Polish Unaccompanied Children in Post-War Limbo

• In Event: Forced to Move: Remembering Children's Displacement and Migration in WWII and its Aftermath in East-Central Europe

Abstract

Throughout WWII, forced laborers in the Third Reich became pregnant and gave birth to many children. The circumstances surrounding these births varied depending on the parents' nationality. Until 1943, Polish women were the largest group of forced laborers, but they were eventually supplanted by women from the Soviet Union. Even after the war, Polish women continued to give birth to Polish children, both inside and outside of DP camps. It was common for mothers to abandon their children, who were then taken to German or Allied orphanages. A small number were brought to communist Poland, while the rest either remained in occupied Germany or Austria or moved to the West. The archival records reveal that one of the most harrowing experiences for these children was the waiting—so characteristic of transitional periods – marked by uncertainty about their future. Decisions made by adults, often strangers, were supposedly in the children’s best interests, but different groups, institutions, and organizations had conflicting ideas about what that actually meant. Interviews with those who lived through these experiences show that these decisions – whether to stay in Germany or Austria, move to the West, or go to Poland – shaped the rest of their lives. In my paper, I will examine the uncertain situation in which these children found themselves as they awaited decisions about their future – decisions about where they would live and, in fact, who they would become.

Author

• Jakub Grzegorz Galeziowski, U of Warsaw (Poland)