The kidnapping campaign of Nazi Germany | DW Documentary
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- čas přidán 10. 03. 2020
- On orders from Heinrich Himmler, the Nazis abducted children from Poland for forced Germanization. Hermann Lüdeking, Jozef Sowa and Alodia Witaszek have never met, but they shared the same fate.
Tears still come to Jozef Sowa’s eyes when he talks about his life. His parents were murdered by Wehrmacht soldiers in Poland in 1943, and he and his four siblings were taken to Germany. Four of them managed to return to Poland. But his younger sister Janina was given up for adoption - as a supposedly German child. She still lives in Germany today. This kidnapping was planned. In 1941, Himmler, who headed the Nazi SS, gave the order to "gather young children who are especially racially suitable from Polish families and for us to raise them in special modestly-sized kindergartens and children’s homes."
Professor Isabel Heinemann explains, "By so doing, he aimed to build up the German race." For years, the historian has been researching the fates of the estimated 50 thousand children in Europe who were snatched. The largest group comes from Poland. Without their biological parents to protect them, the children were given to German families by the "SS Race and Resettlement Main Office." Their names and dates of birth were changed to obscure their true identity.
After the war ended, those whose origins could be traced returned to their homelands. But their native countries had often become foreign to them and being singled out as a German "Hitler child" made reintegration difficult. Those responsible for the kidnapping were never brought to justice.
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History is filled with untold stories. Thanks for shining a light on this story.
Yes it is, EDP445. mono is no joke man....
Yeah just like the story´s about the boljevics and communism.
@Cognac Warrior 46 he didnt say they didnt...
Watch full ten-part series of most forbidden documentary ever published: "Europa The Last Battle" at archive-dot-org. Pulled down from TheirTube countless times since 2017 release.
Now that we have more access to non mainstream media...ie podcasts...you tube...ect we can know more of the stories and news in context ...and have more access to the truth.
My father was one of those kids. He told me how he was taken from his family when he was 9 years old. He had no idea where he was taken. I can't imagine what he went through. My dad is gone but I remember every story he told about his life in time of war. I love you and miss you dad so much. ❤
im sorry
I remember every story he told about his life in time of war, I hope you have written the stories down for future generations. The stories will not be told the same if you don't. Sorry for the anguish your father had to endure, may He rest in Peace.
@Damiencg you aren't gonna change a religious person's neural pathways with just a single comment, this is what I've learned throughout 4 years of debating theists on the internet....if you are truly passionate on changing theists then make a youtube video about atheism and biblical hypocrisy, extremely convincing emotionally charged arguments with powerful music in the background...... just saying :)
May he rest in peace and be reunited with his family 😢❤
❤
What a horrible ordeal for the man at the beginning of the documentary. To see his parents being slaughtered like that. Horrible traumatic experience. Very very sad.
And then they expect him to embrace Germany after he witnessed them brutally murder his parents.
Absolutely awful!👍🏻💐
Yes, indeed.
'war is sanctioned murder'....just sad
And for that also, you could understand the sister embracing what represented then her parents killers. After seeing what they did she learnt very quickly to meekly comply, erase and survive. Maybe her adopted parents also treated her well.
I can’t help but cry when the man at the beginning told his story. Watching that would destroy a child. His parents were so brave and should be honored as heroes. She was 6 or 7 months pregnant being stabbed over and over with a pitchfork, in front of her small children. And yet she still refused to give up the location of the people hiding. How horrible it must have been to see them still be killed in front of her once the nazi soldiers found them. And his father watching all of this as well as his head is bashed in??? And also not give up the hiding location ?!? Amazing heroes. They deserve utmost respect.
He's nothing but an old polish wino looking for money. Poland is 3rd world and their elderly only receive about $100 a month. I believe nothing that comes out of anyone in this documentary.
I haven't gotten to this part yet, but I'm already crying. How tragic. I cannot fathom this ever happening. I want to hug this man.
Well said I couldn’t agree more- I hope they have been inducted in the hall of heroes in Israel
@@Witchofthewoods. it was the first story in the very beginning
Truly amazing!!!
May they Rest in glory!!!
My father was loaded into a truck bound for a concentration camp. The driver suddenly refused to drive & he told all of the children to jump off the truck & run home. As children growing up , we heard all the horrific stories of war in Poland. From being shot at by Nazis to having to watch a 4th grade student being beaten to death by a German teacher. My Mom has stories that are just as horrible. History always repeats itself, this is no exception. We will destroy ourselves.
I can understand everything he said in Polish. A little gets lost in translation. The poor man. These are similar memories that my parents hold & now I do too.
The international hyenas are doing to America right now what they did to germany. They will probaby use the chinese and rogue third world nations under the U.N. They have already infiltrated D.C. 60 minutes did an hour long segment back in 1989 about the growing israeli influence i n D.C. The truth is out now about 911 so yeah in a sense history is indeed repeating itself. If you havent heard the 9/11 news its twisted. Larry Silverstien needs brought in for interogation along with BUSH.
And the crime is just as relevant today as it was then. Because Russia is doing to the same thing to Ukraine.
@@williamyoung9401What nonsense. Russia is not ethnically cleansing anyone.
So sad. It breaks me seeing him crying when he talked about his mother getting stabbed with a pitchfork.
Stabbed in the stomach when she was six months pregnant. Bastards.
Imagine being the one doing it! How cold and evil can humans possibly be? Yet they had full armies of these yes men. It boggles the mind.
This is so horrible, I was taught about the Nazi's in my history class.i renember my teacher always told us this could happen again renember this so this will not happen again. I am scare to death what is happening today in America. Trump is a molester just like Hitler
@@barbarahendricks2967 already did with Native American children and happens with North Koreans kidnapping South Koreans children
I'm Polish and it is so horrific! Look up the Rape of Nanking in China where similar horrific things happened by the Japanese!
