Figure 1.-- Here we see some children playing war with toy rifles in front of German soldiers. Unfortunately there is no inscription decribing what is going on here. We can make a assessment based on the way the children are dessed. This is a rare image. We have not found any other images images of children playing war in the occupied countrues, especially the Eat. It is clear we think that the children are not Reich Germans. Thy are dessed much more like Soviet children than Germans. Notice the flat caps, cut-off shorts or long pants, abnd barefeet. That seems much more like how Soviet boys dressed than German boys.

Here we see some children playing war with toy rifles in front of German soldiers. Unfortunately there is no inscription decribing what is going on here. We can make a assessment based on the way the children are dessed. This is a rare image. We have not found any other images images of children playing war in the occupied countrues, especially the Eat. It is clear we think that the children are not Reich Germans. Thy are dessed much more like Soviet children than Germans. Notice the flat caps, cut-off shorts or long pants, abnd barefeet. That seems much more like how Soviet boys dressed than German boys. The location seems to be a train depot of some kind. That means that the children are not just playing. They must have chose the location so the Germans would see them. We are not entirely sure about their motivation. Perhaps they are hopeing that the German soldiers will throw them a few coins. The Soviet Union of course is a hugh country. We might guess that this is the Ukraine. At the onset of Barbarossa there was considerable support for the Germans. Some Ukranians saw them as liberators. I supose the children could have been Volkdeutsche, but the Soviets deported most of the Volkdeutche to the East. And we would guess that this is the summer of 1941, either July or August. We douubt that wither the Ukranians or Germans would have been as stympathetic to each other by 1942. Note that here there is no fear on the part of the children toward the German soldiers.

Created: 4:01 AM 5/29/2012
Last updated: 4:01 AM 5/29/2012