An article out of Germany focuses on some of the 100,000 people born to German mothers and Allied soldier fathers during the decade that followed the end of WWII ... the 'occupation babies' ... and the efforts of some to establish a connection with the paternal side of the family.

With little history and often not even much of a name, folks well into their 50s are using whatever means they can in hopes of tracking down parents that don't even know they exist.

According to the Federal Statistics Office, at least 66,700 children were born to Allied soldiers and West German women in the decade after World War II. In the former East Germany, at least that number are thought to have been fathered by Soviet troops. The true figures are probably much greater. Faced with the double stigma of illegitimacy and "fraternizing with the enemy," many mothers hid their children's paternity.

And few fathers stayed around to meet the kids they sired in former enemy territory. Shipped on to Korea, or home to Texas or Arkansas, they left behind young, often destitute women, who were cursed as "sluts" and "Ami-lovers" ("Ami" is German slang for American) -- and babies, who were branded as "bastards."

Life was hard for these children, especially so for those of mixed race ... the "Negermischlinge" as they were called. About 500 of these children were, though one woman's efforts, matched with US AA adoptive families. (There would not have been hope of marriage between parents, no matter what, as until 1948 the American Army was legally segregated and interracial marriage was forbidden.)

Now, as they near retirement age, the sons and daughters of occupying forces are scrambling to find their American, French, British, Belgian, and Soviet fathers.

The German Red Cross claims to be getting requests for help in searching daily now, and the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, gets about 800 a year. Unfortunately, between 16 and 18 million files were destroyed in a fire in 1973.

The article is long, and certainly worth a read.