I hate to say it, but they should all have their DNA tested and then whatever family is left they can be placed in touch with them. It's heartbreaking to think after all these years people are still looking for family members.
There are DNA tests available, but the good ones can be quite expensive, and you would also need to have samples from the family that you are trying to unite with.
The DNA kits that you see advertized are not really that specific; they can tell you that you are generally European but not whether you are Polish, German, English, Swedish or whatever.
@@Sisterlisk Yes, and if you're male you can find out in a lot of cases which exact village you're from with LivingDNA. It costs about £149.00. I'm female and they can't find that information through female DNA, so I'm disappointed as all my immediate male family are dead now. I've paid for 3 companies, just to see if they say the same thing, and they do. But I thought I was specifically English, but I'm only 4% English. My DNA is Scottish. I am however 4% Neanderthal, which is really exciting. A third cousin who I found on the list of relatives they sent is 6% Neanderthal, the highest you can get. But yes, these tests can give a lot of info and it would be invaluable to these people in the video. So many clues are thrown up 👍
@@vmm5163 Hopefully by now, the old man (Herman?) has been helped by some nice person who knew about DNA kits.
@@Sisterlisk Yes, his story is out there so I do hope someone offers him help 👍👍
I was thinking the same. There are many people who lived through the Holocaust who found family members through an Ancestry test, all these years later. A DNA test might help these people in the same way.
My dad was also one of these stolen children. This crime was so wrong on so many levels. Rest in Peace dad. Love from Australia.
My grandma was 12 when they took her from family home in Poland. She saw her family beaten to death and separated. She was enslaved and forced to work in German Guesthouse, for German family. She was not paid for her hard daily work, she however received food and shelter. She considered herself lucky. Lucky... and given all the stories we learned in polish school, many witnesses heard over years, I can also consider her lucky... in all that tragedies. After the war she was kicked into the train and came back to Poland alone...
My granddad was not that lucky. He had to watch their family be beaten, tortured and raped by Russians who entered his house near Lviv (today Ukraine, back in 1939 Poland). He was 10. He was put on the train on the way to Nazi camp with Judes and Gypsies. On the way he managed to jump out (near Czestochowa) and received help and shelter from monks (There is famous polish Monastery there). After war he searched for his family for many years...
Hearing that part of the boys mother being stabbed in the stomach 3 whole times with a pitchfork while she was 6-7 months pregnant made me so sad 😞
It was a absolutely horrific.
How does anybody recover from that memory.
Alias Marg8ta you just keeping moving forward because life never stops passing by.
@@aliasmarg8ta127 He will on the day of reckoning when the killer will reap his reward being strung naked on the wheel of fire rolling thru the Lake of Fire !!!
See NYSTV Midnight Ride.
@@hearmichaelsavage what?
Makes me realize the childhood I had wasn’t so traumatic. This is a terrorizing childhood one could not imagine.
Makes us feel lucky how we weren’t targets of that time we were lucky to born in this time
Kids now get traumatized for not having more followers
@@thegoodrefugee8354 Ik I don’t even worry about that I only worry about my safety of who follows me
Trauma is trauma especially being a kid
@@flameroyal123 exactly!! No one's trauma is bigger or smaller!!!
i just can't imagine how much pain and grief in Josef's heart. if he's still alive today, he's probably on his 90s yet still crying and missing the warmth of his mother and father's care like how it shows in this video. the atrocity far beyond evil. heart wrenching to hear such horrific testimony. may the souls of these innocent victims now rest in peace, blessed the hearts of those who are left in mourn and grief.
I can’t imagine being stolen from my parents and given a new identity to grow up as an adult not knowing my parents, family or even my real birthday. The Nazis did all they could to ERASE an entire generation. I just want to embrace the victims and hold them. I cry for them :(
Yeah they tired but didn't work .
I had to pause for a moment when he said his mother was stabbed. Poor kids witnessing that, so terribly sad. This whole story is heartbreaking.
It really is. I feel heartbroken for him😢
I wanted to throw up at that part. it was horrible to just listen to.
And she was pregnant! I can’t imagine the horror
Same!
💔
I feel bad for that man, his sister that beyond brainwashed and in willing naiveness and denial about being really Polish and not at all in blood or born German, to the point where she refuses to acknowledge their real Polish parents/family is truly heartbreaking.
To accept that is to accept the horrific reality of wat happened…something some people can’t handle
@@carmencapa6945 exactly. I was looking for this comment because it’s so easy for people to judge this woman without thinking of what trauma she went through. Seeing your parents brutally murdered and then forced to live a completely different life. No wonder she doesn’t like to think about it, much less talk about it. She did what she had to do to survive. She was indoctrinated and is still living with that every day. We may not like the fact that she’s so closed off to learning the history of her family and her culture but that’s for her to decide.
@@taylors445 This reminds me of the shutter island movie where leo says "live as a monster or die as a good man"
when she was young she had to decide between living as a monster (indoctrination) or possible murder (although it sounds extreme not accepting indoctrination would mean she had no one and would prob be isolated f0r being "weird".
as an adult the question was whether to accept the hard fact her real parents were killed and that her life had been destroyed
or forget the painful past and continue to live life as a "german' where none of that happened
@@taylors445 I agree that it is for her to decide, no one denies her that, but as a polish person myself i cant help but feel a little bit hurt, even offended. She denies being polish, she was born in Poland to polish parents. For her to deny her bloor relations and say ''i will not take from german people because i am german'' is probably very hurtful to the kidnapped children and their families too. We dont need to agree but we have a right to feel what we feel.
@@kropka8259 she has Stockholm syndrome. She has never received any treatment for it. She probably doesn’t even know she has it.
