Did German Children Have a “Stunde Null”? Understanding Postwar History through Children’s Experiences

Michelle Mouton, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh

When the Second World War ended, millions of German children had been separated from their families. Some had been evacuated with their school classes; others were separated on the flight west from Nazi-occupied eastern Europe toward Germany. Still other children had been orphaned when their parents died in the Allied air attacks and street fighting. Even after the war ended, family-separation continued as a result of the expulsions ordained by the Potsdam Conference. As a result, German children could be found on foot, on trains, in military vehicles, and in refugee camps overfilled. This moment in time when, the military conflict had ended and so-called “unaccompanied” children urgently needed help, was also the moment when the very people and organizations historically designed to help them – families, churches, schools, youth departments and the Red Cross -- were themselves in turmoil due to the denazification of personnel, lack of space, and staff shortages. Historians have largely discounted the idea that a moment existed – a “Stunde Null” or “Zero Hour” -- when the Nazi era had ended and the postwar era was yet to begin. But could this be a useful category for understanding children’s experiences? The paper I propose will investigate just that. Using an array of archival records and interviews with former children, I will examine how German children experienced the end of the war. I will also explore the roles children felt forced to assume that challenged traditional children’s roles and how the definition of what constituted a “child” itself was also in influx at the end of the war. By examining children’s experiences through multiple perspectives this paper will help deepen our understanding of how children experienced the end of the Second World War.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 151. Children as Political Agents and Subjects