My Child Lebensborn starts with an interesting theme, but slowly devolves into pure misery porn. The child is not a character, just a receptacle for pain and suffering.
game is good however why did his teacher do that, felt very out of place imo
i've never made sure to care for a child this much in my life
Esse jogo foi um dos únicos que, realmente me fizeram questionar a injustiça que há nas pessoas. É um jogo reflexivo baseado em fatos reais. Me colocou na pele de um pai vendo seu filho sofrendo nas mãos da sociedade por ser diferente. Minhas próprias decisões tinham consequências que poderiam acarretar em algo bom ou um desastre. Foi um jogo que fez eu sentir o peso da responsabilidade de salvar alguém.
My Child: Lebensborn concerns the fate of the children born to the Lebensborn program in Norway after the Second World War. I was not aware of such a program before I came across this game but it did a good job of explaining it specifically in the case of Norway as well as attempting to explain why these children faced the abuse they did without veering into apologia.
I am going to provide a few links below but without going into too much detail, the Lebensborn program was an initiative by head of the SS Heinrich Himmler to promote the birth of "biologically valuable" children as per the Nazis own racial eugenics policies. It took place all over the occupied territories but Norway especially given its place in Nazi racial ideology. The Nazis would set up centers for women giving birth to children from soldiers/ss officers away from the judging eyes of their families and neighbours.
After the war, many of the women involved in the program and even just suspected of having slept with german soldiers were punished severely with public humiliation and even arrest/internment. As the game points out, at times these women were treated more harshly than people who had actively collaborated with the occupiers, mostly due to a misogynistic "their bodies belong only to norweigans" attitudes.
The children born of the program faced mental and physical abuse by the general population following the war, hatred for the nazis and their ideology being channeled into mistreating children who had nothing to do with it beyond the circumstances of their birth. Many were even interned in mental asylums for years following prevailing psychiatric consensus that they must be mentally stunted.
My Child Lebensborn follows a single parent adopting one of these children, a boy or a girl depending on your choice. It follows essentially the same core mechanics as Pou or other pet simulators, which seems insane to say about raising a human child but thats genuinely what the mechanics most resemble, taking care of hunger, cleanliness and boredom of the child whilst having to go to work monday through saturday with limited time to do everything from sewing clothes, cooking, bathing the child etc.
You follow this routine as little (klaus in my case) starts to go to school at seven years old and starts to wonder about their biological parents as well as facing bullying from the schoolchildren and even the teachers at the school. There is a walking dead style system of dialogue choices pushing Klaus into either hardening his heart to endure the stigma he will have to deal with and trusting no one or trying to keep whatever innocence is being taken from him by the cruel conditions hes facing. Its genuinely heart breaking stuff, it makes me wonder what I would do if I ever had childen myself and dealt with such a horrible thing happening to them without inmediately flying into a white hot rage and doing something impulsive.
There is also the subject of either investigating and sharing Klaus' parentage with him, including also whether or not to try to explain what the nazis were and why their actions are responsible for the bullying he endures whilst also making clear that none of this is Klaus' fault, which is hard for a kid to understand and for an adult to explain.
I don't really have much of a conclusion here, this game was honestly upsetting, but in a way that is obviously intentional. I think I would just encourage anyone who's read this far to read up on the stories of these children which are documented below. I would also encourage people to visit the Children of War website, I believe part of the profits made from the game go to the NGO.
https://mychildlebensborn.com/about-us/
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lebensborn-program
https://www.thechildrenofwar.org/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-chosen-ones-the-war-children-born-to-nazi-fathers-in-a-sinister-eugenics-scheme-speak-out-771017.html
I am going to provide a few links below but without going into too much detail, the Lebensborn program was an initiative by head of the SS Heinrich Himmler to promote the birth of "biologically valuable" children as per the Nazis own racial eugenics policies. It took place all over the occupied territories but Norway especially given its place in Nazi racial ideology. The Nazis would set up centers for women giving birth to children from soldiers/ss officers away from the judging eyes of their families and neighbours.
After the war, many of the women involved in the program and even just suspected of having slept with german soldiers were punished severely with public humiliation and even arrest/internment. As the game points out, at times these women were treated more harshly than people who had actively collaborated with the occupiers, mostly due to a misogynistic "their bodies belong only to norweigans" attitudes.
The children born of the program faced mental and physical abuse by the general population following the war, hatred for the nazis and their ideology being channeled into mistreating children who had nothing to do with it beyond the circumstances of their birth. Many were even interned in mental asylums for years following prevailing psychiatric consensus that they must be mentally stunted.
My Child Lebensborn follows a single parent adopting one of these children, a boy or a girl depending on your choice. It follows essentially the same core mechanics as Pou or other pet simulators, which seems insane to say about raising a human child but thats genuinely what the mechanics most resemble, taking care of hunger, cleanliness and boredom of the child whilst having to go to work monday through saturday with limited time to do everything from sewing clothes, cooking, bathing the child etc.
You follow this routine as little (klaus in my case) starts to go to school at seven years old and starts to wonder about their biological parents as well as facing bullying from the schoolchildren and even the teachers at the school. There is a walking dead style system of dialogue choices pushing Klaus into either hardening his heart to endure the stigma he will have to deal with and trusting no one or trying to keep whatever innocence is being taken from him by the cruel conditions hes facing. Its genuinely heart breaking stuff, it makes me wonder what I would do if I ever had childen myself and dealt with such a horrible thing happening to them without inmediately flying into a white hot rage and doing something impulsive.
There is also the subject of either investigating and sharing Klaus' parentage with him, including also whether or not to try to explain what the nazis were and why their actions are responsible for the bullying he endures whilst also making clear that none of this is Klaus' fault, which is hard for a kid to understand and for an adult to explain.
I don't really have much of a conclusion here, this game was honestly upsetting, but in a way that is obviously intentional. I think I would just encourage anyone who's read this far to read up on the stories of these children which are documented below. I would also encourage people to visit the Children of War website, I believe part of the profits made from the game go to the NGO.
https://mychildlebensborn.com/about-us/
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lebensborn-program
https://www.thechildrenofwar.org/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-chosen-ones-the-war-children-born-to-nazi-fathers-in-a-sinister-eugenics-scheme-speak-out-771017.html
pra te traumatizar pra vida toda.
i cried oh god
Quase chorei no final, nunca vi uma criança tão doce sofrer tanto preconceito. A narrativa é perfeita, curti muito a arte do jogo também, adoro jogos que mostram uma visão sobre acontecimentos reais, no caso desse, o jogo conta a história de uma criança que nasceu de um projeto nazista para criar uma "raça pura", mas não conseguiu se desenvolver nesse projeto pois foi resgatada antes no final da segunda guerra. Adotamos essa criança e agora precisamos lidar com situações do cotidiano dela, explicar o preconceito, bullying e ainda lidar com as perguntas frequentes sobre o mundo de uma criança que nasceu de pessoas que cometeram atos horríveis contra a sociedade e vive sendo culpada pelas escolhas de adultos egoístas e preconceituosos.
Me deu depressão severa, muito bom :D
Hermoso el juego, ahora pagame la terapia
I literally just put alotta hours into this game. I really feel bad for the child. I love seeing the child happy though.