Our history teacher's grandma was in a concentration camp. He shared her stories with his class. He told of how Jewish babies were just thrown aside and left to die. These stories are heartbreaking. Humans can be so hatefilled and evil.
I never ever ever thought why no babies now that I think back on all the pictures I had seen.
It's sad some of those who suffer grew ùp to contribute to other suffering in palestine
I just clicked this just so I can play something. I ended up watching the entire documentary attentively. It was overwhelming to watch. Thank you for this documentary.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment!
This is why history is important. I don't know why US children are being 'sheltered' from these truths. These things need to be remembered.
Edit: Started new world war in the comments section. 😂
US children should be taught. All children should be tought. To understand history it can prevent it from repeating itself. Us children ( your exampleI) Also because this was EXACTLY the process in the genocide of native americans. After occupying their land, extreme violence against them, vast massmurders and the surving population stripped of every part of human and civil rights.. They were put in camps, isolated. Children then were Kidnapped from their remaining families, brainwashed and separated , schooled to forget their culture, language and background. The mechanisms of genocide, racism always follow the same patterns. This went on way into the 1920s. ..It is very uneducated to think that only Nazis commited these crimes agains people in the name of made up " superiority" and on the platform of extremely evil racism. We all have a background to learn from. To prevent it from happening again.THAT is important.
They barely touch on this subject or any other topic of genocide here in the United States. They want us to forget. To feel righteous. To not understand that not knowing our past and world history means, that we're all doomed to repeat it. I'm Germanic European, Scandinavian, and Irish. I had to study these atrocities myself as an adult so I could teach my own children. :(
Probably bc Nazi still live amongst us and control education, and the world.
And there are people here, in these United States, that idolize the Nazis!
They can't undo it no matter how they try. It happened and erasing it from the history books does not change the facts.
Thank you. I just adored those two Moms of little Alodia/Alice. In war, it takes two Moms to keep one child alive and well. Their story was just heart-warming and marvelous. Thank you very much.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
Im from Slovenia and here Natzis used to steal kids to "make them german". In middle school we were made to read absolutely wonderfully written book "Boy with two names" (Deček z dvema imenoma) by Anton Ingolić. It is about a boy and his family passing through Slovenian country side on their way to vaccation. He sees all the people working in the fields and he gets some strange memories of his family doing that. He slowly get from his family (really nice people) that he was abducted. He is lucky enough to meet his real family. It is written very well and was a great way to start the talk with us about ww2. I highly recoman it if you want to learn more
We always talk about war in a bigger picture, now this is how individual lives were misplaced through no fault of their own. Never forget and learn lessons...
It was done before, during the inquisition. They just try to make sure we don't know
majority of us learn. the greedy don't bother.
There will always be war.
@@syleiswiley4037 u
I have learned ... I am an armed mother with an armed daughter (US) ... Europe is disappointing in that they won't arm the women.
Couldn't hold my tears hearing the story of the man at the beginning. Those kids would carry the trauma they experienced throughout the rest of their life. This generation should be made aware of all this to prevent something like this from happening again.
Same, this broke me down. Although I am 2nd generation and my parents are in their 80's, I have spent my entire life trying to understand my own sense of non-belonging. The trauma is passed down from generation to generation. It lives in every cell of our bodies.
America 2020 it’s happening
@Awkward Autistic If you’re a Christian, your prayers will war against the evil.
@Michael Freed and yet you never mention the fact that refugee children are kidnapped daily. huh.
@@khutzey8657 oh! sadly, that makes perfect sense. I am sorry!
That first man’s story was so heartbreaking. I can’t even wrap my mind around that.
There’s a special place in hell for people who commit atrocious crimes toward innocent people, including children.
I really feel sorry for Hermann. It must be extremely difficult to be in your mid-80s and not know what your real identity is. The other ones too went through extremely difficult times throughout their lives, although some were adopted by good families.
"Good families" don't take someone else's child-stealing it from it's country and family
@@robertamcguffin3446 You haven't seen the documentary, do you.
What about using a DNA company like Ancestry or 23andme?
@@charlienelson1946 There's still quite a few countries in Europe who do not allow genealogical DNA testing. There's fear that it will be used by fathers to learn their minor children aren't their own and abandon them. Some in those countries that Ancestry DNA and 23 & Me can't ship through will get tests sent to friends in other countries, but it's probably difficult for anyone elderly. Germany has finally started allowed Ancestry DNA to send tests there. Poland has limited testing allowed. There's no the type of advertising in Europe either so many are unaware it even exists or is reputable.
@@charlienelson1946 I was thinking the same. Maybe others that were stolen are looking for answers and he might find some relatives even if not the closest ones. That could help. 23&me does deliver to EU countries, not sure about Ancestry.
This need to be taught in school. But its restricted claiming it is too upsetting.
But those who do not LEARN FROM HISTORY.
are
DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.
In Poland these stories were put on spotlight after the end of communism ( after 1989 ) . If you add all documentaries , numbers, witnesses, invastigations etc that were aired on Polish TV in the 90s, we in Poland , in Germany , in Russia are extremely well conscious about the period
There's no need to shout 😑
It did repeat itself. Hitler took inspiration from the American extermination and treatment of Native Americans.
In Virginia in the US, I teach all this. Anything I learn like this, I teach. There are no restrictions.
Camille Palmer - This is why I’ll be voting for Trump. These stories need to be preserved and told.
When you think you’ve hear it all about the Nazi, you find even more and more atrocious as all the stories are coming to light! Bless you all sharing your story, I thank you!
Its kinda sad and scary about the fact all this happened only just over 75 years ago.
