Evacuation was a great success." Do you Agree or disagree with this interpretation?

These sources give some failures and success although more success. Here are some successful points to consider evacuation as an accomplishment Children thought it an adventure as few children had ever enjoyed the ‘luxury’ of rail travel and even fewer had ventured into the British countryside children marched patriotically songs.

In addition children faced a better way of life they were treated like members of the foster family and showered with love and affection for the first time in their lives they actually encountered a lifestyle full of activities and amenities which could have never been felt before which included waling in the woods, indoor toilets, plenty of hot water, fresh vegetables, viewing live farm animals, trips to the cinemas. More general cleanliness including bathing more often. Overall they were safe from the bombing and had could concentrate on their studying. And they proved incredibly resolute and adapted to their new surroundings with particular ease.

The Blitz was also a success because Britain managed to survive this they were prepared for the excepted bombings, many children had been evacuated form the cities, gas masks had been issued evacuation was carried out in stages. Volunteer organisations were set up to deal with the air raid threat. Blitz ended in summer 1941 more civilians had been killed in the war than British soldiers.

Despite the above there was some points of failure which were the children were frightened they suffered the trauma of separation and isolation and were being terrified by the prospect of being removed from their parents. Another factor was that not all parents allowed their children to go because the uncertainly sometimes bordered on to paranoia mothers worried that her child would enjoy their new family to more than an extent and not want to return posters of played on parents fear to sending them away. Parents and had lost of questions about the fate of their children which were not answerable and caused hesitance. Some of the Southend parents thought there children would starve and they couldn’t be looked after were the government was to send them.

Poor foster parents caused distress and failure to the evacuation in a way many foster parents complained to the authorities that they did simply not want such children in their homes what a negative impact to have the conditions of the children simply failed to impress the foster parents. The absence of the government in some areas caused impatience to foster families. A few children suffered sexual and physical abuse. Foster parents did mistreat children by making them do hard work at the home/farm. Some children become so miserable that they returned home after a few weeks or days and ran away although only a minority of evacuees emphasised this.

‘Selection was like a slave market’ which was another downfall to the success of the evacuation. The forced integration of people with very different backgrounds exposed the real divide present in the country at that time. Children were judged by their social and economic standing. Typically the cleanest and the heal theist children were to be adopted first. Those left had rely on government officials to replace them. These children sometimes ended up in homes where the adults had little interest in their welfare. The experience of the evacuees was determined on the home he/she went to. The process of this unfair selection was seen as 19th century slave market.

Worries of parents was also an issue, they didn’t want hand their children over to a complete stranger it was an agonising choice, parents had questions which couldn’t be answered and basically some of the thought feared for the mistreat of their children. They lived a life of perpetual worry even ore if the worried about their husbands fighting overseas to.

Parents also didn’t know were their children were they were confusion to were children ended up, some travelled a few miles when others went as far a distance a British Isles

My final point is that some foster parents adopted for the wrong reasons to. The less noble, motivated, no doubt by the small government allowance and increase in rationed food to cover the cost of looking after these children. And abusing them, this was pure selfishness and the wring reason to agreeing to be foster parents.

My conclusion is basically agreeing with the first point I made overall on looking the positive points the evacuation was a success remembering only a minority suffered distress.