In World War 2 where did children get evacuated from?

Answer 1

PROLOGUE

While this question probably deals with *only* the children of England, it is appropriate to include children of all countries affected during the Second World War with the problem of having to move children to a place of 'greater repetitively safety'. Even the United States and the Soviet Union had a 'last resort' program of moving "bright" and "motivated" children from common fallout Shelters to special Shelters, so locally, some not, to try to preserve them to pass on that countries 'way of life'. Even when 'Nuclear Winter' became widely known (it had bee known about for decades before it was leaked to the press) the plans continued to try to keep out best 'seeds' for the 'next' generation. This is not just a Second World War concept -- it has been a concept during every war ever fought. Perhaps a more interesting question is 'WHERE DID TROY MOVE IT'S CHILDREN DURING TIME OF SIEGE?' OR "What happened to the children of Guernica after the Ariel Bombing?

DRESDEN vs. LONDON EVACUATIONS: DEDISIONS AND REALITIES

Where did the children from Dresden go -- North-North East or South South East would drive them into the hands of the Soviet Union, or West to the front where the fiereset battles occured, or North, again into the front, into the hands of the Soviet Union and Stalin who hated Germany - North through the wild-land forests and shows of February, or South through the mountains of the Croatians in a time of blowing snow, little fodd -- ir was February of 1945 - the war was about over, and no matter what diredtion they traveled they traveled in snow and wind and spare if any food that was not destined for the German Troops -- where trains and convoys were open prey to fighter pilots of the Western Alliance (England, France, America) and the Eastern Alliance - the Soviet Union and the later to become 'Satalite' countries' so travel on foot was all that was really permislable -- so and a city spared by the Allieds for so long because of hits rich heritage of architecture and art was levled in only a few days while the Allied becau to perfect the art of 'fire-bombing' a city. Because it had been spared for so long, it is said to have been 'overflowing' with refugees -- including children -- who had barely anything left to eat - yet large cities would be the most likely to be first supplied since the infrastructire for distribution was there and ready to be used. So the real question, from a moral stand-point - is where do you send your children to keep them safe from the United States' newly developed and being perfected 'art' of 'fire bombing' a city (which created winds so strong that they are said to hve been able to lift a heavy fully grown man and wisk him through the air toward the fires rgeing in the center of the city) when leaving meant probable death by the elements or staying, which meant probable death by more bombing, starvation, and disease. Where as the evacuation of the British children occured early on in the war (September 1939) , and to areas of farm production where food and warmth was guarenteed to be in far greater abundance that that of Dresdin.

EVACUATION OF CHILDREN FROM WAR ZONES, FACE VALUE vs. REALITIES OF WAR

It depends if you are talking about allied children, Axis children, Chinese children, etc. Generally the children were put on trains and railed from the major cities under attack - London, Coventry, Belfast, Sheffield, etc were all bombed.

London was an area of concentration because generally in a game of 'capture the flag' if you capture the flag you win, and the 'flag' was most often the Capital City. However, the children of France, the Netherlands, and other areas were also relocated both before and after the channel crossing of 6-6-44 though most often before. Many children were forcefully relocated (and many British children were ALSO forcefully relocated) during the war. Those along the West coast of Europe were often conscripted for labor by the Germans during their retreat - or were sent 'inland' to get away from the 'front' where the fiercest fighting was happening. Though most, just as in Great Britain, most chose to remain with their parents, despite public decrees and laws which sent them to live with 'country cousins' or on farms in the country side where bombing raids were few to non-existent.

Often children of the well off were sent to live East of the Rhine River because the feeling was that the Allies might be forced to stalemate there, and the children would be safer in the country in German, than in the fighting necessary to 'take' the land. It was not rally foreseen that Hitler would hold out so long or that so many Germans would come to his defense once the Rhine was crossed.

Chinese children fled Eastward and inland and to the south west or Nanking when the Japanese invaded. Throughout the Japanese invasions and occupations of the islands of the pacific, children and families would flee inland tot he mountains and away from the oceans, even though families found without children were frequently similarity executed, and often in barbaric methods. Thus, as some murals of the Spanish invasion of the Latin American regions of the Americas, there are accounts of families committing suicide or infanticide of their own children to keep them from the hands of the Japanese.

