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Soup Tureen from a Lebensborn orphanage

Wrtitten by Jeff Dondelinger

Porcelain for the Master Race:

Upon hearing the term Nazi, people usually think about concentration and extermination camps. Barely alive humans, lifeless shells, that have gone through immeasurable suffering come to mind. The other side of the medal are Lebensborn homes. Here people seemingly lived a life of luxury. Champagne, clothes, pelts and jewellery were a common sight.[1] But beware, all that glitters is not gold. A shiny facade often hides a dark secret.  Bofferding was no different; luxurious yet ghastly. Situated in a castle, the home had pompous furniture and luxury bathtubs.[2] The classicist style castle was built in 1830 and belonged to Marcel Noppeney, a francophile Author. After the invasion of Luxembourg, Noppeney was sent to the concentration camp of Dachau and his belongings were confiscated. The castle was added in June 1942 to the Lebensborn files as a donation. Max Sollmann, the chief executive of the Lebensborn e.V., confirmed during the Nuremberg trials, that the Lebensborn in Luxembourg was directly linked to the Lebensborn e.V. and classified as a children’s home, not a maternity home.[3]

 

What exactly was the Lebensborn Moselland used for?

The common belief, that Lebensborn homes were breeding stations for aryan children is a misconception.[4] One use of the home was the caretaking of children with ‘good’ blood, that got abducted in Poland. To Germanize the kids, they were sent to Germany or occupied territories. The first ‘guests’ of the Lebensborn in Bofferding were abducted polish children. Another use of the institution was the shelter of German children from bombs. On the 17th of August 1943 a group of children from Munich arrived in Bofferding. On the 31st January 1944 the Lebensborn Moselland was housing 22 children but no mothers. Three nurses took care of the children.[5]

 

What was life like in the Lebensborn?

Three principles lead the education of the children in the homes: order, regularity and strictness. The new-born babies were guarded in a separate maternity. A strict planning organized the day. They got nourished five times and bathed once per day accordingly to the timetable. More physical contact was not allowed, as it would have weakened the children according to the Nazi ideology. The planning even regulated when the children had to go to the toilet, where they had to sit until they were done. The education was draconic but physical punishment was not allowed.[6]

Only a few hints give us a specific insight into the Lebensborn Moselland. A letter from the 18th September 1943 requested several items for the Luxembourgish Lebensborn: A radio, a vacuum cleaner, a chaiselongue, six infant baskets, several strollers, a baby scale, a changing table, ten room thermometers, clothes for babies, paintings of German fairy tales, awning fabric and toys for older children. Another letter from the 5th May 1943 tells us, that the Lebensborn Moselland had beehives in its garden to make honey.[7]

 

A personal story[8]

Barbara was born in February 1938 in Poland. Her mother died during the German invasion and Barbara was taken care of by her grandmother. In 1942 an order arrived to bring Barbara to an inspection. The Nazi officials were satisfied with the examination and brought Barbara to a Lebensborn home. Barbara had blond hair, which was her demise. Her sister who had dark hair was not abducted. The grandmother was only able to visit Barbara once, later the same year. Barbara was named Bärbel by then and only spoke German. Barbara remembers that she was forbidden to speak polish. In her memories the kids in the Lebensborn didn’t speak to each other and never laughed.

In September 1942 a German teacher and his wife adopted Barbara. The following years were the happiest of my life; Barbara said about the time among her foster parents. After the war, in 1948, Barbara’s grandmother made a request to find her granddaughter. In March Barbara was taken alongside 10 other children to a village in south Germany where she was forced to learn English. In June she was sent to a children’s home in Poland before being taken care of by an aunt in July. Barbara was 10 years old and didn’t speak any polish. She was mocked by her peers and didn’t know who she was; Barbara or Bärbel? After two years she was sent to her grandmother before being sent to another aunt. Nobody wanted to take care of her, so she decided to go back to the children’s home.

In 1958 she received a letter from her foster parents. All those years, her polish family hid the letters from her. In 1966 she finally received a visa to visit her foster family. She was welcomed with open arms…[9]

Around 18 000 children lived in Lebensborn homes during the Nazi period. A lot of them with similar stories to Barbara.[10]

 

The End

On the 9th of September 1944 the staff of the Lebensborn Moselland received an order to evacuate the castle and bring all the belongings to the train station in Luxembourg city. The train was overpacked, therefore they were told to evacuate to Trier via horse carriage. The order was disregarded, and the belongings left at the train station, among them the soup tureen…[11] Thus the story ends, just like the children at the Lebensborn, the soup tureen was a tool: both left behind the moment they were of no further use.

 

This is the end. The beginning of life to me.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, letzte Worte, 9. April 1945

 

[1] Lebensborn Bofferdingen, in: d’Unio’n. Quotidien de la Résistance 4/32+33 (01.02.1947), S. 4.

[2] Lebensborn Moselland, in: kugener.com, URL: https://www.kugener.com/de/humanmedizin-fr/geburtshilfe/52-artikel/1945-lebensborn-moselland.html (Stand 18/06/2020).

[3] Krantz, Luxemburgs Kinder, S. 757-785.

[4] Schmitz-Köster, Dorothee, Vankann, Tristan, Lebenslang Lebensborn. Die Wunschkinder der SS und was aus ihnen wurde, Piper Verlag GmbH, München (2012), Vorwort.

[5] Krantz, Luxemburgs Kinder, S. 756-793.

[6] Schmitz-Köster, Lebenslang, Ideale Eltern – ideale Kinder.

[7] Krantz, Luxemburgs Kinder, S. 777-784.

[8] Barbara was not one of the children of the Lebensborn Moselland but I wanted to show a personal story of a child that grew up in a Lebensborn.

[9] Schmitz-Köster, Lebenslang, Eingedeutscht oder: Ich konnte mich nicht wiederfinden.

[10] Schmitz-Köster, Lebenslang, Vorwort.

[11] Krantz, Luxemburgs Kinder, S. 764.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Guido Lessing (June 24, 2020). Soup Tureen from a Lebensborn orphanage. Intersections of Luxembourgish-Russian History. Retrieved April 29, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/ul9m


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