Children regarded as "racially pure" and abducted by the SS are not entitled to compensation, a German court has ruled. Up to 200,000 children were kidnapped and forcibly Germanized during the Nazi occupation of Poland.
As a child in 1942, Hermann Lüdeking was abducted from Nazi-occupied Poland, robbed of his identity and forcibly Germanized. He grew up in Lemgo, never knowing anything about his true roots.
"I still suffer from not knowing who my parents are," said Hermann Lüdeking, now a retired engineer from Bad Dürrheim in the Black Forest.
Although thousands of victims may have similar stories, few have the courage to talk about it the way Lüdeking has. In his lawsuit, he applied for "a one-time grant of state aid" for the kidnapping. But he said money is not the main issue. Instead, it's about "Germany recognizing us as victims."
Lüdeking said he was bitterly disappointed at the beginning of July when the Cologne administrative court's decision was finally handed down.