War Children - Discrimination

Discrimination

Children whose either parent was part of an occupying force or whose parent(s) collaborated with enemy forces were innocent of any war crimes committed by their parents. Yet these children have felt condemned by the crimes uncovered in the subsequent prosecution of their parents' acts. As they grew to adolescence and adulthood, many of them harbored the feelings of guilt and shame.

One example is children born to World War II soldiers. These children claim they lived with their identity in an inner exile until the 1980s, when some of them presented themselves officially. In 1987 Bente Blehr refused anonymity when an interview with her was published in "Born Guilty", a collection of 12 interviews with children whose parent(s) collaborated with German forces in occupied Norway. The first autobiography by the child of a German occupying soldier and Norwegian citizen, dedicated to all of them, was published in Norway: "The Boy from Gimle" (1993) by Eystein Eggen.

Having a relationship with a soldier of an occupying force has historically been censured. Women who became pregnant would often take measures to conceal the fact that the father was a foreign soldier, if possible. The choices available to them usually were:

• Arrange a marriage with a local man, who would take responsibility for the child
• Claim the father was unknown, dead, or had left, bring up the child as a single mother
• Acknowledge the relation, bring up the child as a single mother
• Acknowledge the relation, accept welfare from the occupying force (see the German Lebensborn)
• Place the child in an orphanage or give the child up for adoption
• Immigrate to the occupying country, and claim that identity
• Have an abortion

After the war it was common for both mother and child to suffer repercussions from the local population. Such repercussions were widespread throughout Europe. While some women and children experienced acts considered horrendous, including torture and deportation, most acts fell into one or several of the following categories:

• Name calling: German whore and German kid were common labels
• Isolation or harassment from the local community and at schools
• Loss of work
• Shaving the head of the mothers, an act not uncommon in the immediate aftermath of the war
• Temporary placement in confinement or internment camps

While repercussions were most widespread immediately after the war, sentiments against the women and their children would linger into the 1950s, 60s, and beyond.