War children
Encyclopedia
A war child refers to a child born to a native parent and a parent belonging to a foreign military force (usually an occupying force, but also soldiers stationed at military bases on foreign soil). It also refers to children of parents collaborating with an occupying force. Having a child with a member of a belligerent foreign military, throughout history and across cultures, is often considered a grave betrayal of social values. Commonly, the native parent is disowned by family, friends and society at large. The term "war child" is most commonly used for children born during World War II
and its aftermath although it is also relevant other situations such as the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities
.
s committed by their parents. Yet these children have felt condemned by the crimes uncovered in the subsequent prosecution of their parents' acts. As they grew to adolescence and adulthood, many of them harbored the feelings of guilt and shame.
One example is children born to World War II soldiers. These children claim they lived with their identity in an inner exile until the 1980s, when some of them presented themselves officially. In 1987 Bente Blehr refused anonymity when an interview with her was published in "Born Guilty", a collection of 12 interviews with children whose parent(s) collaborated with German forces in occupied Norway. The first autobiography by the child of a German occupying soldier and Norwegian citizen, dedicated to all of them, was published in Norway: "The Boy from Gimle" (1993) by Eystein Eggen
.
Having a relationship with a soldier of an occupying force has historically been censured. Women who became pregnant would often take measures to conceal the fact that the father was a foreign soldier, if possible. The choices available to them usually were:
After the war it was common for both mother and child to suffer repercussions from the local population. Such repercussions were widespread throughout Europe. While some women and children experienced acts considered horrendous, including torture and deportation, most acts fell into one or several of the following categories:
While repercussions were most widespread immediately after the war, sentiments against the women and their children would linger into the 1950s, 60s, and beyond.
to secure the racial heredity of the Third Reich. The program mainly served as a welfare institution for parents and children deemed racially valuable.
In Norway
a local Lebensborn office, Abteilung Lebensborn, was established in 1941 with the task of supporting children of German soldiers and their Norwegian mothers, pursuant to German law (Hitlers Verordnung, July 28, 1942). The organization ran several homes where pregnant women could give birth. Facilities also served as permanent homes for eligible women until the end of the war. Additionally, the organization paid child support on behalf of the father, and covered other expenses, including medical bills, dental treatment and transportation.
In total, between 9 and 15 Lebensborn homes were established. Of the estimated 10,000–12,000 children born by German fathers and Norwegian mothers during the war, 8,000 were registered by Abteilung Lebensborn. In 4,000 of these cases, the father is known.
During and after the war, the Norwegians commonly referred to these children as tyskerunger, translating as "German-kids" or "Kraut kids", a derogatory term. As a result of later recognition of their post-war mistreatment, the more diplomatic term krigsbarn (war-children) came into use and is now the generally accepted form.
it is claimed by warchildren that, in an orphanage in Bergen
, the little children were forced to parade on the streets so the local population could whip them and spit at them.
In a survey conducted by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 1945, the local government in one third of the counties expressed an unfavorable view of the war children. The same year the Ministry of Social Affairs briefly explored the possibility of reuniting the children and their mothers with surviving fathers in post-war Germany, but decided not to.
500 children who were still living in Lebensborn homes at the end of the war had to leave as homes were closed down. Some children were left to state custody during a time when such care was marked by strict rules, insufficient education and abuse. Approximately 20 children ended up in a mental institution in 1946 due to lack of space in other institutions and unsuccessful adoption attempts, where some remained past their 18th birthday.
The Norwegian government also made plans to forcibly deport 8000 children and their mothers to Australia.
Some of the war children have tried to obtain official recognition for past mistreatment, which some claim equates to an attempt at genocide
. In December 1999, 122 war children brought a claim before the courts — only 7 signed the claim, which was a case to test the boundaries of the law. The courts have found any claims void due to the statute of limitations.
However, an arrangement in Norway allows citizens who have experienced neglect or mistreatment by failure of the state to apply for "simple compensation" (an arrangement is not subject to the statute of limitations). In July 2004 the government expanded this compensation program to include war children who had experienced only minor difficulties. The basic compensation rate is set to 20,000 NOK (€2,500 / $3,000) for what Norwegian government terms "mobbing" (bullying). Those who are able to produce evidence of abuse can receive up to 200,000 NOK (25,000 € / $30,000).
On 2007-03-08, 158 of the war children were to have their case heard at the European Court of Human Rights
in Strasbourg
. They demanded reparations of between 500,000 SEK (≈ 431,272 NOK) and 2,000,000 SEK (≈ 1,725,088 NOK) each for systematic abuse. The Norwegian government contested the claim that the children were mistreated.
during the 1950s and 1960s. It was further claimed that these experiments were approved by the government and financed by CIA, the American intelligence agency.