Still happening
I’m a Canadian age 65 and grew up in Toronto going first to school in 1960 with first generation children from WWII refugees from Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. I grew up with these children and visited their homes. As I got older I tried to get the parents to tell me their stories from the war years. Most would not but some stories leaked out to me from my friends. I wanted to know what really happened as I didn’t trust what our schools were teaching us. There were 3 German families on our street. No one socialized with them. I was forbidden to play with those children because they were German and the parents remembered the war. I argued that these children did nothing wrong so I snuck around to still play with them. I was only 5 or 6. This was a fantastic documentary and I did not know about this topic. My heart has always been heavy for my childhood friends parents who suffered but survived despite the war. Thank you!
Interesting but we need remember that Estonia, Latvia ,Lithuania , Ukraine had specific type of collaboration with Germany - ideology collaboration !.
It resulted from the ideological approximation of some domestic parties and political groups to the ideals of fascism or German Nazism. It was very danger collaboration.
It was a "business" if the Germans won with the Soviets ... unfortunately Germany lost.
I'm afraid that not all of them were "victims", but only refugees because the Germans lost the war.
If we say about Poland is complete different history - it was no collaboration government , no ideology collaboration, etc.
It was real (and just one in Europe) underground movement to fight against Germans Nazis during occupation Poland 1939- 1944 .
Regards.
you are a kind soul. we need more of you!
We played with like children in our B.C. village.
@@richardmazursky2796 sorry but what you can tell about Juzef Pilsudski? He was not fascist?
And the Polish woman with two mothers is such a heart warming story that ought to give some hope to anyone within a state of war that there is always hope.
I am also a part of such a story....
I lost my sister in Poland...and found her back.
So many ather stories with out happy ending... so many...
I love watching documentaries like these, it puts everything into perspective. And I will be showing my children when they're older so they understand history that is sadly being forgotten
Thanks a lot for watching and for your positive feedback. We appreciate you taking the time to comment and are glad you like our content.
What is that everything that it puts and what is that perspective?
I feel so bad for Herman. He should be allowed to know who his parents are before he dies. He will know in heaven as for sure. ❤️
omg, living underground for two years.... how did these people do it... omg. terribly frightening for those poor children
My grandfather’s sisters lived underground in a dug out cavern. His father put them there because the invaders were routinely raping the young women.
That description reminded me of the scene in the Tarantino flick "Inglorious Basterds" with Christoph Waltz... the farmhouse where they were hiding Jews underneath the floorboards and were still found. Such a devastating scene.
Act to stop 21st nazi china camp. Be human. Thank you.
My grandfather and 2 of his brothers were sent back to Germany for their education from Venezuela where my grgranddad had settled years before. They lived in the basement classroom of the school master’s home with rules of silence and darkness so not to be discovered. They lived there for 3 years, without being able to communicate w my grgranddad. Both young & old were terrified they may not see each other again. Thankfully the war ended and they were sent back home “ never to return to Germany.” At 21 granddad came to USA as a coffee bean trader, met my grma and married;
Read the Diary of Anne Frank
My heart bleeds for the victim's.....the world must never be allowed to forget...
The world won’t forget, israel’s crimes keep reminding the world of the nazis’ ones.
This world is already repeating this
@@shereenkhan8952 It sadly never stopped....but keep learning and try, fellow human beings
Do u remember not too long ago silly young people being taught in public schools that this Nazi's criminal behavior NEVER happened!
It seems to be repeating history today. These days we are in now is how it subtly began.
Poland was ruined, Warsaw put down to a ground, millions of Polish citizens lost their life’s and Germany didn’t pay for it at all.
My grandpa was a prisoner in working camp in Germany. He was 13years old when he was kidnapped but was too old for being Germanised and adopted by some German family. He worked at the factory which produced ammunition, then he worked on a farm. On the end of the war he was placed at the factory where all Poles had a close contact with asbestos.
I never met him. He died in age of 43 because of a cancer.
Red Cross contact to my grandmother in early 80s. My family was offered 50german marks as a competition…
Germany paid literally billions as reparations to Poland.
As I continue to watch these documentaries, I see a pattern of history repeating over and over. The next ten years will be even more horrific -everywhere in the world.
Exactly what I beleive.the world has gotten evil,evil leaders.evil followers.!!!
Can someone get my Popcorn .
This happening in Ukraine!
Someone should buy that heartbroken man a dna test kit
Or a bio feedback to connect with some cousins
Totally agree. He could have siblings who have already tested. Siblings who are also looking for their people. At the very least, he could find a first cousin or a niece or nephew which would lead him to biological siblings. Millions of people have DNA tested, and it costs so little these days.
Lady Heart someone’s been watching too much infowars...
Do you know how long DNA kit exist? Parents are long dead. Will you exhumate?
What the hell for? A DNA test certainly can't solve his problems.
As sad as all of this is isn’t Alice’s story of having two mothers just such a happy outcome to her story. And I am so happy her mother was able to find her and have her daughter back in her life after serving a concentration camp
A happy ending to a terrible story indeed
An amazing happy ending. And how 2 women so loving that they gave an incredible gift of having 2 mothers, two motherlands, two families to their child. And became close friends. It is absolutely amazing! One of a kind story.
Yes ❤️
How could human beings be so utterly cruel....it is still so unbelievably gruesome
My grandmother was kidnapped when she was 14 but miraculously managed to escape on her own back to Poland.
I am looking for a Wanda lindner, estefania, and George
I'm so happy so many people are interested in our history! And because of those kind of people, this history won't be forgotten
People are always interested in national socialism
Sounds a lot like Chinese activities today, as well as Israel’s Political Zionism .
Same thing is happening to Palestinians
@@JCY849 no it is not, not even close, that is a political delusion popular with left wing activists who know little about the true situation other than popular theories.
I love Germany 🇩🇪 from 🇮🇳
Text book history doesn’t teach us the pain and suffering of the victims of the war,it’s really such a heart rending story! Thanks for the upload.
