Au revoir les enfants : wartime evacuation and the politics of childhood in France and Britain, 1939-1945
License
Access Rights
Cadmus Permanent Link
Full-text via DOI
ISBN
ISSN
1363-3554; 1477-4569
Issue Date
Type of Publication
Keyword(s)
LC Subject Heading
Other Topic(s)
EUI Research Cluster(s)
Initial version
Published version
Succeeding version
Preceding version
Published version part
Earlier different version
Initial format
Author(s)
Citation
History workshop journal, 2016, Vol. 82, No. 1, pp. 121-150
Cite
DOWNS, Laura Lee, Au revoir les enfants : wartime evacuation and the politics of childhood in France and Britain, 1939-1945, History workshop journal, 2016, Vol. 82, No. 1, pp. 121-150 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/45150
Abstract
Few people in France today remember the wartime evacuation of children from Paris. But in 1938-40, the evacuation of urban schoolchildren and other “useless mouths” from likely targets of bombing held a central place in French plans for the “passive defense” of the civilian population. Moreover, the size and duration of such large-scale child migration schemes would only increase after the defeat and Occupation, as (allied) bombing raids over industrial cities like Ivry-sur-Seine or Boulogne-Billancourt put these children at risk once again. Why did an event that holds such a central place in British memories of the Second World War leave so little trace in public memories of the war in France? This article explores the public debates that arose around wartime evacuation in Britain versus France with an eye to analyzing the deeper convictions about relationships among families, children and the state that underpinned two very different ways of understanding the nature and needs of children in mid-twentieth century Europe and the relationship of those needs to understandings of children’s present or future citizenship.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
Published: 10 August 2016