French children of Nazi soldiers to be offered German citizenship
Germany is to offer citizenship to tens of thousands of 'war children' fathered by Nazi soldiers in France during the Second World War.
The move is being offered in recognition of the suffering of those who became known as the "bastards of the Boche" and often suffered discrimination
The German interior ministry said the move was a "symbolic gesture to make up for past wrongs" suffered by the children who are now in their 60s.
According to research, 200,000 were born between 1941 and 1945 – most as a result of affairs between lonely, bored young women and troops billeted nearby.
Nazi rules prohibited marriage with French natives – unlike with Norwegians or Dutch who were deemed to be "Aryan" – so the liaisons were secret and often ended abruptly when they were discovered.
After the war, the mothers went through purgatory as France was swept with a tide of anti-German hostility and collaboration amnesia set in. Many were paraded through the streets with heads shaved, and some sent to jail for offences against "national dignity".
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The move is being offered in recognition of the suffering of those who became known as the "bastards of the Boche" and often suffered discrimination
The German interior ministry said the move was a "symbolic gesture to make up for past wrongs" suffered by the children who are now in their 60s.
According to research, 200,000 were born between 1941 and 1945 – most as a result of affairs between lonely, bored young women and troops billeted nearby.
Nazi rules prohibited marriage with French natives – unlike with Norwegians or Dutch who were deemed to be "Aryan" – so the liaisons were secret and often ended abruptly when they were discovered.
After the war, the mothers went through purgatory as France was swept with a tide of anti-German hostility and collaboration amnesia set in. Many were paraded through the streets with heads shaved, and some sent to jail for offences against "national dignity".