Figure 1.--Here we see under-weight German children at a special summrr camp organized by Allied Military Goverment. The press caption read, "Europe Cannot Afford This Germany: The bunker children: A break that is all too short. Camps set up by Military Government welfare officers take bunker children for ten days at a time, give them sun, air and a little extra food. Two thirds of the children have scabies." Here they are being weighed an measured, we think in 1946. We are not sure what was meant by 'bunker children'. It may nean dehoused, displaced children whose families were living in the ruins of German cities.

We note some special food programs in the Western Zones. We notice school feeding programs on the previous page. We are not sure where the food came from, but suspect it was American relief supplies. Eventually CARE packages started arriving. This was a new program began during World War II. We also note an American summer camp program for the children (figure 1). Here the boys are being weighed and measured, we think in 1946. We are not sure if this is an American or British camp. Perhaps these camps were organized in each of the Western zones. Summer camp was nothing new in Germany, but the program was different than during the NAZI era. The children got plenty of good food and and sunshine and their physical condition was closely monitored. The children participating looked skinny and many had scabies. Scabies is an itchy, highly contagious skin disease caused by an infestation of the itch mite Sarcoptes scabiei generally associated with poor sanitary conditions. These efforts were very important through the 1940s before the German Economic Miracle began to take hold.

Created: 6:14 AM 4/14/2016
Last updated: 6:14 AM 4/14/2016