'I never imagined my father was a Nazi': Born in a German-run 'baby factory'

Two trainloads of children, some of them born in Nazi-run "Lebensborn" maternity homes, were brought from Germany to Commercy in eastern France in 1946. One of them was Édith Pagot.

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Cover image: Édith Pagot learned this year that she was born in a Nazi nursery in Lamorlaye, France, under the name Edith de Vicar. © Studio graphique FMM

Adopted as a child, Édith Pagot had no idea she had been born in a Nazi-run Lebensborn (“fount of life”) maternity home until earlier this year, when her daughter began looking into their past.

“This photo is of a baby about 18 months old. It has my first name and surname on it,” says Édith, holding a black-and-white photo in her fingertips.

Until a few months ago, Édith had never seen a picture of herself as a baby.

A photograph of Édith Pagot - when she was still known as de Vicar - in Indersdorf, Germany, at a former monastery and girls' boarding school that was converted in July 1945 into a children's centre following World War II. © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Lilo, Jack and Micha Plaschkes

Copyright for this text belongs to France 24.