'Children of war' sue Norwegian govt

A group of Norwegian “war children", born as part of a German plan to create a genetically pure race, are taking their case to Europe’s human rights court to demand financial compensation and recognition of their suffering at the hands of the Norwegian government.

Up to 12,000 children with a Norwegian mother and a German father were born in Norway during the Second World War under the Lebensborn, or Fountain of Life, scheme first introduced by German SS chief Heinrich Himmler in 1935 to propagate Aryan children.

They were locked up in mental homes, treated with disrespect, denied education, the victims of a monstrous Nazi scheme and decades of public prejudice.

A group of 154 Norwegians, together with four Swedish and one German national, have turned to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, arguing the life-long discrimination, and the inaction of the Norwegian government, violated their civil liberties granted under the European Convention on Human Rights.