A Background Guide

for the

United Nations Children’s

Fund, 1948
 Table of Contents

Letter from the Secretary-General..................................................................................... 3

Letter from the Director...................................................................................................... 4

Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 5
History of the Committee................................................................................................... 5

Committee Dynamics and Powers...............................................................................6

History of the Problem........................................................................................................ 7
Current Situation................................................................................................................12
Past International Actions.................................................................................................16
Timeline of Significant Events ..................................................................................18
Proposed Solutions.............................................................................................................19
Bloc Positions......................................................................................................................20
Relevant Partners................................................................................................................22
Questions a Resolution Must Answer.............................................................................22
Suggestions for Further Research.....................................................................................23

Position Paper Requirements............................................................................................23

Closing Remarks.................................................................................................................23
Endnotes....................................................................................................................25
 HARVARD MODEL UNITED NATIONS CHINA 2021

A LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Delegates and Faculty Advisors,

It is my distinct honor and pleasure to invite you to join us for the eleventh session of
Harvard Model United Nations China!

Since 1927, Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN) has united talented young leaders
Kalos K. Chu from all over the world to discuss the most pressing and complex challenges facing hu-
Secretary-General manity. In the process, tens of thousands of delegates have honed their public speaking,
writing, and negotiation skills; gained exposure to people of myriad backgrounds, cul-
tures, and points of view; and formed lasting friendships with like-minded peers.
Connor S. Dowd
Director-General In 2010, HMUN journeyed, for the first time, beyond Boston, Massachusetts—launching
the first international conference of its kind: HMUN China. Over a decade later, we are
Nancy W. Wu overjoyed to be returning with some of Harvard’s most talented and caring Model United
Under-Secretary-General
Administration Nations directors. Each director has been carefully selected for their substantive experi-
ence and dedication to HMUN China’s educational mission, and our delegates notice.
Parker J. Mas Every year, HMUN China delegates leave conference carrying the lessons that they’ve
Under-Secretary-General
Operations learned in and outside of the committee room with them, confident that they are ready to
become leaders and change-makers in their own communities.
Alistair W. Gluck
Under-Secretary-General In the wake of a global pandemic, we made the difficult decision to cancel HMUN China
Committees
2020 to ensure the health and safety of our delegates, faculty advisors, and staff members.
Our work, however, has not gone to waste, and we will be bringing to HMUN China 2021
twice our usual caliber of preparation, substantive excellence, and delegate experience.

It is an honor to serve as your Secretary-General for HMUN China 2021, and I—along
with my Under-Secretaries-General and directors—are committed to ensuring that this,
our eleventh session, is the best yet.

Sincerely yours,

Kalos K. Chu

Kalos K. Chu
Secretary-General
Harvard Model United Nations China 2021

59 Shepard Street, Box 205

Cambridge, MA 02138
Voice: 617-398-0772
Fax: 617-496-4472
Email: info@harvardmun.org
www.hmunchina.org
 HARVARD MODEL UNITED NATIONS CHINA 2021

A LETTER FROM THE UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL

Dear Delegates,

Welcome to your background guide for Harvard Model United Nations China 2021! We
are all so excited that you’ve elected to participate in HMUN China this year, and can-
not wait to see you in August. Your committee director has worked hard throughout the
year to ensure that you will have a great experience. Model UN in general, but especially
Kalos K. Chu HMUN China, gives you a unique experience to both tackle some of the most important
Secretary-General
issues in the world, and collaborate with other students from diverse and unique back-
grounds. I hope that you enjoy participating in HMUN China as much as we enjoy pre-
paring for and running it!
Connor S. Dowd
Director-General
The HMUN China experience is likely going to be quite different this year, and I am be-
yond excited to be serving as the HMUN China Under-Secretary-General for Commit-
Nancy W. Wu
Under-Secretary-General tees—the organ with which you all will have the most contact this summer. I hope that
Administration you will help me to create a positive and uplifting culture that will remain a hallmark of
the conference for years to come.
Parker J. Mas
Under-Secretary-General
Operations We are living through turbulent times, and I would be remiss to not acknowledge that the
COVID-19 pandemic has impacted each and every one of us in ways we never could have
Alistair W. Gluck expected. All of the staff of HMUN China 2021 remain well aware of the consequences of
Under-Secretary-General
Committees the pandemic that many of you have experienced and will continue to experience, and we
are here as another network of support for you during these trying times. That being said,
we are dedicated to making sure this iteration of Harvard Model United Nations China
maintains a high level of debate and competition, and are excited to pioneer our transition
to new and exciting formats. Wherever you are in the world, I hope that you and your
loved ones are staying safe and healthy.