When it became clear that a Mainland invasion of Japan was imminent, many children were, again, sent away from the major cities or cities which would be of strategic importance in such an invasion so the children were sent out of large industrial centers or rail cross roads and to the foothills and mountains where they would be both 'safe' and have time to be trained as the 'last line of defense' for the white devil invaders.

Many children flead to or were 'evacuated' to the Americas from Europe, or into he center of the steppes of China (a trip equivalent to the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean). Children of North African and Middle eastern decent were also sent inland away from the population centers -- as were the children of the coastal cities of Australia.

So when you ask ". . .where did children get evacuated from/" -- you have to think in non Eurocentric and non-western ways, for even Nazi and Japanese children were evacuated. My Italian grandmother recalls that many of her sisters sent their children SOUTH towards the Allied lines during the invasion which clogged the roads, took allied soldiers to care for them, and thus slowed allied advances in a way equal to, if not exceeding their capabilities and so gave their tacit approval for the children to go, but not their mothers.

In general children were sent AWAY from strategic cities, - strategic either by virtue of their being a capital city or a city of historic value, being strategic because of their elevation or view of the surrounding country side, because of the obvious reasons of being industrial cities which housed skilled workers -- if you could operate a lathe to make a bicycle, you would easily transfer your skills to motorcycles, engines, weapons, bearings, tools, etc, or because you happened to be located where two or three or four or many major roads intersected -- and rail roads or asphalt roads are nearly the same in the eyes of those interested in the transferring of goods from one place to another -- and the solution was to destroy the town. The same can be said of beaches -- good landing beaches where troops and material could be brought ashore were suddenly NOT fishing villages, but were strategic strike zones which had to be either occupied or destroyed.

Nanking fit nearly all of these criteria: it was once a capital of early china, it was a manufacturing city, it was a hub of transportation and communication, it held both symbolic and capitalistic meaning for the Chinese -- and with about 5 MILLION people it was not just the 2d largest city in Eastern China, it held a long line of historic educational and scientific endeavors for the people of China -- it's fall would be crippling in both economic and cultural terms, but it would be a symbolic event that would help demoralize the people of the Japanese Empire.

So when we talk about evacuated children, the reference is generally the unspoken "England' when in fact, evacuation helped destroy the moral of every country where children and parents or children and families had to flee -- the subtest always reads the same "We can't take care of our children" -- something no culture ever cares to admit -- and if something happens to the children - for they are easily used as morale breakers, the parents will nearly always blame themselves -- 'If I had only been there. . . ." is the common though, though history shows that had the parents been there, they would often watch their children die first before they, themselves, were executed -- and executions can be quick or slow depending upon the point you wish to make.

In any event - children were evacuated in every war, and most often away from the areas of greatest danger -- the place where teenagers shot weapons nearly as large as themselves, of not far larger, at other teenagers in order to place the correctly colored flag on a hill, or raise it above the parfait of a castle or town. Though as noted sometimes the children were used by one side against the other to slow an advance down, and they were generally sent to live in areas which are (or were) less likely to be heavily bombed -- the country -- and if farms were being targeted to deny supply food to an advancing army, then they would be sent further away to land that was marginal for farming, though it might then take on strategic value - a rocky mountain range over looking a fertile valley, etc.

Children were taken FROM areas which were likely to see indiscriminated combat TO areas which were least likely to see indiscriminated murder.
British children where evacuated from big city's to the countryside, as Germany bombed factories and houses to stop weapon produce and bomb produce and to decrease the morale of Britain's citizens so they would surrender.

Also Jewish children where evacuated from Nazi Germany to Britain, USA or Neutral Countries so that they weren't imprisoned or executed.

Answer 2

They were evacuated to Britain, US, and other Commonwealth Nations. In the US, after the war, Holocaust survivors, (jew and non jew) were taken in by US families to escape the destruction of Europe and settle in US.

Answer 3

To the countryside. Somewhere safe and not near any big cites which were the most likely places to get bombed