The road to recovery: the provision of health services to French, German and Italian children in the aftermath of the Second World War (1944–49)

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the aftermath of the Second World War, the children of Western Europe were suffering. Millions of them were ill, anaemic, tired and deficient in vitamins and proteins. Houses, hospitals, sewers and other hygiene infrastructure was destroyed by the fighting and bombing across Europe. As a result of the material conditions that prevailed after Germany’s capitulation, child relief was a real challenge for experts, members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and state organizations alike, who tried to identify, treat and help sick children. In some countries, the task was made all the more difficult due to political and institutional instability, as was the case in France, Germany and Italy, where state structures had largely collapsed. By focusing specifically on these countries, all three of which shared an unprecedented institutional crisis despite profoundly divergent national contexts, this article examines how the various entities in charge of children and childcare – and voluntary organizations in particular – faced the challenges of the health emergency of the immediate post-war period. At the crossroads of the history of child welfare and humanitarianism, the aim of this article is to document and analyse the many roles these organizations took on – as care providers, information gatherers, parcel transmitters and so on – to help child victims of war, as well as understand the relationships they forged with other actors involved. The comparative approach will provide a stimulating opportunity to look more closely at the ways in which non-state actors participated in the post-war recovery of children’s health, and to point out common dynamics and specificities for each country.