Berlin
October 1939
SS ORDER FOR THE ENTIRE SS AND POLICE
Every war is a letting of the best blood. For the people, many a military victory has, at the same time, been a shattering defeat of their blood and vital power. The death of the best men—which, deplorable though it may be, is an unfortunate necessity—is not the worst consequence. Much worse is the lack of children.
A man can die peacefully if he knows his family and everything he and his ancestors have worked for will continue through his children. The best gift for a widow is the children of the man she loved.
Beyond the boundaries of civil laws and customs, there is also the high task, outside marriage, for German women and girls of good blood to become, not through frivolity but from a deep moral sense, mothers of children by soldiers going to war. Only fate can tell if those soldiers will come home or fall for Germany.
Also, the holy duty for men and women, whose place is at home by State command, is to continue to reproduce themselves. We cannot forget that victory and the shed blood of our soldiers would be meaningless if not followed by colonization of the new soil.
In the last war, many a soldier decided to produce no more children during military conflict because of concern for his wife’s welfare in the event of his death.
This factor need not be considered by you SS men, for any such anxieties are obviated by the following provisions:
(i) For all legitimate and illegitimate children of good blood whose fathers have been killed in the war, special trustees personally chosen in the name of the Reichsführer SS will assume guardianship. We will stand by the mothers of these children and will make ourselves materially responsible for the education and upbringing of the children themselves.
(ii) In cases of affliction or distress, the SS will care for all children, legitimate or not, and for all pregnant mothers. After the war, if the fathers return, the SS will give generous economical help if an individually proved application is made.
SS men and mothers of these children, prove that in your readiness to fight and die for Germany you are also prepared to pass on life for it!
[Signed] H. Himmler
The Reichsführer SS