21. The Unfortunate Kidnapped Children Were Sent to Nazi Facilities for In-Depth Examinations by “Racial Specialists”
Categories 1 or 2 were for children who met Himmler’s criterion of what a German child should look like, and who were deemed potentially useful additions to the Third Reich. Any hint of Slavic features or signs of Jewish heritage consigned a child to the lower racial Category 3 or 4 – untermensch, of no value to the Nazis except as future slave labor. Assuming they were allowed to grow up into slave laborers, of course, and not simply liquidated. In Cilli, Yugoslavia, the children of categories 3 and 4 were handed back to their parents.
430 children classified as Category 1 or 2, ranging in age from infants to twelve years old, were taken by their captors, placed on trains, and transported to a holding center outside Graz, Austria. There, the unfortunate children were examined by “racial specialists” who compared their noses to official charts, that depicted ideal lengths and shapes. Their teeth, lips, hips, and genitals were also examined, and compared to charts of ideal measurements. Those who failed this second cut were reclassified as Category 3 or 4 and sent away. Those who passed and maintained their classification as Category 1 or 2 were handed over to the Lebensborn program.
