History:
Under the leadership of the SS, blonde, blue-eyed girls and boys were snatched from their Eastern European parents and brought to Germany in order to "bump into" them in camps and homes. Such homes were also in Metten and Niederalteich in the Deggendorf district. The children brought home to the Reich were given new names and the traces of their origins were completely erased. Most of the children who were considered "unable to be Germanized" were deported to the Lodz concentration camp.
From February 1942, 50 to 60 Polish boys were deported to the Benedictine Abbey in Niederaltaich. The abbey has only a brief file note about the confiscation of the rooms and use as a home school. The Benedictine Abbey of Metten, where 145 Slovenian children were to be “forcedly Germanized” in Himmelsberg Castle, was also unfamiliar with the dark chapter of the house.
The story of the two Lower Bavarian homes was uncovered in 2014 by the association “Robbed Children - Forgotten Victims”. At the request of the Slovenian victims' association "Camp inmates - stolen children" and with the support of the monastery and the Metten market, a memorial plaque for the stolen children was attached to Himmelsberg Castle in the same year.