World War Children Research Articles

To Catch a Spy: Children, Espionage, and the Blurring of Boundaries in First World War Children’s Literature

Throughout WWI, representations of children participating in the war effort blurred the lines between play and work, childhood and adulthood, and reality and imagination. This is particularly evident within the spy genre, which alternately celebrates and critiques the child spy/spy-catcher. Some spy stories celebrate children’s service to the nation, while others critique wartime propaganda and the figure of the child hero. The spy genre’s representations of young people and the foe they confront reveal varied understandings of childhood, adulthood, national identity, and children’s wartime responsibilities.

“Like His Dad”: Epistolic Constructions of American Children in World War II

“Like His Dad”: Epistolic Constructions of American Children in World War II

Children in World War II—"German elderly psychoanalysts remember"

In the research project, Children in World War II—"German elderly psychoanalysts remember", psychoanalysts of the German Psychoanalytical Association born between 1930 and 1945 were interviewed on this topic, first with questionnaires and then with interviews. The author takes an approach about how today's psychoanalysts, who grew up during World War II, viewed their experiences, damages, losses, and traumatisation in connection with coming to terms with the collective guilt of the Germans. How were they able to address and work through the childhood experiences and traumas of war in their analyses? The author emphasises how important remembering is for a whole society after genocide, war, and dictatorships that are like that of the Third Reich in Germany.

Wissenschaftler aus der Kriegskindergeneration als Zeitzeugen

The here documented panel debate goes back to a public evening event during a congress in Leipzig in November 2015 on “Childhood in the Second World War”. Three renowned scientists from the generation of Second World War children, born in the years 1940 to 1943, were invited. In conversation with Barbara Stambolis and hosted by Heide Glaesmer, Peter Maser, Konrad Jarausch and Jürgen Reulecke discuss in retrospect what it means to have been a war child. They devote themselves to generational impressions and explore the connection between personal experiences and their research as well as their social commitment. They formulate thoughtful reflections on transgenerational dimensions and current effects of war and experiences of violence. It seemed to be of particular interest to what extent experiences of one’s own are important for the current international comparative research of World War II children.

Writing interventions in older adults and former children of the World War II: impact on quality of life and depression

ABSTRACTObjectives: The aim of the current study was to analyze whether biographical writing interventions have an impact on depression and QoL compared to daily diary writing. We also wanted to investigate differential effects between structured and unstructured interventions.Method: In two Northern regions of Germany, 119 older adults aged 64–90 were randomly assigned to three different types of narrative writing interventions: written structured and unstructured biographical disclosure as well as daily diary writing. Depression (PHQ-9), QoL (SF-12, EUROHIS) and trauma-related symptoms (PCL-C) were obtained pre- and post-interventions as well as at three-month follow-up. Results: Follow-up measures were obtained from 85 participants (29% loss to follow-up; mean age = 73.88; 68.2% female). Results of repeated measurement analysis demonstrated a significant effect on depression with the daily diary writing group showing lower depressive symptoms than structured biographical writing. We did not find a significant impact on QoL. Post-hoc analyses showed that posttraumatic symptoms lead to increases in depressive symptoms.Conclusion: In a non-clinical sample of community-dwelling older adults, biographical writing interventions were not favorable to daily diary writing concerning the outcomes of the study. This might be related to the association of traumtic reminiscences of former children of World War II and outcome measures.

The Meaning of Resilience: Soviet Children in World War II

During World War II, the Soviet media depicted children suffering as well as children actively participating in the war effort and mothers making sacrifices for them. Such mixed messages served clear political purposes, publicizing Nazi atrocities while deflecting attention from the Soviet state’s failure to protect its children. Historians have tended to approach such images and stories within a framework of trauma that validates stories of children’s suffering, despite their political purposes, while also discounting wartime accounts and postwar (and post-Soviet) reminiscences that highlight children’s strength and recovery. The concept of resilience, as developed in psychology, psychiatry, and anthropology, however, allows historians to understand such material as authentic and vital components of survivors’ understandings and memories of the war.