The motion didn't cite evidence for the allegation, rather the attorney referred to four sources whom she at the time refused to identify. It was already known that certain hallucinogenic drugs, including LSD, had been considered possibly valuable in psychotherapeutic treatment (see Psychedelic psychotherapy
) in the 1960s, so the Norwegian government appointed an independent commission to investigate the allegation in October 2001. Following two years of work the Commission concluded in a final report that the allegations all originated from a single source who neither mentioned the war children specifically nor LSD experiments on humans, but rather animals. The Commission also concluded that they were unable to find any other evidence in local, national and international archives which could support the allegation.
The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment conducted their own investigation into the allegation in 2001 and found it unsupported by evidence, though the complete report remains classified. Later the Ministry of Defence vacated the obligation of professional secrecy for current and previous employees in regard to information about the matter. This move did not yield any new information.
It should be noted that medical staff in several European countries as well as the US conducted clinical trial
s or experimental treatment involving LSD, most of them at some point between 1950 and 1970. In Norway, trials involved volunteer patients where traditional medical treatments had proved unsuccessful.
The most famous of Norway's war children is former ABBA singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad
, now Princess Anni-Frid Reuss of Plauen.
until 1945. At the end of the war the German presence stood at 372,000. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 12,000 children were born to German fathers and Norwegian mothers during the occupation.
Nazi ideology considered Norwegians to be pure Aryans
and German authorities didn't prohibit soldiers from pursuing relationships with Norwegian women. In other occupied territories like Eastern Europe, such relationships were forbidden because of Nazi views that Slavs
were an inferior race.
After the war these women especially, but also their children, were mistreated in Norway.
between 1940 and 1945. German soldiers were allowed to have contact with Danish women. It is estimated that between 6,000 and 8,000 children were born to German fathers and Danish mothers during the occupation or just after the occupation. The Danish government has 5,579 such children in their files.
In 1999 the Danish government allowed this group access to parenthood archives, exempting them from the country's normal secrecy period of 80 years for such records.
but, due to difficulties of enforcement, it became tolerated — an intermediate situation between the encouragement of similar relationships in Denmark
and Norway
, and strict prohibition in Eastern Europe
, the different regulations stemming from racial ideology.
The number of war children born in France is uncertain, with about 200,000. Women being arrested for having had relationships with German soldiers, then "judged", exposed in the streets to blind hatred and their head being shaved in public was a common fate.
was one of the few countries occupied by Germany where soldiers were explicitly allowed to have relationships with local women. The Dutch Institute for War Documentation originally estimated that around 10,000 children were born to German fathers during the occupation. However, recent figures based on records at the archives of the German Wehrmacht (name of the German armed forces from 1935–45) indicate that the real number could be as high as 50,000.
The food situation in occupied Germany was initially very dire. By the spring of 1946 the official ration in the US zone was no more than 1275 calories per day (much less than the minimum required to maintain health), with some areas probably receiving as little as 700. Some US soldiers used this desperate situation to their advantage, exploiting their ample supply of food and cigarettes (the currency of the black market) as what became known as "frau bait". Some Americans still felt the girls were the enemy, but used them for sex nevertheless.
The often destitute mothers of the resulting children usually received no alimony
.
Between 1950 and 1955, the Allied High Commission
for Germany prohibited "proceedings to establish paternity or liability for maintenance of children." Even after the lifting of the ban West German courts had little power over American soldiers.
The children of black American soldiers, commonly called "Negermischlinge" ("Negro half-breeds"), were particularly disadvantaged, since even in the cases where the soldier was willing to take responsibility he was prohibited from doing so by the US Army which, until 1948, prohibited interracial marriages.
In the earliest stages of the occupation, US soldiers were not allowed to pay maintenance for a child they admitted having fathered, since to do so was considered as "aiding the enemy". Marriages between white US soldiers and Austrian women were not permitted until January 1946, and with German women until December 1946.
The official US policy on war children was summed up in the Stars and Stripes
in 8 April 1946, in the article "Pregnant Frauleins Are Warned!":
Canadian forces participated in the allied invasions of both Italy and Normandy. Prior to the invasion of continental Europe, significant Canadian forces were stationed in Britain.
An estimated 22,000 children were born of Canadian soldiers and British mothers stationed in Britain. In continental Europe, it has been estimated that 6,000 were born in the Netherlands, with smaller numbers born in Belgium and other places where Canadian forces were stationed during and after the war.
A famous example is Eric Clapton
.
, many Dutch women welcomed liberating troops in a way that resulted in babies; these are called 'Liberation babies'. It is estimated that about 4,000 "liberation babies" were fathered by Canadian soldiers before they left the area in early 1946.
Common unfavourable expressions for those women who were on friendly terms with allied soldiers were American girl (»Amischickse« or »Dollarflitscherl«), and in the case of relations with coloured soldiers chocolate girl (»Schokoladenmädchen«).
