Question about families of 'criminals'

[Prit]

Folks

I am currently reading Peter Poralla's Unvergänglicher Schmerz, a series of personal accounts of the last days of Danzig.

I'd appreciate your views on the following. Gertrud Alff-Behrendt writes:

In January 1945 I was living with my 9-year-old son Lothar with my parents ... my other four children were taken from my home in Rittergasse 31 by the Nazis in 1943, because their father, Heinz-Günther Behrendt was arrested by the Gestapo in July 1942 and sent to Stutthof as a political prisoner, where he died on 14 October 1942.

My questions relate to the removal of her children. Was this normal practice in such a case? She goes on to say that they were placed in a Kinderheim in Altschottland. And why was she left with one child, not necessarily the youngest?

Any insights gratefully received.

Prit