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CHAPTER 52

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Hans and Frieda

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Munich Germany 1936, Heinrich Himmler looked on as his mistress Ingrid went into labor. He had met the woman 11 months ago. She had been a needed comfort to distract him from his failing marriage. A few hours later she had given birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Ingrid named the older boy Hans and the girl Frieda. Ingrid had made it very clear to Heinrich that she wanted nothing to do with the children once they were born. Fortunately a year earlier Heinrich had initiated the Lebensborn program, a secret Nazi human breeding program. She would be paid handsomely for not aborting the children and Germany would have two more fine pure Aryans to serve the Fatherland. So with one child in each arm, Himmler left the hospital and was driven to the tiny village of Steinhöring.

Over the next few years Himmler would check on the children whenever he could, making sure not to disclose his true relationship with them. He had placed them in the care of a German couple that had been unable to conceive children, and provided for them. He watched from afar as they developed. Once they were old enough to attend school, he made sure that they studied at the finest academy in Munich. He knew right then that the Lebensborn program would be a success.

Hans and Frieda studied hard at school and excelled. By the time they were five, Hans was a foot taller than Frieda, and showed signs that he would be quite tall. He was also very athletic, taking up boxing and wrestling as soon as he could. Frieda excelled in academics, and had odd tastes in reading materials, but nevertheless she was not happy unless she was at the top of her class. Himmler received a few disturbing reports as to her social behavior, but he ignored them early on. As with most twins the siblings were inseparable, and were rarely seen apart.

Hans and Frieda were nine years old in 1945 when Germany was defeated in World War II. The twins were initially sent back to live with the German couple that Himmler had placed them with. They had raised them since birth, so it made sense, but once they were no longer being paid to care for them, the couple refused to take them back. The entire nation stood outraged once it discovered the secret of the Lebensborn program. Hans and Frieda, like many other children of the program were left displaced and greatly ostracized. In 1946 the twins were placed in an orphanage in the city of Landshut. Being kept together had been their only comfort.

Landshut 1948, Frieda woke up and looked down at her mattress, she began to softly whimper as she realized that she had wet the bed once more, “Frieda, did it happen again?” Hans got out of his bed and quietly walked over to his sister. It was still dark outside, and the other children were still asleep.