In April 1946, the Stars and Stripes
newspaper stated that there was no hope for assistance by military authorities for "pregnant Fräuleins". The paper stated that a ""Strength Through Joy" girl who ate from the forbidden fruit should accept the consequences."
Coloured babies from Austria were sent in the age of 4 to 7 years by Austrian youth welfare offices to the USA by air flight. Black families adopted them there.
In The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949, Norman Naimark wrote that not only did each victim have to carry the trauma for the rest of their days, but it also inflicted a massive collective trauma
on the former country of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic
). Naimark concluded that "The social psychology of women and men in the Soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the GDR in the fall of 1949, until, one could argue, the present." Many of the rapes resulted in pregnancies, but there were also pregnancies resulting from convenience relationships for food and protection from rapists, and also from real love stories during the occupation. The children were despised in German society, and the Soviet army did not allow soldiers who wanted to assume family responsibilities to do so; many of the children are still searching for their fathers.
The Soviet approach to these children was to ensure that no mother of these children would be able to claim alimony. Already in 1944 Soviet authorities issued a decree that "illegitimate children were not related to the men who had fathered them, therefore no one had to pay anything." Between 1946 and 1953, it was illegal for Soviet citizens to marry foreigners. Those who tried to break this law were punished harshly.
. Muslim women in Bosnia who were raped in special camps got help as soon as they could overcome their sense of shame by looking for assistance from humanitarian organizations.
, the Korean War
and the Vietnam War
, though it has occurred during times of peace on the several U.S. military bases in the region since World War II. These children are known as Amerasian
s, a term coined by the author Pearl S. Buck
.
. Since 2008 United Nations Security Council
bans sexual violations as a war crime. This was called in German weekly Die Zeit
an historical milestone.
The late search of war children for their biological fathers was mostly difficult and (in spite of long and sophisticated search) often in vain.
with people of the occupied territories.
Couples concerned tried to hide their relation because of these interdictions and the unfavourable mood of the occupied population. Fathers from war children were excepted from actions for alimony.
Communication with the mothers of war children often ceased when the soldiers suddenly got movement orders without the opportunity to say good bye. Some of the soldiers were killed in action. In the post-war period soldiers were hindered by the victorious armies to go back to their former girl friends and their war children. Of course some of the soldiers of the defeated forces went back to their old families and denied having had any war children or relations with local women during occupation duty.
Some of the mothers gave their war child to a home of public welfare; others tried to arrange with their new partner and the common children as well as the war child (step family). Some of the mothers had already died during the war.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and its aftermath although it is also relevant other situations such as the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities
1971 Bangladesh atrocities
Beginning with the start of Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971 and continuing throughout the Bangladesh Liberation War, there were widespread violations of human rights in East Pakistan perpetrated by the Pakistan Army, with support from local political and religious militias, especially...
.
Discrimination
Children whose either parent was part of an occupying force or whose parent(s) collaborated with enemy forces were innocent of any war crimeWar crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s committed by their parents. Yet these children have felt condemned by the crimes uncovered in the subsequent prosecution of their parents' acts. As they grew to adolescence and adulthood, many of them harbored the feelings of guilt and shame.
One example is children born to World War II soldiers. These children claim they lived with their identity in an inner exile until the 1980s, when some of them presented themselves officially. In 1987 Bente Blehr refused anonymity when an interview with her was published in "Born Guilty", a collection of 12 interviews with children whose parent(s) collaborated with German forces in occupied Norway. The first autobiography by the child of a German occupying soldier and Norwegian citizen, dedicated to all of them, was published in Norway: "The Boy from Gimle" (1993) by Eystein Eggen
Eystein Eggen
Eystein Eggen was a Norwegian writer.As a novelist Eggen made his debut with a story built on the life and death of general Carl Gustav Fleischer, the Norwegian commander in chief at Narvik 1940. Besides a portrait of the writer Agnar Mykle, his late father-in-law, Eggen has written novels with...
.
Having a relationship with a soldier of an occupying force has historically been censured. Women who became pregnant would often take measures to conceal the fact that the father was a foreign soldier, if possible. The choices available to them usually were:
- Arrange a marriage with a local man, who would take responsibility for the child
- Claim the father was unknown, dead, or had left, bring up the child as a single mother
- Acknowledge the relation, bring up the child as a single mother
- Acknowledge the relation, accept welfare from the occupying force (see the German LebensbornLebensbornLebensborn was a Nazi programme set up by SS leader Heinrich Himmler that provided maternity homes and financial assistance to the wives of SS members and to unmarried mothers, and also ran orphanages and relocation programmes for children.Initially set up in Germany in 1935, Lebensborn expanded...
