The film "Lebensborn" deals with the Nazi plans to cultivate a true Aryan race, by the careful selection and re-education of "racially suitable" young adults. Isolated from the various "fronts" during World War II, the story focuses on a little-known operation of the SS which operated a special department whose sole purpose was to select certain young men and women for breeding racially pure children of the so-called "master race." It was an operation which took place in all the countries which were occupied by the Germans during the war.

The story begins shortly after the Nazi annexation of the Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia). Under the pretext of X-raying many young girls for the prevention of tuberculosis, clean healthy specimens from all countries are being chosen for the "program." Nationality is not an issue. Girls are chosen based upon their "race"-determined by certain physical characteristics which the Nazi leaders decided constituted the pure Aryan look.

The war is approaching the area, but the film takes place on the edges of that conflict. A young Czech girl of about 16 or 17 years, named Gretchen is selected from among the Czech population, mainly because she comes from a purely Aryan family with many German ancestors. Having no idea of the true purpose of the Lebensborn program, she is enlisted without any real resistance. While she feels sad about leaving her family behind, she travels to the isolated and chilly environment in the Prussian lakes area. She has no idea what the authorities have in mind for her.

The forest sanatorium Isolde, where Gretchen and many other girls are brought by this Nazi eugenics program, is hidden from the world, away from the visible horrors of the war. This makes the fight for Gretchen's soul even more delicate, although her body is the only thing of interest to the authorities. Their only aim is to conceive new lives dedicated to serve only the aims of the Nazi regime, a army of children of the master race, dedicated to the destruction of humanity as we know it.

Steeped in pagan rituals, the sanatorium's activities at first appear like a children's camp experience. But in the dead of winter, these rituals take on a menacing and foreboding feeling. Gretchen is the exceptional case in the flock of young women who have been gathered here to act as mothers of the master race. Her subconscious mothering and religious feelings impe her toward compassion for all the tortured souls and persecuted people with whom she will come in contact. Despite her apparent co-operation with the program, she never conforms to the dehumanizing myths that the forces of evil want her to embrace.

The sanatorium had previously belonged to a Jewish family from which it was confiscated by the Nazis. The son of that family, a young man named Leo, hides on the property without any real hope of surviving. Gretchen and Leo are immediately attracted to each other, like two erratic boulders stuck in the ice of a glacier. Nature soon plays its role, as Leo and Gretchen begin to have strong feelings for each other. Between the frozen horizons of the deadly cold winter, Gretchen soon learns why she has been brought to the Isolde sanatorium. Groups of strapping and handsome SS officers are invited to the sanatorium to "mate" with the young girls. All of the other girls succumb to the pressure, and even the excitement of events. But Gretchen is somehow lucky. The SS officer chosen to be with her does not choose to be a part of the process. It is not clear why he does this. Perhaps there is still a bit of human decency in him. The girls are organized by the head nurse, a lesbian, who sees to their needs, and consoles and cajoles them as necessary. The nurse takes a special interest in Gretchen's case, but not the expected sexual one. Instead, she helps Gretchen in small ways, so that Gretchen does not have to conform to the program. The ritual matings are preceded by dances in underground caves, to the music of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden." The fountains of water are now frozen into strange forms which give these rituals a unique background setting. One by one, the girls become pregnant, and soon after giving birth, the babies are taken away and given to "good German families." Except for Gretchen. The Jewish boy Leo is finally discovered by the authorities, and is scheduled to be "transported" to the east with many other Jews who have been rounded up in the area. After Leo falls into the icy lake, and nearly dies from exposure, Gretchen manages to bring him to the little hut where he hides, and warms him back to life with her body. They make love for the first and only time. The next day, Leo and the other Jews are taken across the river Visla in a barge. Leo choses to jump into the cold water and be swept away. Gretchen is watching from the other shore. What she does not know, is that she is pregnant by Leo. She finally gives birth to a boy who is taken away by the authorities and given to a German family to raise. Gretchen's triumph is a quiet one. Neither the nurses at the sanatorium nor the Nazi racial officers ever learn that the child had a Jewish father. The fatal forces of the Nazis have not prevailed. The war finally reaches the idyllic countryside where Gretchen and the other girls have been protected for so long. She manages to escape, and even helps a young Jewish child across the border into Czechoslovakia. Gretchen finally returns to the countryside of her childhood, now devastated by war. Despite the conditions, she finds in herself a sparkle of light. Life will go on.

Interview with Vladimír Körner, the screenplaywriter >