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‘I never imagined my father was a Nazi’: Born in a German-run ‘baby factory’
Édith Pagot discovered at the age of 82 that she had been born in a Nazi-run Lebensborn maternity home in France, after her daughter researched her adoption. The revelation exposed a family history shaped by the Nazi regime’s attempt to promote births it considered racially “pure”, and left Édith confronting the possibility that her biological father was a Nazi.
Born as Édith de Vicar on 11 April 1944 at Westwald, near Chantilly, she was later taken to Germany and photographed at the Indersdorf orphanage in 1945 as staff sought to trace children’s families. She was placed with adoptive parents in Lorraine in 1948, who told her she was adopted but gave no further information. Her daughter Émilie’s research, prompted by similarities to another Lebensborn story, led her to German archives; Westwald was the only such home established on French soil, while around ten operated in Germany and others across occupied Europe.
In short
- Édith Pagot learnt at 82 that she was born in a Nazi maternity home.
- Her daughter’s research traced her birth to Westwald, near Chantilly.
- Pagot had been adopted in 1948 without being told her origins.
Explained simply
Lebensborn was a programme created by Nazi Germany to encourage births among people the regime classified as racially “pure”. It ran maternity homes where selected women could give birth and receive care, and arranged for some children to be placed with families.
The homes were part of the Nazi regime’s wider racial policies during the Second World War. Westwald, near Chantilly, was the only Lebensborn home established in France; others operated in Germany and across occupied Europe.
After the war, some children from these homes were separated from their birth families and placed for adoption. Records and family histories could be incomplete, leaving people to discover their origins many years later.