Figure 1.--These displaced German childen in 1946 are being given art lessons at Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. They seem to be drawing a hammar. We are not sure that this was the most inspiring choice for younger children. Presumably the teacher had his reasons. Their parents have probably disappeared or been killed in the war. The American forces who occupied this sector of Germany organized various activities for such children to help them adjust to life after the devastating effects of the war on their families and on Germany generally. These children seem to be very well dressed. The children shown here, three boys and two girls, all around 9-10 years of age, are all wearing warm clothing. Note the sweaters, suspender shorts and skirts, the short trousers, and long stockings, neatly held in place with Strapsleibchen (bodices with supporters). One wonders what the emotional state of these children could have been in such terrible times.

The displaced German children were the orphans resulting from battlefield deaths of partents as well as deaths from the Allied bombing campaign and the fighting in the final months in Germany. This became increasingly serious as the Allied strategic boming campaign intensified and Allied armoes reached the birders of the Reich (1944). Generally there were not as many orphans in Germany as had been the case in the occupied countries. Most German children were left with at least one parent, usually the mother. There was, however, a huge number of children left without a father because of the number of men that had been conscripted for military service. Large numbers of men had been killed at the front. Even larger numbers had been taken as prisoners of war (POWs). Only a small number of Soviet POWs ever came back from the Gulag and those that returned did so years after the War. The Allies took larger numbers of POWs than the Soviets. This was the case because in the final days of the War, the Wehrmacht's principal objective was to move as many of its men west so they could surrender to the Western Allies. But even the POWs held by the West were held some time before they were released so they could return home. Thus in 1945 and 1946 there were huge numbers of families without the father. Mothers were also killed, often because of the stratehic bombing campaign. Despite the massive natute of the bombing, civilian casualties were limited because of the excellent German civil defense program. Some mothers were killed with their children, but as ;arge numbers of chikdren were evacuated frim the cities, quite a number of mothers were killed while their children were dafe in the countryside. Of course children with one parent are not precisely orphans, but because the breadwinner in most German families was the father, countless mothers and children were left without visible means of support ad in many vases without housing. We are not entirely sure how these children were cared for. After World War I orphanages were established. This seems less common after Word War II. We have, however, been unable to find statistics on the number of German orphans abd details on care facilities.

Created: 4:34 AM 3/4/2011
Last updated: 4:34 AM 3/4/2011