) - Place the child in an orphanage or give the child up for adoption
- Immigrate to the occupying country, and claim that identity
- Have an abortion
After the war it was common for both mother and child to suffer repercussions from the local population. Such repercussions were widespread throughout Europe. While some women and children experienced acts considered horrendous, including torture and deportation, most acts fell into one or several of the following categories:
- Name calling: German whore and German kid were common labels
- Isolation or harassment from the local community and at schools
- Loss of work
- Shaving the head of the mothers, an act not uncommon in the immediate aftermath of the war
- Temporary placement in confinement or internment camps
While repercussions were most widespread immediately after the war, sentiments against the women and their children would linger into the 1950s, 60s, and beyond.
War children of World War II
Estimates of the number of war children fathered by German soldiers during World War II are difficult to gauge, and are speculative to some extent given the tendency for the mother to hide the pregnancy of a war child for fear of revenge and reprisal by male family members. Lower estimates range in the hundreds of thousands, while upper estimates are much higher, into the millions.The Lebensborn program
Lebensborn was one of several programs initiated by Nazi leader Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
to secure the racial heredity of the Third Reich. The program mainly served as a welfare institution for parents and children deemed racially valuable.
In Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
a local Lebensborn office, Abteilung Lebensborn, was established in 1941 with the task of supporting children of German soldiers and their Norwegian mothers, pursuant to German law (Hitlers Verordnung, July 28, 1942). The organization ran several homes where pregnant women could give birth. Facilities also served as permanent homes for eligible women until the end of the war. Additionally, the organization paid child support on behalf of the father, and covered other expenses, including medical bills, dental treatment and transportation.
In total, between 9 and 15 Lebensborn homes were established. Of the estimated 10,000–12,000 children born by German fathers and Norwegian mothers during the war, 8,000 were registered by Abteilung Lebensborn. In 4,000 of these cases, the father is known.
During and after the war, the Norwegians commonly referred to these children as tyskerunger, translating as "German-kids" or "Kraut kids", a derogatory term. As a result of later recognition of their post-war mistreatment, the more diplomatic term krigsbarn (war-children) came into use and is now the generally accepted form.
Post-war years
As the war ended the children and their mothers were viewed as outcasts by many among the general populace who felt antagonized by the war and everything that had to do with Germany. The children and their mothers experienced isolation and many children were bullied by other children, and sometimes by adults, due to their origin. Immediately after the peace 14,000 women were arrested; 5,000 were, without any judiciary process, placed in forced labor camps for a year and a half. Their heads were shaved and they were beaten and raped. In an interview for the Swedish newspaper Dagens NyheterDagens Nyheter
is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It has the largest circulation of Swedish morning newspapers, followed by Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet, and is the only morning newspaper that is distributed to subscribers across the whole country. In 2009 DN had a circulation of 316,000, reaching 881...
it is claimed by warchildren that, in an orphanage in Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
, the little children were forced to parade on the streets so the local population could whip them and spit at them.
In a survey conducted by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 1945, the local government in one third of the counties expressed an unfavorable view of the war children. The same year the Ministry of Social Affairs briefly explored the possibility of reuniting the children and their mothers with surviving fathers in post-war Germany, but decided not to.
500 children who were still living in Lebensborn homes at the end of the war had to leave as homes were closed down. Some children were left to state custody during a time when such care was marked by strict rules, insufficient education and abuse. Approximately 20 children ended up in a mental institution in 1946 due to lack of space in other institutions and unsuccessful adoption attempts, where some remained past their 18th birthday.
The Norwegian government also made plans to forcibly deport 8000 children and their mothers to Australia.
Financial and legal issues
In 1950, diplomatic relations made it possible for the Norwegian government to collect child support from those fathers living in West-Germany and Austria, and as of 1953 such payments were made. Child support from fathers living in East-Germany was kept in locked accounts until diplomatic relations between the two countries was established in 1975.Some of the war children have tried to obtain official recognition for past mistreatment, which some claim equates to an attempt at genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
. In December 1999, 122 war children brought a claim before the courts — only 7 signed the claim, which was a case to test the boundaries of the law. The courts have found any claims void due to the statute of limitations.
However, an arrangement in Norway allows citizens who have experienced neglect or mistreatment by failure of the state to apply for "simple compensation" (an arrangement is not subject to the statute of limitations). In July 2004 the government expanded this compensation program to include war children who had experienced only minor difficulties. The basic compensation rate is set to 20,000 NOK (€2,500 / $3,000) for what Norwegian government terms "mobbing" (bullying). Those who are able to produce evidence of abuse can receive up to 200,000 NOK (25,000 € / $30,000).
On 2007-03-08, 158 of the war children were to have their case heard at the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
. They demanded reparations of between 500,000 SEK (≈ 431,272 NOK) and 2,000,000 SEK (≈ 1,725,088 NOK) each for systematic abuse. The Norwegian government contested the claim that the children were mistreated.