That's why museums like to accept private journals, diaries, and sketchbooks. The human perceptive shows so much more information and paints a bigger picture.
Learn on your own, dude. We would be in school for the rest of our lives if we had to learn all of human history.
You mean ranching, not rending
@@billgigolo7783 wrenching!!. Yeah
I never heard of it until that movie came out Something List . I was like what kind of person who do this . I always heard that hilter hated Jews then Black's or color. I ask why and what did he do to them. Now we in war again , 2022.
Through all the suffering and pain, his parents were so strong and surely full of love for other people. They didn't give up, they wouldn't tell the location.
He can be proud to have such parents. It is so painfull, what his family had to go through, the suffering, his parents killed, his unborn sibling.
May they be rewarded in the eternity for their good deeds.
Feel so sad for Hermann ,not knowing where you come from and not knowing who your family were must be very painful ,he may have a large family who could give him all the information he needs plus a lot of family love 🥰
The people of Poland are so strong and brave. They remember history and fight for their freedom.
How are they brave, it's their history and that all they can do to repay for the terror of their ancestors
@@edenpapich8259 Jews chose to collaborate with Germans on a missive scale.
@@edenpapich8259 Google Polish contribution to the world war 2. Google rightous among the nations.
@@edenpapich8259 terror of their acestors? What are you on about?
doesnt mean that poland is a great country nowadays. they have some of the worst, most outdated laws in the EU, e.g. the abortion restictions.
Children are invariably smarter than we realise, They have feelings, intuition and questions that answers don’t always make sense to them.
first thing the romans did when conquering Germany was.., to stop the sacrificial rites of the indigenous huns there.
Why Is us being smarter to you just having a functional brain? Children are living beings It should be obvious that we have emotions, intuition, questions etc we’re not dead Susie, this Is normal for any child that Is alive
So very tragic what happened to these families, but hearing that some of the children thought dead did survive. So many lost to starvation, disease, cold-blooded murder. I just will never be able to wrap my head around how so many Germans, and Nazi cronies, actively participated in the Holocaust. It’s unimaginable thinking that so many were capable of having such stone cold hearts.
The fact that humans can do such cruel evil things to another human it's so disgusting. Many lost their lives, many live their life carrying a big question mark on them, many suffered. Many dont even know about their roots. And the doer of these crimes showed no remorse what so ever.
Germans are just evil.
my oma was one of these people, She was taken from a village in holland when she was 7 and was put into a centre with 12 other girls, She tells me that there were fences all around and many soldiers she said she was kept there for two years before being ‘adopted’ by a a family that treated her as her own
she stayed with the family until one year after the war when she found everything out she then came to Canada
One of the forgotten tragedies of WW2. Thank you DW for this documentary! I hope that you will do more like this
My grandmother was a young child in London during the Blitz. She told stories of living through the bombings and being moved to the country to live with her war mother. She had a life long relationship with her and even went to see her on her death bed. The things this generation went through
It’s an atrocious story and occurring in Ukraine! I hope that the children of both of these wars will finally have peace in finding out who they truly are and find there ancestry! This is truly heart wrenching! It’s good that their story is told here in this documentary!🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
My soul is crushed with sadness. I'm Indigenous from western Canada, the Gitxsan nation, Wolf tribe, House of Gwaaslhaam. I've studied what happened to the Jews in WWII, and, I've experienced and studied what the Canadian government, the RCMP, the Catholic church, the provincial government and the Royal Family did to me and my parents, my grandparents and great grandparents. The Canadian government created the Indian Act at the end of 1800's, and they created the RCMP to enforce the Indian Act across Canada. The RCMP systematically kidnapped indigenous children at gun point, the parents would be killed or put into prison if they tried to keep their children at home. The children were sent far far away from their family and lands for years and years. If their own family were in the same residential school, they would keep them apart. The children were raped, beaten, starved, forced to work, abused, and tortured. The indigenous girls would be taken out their beds by the nuns and brought to the priest's room, and he would rape the child, and the nun would bring her back to the dorm. If the girl got pregnant, the baby would be born, the priests and nuns would take the new born baby and burn the baby alive in a furnace or bury the baby alive in a grave to hide evidence of the rapes. Some residential schools made torture devices, like, an electric chair, they would use it to punish the children or use it as entertainment for Europeans visiting the school, they would put a child in the electric chair to entertain their European guest, they would all laugh as the child's arms and legs moved as he was being tortured. Children would die trying to run away from the schools in the winter. Children would commit suicide at the schools. They were beaten if they spoke their own language. When they murdered a child, they would get other children in the same school to bury the child in an unmarked grave. In 2021, in BC, a First Nation revealed over 200 unmarked graves at the residential school. Today, there are over 7,000 unmarked graves at the residential schools across Canada. All the survivors have PTSD for what happened to us at the residential schools and Indian Day schools. The ICC, the UN, the Candian government, the RCMP, the Catholic church, and the King of England will not help us deal with these Crimes Against Humanity, they will not help us bring our children home, back to their own reserve. For 100 years Canada has covered this up so the world wouldn't know, the CBC reporters and the Government, the pope(s) all knew what was happening, the Queen knew, the RCMP knew, the provincial governments knew, and they covered it up for a hundred years. Today we are still facing the same racism that we've experienced for over 100 years, nothing has changed. The Canadian society is anti-indigenous and racism is very much alive and doing well here. The RCMP are still doing what they were created to do against the indigenous population of Canada. Under the Indian Act, if we wanted to leave our reserve, we would have to get a Pass, showing the reason why we left the reserve, like "shopping for food" etc, and the RCMP would check if we had a Pass to get off our reserve and be in their city. We were not allowed to vote for a long time. We were not allowed to get a lawyer to fight the government in court, or any European for that matter. We were not allowed to make ourselves a business in a city, we had to get permission to make a business on reserve. Many reserves were, and many still are, in 3rd wold conditions, in a country like Canada that is so rich. The Canadian government, the RCMP consider Indigenous people protesting and fighting for their land rights and title as "terrorists". Hereditary Chiefs are considered a Terrorist if he fights for their land rights and title and if they protest about it - check out what is happening in BC with the RCMP and indigenous protestors. The RCMP are blocking Hereditary Chiefs and their house member from going on their own traditional territory to do hunting and food gathering etc, because the RCMP are protecting a pipeline - I see the RCMP and the Nazi SS Division, the Indian Act and the Nazi Race Laws, and the RCMP and the Nazi SS kidnapping of children and forcing them to go to these schools, and it all looks the same, only Canadians did all of this first, long before the Nazis did. Canadians started doing all of this in the late 1800's - I wonder if the Nazis heard about what the Canadians were doing to the indigenous people and decided to take that approach - to kidnap the children. Many Canadians are still trying to cover this up, some are denying that there are over 7,000 unmarked graves at the residential schools across Canada. Take care.
