Changes

Such installations ostensibly provided a place where female “Eastern workers” could give [[birth]] and where they and their [[infant]]s might receive postnatal care. The notion that Germany’s Ausländerkinderpflegestätten were infant care facilities, however, was pure [[fiction]]. These establishments existed only to ensure that pregnant laborers returned to their work sites as quickly as possible, unencumbered by their newborns. Labor officials were not interested in the fate of the children. Death rates at most of these establishments were extremely high. Infants perished of [[starvation]], lack of [[medical]] care, and neglect.

Such installations ostensibly provided a place where female “Eastern workers” could give [[birth]] and where they and their [[infant]]s might receive postnatal care. The notion that Germany’s Ausländerkinderpflegestätten were infant care facilities, however, was pure [[fiction]]. These establishments existed only to ensure that pregnant laborers returned to their work sites as quickly as possible, unencumbered by their newborns. Labor officials were not interested in the fate of the children. Death rates at most of these establishments were extremely high. Infants perished of [[starvation]], lack of [[medical]] care, and neglect.

In February 1943, Volkswagen executives opened such a facility on site, first in the barracks of its so-called Eastern Camp (Ostlager). Medical supervision of the maternity ward and “children’s home” became the responsibility of the factory [[physician]] and overseer of Volkswagen’s medical facilities, Dr. Hans Körbel. In time, children were sent to a similar home in the nearby town of Rühen, where mortality was close to one hundred percent. It is thought that 365 infants and toddlers, the children of female “Eastern workers” who labored at Volkswagen, died at Rühen. In 1946, British occupation officials sentenced Dr. Körbel to death for criminal neglect in the “Rühen Baby Farm Case,” executing him in 1947.<ref>[https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/volkswagen-1 The “People’s Car” and the Nazi State], ''Holocaust Encyclopedia'', United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. encyclopedia.ushmm.org</ref>

In February 1943, Volkswagen executives opened such a facility on site, first in the barracks of its so-called Eastern Camp (Ostlager). Medical supervision of the maternity ward and “children’s home” became the responsibility of the factory [[physician]] and overseer of Volkswagen’s medical facilities, Dr. Hans Körbel. In time, children were sent to a similar home in the nearby town of Rühen, where mortality was close to one hundred percent. It is thought that 365 infants and toddlers, the children of female “Eastern workers” who labored at Volkswagen, died at Rühen. In 1946, British occupation officials sentenced Dr. Körbel to death for criminal neglect in the “Rühen Baby Farm Case,” executing him in 1947.<ref>[https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/volkswagen-1 The “People’s Car” and the Nazi State], ''Holocaust Encyclopedia'', United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. encyclopedia.ushmm.org</ref><ref>[https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/volkswagens-nazi-era-blood-crimes/ Volkswagen’s Nazi-Era Blood Crimes]. ''Its executives—not Nazi officials—oversaw the murder of hundreds of infants of slave laborers.'' Neal Gabler, ''[[The Nation magazine]]'', January 4, 2016. thenation.com</ref><ref>[https://www.commentary.org/articles/gabriel-gabriel/volkswagens-uighur-genocide/ Volkswagen’s Second Genocide], ''The automaker is once again in the mass-atrocity business'' by Gabriel Noronha, ''Commentary'', November 2024. commentary.org</ref><ref>[https://medium.com/teatime-history/the-untold-story-of-eastern-european-slaves-in-nazi-germany-ca5749fbffc8 The Untold Story of Eastern European Slaves in Nazi Germany], Oksana Kukurudza, ''Medium,'' Dec 6, 2023. medium.com</ref>

==References==

==References==