19. This Kidnapped Toddler Became a Literal Nazi Poster Child
Photos of Aleksander Litau made their way to Heinrich Himmler. The SS chief was captivated by the cute kid, and ordered that he be subjected to an extra rigorous battery of racial testing to ensure that there was no Jewish trace in his background. When Himmler was finally satisfied that the kid was “pure Aryan”, he personally oversaw his adoption by a wealthy and fanatical Nazi named Adalbert Heinecke. In his new home, the unfortunate Aleksander was renamed Folker Heinecke. His photos were released to the public, as the poster child of an ideal Nazi toddler’s appearance.
When he was in his late 60s, the abducted Crimean kid recalled seeing Himmler when he visited his home and had drinks with his “father”. Folker’s first inkling of his background came after the war, when a local child taunted him: “you know you’re a bastard, don’t you? They’re not your real mom and dad“. He never discussed it with his parents, who although they remained unreformed Nazi fanatics to their dying day, nonetheless loved him dearly. After their deaths, Folker spent much of his adulthood in a quest to discover who he was. The quest, which finally led him to his Crimean origins, became the subject of a BBC documentary.