The Soldiers Family from a Child’s Perspective

This article scrutinizes how a society in a state of emergency is working or not working and looks from a child’s perspective on German soldiers’ families in the two World Wars. On the basis of war letters, diaries and war memories it analyses the perceptions of mothers, fathers and siblings. Of particular interest are the mentioning (or not mentioning) of education, war experiences and feelings. Both, the significance of soldiers’ families as a support unit as well as a place of political indoctrination can be emphasized. Many similarities between the First and the Second World War are elaborated, e. g. with respect to the special role of the relatively open sibling communication. However a peculiar narrative of severity characterized the communication between parents and children in World War II, so that the influence of Nazism to the most intimate area of the society appears limited, but definitely relevant.

Border Crossings: Depictions of Canadian-American Relations in First World War Children’s Literature

Border Crossings: Depictions of Canadian-American Relations in First World War Children’s Literature

Traumatic echoes of memories in child survivors' narratives of the Holocaust: the Polish experiences of Michał Głowiński and Henryk Grynberg

Drawing upon the important contribution brought by literary testimonies to humanitarian work delineated by Susan Rubin Suleiman (2002) and Leigh Gilmore (2011), this paper analyses two Polish Jewish authors' autobiographical narratives, Michał Głowiński's The Black Seasons (1999) and Henryk Grynberg's The Jewish War (1965) and Victory (1993), as instances of literary child-witnessing the Holocaust. The two authors' narratives represent two different cases of child survivors' testimonies given their situation during the Second World War: Głowiński being encamped in the Warsaw Ghetto, Grynberg living in hiding. The author argues that their narratives present the case of child survivors whose Holocaust experiences and aftermath memories in Communist Poland spring from their primarily scattered and painful memories foregrounding the importance of vulnerable lenses. In light of this, the main question the author addresses is: to what degree do these children's war memories take specific stances as a function of the age they were during the Holocaust and their location (either being encamped or living in hiding)? The main contention of the paper is that Second World War children's literary testimonies contribute to present-day scholarship by their complex understanding of the multi-faceted character of humans whose specific bulwarks are the simultaneous exposing and acknowledgement of individual occlusions, ambivalences, limitations or randomness.

Post-traumatic stress symptoms linked to hidden Holocaust trauma among adult Finnish evacuees separated from their parents as children in World War II, 1939–1945: a case-control study

The aim of this study was to identify long-term effects of diagnostic criteria on the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-C) for a test group of Finnish evacuees from World War II and compare the outcome effect with a control group of children who lived in Finland during the war in 1939-1945. 152 participants were recruited by the local leader of the Finnish War Child Association in Sweden and Finland. The selected group answered questions on the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-C) and the EMBU (Swedish acronym for "Own Memories of Parental Rearing"). Evidence suggests a link between childhood parental separation and termination of the internalized attachment hierarchy of origin in a detachment process among Finnish evacuees. Based on the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Total (PCL-C) diagnosis an extreme traumatization for 36.7% of the test group subjects was identified, including a hidden Holocaust trauma in the population of Finnish evacuees. The study met the criteria for satisfying global evidence value. Sixty-five years after the end of World War II and in line with other studies on war children, the data show high levels of different trauma exposures from the war with 10.6 higher risk (odds ratio) for the exposed group of Finnish evacuees. Despite some limitations, the data highlight the need for further investigation into different parts of the detachment process among seriously traumatized groups to reveal resilience and other dimensions of importance in professional mental health creation.

From Refuge to Risk: Public Libraries and Children in World War I

During World War I public libraries in the United States functioned in multiple ways as civic spaces. This was particularly true of libraries in large, urban centers with diverse ethnic populations, many from countries involved in the conflict. For children, the library was a refuge that provided story hours, reading material, and space dedicated to their needs. Just before the end of the war, the influenza pandemic broke out and children were not allowed in the library building. In a few short months, the library went from being a refuge to being a health risk for children.

Getting in the Scrap: The Mobilization of American Children in World War II

The Journal of Popular CultureVolume 29, Issue 1 p. 223-233 Getting in the Scrap: The Mobilization of American Children in World War II Robert Wm. Kirk, Robert Wm. Kirk Robert Wm. Kirk has taught history at Yuba College in Clearlake, California, since 1979.Search for more papers by this author Robert Wm. Kirk, Robert Wm. Kirk Robert Wm. Kirk has taught history at Yuba College in Clearlake, California, since 1979.Search for more papers by this author First published: Summer 1995 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1995.2901_223.xCitations: 2AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume29, Issue1Summer 1995Pages 223-233 RelatedInformation