In 1944-45, a barrack for the children of forced labourers from Eastern Europe (”Ostarbeiter-Kinderheim Kloster Indersdorf”) stood in Markt Indersdorf in the district of Dachau in southern Germany. Their mothers, mostly Polish and Ukrainian women, were forced by the Nazi regime to work on local farms and had to hand over their newborn children to this barrack.
Of the 63 children, deemed ideologically “racially inferior offspring” and placed in the “Kinderbaracke”, at least 35 died in agony due to lack of food and care, cold and disease.
32 dead infants were buried in the cemetery on Maroldstraße in Markt Indersdorf. Three more were picked up by their mothers shortly before their death and buried in the surrounding villages.
Twenty-eight children survived their stay in the barracks. Most of them were collected after the end of the war by their mothers or relatives. Six of the children were taken to the DP Kloster Indersdorf International Children’s Centre, where they were cared for by UN volunteers.
Photos:
1. The children’s barrack in Markt Indersdorf. Aerial photograph taken by Allied troops shortly before the end of the Second World War, provided by the Municipality of Markt Indersdorf.
2. Poster, Wochenblatt der Landesbauernschaft Bayern, 25 March 1944.
For racial-ideological reasons, only diluted skimmed milk was given to the children in the barracks.
Translation:
Whole milk not for foreigners
The milk is for our children!
3. Death certificate of Jefgeny Shostak, Arolsen Archives, 77101832