|
Norways Nazi Children Sue Government |
|
|
|
|
Written by Staff Writer
|
|
Mar 08, 2007 at 11:33 AM |
The European Court of Human Rights began deliberations Thursday whether to hear an anti-discrimination suit against Norway by people who were conceived and born in a "master race" scheme by Nazi Germany.
|  |
The "Thiermann and Others v. Norway" suit was brought by 154 Norwegian nationals, four Swedish nationals and one German national, all of whom had a Norwegian mother and German father and who claim to have suffered major discrimination in Norway after the war.
Between 10,000 and 12,000 so-called "war children" were born in Norway to Norwegian mothers and German fathers, with a number of them registered as children of "Lebensborn" or "font of life" -- a project launched by Heinrich Himmler's SS to produce children who were deemed racially and genetically pure.
Many children from the Lebensborn homes, particularly in Norway -- which was seen as home to the most Aryan stock -- were socially ostracized after the war.
The court said the cases included that of a woman who was regularly locked up when she was a child, sometimes with a dog chain to await her foster father, and had a swastika marked with a nail on her forehead when aged nine or 10.
One man was placed in psychiatric institutions until 1965 without his mental health being assessed, another was placed in a special school for mentally retarded children where he was raped by two men, and one woman was sexually abused by her teacher in front of her class.
|
|
Last Updated ( Mar 09, 2007 at 08:10 PM )
|
Blog