Episode 10

Available for over a year

Sean Bean presents a series exploring the ways in which wartime experiences have filtered down through the generations. Ingrid Von Oelhafen thought she knew who she was. But she was to discover the legacy of the Second World War meant that she had been living a lie, the victim of a Nazi programme called ‘Lebensborn’ in which children were stolen from their parents. Nazi officials searched for blonde blue-eyed children in the countries they occupied, and children were removed from their families as part of a plan to build an Aryan master race. Ingrid was one of these. She grew up in Germany and only found out at a much later age that she had actually been born to Slovenian parents. As a baby she had been taken away and sent to a Lebensborn children's home. In this programme Ingrid reflects on how her whole life was changed by the events of the war, and how she feels about discovering her true identity. Producers Kate Bissell and Mark Rickards Photo: Ingrid Von Oelhafen aged about two. Courtesy of Ingrid Von Oelhafen.