Evacuations of children in Germany during World War II
[nb 1] The term Kinderlandverschickung (KLV) was used from the late 19th century for Erholungsverschickung ("recreational deportation") of sick and underprivileged children to foster care in the country.
By the start of 1941, 382,616 children and young people, including 180,000 from Berlin and Hamburg, had been sent to safer areas of Bavaria, Saxony and Prussia by 1,631 special trains and 58 boats.
[8] From 1941, the list of safer areas was expanded to include parts of Austria, Pomerania, Silesia, Sudetenland and Reichsgau Wartheland.
Some children of "proper attitude and performance" were sent to Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Denmark to "take the German reputation abroad".
The total number of evacuations is unknown as Reichsdienststelle KLV documents were destroyed at the end of the war but Otto Würschinger, a senior official in the Hitler Youth, wrote that by 1943 the total operation comprised about 3 million children and young people, including 1 million in KLV camps.
Baldur von Schirach appointed Stabsführer Helmut Möckel, his deputy and a member of the Reichstag, to oversee the day-to-day operation.
[20] Children also were sent to ethnic German or pro-German host families in Denmark, Latvia, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Poland.
[22] About 9,000[23] KLV camps were established throughout safer areas of the Reich, including Austria, Sudetenland, Reichsgau Wartheland and Bohemia-Moravia.
[27] Sunday worship was permitted, but the camps were officially non-religious and were instructed in February 1941 to watch out for "religious counter-propaganda".
[26] In October 1940, Gottlob Berger convinced Hitler that one KLV camp in every HJ Region should be for the exclusive use of the SS.
[30] About 90,000 youths went through the camps, but due to the recruitment quota system most were compelled to join the Army when they reached the required age.
[31] However, in late 1942, Stabsführer Möckel and Berger convinced Hitler and Heinrich Himmler that special camps should be used specifically for pre-military training.
[31] By the middle of 1943, three KLV camps in Germany and four in occupied countries were specifically operated to train Germanic youths willing to join the Waffen-SS.
Boys from the some KLV camps were formed into HJ irregular units and issued with small arms to guard field workers against partisans.
[33] However some children who lived in KLV camps reported little political indoctrination and recalled the time as cheerful and carefree, although overshadowed by homesickness.
[35] After the devastating air raids on Hamburg in October 1943, the SD found that of the 70,000 school age children present, only 1,400 had agreed to KLV.
[41] Many historians regard KLV to be largely positive, saving many children from air raids and providing them with relative safety, good food and education in difficult times, resulting in them being less burdened by traumatic experiences than those who remained in cities during heavy bombing.
