What circumstances led Germans to become adoptive parents? How, as in the case of the "displaced" Polish orphans, does adoption contribute to genocide?

While the book focuses primarily on birth mothers, adoptive parents are an enormous part of the machinery of the Lebensborn Society. What circumstances do you suppose led Germans to become adoptive parents? How, as in the case of the "displaced" Polish orphans, does adoption contribute to genocide?

Having a large family was literally rewarded! Mothers were given medals based on the number of children they had. For the Germans, especially the officer's wives, it was a sign of loyalty to the country to adopt more children. I don't thing adopting a child from another country or race is "genocide" under normal circumstances. For many families it is a blessing. However, these adoptions had ulterior motives— to Germanize these children. Perhaps that is a form of genocide.

The German population was in decline, so it made sense to encourage women to have lots of the right kind of children and to supplement this with adoption of genetically “superior” children to be raised by Nazi officers. The long view is that Germany would be repopulated with children who were blue eyed and blond and loyal to the type of world being created. It became a patriotic act, then, to add to the population. Stealing children for adoption from Poland bolstered the German population but also removed those “superior” genes from that country. The practice of euthanasia on any of those children deemed imperfect is genocide.

This whole situation really troubled me. I've been thinking about it ever since finishing the book. Of course it was important for the officer's wives to have many children. Perhaps some couldn't have children and therefore adopted or wanted to add to their already big brood. What really got to me was "stealing" the Polish (and I'm sure other races) children. In doing so, I believe most of those parents were murdered on the spot...that is genocide!

This was very troubling to me. I'm guessing they thought of it as a status symbol. It didn't appear that they had any desire for a child.

It is important to note that the children "rescued" from Poland and other conquered countries were taken because of their appearance, in order to strengthen the Aryan ideal. Children with significant physical defects or those who were not Aryan enough in appearance were murdered along with their parents, so it was indeed a form of genocide.

As mentioned above, mothers were rewarded for raising large families, and it was a status symbol. The Lebensborn project would not have been successful it there was no one to adopt the children produced there.

This is not new, nor has it gone away. It's a form of genocide. Consider what is happening in Ukraine and Russia right now.

The goal of the Nazis was to populate their country - and ultimately the world - with perfect blond blue eyed citizens. Anyone who didn't fit that criteria was in danger of being exterminated. Plus mothers were rewarded for having a lot of perfect German children.

This was a very disturbing part of the book for me. Adoption for many different reasons, such as death of parents by illness or accident is one thing, but for children taken from parents and then having the parents either sent to concentration camps or just murdered it is genocide. And, this didn't just happen during WWII. Think of orphans sent on trains across America or the Tennessee Children's Home Society and I'm sure there are other examples.

Nazi propaganda rewarded large families of Aryan children. Intriguing was the focus on the "ideal" facial characteristics and coloring that motivated the Nazi's goal to populate the country with what they viewed as the superior race. Many Polish children, who probably were not orphaned at the time of they were taken, had the similar genetic traits to this "Nazi master race". The adoption of Polish children by German--primarily Nazi party-- families was cultural genocide, i.e., eradicating Polish traditional families. Genocide was also apparent in the euthanizing of children with defects.

Agree 100% with carolt above. This is absolutely genocide and is happening with Ukraine and Russia now, sadly.

German women were encouraged to have as many children as they could! The more children they had, the higher the esteem accorded to them by the government and also their fellow German Nazi members and sympathizers. Yes, this adoption procedure is a form of genocide. The mothers and fathers of the children "displaced" to be adopted lost a child. Anyone who has lost a child will attest to the fact that the child's death is like a genocide-a child taken unlawfully from them never to be returned. It also created a genocide of the Polish culture diminishing their population and thus their cultural attributes proportionately.

German women were groomed at that time to revere motherhood and have large families. I didn’t realize that there were awards for having 4 or more children. It’s horrific to think that imperfect children were euthanized. However, even in this country children with mental disabilities were given up to institutions and were generally considered an embarrassment to their families. There is a fascinating book about Rosemary Kennedy and her life within her illustrious family.

Until I read this novel, I was not aware of the awards issued for 4 or more children during that time. I knew they were grooming blue eyed, blonde hair, fair skinned children, but not amounts of children. Isn't it interesting when one compares it to the China's ban on more than 2 children/ Two different regimes, two different policies.

I agree with Grace W - at the very least it was cultural genocide. I can’t remember but, were the German women aware of how they were getting the children - that their parents were actually being killed?

As a number of other people pointed out, this whole topic stuck with me after finishing the book. The notion of being rewarded for having more children is bad enough (what about those families who could not?), revisiting atrocities like the murder of babies who were not Aryan enough and Germanizing stolen babies made me feel exactly how I felt walking through the Anne Frank museum years ago.

Stealing children from parents created a situation that led to the necessity of killing any living parents. What else would matter to the German quest for a superior race? Take the good kids, kill the bad kids, kill the parents and you're all set. Raise them as your own, make them Good Germans and the superior race marches on. Genocide of the Polish people helped advance the ideals of the Third Reich.