My passion for Harvard Model United Nations comes from participating in HMUN
throughout my college career. I have been able to see how positively our conference im-
pacts each and every one of its staff members and attendees, and I am so grateful that I am
able to be part of it. Whether you’re a senior who’s participating in HMUN China for your
fourth time, or someone who is brand new to the conference this year, welcome! We are
so looking forward to seeing you virtually in just a few short months.

All the best,

Alistair W. Gluck
59 Shepard Street, Box 205
Cambridge, MA 02138 Alistair Gluck
Voice: 617-398-0772
Fax: 617-496-4472 Under-Secretary-General
Email: info@harvardmun.org Harvard Model United Nations China 2021
www.hmunchina.org
 HARVARD MODEL UNITED NATIONS CHINA 2021

A LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

Dear Delegates,

I am excited to welcome you all to Harvard Model United Nations China 2021! My name
is Galadriel Coury and I cannot wait to meet you all as Director of the United Nations
Children’s Fund, or the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund as it was
called in 1948. I hope that you bring insightful ideas to conference and leave with new
Kalos K. Chu perspectives about greater issues facing displaced children.
Secretary-General

I grew up in Glendale, Arizona and I am a sophomore at Harvard. I study Economics,

Arabic, and Educational Studies. I am involved in several MUN-related clubs on campus,
Connor S. Dowd and I volunteer as a part of a leadership program for local high schools. I have worked at
Director-General
Starbucks for nearly 3 years and love good coffee, audiobooks, and naps.
Nancy W. Wu
Under-Secretary-General Solutions for displaced children after WWII was a complicated issue, and history has
Administration provided limited clarity. I anticipate discussion to focus on the importance of different
aspects of a child’s identity, such as cultural belonging or a stable family. You should con-
Parker J. Mas
Under-Secretary-General sider the dire psychological state of many children after their experiences in WWII, and
Operations the best ways to support children so they reach age-appropriate development and behav-
ior standards, but also the limitations countries had in providing assistance.
Alistair W. Gluck
Under-Secretary-General
Committees The complexity of possible solutions for displaced children has interested me as a histori-
cal analysis, but more importantly as a reflection on today’s policies for children. I hope
that you will enjoy the perspective brought to discussion by looking at problems as they
existed in 1948, and the never-ending complexities of attempting to fit a few solutions to
millions of different situations. I hope that discussion will be passionate, as this is an emo-
tional issue, but also that you will leave the conference with new insight into the priorities
or proposals given by other countries. If you have any questions or just want to say hello,
please send me an email – I am excited to meet you all and hear what you have to say!

Best regards,

Galadriel A. Coury

Galadriel A. Coury
Director, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, 1948
Harvard Model United Nations China 2021
59 Shepard Street, Box 205
Cambridge, MA 02138
Voice: 617-398-0772
Fax: 617-496-4472
Email: info@harvardmun.org
www.hmunchina.org
6 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948 6

