Today's children tomorrow's hope : the story of children in occupied lands / United Nations Information Organisation.

  • United Nations Information Organisation (London, England)
Date:
1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Today's children tomorrow's hope : the story of children in occupied lands / United Nations Information Organisation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    HIS IS A STORY of the plight of children in the occupied lands. Historically, in the occupation of one country by the armies of another, the incidental toll of death and famine suffered by women and children has never been small. In this war, however, the Axis boast of total war, regarding the children of the invaded countries, became a hideous reality. Against the security in the family, against their education and general welfare, against their very lives, the Fascists directed a deliberate campaign of destruction that has nothing to do with the incidental though tragic casualties of modern warfare. The pattern of treatment meted out to the children of the 13 countries which were completely or partially occupied by the aggressors is gradually becoming clear. It is no more, no less, than a pattern of methodical destruction. The purpose of this report is to trace the pattern and set forth the facts as they come to us through enemy records, through underground messages, and as they are revealed in territories liberated from enemy occupation. That the war against children may become known and recognised for what it is, certain questions were asked of the governments repre- senting the occupied or partially occupied countries. In answering, they made every effort to achieve maximum statistical accuracy. Under existing conditions, however, figures are far from complete ; in some cases it has been neces- sary to cull facts from enemy reports, or to make deductions from such inadequate records as could be smuggled out, or from direct but limited knowledge of individuals who have escaped from occupied territories. In others it has been only possible to carry out a cursory study of conditions in countries recently liberated. The situation as set forth in the available data would make for almost intolerable reading if it were not for the evidence of courage and wis- dom that has already been displayed in salvag- ing for the future. No one can help being stirred to hope by such reports as that coming from China, which has doubled the number of its schools in the unoccupied territory during the period of the war ; or that of the Yugoslavs of 10 or 12 years of age leaving their mountain caves to give battle to the enemy. People cannot be conquered who, in the midst of the tragedy of occupation, have had time to look forward, as did the Czechoslovaks, Poles and French within their invaded countries, to prepare pro- grammes for better educational opportunities than existed before the war. Nor can the stories of the number of children generously received in neutral and unoccupied countries cease to be touching. Disease, starvation and brutal destruction, according to the Fascist plan, have done their worst. But when the children of the occupied countries return to their homes to dig up buried microscopes and textbooks, as men in former wars used to dig up their hurriedly buried gold, tion ‘‘ know what they fight for and love what they know.’’
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