Medical experimentation
In conjunction with the claim brought before the courts by the war children in 1999, a motion was filed in September 2000 to national headlines alleging 10 war children had unknowingly and involuntarily been subjected to medical experiments with LSDLSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
during the 1950s and 1960s. It was further claimed that these experiments were approved by the government and financed by CIA, the American intelligence agency.
The motion didn't cite evidence for the allegation, rather the attorney referred to four sources whom she at the time refused to identify. It was already known that certain hallucinogenic drugs, including LSD, had been considered possibly valuable in psychotherapeutic treatment (see Psychedelic psychotherapy
Psychedelic psychotherapy
Psychedelic therapy refers to therapeutic practices involving the use of psychedelic drugs, particularly serotonergic psychedelics such as ergine, LSD, psilocin and DMT...
) in the 1960s, so the Norwegian government appointed an independent commission to investigate the allegation in October 2001. Following two years of work the Commission concluded in a final report that the allegations all originated from a single source who neither mentioned the war children specifically nor LSD experiments on humans, but rather animals. The Commission also concluded that they were unable to find any other evidence in local, national and international archives which could support the allegation.
The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment conducted their own investigation into the allegation in 2001 and found it unsupported by evidence, though the complete report remains classified. Later the Ministry of Defence vacated the obligation of professional secrecy for current and previous employees in regard to information about the matter. This move did not yield any new information.
It should be noted that medical staff in several European countries as well as the US conducted clinical trial
Clinical trial
Clinical trials are a set of procedures in medical research and drug development that are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for health interventions...
s or experimental treatment involving LSD, most of them at some point between 1950 and 1970. In Norway, trials involved volunteer patients where traditional medical treatments had proved unsuccessful.
Acknowledgment and apology
Since the mid-80s the fate of the war children has become well known and the government has admitted neglect. The Prime Minister of Norway apologized publicly in his New Year's Eve speech in 2000. Currently, as adults, the 150 former Lebensborn Children are suing for reparations and damages from the Norwegian government for failing to protect them and discriminating against them.The most famous of Norway's war children is former ABBA singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad
Anni-Frid Lyngstad
Anni-Frid Prinzessin Reuss von Plauen , is a Norwegian-born Swedish pop singer...
, now Princess Anni-Frid Reuss of Plauen.
Norway
German forces invaded Norway in 1940 and occupied the countryOccupation of Norway by Nazi Germany
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...
until 1945. At the end of the war the German presence stood at 372,000. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 12,000 children were born to German fathers and Norwegian mothers during the occupation.
Nazi ideology considered Norwegians to be pure Aryans
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
and German authorities didn't prohibit soldiers from pursuing relationships with Norwegian women. In other occupied territories like Eastern Europe, such relationships were forbidden because of Nazi views that Slavs
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
were an inferior race.
After the war these women especially, but also their children, were mistreated in Norway.
Denmark
German forces occupied DenmarkOccupation of Denmark
Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark began with Operation Weserübung on 9 April 1940, and lasted until German forces withdrew at the end of World War II following their surrender to the Allies on 5 May 1945. Contrary to the situation in other countries under German occupation, most Danish...
between 1940 and 1945. German soldiers were allowed to have contact with Danish women. It is estimated that between 6,000 and 8,000 children were born to German fathers and Danish mothers during the occupation or just after the occupation. The Danish government has 5,579 such children in their files.
In 1999 the Danish government allowed this group access to parenthood archives, exempting them from the country's normal secrecy period of 80 years for such records.
France
German soldiers were forbidden from having relationships with French women by the Nazi regime at the beginning of the OccupationGerman occupation of France in World War II
The Military Administration in France was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II. It remained in existence from May 1940 to December 1944. As a result of the defeat of France and its Allies in the Battle of France, the French cabinet sought a cessation...
but, due to difficulties of enforcement, it became tolerated — an intermediate situation between the encouragement of similar relationships in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and strict prohibition in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, the different regulations stemming from racial ideology.
The number of war children born in France is uncertain, with about 200,000. Women being arrested for having had relationships with German soldiers, then "judged", exposed in the streets to blind hatred and their head being shaved in public was a common fate.
Netherlands
The NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
was one of the few countries occupied by Germany where soldiers were explicitly allowed to have relationships with local women. The Dutch Institute for War Documentation originally estimated that around 10,000 children were born to German fathers during the occupation. However, recent figures based on records at the archives of the German Wehrmacht (name of the German armed forces from 1935–45) indicate that the real number could be as high as 50,000.
