Beneath a Frosty Moon
Page 37
Today, with the emphasis on child protection and an increased awareness of paedophilia and other dangers, it seems incredible that thousands upon thousands of vulnerable little people of all ages would be billeted with anyone who was willing to foster them, and even those who weren’t so willing. The major towns and cities of England were seen as places of potential intensive bombing by the enemy, and parents were encouraged – forcefully – to put their own feelings aside and to do ‘what was right’. In a vast number of cases neither the evacuees nor their parents knew where the destination was, and parents would have to wait until notices were hung outside schools to find out where their little ones were. It could be a week or more before they received word of specific foster parents and their addresses.
During the period known as the ‘Phoney War’, between the declaration of war in September 1939 and Dunkirk in June 1940, many of the evacuees returned home, only for a number to then have to face evacuation for a second time once the threat of invasion became real. There were no niceties of trying to match the evacuees with families of similar cultural backgrounds, no consideration of emotional impact on children and parents alike, no taking into account the consequences of returning home eventually after months or years away when the strangers the evacuees had been placed with had become their new families.
The scars which the war left on many evacuees were not visible but they were there, and the more I delved into facts and figures, the more I thanked God that I hadn’t been called upon to decide whether to send my little ones away or flout public opinion and government demands and keep them with me. The government of the day looked at the problem as one of administrative planning, but the real issue was the break-up of tens of thousands of families, resulting in misery and heartache long after the ceasefire had been declared.
Of course, it must be said that the evacuation of the children succeeded in its primary aim of saving lives and also reducing the stress and mental problems connected with intensive bombing, but there’s no doubt it led to huge difficulties in re-establishing relationships after the war. Some children were even separated from their siblings; in some cases twins were billeted in different homes; and for those little ones who experienced sexual, physical or mental abuse, the ongoing problems could be seen decades later.
I tried very hard to keep an open mind as I dug through my research, and there’s no doubt there are some happy stories among the sadness, but I confess that overall I was left with a feeling of horror at the extreme vulnerability of the little ones shipped out to who knew where, and sympathy for the mothers who had to contend with the kind of emotional blackmail shown below:
Woman’s Own magazine, 1941
If your children have an opportunity of going off to the country, don’t grudge it to them because you will be lonely. Apart from their health – and none of you can deny that space and fresh air and country food are best for growing boys and girls – they will benefit enormously from new experiences and new friendships. They will have a better chance in the future with every single new thing they learn . . . you will give to them a better chance than you had yourself. It is you women who will have to build up the future. You can lay the first bricks with the health and education of your children. Use the best bricks you can. Stand up to Hitler’s Blitzkrieg yourselves.
I can’t imagine the torment of having to decide whether it was best for my child to be separated from me, or what it was like to receive letters from children begging to come home.
I thank God I never will.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all those evacuees who shared their stories. You are amazing.
Research that was particularly helpful for this book:
When the Children Came Home by Julie Summers
I’ll Take That One by Martin L. Parsons
Millions Like Us by Virginia Nicholson
War in the Countryside by Sadie Ward
Wartime Women by Dorothy Sheridan
The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz by Denis Avey with Rob Broomby
Yesterday’s Farm by Valerie Porter
First published 2018 by Macmillan
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Copyright © Rita Bradshaw 2018
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