I'm amazed how perfectly some of them can speak Polish, with no different accent, after all of this.
So sad for this old man who has so missed the love of his real and very brave parents.
I cried and cried and cried. What a documentary!
Now I have doubts about my neighbor, he was born in 1935, he said his ethnicity is Polish. But his name and surname are German. I hope I’m wrong, anyways… may he rest in peace. He was such a wonderful person. I always called him « dede » (« grandfather » in turkish). He really was like a member of my family, I will never forget him. His family and friends didn’t understood why his turkish neighbors cried for him at his funeral 😅
That's a wonderful memory shared. We need more people in the world with your outlook. Bless you and your family.
I'm 66 years old, and this is the first that I've heard about this. 💔
I'm 76 and I've not heard this. Took history in the 60s..
Lol sorry I actually didn’t mean to leave that comment. Wrong post
I would be thankful for that because my entire family was murdered by Hitler, so I have heard all of those stories from the time I was a child. Horrible things that humans can do, and are about to do it again, if we don't succeed in stopping them
During WWII thousand of Polish children was killed, in the most barbaric way, by Ukrainians. You Tube: Volhynian Bloody Sunday | One of the most horrific massacres of World War 2
I remember and I'm 56 my parents told me my grandmother was Jewish and my dad Hungarian the stories they told was horrible my dad said so many children were taken and germinized that is the word my father used 2 use.
I was a post war baby given up for adoption. My birth mother wanted nothing to do with me when I found her. I feel for these people as the puzzle pieces are still missing. God holds the answers is what I live for.
Wow. I am so sorry. What a journey it must have been to finally find her. Just know, you are amazing! Your life has blessed many through your journey and your willingness to share that. God does know the answers! We will get those answers soon enough. God bless you Kristine.
I suspect I was given up for adoption as a post war baby. I felt something was wrong when my father told me I am nothing like my parents. They were Jewish but many people we knew or even strangers said I look and act German or Scandinavian. I have for a long time wondered who my real parents were but I still don't know.
@@liz921 lots of babies are put up for adoption because parents couldnt look after them but there is a prog on tv that helps people look for parents or parents look for children they had to give up ,
That must be horrible. I just cannot understand this. I wish I could be your mom, I would love you and take you in my home.
It is hard for most of us to imagine. Me, certainly. Your mother gave you life. For that, we must all be grateful. She probably grew up in a society where her motherhood of you would cause scandal. Anyway, it sounds like you keep her in your prayers.
It's so sad thinking about how one human being can do this to another one.
I live in Florida and very little history is taught in the schools. So supplement his knowledge by reading to him every night and expelining the parts of history that I learned about during shcool.
I remember trying to teach my son about Elizabeth the first and how she changed the world. I tried to tell him about her good and bad qualities. He didn't seem to care at all. Then I told him how the queen allowed kids to be kidnapped. Kids were needed for plays and if the acting company needed a kid they just took them. Then they would leave town. The queen did not charge the kidnappers or even look for them. Then my son got interested. If it involves kids its interesting to him.
I have started to teach him about world war II. He is interested in how all the kids were treated and what happened them them if they were separated from their parents. Now I can tell him this story as well.
Florida ranks very high for education! We've recently passed a few bills and executive orders raising teacher pay and giving bonuses for history and civics training for teachers (for every subject of teachers)!
We've also scrapped the failed Common Core program.
I hope you begin to feel those changes in classrooms.
People want to scare their children traumitize them and then call it good cortical thinking you risk making a man super sensitive a psycho and it is not be free minded but an opionated unpleasent person
You’re an amazing mother !! I’ll never forget my own mom telling my stories from history books about wwII before bed. (As I got a bit older to stand it) started my love of history very young. I’m sure your son will appreciate it ❤
Zero history is taught in schools anymore. Much easier to repeat it if people don’t know about it
too much pain for kids that age :(
The mental and emotional scars these people have had to live with for so many decades I'd never be able to endure
My father was taken from his family as well. This happened during the gulf war, when Iraq invaded Kuwait. My father, a Kuwaiti, was like 20 years old at that time. He was working at a government bakery to provide for all the people with no food. The Iraqi soldiers found out and took my father and placed him in jail. He was meant to be executed. My grandfather, his father, found out his son had been taken and came to the place where he was being held. He was crying. He was begging a general to let my dad go. For some reason, by chance, the general agreed and let my dad go. It’s so scary how close my dad was from being killed!!!!
No. They don't let anyone go 😄😄 nice story though
@@whoasked9938 Good thing I don’t care what you say. The fact is, it happened, and my dad has the scars to show it. Have a nice day!!
