Nominated for the Opus Primum Young Talent Award 2012 by the Volkswagen Foundation. "Back then, we received no love. How sick these children's souls were! It's incomprehensible! And from this, the new elite was supposed to emerge?!" - A former Lebensborn child. For the SS, children - as long as they met certain eugenic and racial biological quality criteria - were primarily seen as guarantees for the eternal preservation of the German people and the ongoing renewal of the Aryan race. Ultimately, their value was not determined by their worth in themselves or for their respective parents, but solely by their utility as "human material" for the National Socialist "Volksgemeinschaft" in particular and the German "Volkskörper" in general. The Lebensborn e.V., initiated by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, promoted this view, according to which children were mainly means to an end.