Hitler's Forgotten Children

A True Story of the Lebensborn Program and One Woman's Search for Her Real Identity

By: Ingrid von Oelhafen, Tim Tate

Narrated by: Davina Porter

Hitler’s Forgotten Children is both a harrowing personal memoir and a devastating investigation into the awful crimes and monstrous scope of the Lebensborn program in World War 2.

Created by Heinrich Himmler, the Lebensborn program abducted as many as half a million children from across Europe. Through a process called Germanization, they were to become the next generation of the Aryan master race in the second phase of the Final Solution.

In the summer of 1942, parents across Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia were required to submit their children to medical checks designed to assess racial purity. One such child, Erika Matko, was nine months old when Nazi doctors declared her fit to be a “Child of Hitler.” Taken to Germany and placed with politically vetted foster parents, Erika was renamed Ingrid von Oelhafen. Many years later, Ingrid began to uncover the truth of her identity.

Though the Nazis destroyed many Lebensborn records, Ingrid unearthed rare documents, including Nuremberg trial testimony about her own abduction. Following the evidence back to her place of birth, Ingrid discovered an even more shocking secret: a woman named Erika Matko, who as an infant had been given to Ingrid’s mother as a replacement child.

INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

Underwhelming

The story was very interesting and showed the despicable actions of the Nazis during the war. All war is heinous, just read any soldier’s story. How the treatment of civilians need not be. Anyone who wishes to build an empire realizes treatment of civilians needs to be as honorable and humane as possible. This book tells of gruesome acts by Nazi leaders. However the author bogs us down in needless detail. So much so that you lose track of who is who and what is relevant to the story. The narrator is British with the applicable accent. At times you couldn’t understand her, I rated the story 4 stars and would have rated it higher if not for the criticism noted above. Good story just wish it had been told better.

Excellent history lesson

Very informative book on an institution that is hardly spoken of. Valuable study work for WWII scholars

Wow.

Wow.
That’s really all there is to say about this absolutely incredibly perfect memoir. I’m a memoir/biography junkie, and this is just simply amazing. Worth every penny, every scintilla of a coveted and guarded credit. Don’t let this languish on your wish list—this is a must. Trust me.
Wow.
Thank you, Ingrid. Thank you.

Interesting story.

If you could sum up Hitler's Forgotten Children in three words, what would they be?

Interesting, tragic and compelling.

What did you like best about this story?

That these amazing people survived and flourished.

What does Davina Porter bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She can pronounce a lot of the German and foreign words!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me mad.

Any additional comments?

Good story, somewhat slow at times but very compelling. You truly feel for these amazing survivors.

A lesser know Nazi atrocity

I would highly recommend this book to anyone studying WW2. It is yet another crime the Nazi’s committed against humanity