@@Dandoon005 keep lying 😄😄😄 you are likely a white boy in his mamas basement capping for clout 🤣
Omgosh!!!
I'm overwhelmed with grief for this man.
I didn't know this tragic piece of history. Thank you for the film.
What a quality channel DW is.... i spend hours watching their very well prepared documentries. DW is worth my monthly internet fee just by itself !
To the ignorant, DW documentaries seem valid.
To those who research, they are obvious propaganda.
Funny how they don't cover communism that killed far more people.
Don't you wonder why that is ?
Go find out who the communists were, they weren't Russian.
@@quantumsneak1773 strange to comment this on a documentary about kids that had been taken by nazis in WWii .. propaganda of what exactly
This is truly heartbreaking. It was, and still is, a cruel, inhumane act. I hope there is a very special place in heaven for these children, and a very special place in hell for those who made it happen.
DW...easiest one of the best public broadcast channels in the world (I love YLE as well). Thank you for all your content, the news, and great documentaries.
This is such an important story to share. Thanks for this documentary
This is SO SAD Here he is 80 and NO clue who his family was Oh god love them
Can't imagine what those children went through. Those innocent souls being tortured. I grief for them. My mother heart is just torn apart..
We must remember these terrible stories so we can try our best not to repeat them
To SUFFER SO MUCH, AND TO FEEL SO ALONE. I HAVE NO WORDS.
What a terrible time people went through but worst is no body teach this in schools 😕
Should be taught in schools, maybe the children these days might be aware of what happened.
Nor about what goes on in Congo.
Too busy teaching children about 50 genders
@@WildThings113 TRUEEE
I was taught this in school.
It's so sad that in America this is never discussed. The kidnappings and the forced labor of the Polish people. We only hear about the Jews. Never about the Slavic ppl and what they went through.
How can his sister has forgotten those things so easily . Just can't believe it.
How deranged humans can get to imagine such a scheme and then effectively enforce it! Unforgivable...
They were following the orders of Satan.
@@rileycoyote8275 exactly. evil.
how do we stop it? atrocities like this are still imposed onto human beings every day. the people in "power" are never good.
Eisenhower said there would be a time when there will be some people that will claim that atrocities like these never happened. And there are those that wish they could say the same, but cant.
There is grand scale denial in the world today, but the sad truth is that these horrendous atrocities continue to this day at epidemic proportions. Some estimated 6 - 8 million children are currently being trafficked, sold, tortured, abused, enslaved and worse. It must end. 2020 is the beginning of the great awakening. There is so much healing to be done...
@Dayna Williams
Works for me.
@Dayna Williamsyou're absolutely right. Wonder why ppl attribute that piece of history to Ike?
@@alicel3992 maybe because Ike was arguably the more famous of the two, the sentiment of the statement remains the same though, no matter who said it.
Still best to attribute it to the correct person IMO
@@khutzey8657 Correct and most of the trafficking is here in the US, I understand.
My grandfather's youngest brother, a teenager then, dissapeared in January/February of 1945 when the Wermacht was in retreat along northern Vistula river. The family signed Völksliste in 1940 to keep their farmland and avoid persecution, and like many my grandfather was enlisted and served in Wermacht. He was lucky to survive and returned home in 1946. Untill today no one knows what happened to the youngest of the brothers.
Excellent documentary. Thank you so much.
She was pregnant. When he said that.. can’t stop crying. Killing innocence like that. So horribly wrong, I hope history never repeats this. I pray their souls remained untouched; despite their body being so wrongly battered.
It makes you wonder if you were in their position, would you try and protect Jewish people? Risk everything? I hope I would.
@2026-Tanvi Tyagi It’s beyond sadistic. History likes this makes me wonder if we didn’t have consequences in today’s society, would people choose to kill/molest/etc? The fact that the nazis felt justified in their actions just because someone told them so.
What makes us different from animals if we don’t value human life?
I think he stabbed her in the stomach purposefully to show how helpless she is to him, and in a sick way mocking the fact that she can’t even protect her children.
The Milgram Shock Experiment reminds us that normal people WILL hurt someone else if a person of authority orders them to.
@@blinkie1114 Yes many people will commit crimes against their fellow man merely if they are given orders to do so by a so called “authority.” If people don’t stand on truth and morality in their internal world, then they will easily fall for it. Happens every single day.
@Haluun elgen Thats horrible. That’s just horrible. You’re right, it’s naive to think that this is in the past. You put it perfectly, the world doesn’t care about human life only economic growth and prosperity for the very few.
If we truly valued life we would not allow this to happen. As one of the most powerful countries we have a responsibility to help during humanitarian crisis.
How can we help if our country(USA) is just turning a bling eye?
This is so wrong. I will start sending letting and emails to my representative to try and get them to address this, not just pretend like it isn’t happening or act like it’s not our business when families are being killed off.
Thank you for raising my attention to this, I pray for you and for everyone who is suffering in southern Mongolia, and eastern Turkestan.
It makes me sick that my nation is working with China in so many ways while they slaughter anyone who wishes for democracy.
@@scottrgood You’re absolutely right, this video forces you to face the atrocity but we don’t have to in our society, we don’t have to even acknowledge what is happening in the world and within our own boarders, there’s serious crimes against humanity happening and w collectively choose to look away.
I agree, without moral values as our foundation in life, it sets many people up to not only not care for others but also choose to not care for their own life, and make bad decisions.
Yet.. the best way to help the world begins with working on yourself, like the parent in the plane that is going down, you must first put the oxygen mask on yourself before trying to help someone else.
It’s heartbreaking hearing the emotion in his voice, how much the trauma of his parents murder still affects him. I want to reach through the video and comfort him.