Topic Summary
Introduction
After the WWII, millions of displaced persons
“There are no enemy children.” – Maurice Pate, (DPs) in Europe were in need of aid. Especially
UNICEF Executive Director (1947-1965)1 concerning were the immense amounts of
orphans; “The International Red Cross asserted
that 13 million children in Europe had lost their
Brief Overview of WWII natural protectors, and the United Nations Relief
The Second World War (WWII) was a conflict and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA)
that involved over 30 countries and took the lives had 50,000 unaccompanied children in its care.”2
of 70 to 85 million people. The Axis Powers, led These children had survived the horrors of WWII,
by the United States, the United Kingdom, France and were now facing the world without homes or
(except when it was under the occupation of Nazi families. Mordecai Paldiel, who studied Religion
Germany), and China, led the fight against the and Holocaust Studies, wrote, “The range of
Axis Powers, which was led by Germany, Italy, suffering experienced by these children may be
and Japan. This conflict was the greatest in human summarized briefly: the trauma of abandonment
history, and was especially monumental because by one’s own parents; adapting to a strange and
it blurred the lines between civilians and warfare. often hostile environment; a haunting awareness
Bombings of civilian centers, including the use of of constant danger; the fear of rejection by new
nuclear weapons, increased the catastrophic death adoptive families; identification with the new host
toll and impact of this war. family coupled with a rejection of one’s previous
identity.”3 The United Nations International
The severe civilian impact of the war was also Children’s Emergency Fund was created in
greatly caused by genocide, which is the mass response to the plight of displaced children after
murder of a group of people based on ethnicity, WWII.
nationality, or religion with the aim to destroy
the entire group. The Holocaust, led by the Possible responses to the issues faced in 1948 can
Nazi Party, is the most catastrophic genocide in include nationalization and community camps
history. Over six million Jewish people lost their for children, international adoptions of orphans
lives, and there were over 200,000 Jewish refugees in Europe, continuity of care with foster families
in Europe in 1948. The Nazi regime put Jewish that took in children during the Second World
people in camps, starved them, abused them, War, or a defined combination of these solutions.
and killed them. Many Jewish people after the Well-reasoned responses to the problems for
war were the sole survivors of their family. The children will include solutions for children in
number of refugee camps in Europe is too great differing situations throughout DP camps in
to list, most refugee camps sheltering Jewish Europe, including combinations of solutions
people in Germany, Austria, France, Poland, and to respond to the complicated situation. The
other neighbors. situation in Europe had many stakeholders, such
as nations involved, international organizations,
The war ended in Europe in 1945, after over 5 psychologists, social workers, the United Nations,
long years of fighting. The aftermath in Europe countries trying to assist, and displaced people.
was dire, hundreds of thousands of people were The interests or opinions of each stakeholder will
unhoused by the conflict. This background guide impact the solutions brought forth in committee.
will focus on the state of children after the war.
By participating in this committee, delegates
should take away an understanding of the
complexity of issues surrounding national

identities and familial structure related to
displaced children in Europe in the late 1940s.
To what extent is national identity critical to the
welfare of children? What responsibility do states
have to care for the welfare of children? What
are the most concerning issues for children? In
a situation where it is impossible to solve all the
problems facing displaced children, which are
most concerning and what is most important?
Stakeholders of the time period often discussed
actions in “the best interests of  the child”, and
this phrase is used throughout the background
guide. This phrase encompasses the educational,
emotional, developmental, health, community,
and social needs of children. It is difficult to take
into account each of these needs, as oftentimes
policies created to help in some areas hinder
progress in other areas. For example, focusing on
developmental needs of a child by placing them
in a traditional family structure so they may grow
up with parents and in a normal family may rob
them of their national identity and community. It
is up to the delegate to consider the merits and
disadvantages of policies, and determine which
policies are in the best interests of the child. This
might include a discussion of policies that were
well-researched and advocated for in 1946, or the
creation of new alternatives.
History of the Committee
The United Nations International Children’s
Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was created at the
first General Assembly of the United Nations
on 11 December 1946.4 The original mission of
UNICEF was to meet the emergency needs of
children in Europe in the aftermath of World War
II. “At an expenditure of $112,000,000, UNICEF
distributed various articles of clothing to five
million children in twelve countries, vaccinated
eight million against tuberculosis, rebuilt milk
processing and distribution facilities, and, at the
climax of its effort in Europe, provided a daily
supplementary meal to millions of children.”5
Due to the efforts to provide milk and nutrition
Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 7
the organization was referred to as the “milkman
of the world”.
Founded with the belief that “all children were
to receive its aid, without discrimination due to
race, creed, nationality, status or political belief.”6
In 1947, the first national committee was formed
in the United States and within the first 5 years
of existence it was established in 100 countries
to respond to the immense amount of children
impacted by war.7 The first private donations
were given to the organization in 1947, building
a legacy of donations that continue to support
UNICEF today. 8 By 1948, UNICEF began to
turn its forces towards fighting diseases and
began to work on issuing vaccinations against
tuberculosis. In following years, leprosy, malaria,
and maternal/childbirth health were added to the
growing list of health-related issues UNICEF
focused on.9
Committee Structure
The United Nations International Children’s
Fund mandate in 1948 was to “provide emergency
food and healthcare to children and mothers in
countries that had been devastated by World War
II.”10 Their role was to work for the best interests
of the child, and to provide children with food,
shelter, familial arrangements, education, and
health services. In the aftermath of WWII,
determining what sort of policies were in the best
interests of the children was critical for UNICEF
to be able to make suggestions and take actions.
UNICEF had the ability to provide resources for
displaced children, including placing children in
foster homes or community centers, providing
education, healthcare, and social services.
Working Papers and Draft Resolutions should be
written to create policies or actions for displaced
children and should focus on where the children
should be located, who will care for them, and
how resources will be best distributed for them.
While there was research and testimonials from
volunteers, social workers, and psychologists
8 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948