By Soldiers of Allied Forces
The Allied forces maintained a presence in Germany for several years after World War II. The book GIs and Fräuleins, by Maria Hohn, lists 66,000 children as born to soldiers of Allied forces in the period 1945–55:- American parent: 36,334
- French parent: 10,188
- British parent: 8,397
- Soviet parent: 3,105
- Belgian parent: 1,767
- Other/unknown: 6,829
American
According to Perry Biddiscombe, more than 37,000 illegitimate children were born to American fathers in the 10 years following the German surrender. Relations between the occupation forces and German and Austrian women were seen with suspicion by the locals, who feared that the Americans would impregnate their women and then leave the children to be cared for by the local communities. Those fears were borne out in at least in part, as a majority of the 37,000 illegitimate children ended up as wards of the social services for at least some time. Many of the children remained wards of the state for a long time, especially children with African-American fathers who were never adopted.The food situation in occupied Germany was initially very dire. By the spring of 1946 the official ration in the US zone was no more than 1275 calories per day (much less than the minimum required to maintain health), with some areas probably receiving as little as 700. Some US soldiers used this desperate situation to their advantage, exploiting their ample supply of food and cigarettes (the currency of the black market) as what became known as "frau bait". Some Americans still felt the girls were the enemy, but used them for sex nevertheless.
The often destitute mothers of the resulting children usually received no alimony
Alimony
Alimony is a U.S. term denoting a legal obligation to provide financial support to one's spouse from the other spouse after marital separation or from the ex-spouse upon divorce...
.
Between 1950 and 1955, the Allied High Commission
Allied High Commission
The Allied High Commission was established by the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and France after the 1948 breakdown of the Allied Control Council to regulate and supervise the development of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany The Allied High Commission (also known...
for Germany prohibited "proceedings to establish paternity or liability for maintenance of children." Even after the lifting of the ban West German courts had little power over American soldiers.
The children of black American soldiers, commonly called "Negermischlinge" ("Negro half-breeds"), were particularly disadvantaged, since even in the cases where the soldier was willing to take responsibility he was prohibited from doing so by the US Army which, until 1948, prohibited interracial marriages.
In the earliest stages of the occupation, US soldiers were not allowed to pay maintenance for a child they admitted having fathered, since to do so was considered as "aiding the enemy". Marriages between white US soldiers and Austrian women were not permitted until January 1946, and with German women until December 1946.
The official US policy on war children was summed up in the Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes (newspaper)
Stars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests,...
in 8 April 1946, in the article "Pregnant Frauleins Are Warned!":
Canadian
Canada declared war on Germany in 1939, following Britain's war declaration the week before. During the warCanada in the World Wars and Interwar Years
During the World Wars and Interwar Years Canada experienced economic gain, more freedom for women and new technological advancements.-World War I:...
Canadian forces participated in the allied invasions of both Italy and Normandy. Prior to the invasion of continental Europe, significant Canadian forces were stationed in Britain.
An estimated 22,000 children were born of Canadian soldiers and British mothers stationed in Britain. In continental Europe, it has been estimated that 6,000 were born in the Netherlands, with smaller numbers born in Belgium and other places where Canadian forces were stationed during and after the war.
A famous example is Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
.
Netherlands
On liberationLiberty
Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...
, many Dutch women welcomed liberating troops in a way that resulted in babies; these are called 'Liberation babies'. It is estimated that about 4,000 "liberation babies" were fathered by Canadian soldiers before they left the area in early 1946.
Austria
In Austria, Russian war children („Russenkind“) were discriminated as well as their mothers.Common unfavourable expressions for those women who were on friendly terms with allied soldiers were American girl (»Amischickse« or »Dollarflitscherl«), and in the case of relations with coloured soldiers chocolate girl (»Schokoladenmädchen«).
In April 1946, the Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes (newspaper)
Stars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests,...
newspaper stated that there was no hope for assistance by military authorities for "pregnant Fräuleins". The paper stated that a ""Strength Through Joy" girl who ate from the forbidden fruit should accept the consequences."
Coloured babies from Austria were sent in the age of 4 to 7 years by Austrian youth welfare offices to the USA by air flight. Black families adopted them there.
Soviet
Estimates of the total number of rape victims of Soviet troops in Germany range from tens of thousands to two million. After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians were usually punished to some degree, ranging from arrest to execution. The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“ completely separating them from the residential population in the Soviet zone of Germany.In The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949, Norman Naimark wrote that not only did each victim have to carry the trauma for the rest of their days, but it also inflicted a massive collective trauma
Collective trauma
A collective trauma is a traumatic psychological effect shared by a group of people of any size, up to and including an entire society. Traumatic events witnessed by an entire society can stir up collective sentiment, often resulting in a shift in that society's culture and mass actions.Well known...
on the former country of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
). Naimark concluded that "The social psychology of women and men in the Soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the GDR in the fall of 1949, until, one could argue, the present." Many of the rapes resulted in pregnancies, but there were also pregnancies resulting from convenience relationships for food and protection from rapists, and also from real love stories during the occupation. The children were despised in German society, and the Soviet army did not allow soldiers who wanted to assume family responsibilities to do so; many of the children are still searching for their fathers.
