Lebensborn is the title of the second book in the trilogy, The Addlestone Chronicles. It translates to The Fount of Life. Dr Gregor Ebner headed the first Lebensborn clinic located at Steinhöring in Upper Bavaria. He was eventually promoted to SS-Oberführer, equivalent to the British Army rank of Brigadier General. At Heim Hochland, he personally oversaw the birth of at least 3,000 children and conducted reproductive experiments on some of the female inmates. He was assisted by Josef Mengele, who had just been awarded two doctorates from nearby Ludwig Maximilian University, one in medicine and the other in genetics. Later, in 1942, Mengele achieved infamy. At Auschwitz II (Birkenau), prisoners referred to him as the Angel of Death, Der Todesengel. There, he supervised and meticulously recorded experiments on prisoners with a particular focus on twins. After the end of the war, he managed to elude capture and escaped to Brazil with his extensive experimental files. The 1976 film, The Marathon Man and the 1978 film, The Boys from Brazil, directly and indirectly referenced the later life of Joseph Mengele.
Despite Ebner’s ambitions and political connections, (he was Heinrich Himmler’s family doctor), he wasn’t selected to be in charge of the European-wide programme. That dubious honour went to Max Sollmann. He rose to the rank of SS-Standartenführer, equivalent to the rank of full-colonel in the British army. By 1941, about a dozen similar Lebensborn sites had been set up in Norway alone. Homes and offices were also established throughout Germany as well as in Austria, Poland, Denmark, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It has been estimated some 8,000 children were born in Lebensborn homes in Germany, another 8,000 to 12,000 in Norway, and thousands more elsewhere. Because records were deliberately destroyed in the closing days of the war, there are no accurate estimates of the total of Lebensborn children born between 1935 and 1945. Both Ebner and Sollmann were acquitted of capital charges at the Nuremburg trials and in 1947, and released after time served.
Dr Gregor Ebner, Dr Joseph Mengele, & Lebensborn
