Introduction: A Young Science with a Long History

Abstract

The babies born in Europe and North America between 1939 and 1945 (World War II babies) did not come into the world of humans at the best of times. Their parents were living in what could then be considered the most civilized cultures ever. However, these highly civilized cultures were creating the worst carnage ever. Between 70 and 85 million humans were killed during World War II, including 6 million Jewish people in extermination camps, through mass shootings, and in gas chambers. The parents and grandparents of World War II babies suffered from this Second World War before they had recovered from the numerous negative impacts of World War II. They most certainly could not foresee that their World War II babies would have the exceptional good fortune of growing up, with their own children and grandchildren, in a world that would manage to maintain the longest relative peace yet achieved among the major countries involved in World War II. From that perspective, the World War II babies born in Europe and North America can probably be considered the luckiest humans who have ever lived ... until the COVID-19 pandemic! (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)