Slavic children forced to donate their blood for wounded enemy soldiers: Vampire camps of the Wehrmacht - Article de Vincent C. FRANK

Historical events
The vampire camps existed in the last years of WW2 in Eastern Europe: Slavic – not Jewish – children were kept in these camps as living blood reserves to be used in German military lazarettos. The blood was given to soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht. Wounded Waffen-SS probably also received Slavic blood.

The children were collected from the street, some having lost their parents some were stolen from their parents. These children camps are not mentioned in the respective literature nor are they mentioned among the thousands of German camps known.

Depending on the rarity of their blood group they had to deliver blood up to once a week, or even more frequently. The age-limit was from 5 years (sometimes lower) till puberty. By the few surviving victims the withdrawal of blood is remembered as a coarse procedure that caused considerable pain. After blood withdrawal the children were given a candy – but no nourishing supplements. When the children inmates of these camps were bled dry they were disposed of by gas-wagon or shut. Very few survived, probably less than 1 to 2 %.


Missing documentation
The paucity of documents deserves special interest. The reasons explain why nobody in the past spoke or wrote about the topic. The number of people knowing must have been kept extremely small and those who had some overview also had good reasons to keep quiet.

It is obvious that transmitting Slavic blood to wounded Germans fundamentally contradicted the race theory dominating Nazi-Germany: Inferior Slavic blood was forbidden for Arians. This is the main reason to keep these transfusions top secret.
It was not advisable for German military at the front to learn that in case of being wounded or in shock they might get “inferior” enemy blood - even if this would save their lives. It was further not advisable, enemy soldiers to get to know what their children were used for. This would have enhanced their will to fight. The operation had obviously to be kept fully secret at home and as well towards Western countries.

The race theory omnipresent in Germany was more than a hobby of Himmler but an instrument of his power. The SS-Rassenamt had to take care of all race questions. In case the practice in the lazarettos would have become known, Himmler would eagerly have grabbed the chance to take over the military lazarettos from the Wehrmacht. Medical personnel or physicians to whom the SS could prove such a grave contempt Defiance of the laws on races risked even their lives. In the best case they would have been transferred to the front where it was most dangerous. This prospect certainly prevented them from producing or signing any piece of paper. No military order, no report or organization scheme could end up in any archive when nobody ever dared to produce such a paper. Awareness of their wrongdoing might have helped to keep the secret after the war. - The Military are usually successful in keeping secrets.


Survivors but not victims
To become a Soviet hero of WW2 was sought for by politics after the war. Nobody was interested in having these few surviving children getting the advantages connected to the status.
In recent interviews the witnesses stated that they had quickly learned not to boast as victims as this would have lead to the accusation of having helped the enemy.

For some aspects of the blood delivering by children quite a lot of small evidence, mostly of private sources, can be found in the former Soviet-Union. But the topic was and obviously still is practically taboo for researchers as well as history books.


Evidences of the events
Despite the strong reasons for keeping secret and not speaking about the topic some evidence could be collected. They origin from very different sources which together give further authenticity and evidentiary value:
• 17 names of such camps all over Eastern Europe include 2 transferred to Germany. It might well be that on the retreat of the Army different locations refer to the same lazaretto.
• Two such former camps have recent memorials: Krashnyi Berek in Belorussia and Kretinga in Lithuania.
• In recent years some survivors from different camps had the chance to tell their story to journalists. They spoke of about 3000 children inmates in their camp, those who died being replaced. They confirm the taking of blood as extremely painful. In some cases it was drawn from the heels and usually at a frequency of once a week. Children with rare blood had to deliver more often and there is one report that in a case of need all the blood of the victim was taken.
• Two short documentaries were aired by ZDF last year. This leading German television company had them broadcast after midnight. No repetition.
• Two German historians known for their work on the medical services of the army told me that they never saw any documents on my topic in any German archives but that they think such handling to be very possible and fitting the time quite easily.
• Lots of information can be found in Eastern Europe, be it contemporary or later, and be it in personal memories or evidence in court matching. All support the events. Together they give a mosaic with blank spaces still but without relevant contradictions. They leave no doubt of the general fact. One victim reports that a nurse was ordered to watch outside the room and to let nobody enter while the blood was taken. Other children report that during their transport to the camp the guards told them about their destiny and that they will have to deliver blood until they die. Cases of transfusion from vein to vein are reported but no answer is given to the questions whether the receiver was conscious and able to recognise the donor. If he was unconscious this might be an explanation he never learned to whom he has to thank for blood and life.
• In scientific literature my attention was brought to only one short mentioning.
• A book on the ghetto of Vilnius reports an engine driver telling having brought some thirty Jewish children to the military hospital in Krakow for having taken their blood and their skin for wounded German soldiers – up till now the only mentioning of Jewish children.
Only one unquestionable official document speaks about the topic: On November 20th 1945, the first day of the Nurnberg trial, General Ozol, the Soviet Deputy Prosecutor enumerated 15 different ways children had been killed during the war. The 12th accusation is worded: “extracting their blood for the use of the German Army“. The enumerated other 14 crimes against children have been confirmed in the Nurnberg trials and since further supported in realms of publications. The only accusation not spoken of further in Nurnberg nor researched afterwards is the extracting of children’s blood for the purposes of the Wehrmacht.
As the real events of taking blood from children had to be hidden which meant not to be mentioned at all, camouflaging explanations had to be used and were given. They are found and presented by today’s researchers:
Collecting children from the streets made sense as a precocious security measure preventing Soviet Resistance to adapt them.
Children were used in lazarettos for smaller services but certainly not by the thousands and not at an age of around 5 years.
The program of adoption in Germany for Slavic children under the auspices of Rosenberg and Himmler had an indirect camouflage effect too.

German race theory in conflict with medical ethos
The theory on race was of course well familiar to the physicians of the German army. They also knew about the curious exception of children: Till puberty blood was said not to have (fully) developed the bad qualities of their race. On this exception the program was based to take Slavic children to Germany for adoption by German parents having lost their own children in the war officially adopted and under the control of the SS and Himmler personally. Certainly the Wehrmacht did not want to have their lazarettos under Himmlers control like the said program. There were some connections between this program and the one of the children blood banks. When children for adoption by Germans did finally not pass the tests, they were in some cases transferred to the blood deliverers.

The physicians of the lazarettos had a dilemma they could only solve by acting fully top secret. On the one hand they, as well as their superiors, did not want to come under SS command. On the other hand they experienced that their patients when given blood – even from inferior race – survived. Those who decided using children’s blood had chosen to disregard the race theory in favor of saving lives of soldiers they had to care for – yet disregarding the lives of the children.

Arian blood was hard to obtain in Eastern Europe. German military personnel could not be asked to donate blood too often as they should not be weakened too much. Towards the end of the war in the East the casualties increased tremendously and so did the need for blood.

Contrary to the United States, Great Britain and even in Switzerland not participating in the war there was no blood collection service in Germany. The German physicians’ main task was to send the soldiers back to the front as quickly as possible – the practice preferred too early as better than too late.

Even so doubtful in race theory, the determining decision to take blood from Slavic children was first of all in the interest of winning the war. Transfusion of blood to wounded German military can be considered to correspond with the Hippocrates’ oath - as it saved the lives of soldiers. But certainly the wrong towards the children contradicts it.

Vincent C. FRANK
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