The War Children Experience. The non-Jewish German children in the programme KLV in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Abstract
Taking a social-historical viewpoint, the author describes the war experience of non-Jewish German children, evacuated into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1940-1945 in the framework of the Erweiterte Kinderlandverschickung. Staying in KLV-Lagers, controlled chiefly by the Hitlerjugend, was perceived in a very contradictory way by these children.
Mainly by analyzing the corespondence between the children and their parents, the author tries to illustrate how the children perceived the life in these educational-training centres, with a focus on long-term separation from their families, a rigid disciplinary regime, child deaths and other aspects. To illustrate the children''s perceptions, the author chosen the most interesting moments from the everyday life in the camps.
She also deals with the children''s behaviour in the camps, the world of the camps as seen by children, as well as with the contacts between the participants of KLV and the local population.