Teresa Willenborg

German Children in Poland after the Second World War

Teresa Willenborg

Article Information

Pages: 61-86

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24193/RJPS.2023.2.04

Teresa Willenborg

Otto von Guericke University, Institute of Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine, Magdeburg, Germany, willenborg28@gmx.de

Abstract. After the Second World War the concept of the national common good was central for European countries. This embodied the efforts of rebuilding nations and securing their future. The devastating loss of human life highlighted the importance of securing the future population. Children were perceived as the essential resource for a nation’s long-term strength and survival. The devastating consequences of the wars left thousands of orphaned, unaccompanied (foreign) children who were often forcibly separated from their families during the chaos of war; and children who are internally displaced within their own countries or who have crossed borders as refugees. They were scattered across Europe. The treatment of foreign children varied greatly from state to state. Some countries have resettled foreign children, while other governments have used the presence of unaccompanied foreign children as a welcome pretext for integrating them into their own societies. The national common good was seen as a legitimate means of dealing with children and as an instrument in the struggle for them. With a view to post-war Poland, there were thousands of unaccompanied German infants and children who remained in the country. They were places in Polish orphanages and with foster families. This article examines how the Polish state treated German children who were left in post-war Poland, and how strategies were developed to integrate these children into Polish society. It also analyses the impact of the forced assimilation of German “children left-behind”.

Keywords: German unaccompanied children, “children left behind”, institutional care, orphanages, socialism, post-war-Poland

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