Heinrich Himmler articulated Hitler’s policy of Lebensborn in Poland in 1943: “It is our duty to take their children with us, to remove them from their environment, if necessary by robbing or stealing them.”.With those instructions, more than 200,000 of the blondest 'racially valuable' Polish children were forcibly taken from their Polish parents and transported to Germany, where they were raised in German homes. In many cases their parents were slaughtered. The long term purpose of Lebensborn, and similar Nazi genocidal policies, was to eliminate 'Polishness.'.This is exactly the policy Putin established in Ukraine. Ukrainian children are being taken from their Ukrainian parents, transported to Russia and raised in Russian homes. In many cases the Ukrainian parents were killed as a direct consequence of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The intent of Putin’s policy of removing Ukrainian children and raising them in Russia is to eliminate all vestiges of “Ukrainianess” from the children, and turn them into Russians. It is this policy that now makes Putin and his accomplices war criminals, subject to arrest in any country that recognizes the authority of the International Criminal Court (ICC)..The ICC took this bold action on March 17, 2023. This is a very significant step in the progress of the Russia/Ukraine war. Although neither the United States nor Russia submits to the authority of the ICC, 123 nations, including virtually all of Europe are members. Every member nation would be obliged to arrest Putin if he sets foot on their soil. Putin is now on the same list as ex-murderous dictators, like Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic, and Libya’s Muammar Gadaffi. Although the Kremlin claims to be unfazed by the ICC’s issuance of the international warrant, it's clear they've been rattled.. HimmlerHeinrich Himmler, SS Reichsfuhrer, was architect of the so-called Lebensborn program, that aimed to produce a racially 'pure' German people. .The other person who was charged by the ICC, and is now subject to the international arrest warrant, is Putin’s “Commissioner for Children’s Rights”, Lvova-Belova. She openly boasted about her role in forcibly transporting the Ukrainian children to Russia, and turning them into Russians. Both Putin and Lvova-Belova are charged with the crime of unlawfully transporting one population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation. That crime came into being as a direct result of Nazi atrocities during WWII — specifically of atrocities in Poland and the Eastern European area — aptly named 'The Bloodlands.'.Exactly what consequences the ICC decision will have are not clear. No one expects an arrest anytime soon. However, an immediate consequence is that China's Xi Xinping was seen shaking hands with an international pariah at his meeting with Putin in Moscow on March 20. This was not something Xi wanted. His goal was clearly to be seen as a peacemaker, while deliberately contrasting China with an America Xi wants the world to see as a warmonger. Instead, Xi has been upstaged by the ICC..And when Xi speaks to Ukraine’s Zelensky, he will be speaking to the leader of the nation that is clearly seen by the Western world as the leader of a nation that's the victim of Russian war crimes. China has gone to great lengths to avoid naming Russia as the aggressor in this war. Instead, China tries to frame what is clearly an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation by Russia as a “Ukrainian crisis.” This exercise in semantics will be largely undone by the ICC action..But perhaps the most difficult problem for both Russia and China created by the ICC action is that they can’t blame the action on America. Both Russia and China have gone to great lengths to blame America for everything related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But the United States is not a member of the ICC. It refused to join (for many complicated reasons) when the ICC came into being..But all of Europe, as well as much of the developing world does recognize the ICC. Many of those ICC members are important trading partners of China. This is a big problem for China..Exactly how all of this plays out is an unknown. However, the ICC action — basically accusing Russia of adopting horrific Nazi tactics — certainly threw a new wrinkle into what was already a strange and complicated situation..We now have Russia accused of adopting Nazi tactics while it claims to be fighting Nazis, while Xi, the direct descendant of Mao’s murderous communist regime, claims to be the peacemaker, while insisting no invasion occurred..Strange times.
