Postwar Czechoslovakia and Displaced Children: Search, Strategy, Memory

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

Abstract

Post-war Czechoslovakia, like other countries, struggled to repatriate its displaced children and searched for those who were missing. Although the focus was on the children of Lidice (a village destroyed in German reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich), the problem was wider. Official institutions registered more than 1,700 search requests for children and sent out special search expeditions. The return of the children was presented as a symbolic 'redress for wartime suffering' and a 'return to their nation'. However, this concept was problematic because at the same time the state was also refusing to repatriate Czechoslovak children who were considered to be of German nationality. The attitude of the authorities towards Jewish children was also unclear. The proposed paper examines Czechoslovakia's post-war strategies for displaced children and the search for them, how the government categorized groups of children, and what consequences this had for the authorities' approach to them. It also analyses the ways in which the problem was presented, particularly in terms of highlighting or, on the contrary, omitting certain groups of children. This approach was also reflected in the maintenance of historical memory. While some issues have continued to receive intense attention, others have been forgotten. Today, the subject of children in war has again become a focus of Czech scholarship, journalism and public discourse. The issue expands on earlier research but also explores previously unknown stories, new questions and new perspectives.

Author

• Jana Paseková Kasíková, Inst of Contemporary History CAS (Czech Republic)