The Soviet approach to these children was to ensure that no mother of these children would be able to claim alimony. Already in 1944 Soviet authorities issued a decree that "illegitimate children were not related to the men who had fathered them, therefore no one had to pay anything." Between 1946 and 1953, it was illegal for Soviet citizens to marry foreigners. Those who tried to break this law were punished harshly.
Former Yugoslavia
Attention in the 1990s was drawn on war crimes in former YugoslaviaSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
. Muslim women in Bosnia who were raped in special camps got help as soon as they could overcome their sense of shame by looking for assistance from humanitarian organizations.
Amerasians
Probably more than 100,000 children have been born to Asian parents and U.S. servicemen in Asia. This chiefly occurred during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
and the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, though it has occurred during times of peace on the several U.S. military bases in the region since World War II. These children are known as Amerasian
Amerasian
In its original meaning, an Amerasian is a person born in Asia, to a U.S. military father and an Asian mother. The term has sometimes been used to describe a person in the United States of mixed Asian and non-Asian ancestry, regardless of the circumstances....
s, a term coined by the author Pearl S. Buck
Pearl S. Buck
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu , was an American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932...
.
Prevention
The growing sense for these inacceptable mothers' fate and children's humiliation led in 1989 to the approval of Convention on the Rights of the ChildConvention on the Rights of the Child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children...
. Since 2008 United Nations Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
bans sexual violations as a war crime. This was called in German weekly Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
an historical milestone.
Integration
Integration into a new family might be a solution to prevent war children from growing up as unwanted and mobbed people in a hostile environment.War childrens' unawareness
The war children wondered why they were treated unjustly and got to know their real descent very late or only by chance:- by comments of their class mates, relatives or neighbours
- when they needed official documents e. g. family registerFamily registerA family register is a registry used in many countries to track information of a genealogical or legal interest.Often, official recognition of certain events or status may only be granted when such event or status is registered in the...
or - as soon as their mothers had died.
The late search of war children for their biological fathers was mostly difficult and (in spite of long and sophisticated search) often in vain.
Fathers unknown
Occupation forces strictly interdicted fraternizationFraternization
Fraternization is "turning people into brothers"—conducting social relations with people who are actually unrelated and/or of a different class as though they were siblings, family members, personal friends or lovers....
with people of the occupied territories.
Couples concerned tried to hide their relation because of these interdictions and the unfavourable mood of the occupied population. Fathers from war children were excepted from actions for alimony.
Communication with the mothers of war children often ceased when the soldiers suddenly got movement orders without the opportunity to say good bye. Some of the soldiers were killed in action. In the post-war period soldiers were hindered by the victorious armies to go back to their former girl friends and their war children. Of course some of the soldiers of the defeated forces went back to their old families and denied having had any war children or relations with local women during occupation duty.
Mothers traumatized
At the end of war mothers with war children were prosecuted as criminals and punished in humiliating ways for their relations with the enemy. They were isolated socially and economically. Many of them could only rehabilitate and become respected by marrying a fellow countryman to be no longer regarded as an unwed mother. Persecution of a former girlfriend of a German soldier who evaded the punishment (forced head shaving) is documented in a book by ANEG; she was traumatized for the rest of her lifeSome of the mothers gave their war child to a home of public welfare; others tried to arrange with their new partner and the common children as well as the war child (step family). Some of the mothers had already died during the war.
Children in search for their fathers
A network of European war children, "Born of War — international network" was founded in October 2005. They meet every year in Berlin to assist each other, make up their minds and find out new positions.Kickoff
In their pension age many war children from World War II feel free from occupational and family stress to look for their identity and their roots. Often the children of corresponding German family are also interested to get in contact with the unknown war children of their father. Public opinion looks now in compassion towards those innocent war victims hit by the bitterness of post-war thinking. Only few of the biological fathers are still alive. Most of the mothers did not utter any word to their war child as they were subject to bullying and humiliating procedures by their family members and neighbours.Norway
Search should start by getting to know the complete birth documents including birth certificate (not only parts of it). The Norwegian archive at Victoria Terrasse in Oslo burned down in the 1950s and many of these important documents were lost. Norwegian Red Cross do have some records. It is often easier to trace the Norwegian mother first by Church records as an example.Belgium
Further proceedings are to find out whether there are documentary evidence from Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt, Auslandsorganisation – Amt für Volkswohlfahrt und Winterhilfswerk (1941–1944) about alimony payments. Valuable are also old photographs with greetings on the back or private letters.France
Since 2005 there is in France and is also known in Germany the society "Amicale Nationale des Enfants de la Guerre" (ANEG) which feels also responsible for those occupation children with a French father and a German mother. Another French organization searching for family members of French children whose fathers were German soldiers during the occupation is "Cœurs Sans Frontières/Herzen ohne Grenzen". Since 2009 the German government grants German nationality for French war children from German soldiers of World War II on application.Search in German Archives
Several central files are part of German archives:- At Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)The Deutsche Dienststelle is a German Agency based in Berlin which maintains records of members of the former German Wehrmacht who were killed in action. Formerly called the Wehrmachtsauskunftstelle this agency also provides information about the fate of foreign and German soldiers as well as...
