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Volume V · Page 110
valuable result is to be expected, then the consent for abortion is to be denied. If on the basis of the racial examination the offspring is expected not to be racially valuable, the consent for abortion is to be granted. |
| It appears from the evidence that basic
decrees and memorandums on the question of abortion were principally issued by
offices and defendants other than those here involved, with Vie exception of
RuSHA. That RuSHA participated in the abortion program is clearly shown. The
role played by RuSHA was principally in conducting racial examinations of the
pregnant worker well as the suspected father to determine whether a racially
inferior or satisfactory child might be expected; and upon the basis of this
examination it was determined whether an abortion should or could be performed
— orders being to the effect that no abortion could be performed where a
child of good racial characteristics might be expected, and that an abortion
should be performed where such a child was improbable. Upon these racial
examinations depended also the future treatment of a child hi those cases where
a pregnancy interruption was not practicable because pregnancy was in too far
an advanced stage at the time of the examination. In the event the racial
examiner determined that a racially inferior offspring was to be expected, the
child was assigned to a "foreign children's home", which meant that it would be
reared under adverse conditions without the benefit of the normal necessities
of life and culture, while in the event the racial examiner found that a
racially suitable child might be expected, such a decision meant that the child
would be subjected to Germanism through adoption by foster parents.
That a child evaluated as of good racial characteristics would be wrested from its mother and subjected to Germanization is clearly shown in a letter from Himmler's office to RuSHA in which it is stated: |
"The reception into the care of the NSV or of Lebensborn of the child of good racial stock will necessitate in most cases its separation from the mother who remains at her working place. Particularly for this reason the reception into that care of the child of good racial stock is only possible with the mother's consent. She has to be made to consent to it through interpretations by the caretaking office which set forth the advantages but not the ends of this procedure. * * *" |