I know. One can easily see why his younger sister insists she is German and does not want to bring up the past. Maybe mentally she cannot face it. If that happened to me I'd not want to remember and think about it either and I'd think of my adoptive parents with love and not delve into the tragic past.
P
A similar drama took place in Argentina during the Military Dictatorship 1976-1983. Once more "STUDY THE PAST" Abraham Lincoln
So heart wrenching, I hope he gets the information he seeks ❤️
So heartbreaking his parents were murdered ... in front of them 😞
Feels so sad for him at 4:35 about his parents. . My mom told of similar situations by the Japanese (in the Pacific). .
Much like when the Swiss decided to take away all the Gypsy children .
Yeah.. I'm crying with him :(
I'm crying for all abused children :(
You mention only what's convenient to you
Kabayan.....
What a lonely existence of not knowing his parents and where he came from. His whole life feeling like a drifter. His heart longing of his parents. Such a tragic lonely soul. 😔
Thank you for sharing your stories - your resilience is remarkable!🧐🧐
Your messages and memories, will be remembered for many years by more, for participating in this video.
We easily forget, that everyone has a story; most have suffered pain and others have witnessed such unimaginable atrocities- Yet still, in our community, we have elderly people who, in their past, gave everything for us, dying of loneliness - we are better than this! Be kind to each other- lest we forget ❤️
I am 61 years old and never heard this story it hurts my heart for these people. Thank you
This is an ancient practice of hostage taking during war of conquered children. Truly despicable.
@Mel101 In the middle ages Saracen pirates would kill the mother and father in front of the male child then abduct the boy and train him to be a lifelong assassin. There's an infamous account of Saracens raiding a town (most likely in Italy) and the locals were holed up in a church. They broke down the door and sent in these child soldiers who then massacred hundreds of parishioners.
maybe in pre-Christian times, these are barbarian measures
True the Apache did such with Irish children
Walter Weiss Christians have also committed atrocities such as these so you can't say that it must have been " pre-Christian"
@@di7209 what kind of "christians" do you mean? Heinrich Himmler and all the nazis who adored german nordic roots I guess?
That was unbelievable so sad but very informative educational thank you for upload
Thank you for this video. I watched a documentary about this on HBO many years ago.
My great grandparents were 100% polish. Idk when they came to America.. My gpa did rather well for his family. Worked hard. And same goes for my father. I'm an "American mut"- Norwegian,Danish, German and Polish. growing up I felt such a connection to our people. My home away from home. Always felt an honor to be Polish. History shows their strength and ripples through in to the strong men I saw in my life. I wish I could go visit and learn more if my family's past. Did we have anyone go thru any of this horror? Or was the family line spared when coming here. I love ancestory and history. I respect these folks who are searching and speaking out. God bless
Same, with a slightly broader mix. I am only here because a German soldier attacked my great grandmother's sister in Poland before the war started. After that, she was put on a boat to Ellis Island. She passed away the week I was born so I never got to hear the stories about our family in Poland. All I really know now is her name, and how to sing one Christmas song in Polish that my mother taught us sing to our grandmother every year. Not much online either, except her records from the ship that brought her to America.
@John Doe 💕💕💕💕
@@Linda-qy1xv its not always as mysterious as (n.americans) might think.
i live in germany, and i know that there are a few people from my fammily that went to america during the 19/18hunderts.
a few people from around here went on an america roadtripp a few years ago. on this roadtripp, they visited a few people they know they where related to. shockingly enough, noone of these related americans knew they where they originally came from.
also, not everyone who moved to america was being oppressed. i know that one of my relatives went to america in 32, because he had a bad breakup. without any oppression.
anyways, if you WANT to find out where your family comes from, and you only know a broad region, or even a specific village, look if you can find a herritage-organization, or a family witha simmilar name, and contact them. you will probably find more info on these originall imigrants here in europe than you will ever in america.
You will be more than welcome in Poland, Hannah🇵🇱 It's August, 30th today which means that in 2 days we will be remember 82 th years since Nazi Germany invaded Poland and started WW2... It's always sad, but we have to remember...
Always proud to be Polish 🥰💪🏻
@@jkr9594 There were plenty of gemans who left a nasi gemany to a cvlzd amerika i'm sure..
I never knew of this! Thank you for posting.
God bless all of you for coming forward and telling your history
DW documentaries are superb. I have watched so many now and they just keep getting better and better. One thing that is refreshing is the depth of truth.
Hi @Peter Wilson,
Thanks for watching and the kind words. We really appreciate you taking the time to give us feedback on our content.
Best,
The DW Documentary Team
You are very welcome. Balance and truth aginst propaganda and pressure always.
200,000 in Poland alone is now believed to be the correct figure - 10x more than this documentary states
This story is so sad. Germany needs to stop denying these people the information and compensation they deserve. Herman should do a DNA test to see if he can prove his ethnicity. By doing the test he may also be connected to other family members in Poland who have also done the test and could be looking for him. I was always told that I wasn't my father's child but four years after he passed away my DNA linked me with high probability to 294 family members in Jamaica and the UK. Since then I've connected with many of my paternal family. That was the sweetest vindication for me. I hope and pray Herman sees this, takes the test and wins his ongoing struggle with the German government.
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Good God, Prayers for these aging children.
@Gogu Pãduche I was focusing on this particular problem; it IS the topic of the video. I suppose I could pray for starving cats at the same time but that doesn't seem appropriate. I do empathize with starving cats if that's of any concern.
@Gogu Pãduche I don't see it and I scrolled through the list twice?
@Gogu Pãduche Nope nothing here. No problem. Peace out.
@Gogu Pãduche Neo-Nazis often spam sityes lie this, so it's good that they removed it. Social media is the new front for Neo-nazis.
@@soulscanner66 whaaaaaaat