The Government decided to evacuate children for other reasons, appart from the obvious fact that they didnt want them to die.
They needed to keep the morale of the nation as strong as possible. If Britain heard everyday in the newspapers and on the radio that innocent children had been killed in air raid attacks, it would emotionally effect them and the nation may give up all hope of winning the war.
The Government also wanted to increase working efficiency and production. parents would work harder if they didnt have to worry about their children's well-being.
The children were the future of the nation, and, after all the statistics and the treat of the Luftwaffe, the Government decided that the best option was to evacuate them out of all major cities.
"Evacuation was a great succss."
How realistic/truthful is this statement?
I both agree and disagree with this statement.
Evacuation of children out of all major cities in Britain began in 1939. It was set-up to save children's lives and to keep them safe.It can be said therefore, that evacuation was a sucess because throught the whole of World War Two, only 27 children were killed in air raid attacks. This number would have been a lot more if evacuation had not taken place.
The evacuation process was very well organised. The children were usually evacuated with their schools and their teacher to designated areas.
Sources A and B suport thr fact that it was well organised. Source A is a picture from a newspaper in London in September 1939. The children are all walking sensibly down the pavement accompanied by teachers. Source B is an interview with a teacher who stayed with a class who were evacuated. She said that the train was ready when they got to the station which shows that it was organised. However, sources A and B also contradict the statement that evacuation was successful.Source A was quite possibly used for propaganda purposes as the children are happy and smiling. This was to encourage parents to send their children away on an 'adventure holiday' where they would be safe and healthy. This means that there must of been an unwillingness by parents to send thier children. In source B the teacher says that the children who she took were very quite, and quite obviously afraid of the whole situation. She also says that the mothers were upset and so if they wanted to walk to the station with the children they had to follow behind. This is so they did not upset them.
After arrival at the billeting centre the organised process disintergrated. Children were almost 'auctioned off' as volenters came in to pick which children they wanted. This made the children very self-conscious and afraid in case no one wanted them.
It was a case of luck as to what kind of family the children were put with. There was no arrangements to match up suitable foster parents for the evacuated children. Some children who had been living in the slum of a big city suddenly found themselves in big country houses with caring families. However, some children who had come from caring families were put with people who knew nothing about how to look after children. They were often abused and used as cheap labour, cleaning and cooking.
There was also the big problem of religion. Some children had to hide their religion from their foster families because they were scarred of what would happen to them if they found out. An example of this is in the film 'The Evacuees' when the two brothers who were Jewish were put with a Christian couple. In this case there was also the issue of Kosher food. The boys were given sausages for dinner as the couple were unaware of their beliefs. The boys attempted to eat the sausages but in the end spat them out to the disgust of their foster parents. During the evacuation a Rabbi had to broadcast to Jewish children telling them that it was not a sin to eat non-Kosher food otherwise it would cause more problems.
Posters were put up to encourage people to foster evacuated children. The poster in source D shows two happy, clean children hugging. This is to make adults feel sorry for them and feel guilty if they dont volunteer to look after any. This shows that there was some reluctance to volunteer. Some people felt that children from the cities, if they were being evacuated by the Government, were poor and therefore dirty and carried disease.
Social divisions were also another problem that arose from the poor organisation of evacuation. Most foster families were reluctant to take in evacuees as they were very wary about disease. They thought them to be poor and uneducated.
There is an example of this in source C which is an extract from the book 'Carrie's War'.When the lady that Carrie and her brother are staying with believe them to be poor as they did not have any slippers in their luggage when really they just did not pack any.
The whole experience for the children, being sent away from their parents for years and staying with people who were often hostile towards them and abused them, has scarred them for life. In source F, a video about evacuees remembering their experiences, one lady suffers from panic attacks that she puts down to her traumatic experience of being evacuated.
In conclusion I mainly disagree with the statement "evacuation was a great success". In was a success in saving children's lives but in doing so it has caused great traumatic pain for the ones who lived.
I do not believe that the Government, if faced with the same threat of air raids, would evacuate the children in the same way as they did in World War Two. They would have to completely rethink the way in which it was organised so as not to cause the emotional damage that many adults have today due to the evacuation in Britain.