cooperation with the Nazi 'Euthanasia Program, accused of killing
thousands of disabled adults and children, through the administering of
drug overdoses, starvation and gassing. It’s 1965; how can this
be, she wonders? One on the fourteen accused nurses resembles a
nickname her old friend Alena used when secretly meeting
boyfriends. With help from an old UNRRA coworker Karin rushes to
Berlin, eventually remaining to help defend her old friend.
During visiting hours, a
horrific tale of Alena’s Nazi years unfolds
and carries Karin back to her own time in the Norwegian Resistance,
reviving happy memories of poignant romance and sadness in the
dangerous and remote Norwegian forest.
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