Heuaktion
Nazi kidnap of children for slave labour / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Heuaktion (German: "hay harvest", or "hay operation")[1] was a World War II operation in which 40,000 to 50,000 Polish and Ukrainian children aged 10 to 14 were kidnapped by German occupation forces and transported to Nazi Germany as slave labourers.[2]
"Heuaktion" was an acronym for "Homeless, parentless, unhoused [heimatlos, elternlos, unterkunftslos – HEU, "hay"] Operation".[3] On arrival in Germany, the children were turned over to Organisation Todt and to the Junkers aircraft works.
The intentions of the mass abductions were to pressure the adult populations of the occupied territories to register as workers in the Reich and to weaken the “biological strength” of the areas that Germany had invaded.[4]