military movements of German soldiers of World War II can be traced. Children in search for their German fathers (soldiers, prisoners of Second World War) get there answers as much as possible. - German Federal Archives-Military Archives (in German: Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv) in Freiburg im Breisgau has some copies of personal documents and for each unit of the former Wehrmacht the so called "Kriegstagebücher" (reports of daily events) where movements, and losses per day and unit were recorded.
- Archives of former Berlin Document CenterBerlin Document CenterThe Berlin Document Center was created in Berlin, Germany, after the end of World War II. Its task was to centralize the collection of documents from the time of Nazism, which were needed for the preparation of the Nuremberg Trials against war criminals...
contained details on personal membership in nazi party and organisations of German Third Reich. These archives were transferred to German Federal ArchivesGerman Federal ArchivesThe German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv are the National Archives of Germany. They were established at the current location in Koblenz in 1952....
, branch Berlin-Lichterfelde. Search for persons concerned are possible thirty years after death. Details needed are name, prename, date of birth as well as occupation and range of activities. - At Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge there exists a direct access file of all known German war graves of World War I and II.
Post-war children
Post-war war children often search in vein as their fathers' personal data are unprecise, archives closed or data lost.Search for US fathers
War children from American soldiers searching for their natural father and for their roots are assisted by the organization GITrace. Since 2009 the German based association GI Babies Germany e.V. tries to find out as well the roots of children of postwar GIs and their German girl friends.Search for Canadian fathers
Organization Canadian Roots UK helps war children in Great Britain to trace their Canadian father. Vice versa it helps to trace a child that a Canadian soldier fathered in the UK during or shortly after WW2.Psychological assistance
Psychological assistance and help to find lost family members by publishing on internet is granted by German association "kriegskind.de e. V."See also
- War bride
- MaliniMaliniMalini can mean:-*Malini or Mālinī was the name of river that was flowing in the forest where the ashram of Kanva rishi was situated and Dushyanta fell in love with Shakuntala. Literally, a woman who makes garlands...
- Organised persecution of ethnic GermansOrganised persecution of ethnic GermansThe Organised persecution of ethnic Germans refers to systematic activity against groups of ethnic Germans based on their ethnicity.Historically, this has been due to two causes: the German population were considered, whether factually or not, linked with German nationalist regimes such as those of...
- Walk on WaterWalk on Water (film)Walk on Water is an Israeli film released in 2004. It stars Lior Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, and Caroline Peters. It was directed by New York-born Israeli director Eytan Fox. The screenplay was written by Gal Uchovsky...
, an 2004 Israeli film dealing with the relationship between a war criminal's grandchildren and the man assigned to assassinate him - Military brats (US subculture) Children of military families.
War children in France
. Time witnesses: discrimination and disadvantages, cours of life, research for the unknown father.. (about French war children). (translation of French original)...War children in Norway
(the authoritative resource on Lebensborn in Norway and available in Norwegian)....French war children
. Shown by German TV: Phoenix on January, 2, 2010, 14h–14h45. (Wehrmachtsauskunftsstelle Berlin, discrimination of mothers and children, French association of war children ANEG, family reunion of brothers and sisters stemming from common German father with corresponding French mother or corresponding German mother).. Shown by regional German TV SWR/SR on December 2, 2009, 20h15–21h. Meeting of German-French children stemming from a German soldier stationed in France or vice versa from a French father stationed in Germany, search for their fathers. Interview with the president of French association of war children ANEG.External links
- War and Children Identity Project - Organization raising awareness on war children world wide
- Norwegian war children’s association - Norwegian group of children fathered by German occupying soldiers, founded 1986
- The Organization of Norwegian NS-children - founded 1991
- Children of Members of the National Unification (NS) in Norway - Norwegian group of NS children founded 1996, founded 1996.
- The children of collaborators in the Netherlands - Dutch group of NS children founded 1982
- Born of a Norwegian Mother and a German Father in Norway During WW II
- "Enfants Maudits" (cursed children) French children
- The reconciliation between war children from opposite sides
- Canadian War Children born in UK Help in tracing Canadian fathers WW2