to drive policy creation, there is limited existing Of those displaced people, an estimated
policy at the time of this committee because 300,000 Jewish people resided in the U.S. and
UNICEF is a new organization. I hope that all British zones of occupied Germany, Austria,
delegates will represent their nations’ views Italy, and Germany.”12 These Jewish refugees
accurately and remain true to the understandings presented unique psychological needs and
of the world in 1948 at all times. If there is any cultural identities which were critical to the
confusion about the views of a delegate’s nation repatriation of communities and people. The
during WWII or in the aftermath, I encourage International Refugee Organization took charge
them to email me or study the history about the of 650,000 DPs in July in 1947, of which over
nation they are assigned. 150,000 had escaped Eastern Europe.13 Many
of the displaced peoples had not only lost their
This is a historical committee, so debate might homes but had fled or been forcibly removed
be conducted a bit differently than in a modern from their homelands. “Out of the 30,000,000
committee. While delegates are encouraged to people who were ‘displaced’ owing to the war in
read about UNICEF’s history after the 1940’s Europe alone, 18,000,000 were cast out of their
to better understand the culture and long-lasting countries.”14 These displaced people had survived
goals of the organization, they should act in the horrors of WWII, but were now left without
committee with the information available at the homes, countries, and family members. The best
time period. Similarly, an understanding of the solutions each DP was specific to that person,
results and unintended consequences of policies but overall policies had to be created to assist the
for displaced children after the 1940’s might refugees.
be helpful for understanding the weight of the
decisions made in committee, but source materials
from after 1948 should not be used in debate. Displaced Children in Europe After
Delegates are able to use any primary sources WWII
from the time period that are in this background
guide, and are encouraged to do further reading ifEspecially concerning were the immense amounts
of orphans, “The International Red Cross asserted
they are interested. If a delegate has any questions
pertaining to possible sources, please email the that 13 million children in Europe had lost their
Director. natural protectors, and the UNRRA had 50,000
unaccompanied children in its care.”15 These
children had survived the horrors of WWII, and
were now facing the world without homes or
families. Just providing nutrition and healthcare
Displaced Persons (DPs) in Europe for these displaced children was daunting, as it
After WWII was estimated that 250 million children were
starving and “in Europe 60,000,000 children in
twelve different countries are in need of help.”16
After the Second World War (WWII), millions of Healing and providing for the livelihood of these
displaced persons (DPs) in Europe were in need of children was at the forefront of many people’s
aid. In the American and British zones there were minds around the world, and UNICEF was
approximately 1 million displaced people in 1946 created directly to provide solutions to these
and “some 20 percent were children and many problems.
of them, in the euphemistic language of postwar
relief, were “unaccompanied,” abandoned, lost, Despite these dire needs for food and shelter,
and orphaned.”11 That is as many refugees as providing assistance for these children was about
people currently living in San Jose, California. more than just nutritional needs, but focused on
 Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 9

