War and Social Upheaval: Displaced English Children--World War II (1940-45)


Figure 1.--A lot of British children lost their fathers in World War II. They were for the most part not orphaned as they had their mums and other family. Most orphans resulted from the NAZI Blitz. These children were photographed on Christmas 1945. You can tell it is not a school group becaue most boarding schools were not coed and the children went home for Christmas. It seems some of the children here are dressed for a Christmas play. One has a beard like St-Nicholas (at rear) and the boy at far left wears a skirt like a smock and long stockings like if living in the Middle Ages. One reader is not convinced that thechidren or in an orphanage. He writes, "I just feel they are not orphans. I see them as a group of kids in a Sunday class in the basement of a church practizing for a pageant. Some have their costume."

Another factor that has to be considered in assessing World War II is the number of displaced children and children who lost one or both parents. A variety of factors are involved here. Many London and other city children were sent to live with family and strangers in rural areas that the Germans did not target during the Blitz and subsequent bombing. Some were sent to America and Canada, but this was stopped after some of the ships were torpedoed by U-boats and after the Battle of Britain it was clear that German invasion was not emmenent. Another factor were the civilian casualties. The horrendous casulties in World War I were virtually all male combatents. Substantial numbers of civilians were killed in the Blitz and later V-1 and V-2 attacks and huge numbers of homes destroyed. This was quite different than World War I because of the bombing of English cities resulted in substantial civilian casulties. One Londoner tells that after a V-2 hit a crowded London Wollsworth in 1944 that the neighbor children came by to say that "mummy hasn't come home yet". Many of these children were taken care of my surviving parents or families, but many had to be institutionalized. We have not yet assessed the impact of the World War II displacement on clothing. The transport of orphans and other indigent children to Australia and other Empire countries appears to have been suspended because of the U-boat attacks, but after the war they weere resumed.






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Created: November 13, 2003
Last updated: 4:12 AM 8/12/04