Children as a Tool of Occupation in the French Zone of Occupation of Germany, from 1945 to 1949

Abstract

This article explores the rather unusual establishment, by the French army of occupation in the French Zone of Occupation in south-west Germany, of holiday camps for French children, from 1945 to 1949. The camps catered for tens of thousands of French children who were brought from France to devastated Germany. The article argues that the army's major investment of time, personnel and material resources in these holiday camps, starting in the summer of 1945 immediately after the liberation of Nazi Germany, stemmed not only from concern for children's welfare, but from several ideological concerns that played out in occupied Germany and back in metropolitan France. It is based on extensive archival research in both France and Germany.