World on Fire: did Nazis really recruit women to bear children?

Did World on Fire's Marga’s story actually happen in real life?

World on Fire returned to our screens on Sunday night - and viewers have been loving the new season, with the show’s entirety also being available on BBC iPlayer. The series introduced a host of new characters, including a German teenager named Marga who believes that she is being honoured after she is asked to provide children for the Third Reich. But did this actually happen? Find out more… 

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Lebensborn program was very real and designed to increase Germany’s population due to a declining birthrate. Women were tested to see if they were "racially valuable" to give birth to children for the Aryan race. While most women involved were unmarried and pregnant, offering single mothers support and various services, teenagers were also recruited from the League of German Girls - a Nazi youth group - to provide children for the Fuhrer. 

Marga’s story in World on Fire is similar to Hildegard Koch, a member of the Band of German Maidens who was recruited when she was 18. Speaking about the experience, she said: "The Gau Leader herself had picked me from amongst hundreds of girls. I was half a head taller than the tallest of them and had wonderful long blonde hair and bright blue eyes." 

She continued: "We had to sign an undertaking renouncing all claims to the children we would have there, as they would be needed by the State and would be taken to special houses and settlements for inter-marriage… There were about 40 girls all about my own age. No one knew anyone else's name, no one knew where we came from." 

Hildegard also revealed that she was introduced to SS soldiers at the maternity home, where they were given a week to chose someone that they liked and to make sure that their hair and eye colours were as similar as possible. "

"We were again medically examined and given permission to receive the SS men in our rooms at night... He slept with me for three evenings in one week. The other nights he had to do his duty with another girl. I stayed in the house until I was pregnant, which didn't take long." Hildegard gave birth to a baby boy, and looked after him for two weeks before he was taken away.  

While in World on Fire, Marga’s parents attempted to raise objections - but backed down over fear of coming up against the Nazis - parents did complain about the situation. An official German Ministry of Justice report from 1944 read: "The parents of girls enrolled in the German Girls' League have filed a complaint with the wardship court at Habel-Brandenburg concerning leaders of the League who have intimated to their daughters that they should bear illegitimate children.

MORE: World on Fire season 2: where we left off with season one plot and what happened to Sean Bean?

"These leaders have pointed out that in view of the prevailing shortage of men, not every girl could expect to get a husband in future, and that the girls should at least fulfil their task as German women and donate a child to the Führer." 

Speaking about her role in the show to the BBC, Miriam Schiweck, who plays Marga, said: "Often in films about the Second World War - especially those made by countries outside Germany - the Germans are often portrayed as a little bit two dimensional. They are the bad Nazis and of course, no one would disagree with that, but I think it's important to also reflect the misplaced pride many felt at being young in that nation. 

"This is what I find so interesting about World on Fire, because it's not only the enemy, but it's like a microscopic story within the enemy. Marga’s wrapped up in this terrible ideology and doesn't actually know it or realise what she signed up to – she’s never even had sex before." 

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