OK, so I had every intention of including this in my last post, but rather than editing and having to move the pictures all around I thought I would make my observations on WWII in a separate entry. As I mentioned before, I'm also working on my professional development here. I've been to some talks and have been hitting different libraries and archives. One of the things that I've been interested in is the experience of children in Britain and France (especially Jewish children) during the war. My interest began with my last project when I studied children's homes for Jewish refugees in the Limousin. I was fortunate enough to have interviewed adults who had spent some part of their childhood in these homes in rural France. In the course of my research I learned about the evacuation of thousands of children from Paris to the countryside for their own safety even before the war began in 1939. The evacuations continued throughout the war. (Sending children to the countryside for their health and well-being wasn't unique to the war years. See fo example, Laura Lee Downs' book on French colonies de vacances.) I still have some questions I'd like to explore and I've been doing some research on children's experiences in Britain in order to have a point of comparison.
One of the things I've done is listened to recordings at the British Library from children who were part of the kindertransports. After the Kristallnacht pogrom in Germany on the night of November 9-10, 1938, 10,000 children from Germany, Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were sent without their parents to live in Great Britain. The Library has the oral histories of some of these children as well as some of the organizers. The Imperial War Museum touches on some of this history in its Holocaust exhibition, but one thing I have learned from my research is that not all these children were Jewish. Aid organizations tried to help all children who were in danger during the war. It was these efforts to protect all children that I focused on in my latest trip to the museum.
After Britain declared war on Germany once the Nazis invaded Poland, evacuations of children, teachers, and mothers began immediately. According to statistics in the "Children's War" exhibit, between September 1-4, 1939 approximately 600,000 Londoners including 376,652 unaccompanied children, 275,895 mothers with children, 5600 pregnant women, and 2400 children with special needs were sent to the countryside. Government officials weren't just concerned about the country's capital. In the rest of the country, 757,583 children and teachers and 445,580 children with their mothers left towns and cities in search of aid. However, the British (and their French allies) soon discovered that despite the declaration of war, this period was a "phony" war. The Germans decide to wait to launch their attack on western Europe until the Spring of 1940 so by November 1939, all these evacuees started to drift back to their homes.
Throughout the war, populations were in constant movement. What were the effects of all these refugees and evacuees on the daily social fabric? How did families decide to send their children away on their own? How were these children treated in their host families? What motivated people to help? Who helped and why? These are all questions that require further examination. 
The displays at the Imperial War Museum make it clear that the British government actively participated in encouraging the evacuation of children. Propaganda posters urged mothers to send their children out of London and reminded others that sheltering evacuees was a national duty during the war.
The displays at the Imperial War Museum make it clear that the British government actively participated in encouraging the evacuation of children. Propaganda posters urged mothers to send their children out of London and reminded others that sheltering evacuees was a national duty during the war. Not all children had happy memories of their lives in the countryside, unlike the smiling kids portrayed on the posters. The Museum actually makes an effort to show the multiple reactions to the evacuations: happy situations, unhappy children, loneliness, and homesickness. It's clear that many of these messages were gendered: they are directed at women. "Mothers...send them out of London." "She's in the Ranks, too." The woman surrounded by children reinforces ideas about a woman's role to care for children, but it also reminds us that men have been called up for different duties and many women were on their own...yet another aspect to be explored.
Many of the posters regarding daily life and daily concerns were aimed at women. They draw on stereotypes but also show the British effort to mobilize the entire population in the fight against the Nazis including men, women, and children. I found that in France it was often assumed that women were responsible for the daily acts of clothing, feeding, and caring for their families, but the reality was often different. In an atmosphere of extreme shortages, families enlisted all aid at their disposal in the struggle for survival. My best guess is that a similar situation also existed here in Great Britain(especially when you see all the kids in the posters). I like the posters, though!
