Children of forced labourers born on Third Reich territory posed a problem for the German slave labour system. By order of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler of 27 July 1943. 'on the treatment of pregnant foreign female workers and children born of these workers', children of 'racial worthlessness' - primarily from Poland and the Soviet Union - were to be sent to centres for the care of foreign children. Newborns were taken away from their mothers, who had to return to work immediately. The care of the children placed in the orphanages was reduced to a minimum, and the allotted inadequate rations resulted in the slow death of the children from starvation and deliberate neglect.

A home for children of foreign nationality (Fremdvölkisches Kinderheim) in Etzelsdorf Castle was established in August 1944 by the Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt (abbreviated NSV - Nazi Welfare). On 2 August, the first two children (Polish and Ukrainian) were taken to the centre, but died within a short time. In 1944, a total of 39 children, 15 of them Polish, were transferred to the orphanage. Of this number, 13 children died: 7 Polish, 2 Ukrainian, 1 Russian, 1 French, 2 of unknown nationality. The average life expectancy in this centre was 7 weeks, and most children died at the age of 4 months. The deceased children were buried in nameless graves in the local cemetery.

On 18 January 1945, 26 children were transferred to the orphanage at Etzelsdorf Castle from the Lindenhof orphanage in Spital am Pyhrn. According to some accounts, the living conditions of the children were said to have improved during this time.

In 2005, the story of the children from the orphanage at Schloss Etzelsdorf gained prominence thanks to Martin Kranzl-Greinecker, a journalist, who published the book "Die Kinder von Etzelsdorf" based on archival research and interviews with survivors of the orphanage. It was then decided to commemorate the deceased children, all the more so because a year earlier a woman who had looked after the graves of the children from the orphanage as a child had come forward and indicated the part of the churchyard where they were buried. In November 2005, a memorial, by sculptor Bibiana Weber, consisting of metal ropes running from the church tower to the site of the memorial plaque, was unveiled at the church.

Photos of the memorial: Luckyprof, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT , via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Etzelsdorf-Denkmal1.jpg?uselang=de