Newly revealed Nazi documents show that Adolf Hitler approved of a plot to kidnap the illegitimate Russian children of German soldiers to fill dwindling military ranks, a plan similar to the modern-day Russian kidnapping of Ukrainian children.
The papers, set for auction Wednesday at Maryland-based Alexander Historical Auctions, suggested that up to 500,000 new German soldiers could be added to the Nazi army over time.
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A letter sent to headquarters by the commander of the 2nd Panzer Army said, “Children with valuable physical and mental capacities will certainly be produced from this crossing of young Russian women, who in general have great bodily strength and are, for the most part, acceptable racially (there is a large Nordic element) with strong German men. If we do not take these children, the Russians are bound to find some way of doing so later and in this way, they will secure a valuable replacement for the drop in birth rate occasioned by the war.”
The package of letters, valued at $12,000 to $15,000, said Hitler enthusiastically endorsed the plan.
Bill Panagopulos, the president of Alexander Historical Auctions, said there are similarities between the Nazi plan to fill the ranks and Putin’s kidnapping of over 16,000 Ukrainian youths for his shrinking army.
In the description of the four letters, he wrote, “This is not unlike events currently transpiring in Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin has forcibly removed an estimated 16-300,000 children to Russia to be raised as Russians and assigned Russian citizenship.”
Alexander, of Chesapeake City, Maryland, has long been a world leader in the auctioning of World War II artifacts, and the letters are in the highly rare category. “Newly discovered and, until today, yet another unknown terror brought about by the Nazis,” Panagopulos said.
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Like so many of Hitler’s plots, it is unclear if the plan was ever instituted, though there was plenty of time to do so. It was proposed with details in 1942. Germany didn’t surrender until 1945.
“It is unknown whether this program was initiated. However, the comparatively early date of this letter, Hitler's enthusiasm for the plan, and the fact that 2nd Panzer Army already had detailed records of these children would lead one to believe that at the very least, thousands of these unfortunate children ended up in German hands, and some may today remain unaware of their national origin,” according to the analysis of the tattered letters.