Nazi racial policy in the conquered Eastern Territories centered on the extermination of undesirables. Yet, Heinrich Himmler, the erstwhile selective breeder of chickens, initiated a further goal: the identification and preservation of "racially valuable" Aryan elements among the region's population.

To this end, the SS kidnapped blond, blue-eyed children from their parents in occupied areas and sent them to Germany for adoption. Operating under the code name "Haymaking," this sinister campaign was carried out with particular viciousness in Poland and Russia. Thousands of children were cruelly taken from their families. Most of the children were placed in Lebensborn homes and later adopted by suitably Nordic couples, often by households in which the father was a member of the SS. This unconscionable criminality was planned also for Latvia and other occupied nations.

This was but one aspect of Himmler's Lebensborn (Fountain of life) program, designed to preserve, improve, and extend "pure" Aryan blood. In order to encourage the propagation of "good blood," Himmler also issued procreation orders to the SS. It mattered not if the children produced were illegitimate--only that the parents were of pure Aryan stock. Thirteen special institutions throughout Germany served as both "stud farms" for SS men and maternity homes for unwed German mothers.