The Children's War

Programme Outline

The programme uses the reminiscences of adults who were children in wartime. It covers three main areas:

1. Youth organisations: the experience of children in Germany (01:10–07:29)

Horst Schaefer and Ilse Rhode talk about their experiences in the Hitler Youth Movement, an environment in which political ideas could be spread to the young. This often caused conflicts between children and parents; whilst the regime fostered the notion of the family, at the same time children were encouraged to inform on their parents if they showed ‘politically unreliable’ opinions. However, most Germans were prepared to tolerate the harsher aspects of the regime when they could see economic recovery all around them in their own country. The Jewish perspective of life at the time is seen through experiences of Lore Prankett.

2. Evacuation: the experience of children in the UK (07:29–11:37)

This section describes the mass movement of thousands of children to homes in the countryside. There were many bad experiences, with complaints of the town children being badly behaved, smelly or even a health hazard. Other accounts do little credit to the rural hosts. However, many children later looked back on their time in the country with fond memories.

3. Schooling in Germany and Britain (11:37–18:35)

Veronica Ellwood describes what appears to be good-natured chaos in the evacuee schools.

Klaus Lobeck's memories reflect the turning of the tide in the war for Germany. Renate Teller's comments give an indication of Nazi policies towards women. While the boys were trained to work or to fight in the armies, the girls were trained to be home-makers.

Gad Beck and Inge Deutschkron's contrasting recollections provide different perspectives on the same terrible experiences at a time when it seemed that 'youth was cancelled'.