Figure 1.--Here we see a camp set up in England for rvacuee children at the beginning of World War II. The press caption read, "At England's First National Evcuation Camp for Children: Children walking down a path between the wooden camp buildingsin Britains first national evacuation camp for children from London. The camp, in the Home Counties, is situated in an isolated spot, sheltered by a wood from possible observation by eneny bombers. The camp had accomodations for 200 children." The photograph was dated December 5, 1939.

The British evacuation of children from the cities was massive. There was no way that camps could be built for the 3 million children that the Government estimated could be evacuated. Nor was it delt that that caring for the children in a massive camp sysyem was best for the children. Thus the approach was for families outside of the cities to care for the children. And as part of the program, teachers and support staff were sent along with the children to make sure they were being properly cared for by the families and single individuals that took them in to their homes. Some of the children were billited in schools. And there were camps built, but not very many. The vast majority of the evacuees were cared for in homes. Most volunteered. In some cases pressure had to be applied, but most Brits saw it as their patriotic duty and humane Chtisin responsibility. We do not know how many camps were actully built, but as far as we can tell not very many.

A British reader tells us, "There were some evacees who were billited in former holiday camps. Most of these were childen brought over from Europe. Historical fiction stories have displaced children brought to orphanages or children centers werr they stay until foster care can be arranged. A true story about being an evacuuee is of a boy who stayed at a children's centrr for most of the time he was an evacue. Ididn't know, however, that special camps were actually built for this purpose. The system would have collapsed but for the teachets involved in running the scheme. Friend or Foe has reference to teachers over seeing the evacuees from their school. The play No Room at the Inn is about child enduring physical abuse and has a teacher fighting to have a child from her class removed from this situation. It was made into a film towards the end of the War. There were alot of run aways who just wanted to be with their family. Ithink most who did this were older children in their early-teens."

Created: 9:30 PM 12/15/2017
Last updated: 3:15 AM 12/18/2017