Figure 1.--These two boys we think in 1945 somehow managed to survive the War. We do not know their names, but beleve that they were from the Balkans, probably Yugoslavia. Source: United Nations.

World War II left a sea of misery in its wake, millions of displaced people throughout Europe. The most tragic of all and the most vulnerabe were the children. Unlike many adults, young children were not commonly deported to the Reich--thy were not potential workers. The exception was the Lebensborn children--children the SS classified as having racial value. The numbers of displaced children are unknown. In many areas they were on their own. The Germans were actively unvolved in killing Jewish children. Other children were on their own in areas where food supplies were desperately short and hard to obtain. The Germans might not shoot or gas them, but they were not about to feed them or devote resources for their care. In fact the NAZI Hunger Plan actually planned to use starvation to eliminate tens of millions of people in many ethnic groups, especially the Slavs. This was not an accidental or unitended conseuence of war, but an actual plan to murder--a priority German war goal. Thus millions of people wandered NAZI occupied areas with no one to care for them. Many perished, epecially in the East and Balkans as well as Japanese occupied areas in Asia. The pictures of the raged and starving survivors encountered by Soviet and Allied armies are heart rending. Many of the children had no idea what was happening around them. Som had no idea what happened to their parents. Others knew all to well just what had happened.

Created: 8:43 AM 2/28/2015
Last updated: 8:43 AM 2/28/2015