the psychological and developmental needs of Overview of Interpretation of Solutions

children. Austrian psychologist Erns Papek wrote
in 1946, “It is time to do something beyond The focus of this committee will be the
giving food. The girls who come here weighing placement of displaced children and meeting the
62 lbs. must be fattened up, but they must also psychological needs of children. The need to make
see something which is worth fattening up for.”17 choices ‘in the best interests of the child’ was felt
Many children had become accustomed to caring by all interest groups, although potential solutions
for themselves throughout WWII, and had were disagreed upon.20 Many organizations and
forgotten, essentially, how to be children. Therese people had different ideas for how to provide
Brosse, a psychologist at the time, wrote that, for children, backed up by psychological findings
of the time.21 Due to the details surrounding
Sometimes these children suffer from repression each child, their history, their experiences, their
and inferiority complexes : dumbness, difficulty dispositions, there was no single answer for the
in expression, distrust, and profound suffering problems that DP children faced. Individual
caused by the sense of having lost all individuality, children necessitated individualized solutions.
of being different from others, of being just a
‘number’ for whom nobody cares.18 However, in practice, policies cannot easily or
feasibly be individualized for specific children.
They stole food, unsure of when their next meal In reality, solutions were created for groups of
would come from, and they distrusted authority children and “humanitarian activists targeted
and volunteers after so many years on the run refugees as children or adults, boys or girls, Jews,
and under the Nazi regime. Social workers wrote Germans, Czechs, or Poles. They defined young
that the children were distrustful and resisted refugees’ individual ‘best interests’ in distinctly
the care of adults. Social workers hoped to nationalist, gendered, and familialist terms.”22 The
provide children with a foundation to building successful segmentation of children into groups,
their identity, stability, and a caring family or and matching solutions that best fit each group,
community. is critical to successful policy solutions. One
common factor in the perspectives of different
Even after WWII, the complications continued
groups was that ‘the best interests of the child’
for displaced children. They were placed in
was often the opposite of Nazi values.23
refugee camps and struggled to reconcile their
past, their trauma, their new environments, Aside from anti-Nazi values, the decisions of
possibilities of foster families, and their grief. where to place children splits a bit between those
Mordecai Paldiel, who studies Religion and that prioritize the national identity of children,
Holocaust Studies, wrote, “The range of and those focused on the individualistic identities
suffering experienced by these children may be of children. Especially in the aftermath of the
summarized briefly: the trauma of abandonment genocide, “the fate of surviving Jewish children
by one’s own parents; adapting to a strange and in Europe was particularly fraught and contested,
often hostile environment; a haunting awareness as the claims of nation (Zionism) and family
of constant danger; the fear of rejection by new (surviving relatives) often competed or conflicted,
adoptive families; identification with the new host provoking fierce debates within and among
family coupled with a rejection of one’s previous humanitarian organizations, Jewish agencies, and
identity.”19 These complex struggles required DPs.”24 The cultural claims of Jewish communities
well-thought solutions to ensure that children battled with contesting beliefs about important
were placed in environments that best catered to parts of child development, such as familial
their psychological and developmental needs. care, and sparked many heated debates, like at
the meeting of the United Nations Relief and
10 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948

Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Jewish will include examining the positive and negative
Child Care Committee in Heidelberg in 1947.25 aspects of various solutions, case studies looking
These debates were the foundation of policies at children impacted by these policies, and the
and assistance offered towards displaced children. way specific solutions pertained to children in
differing situations. It is important to remember
The root of discussions about actions in the that, although no solution presented was ideal,
best interest of the child, including nationalist the delegate will need to formulate policy that
and familial viewpoints, was centered around the is applicable throughout Europe, or that is
concept of the individual’s identity. In a single segmented clearly to apply to different groups of
question, it could be summed up as: “What is most children.
important to a child’s individual development and
identity?’. Some articles and historical sources
argue that, “psychologists, social workers, and Individual and Familial Care
child welfare activists turned specifically to the
It was widely agreed upon that the greatest
family as the locus of individual identity,”26 rather
trauma inflicted on a child was the loss of their
than focused on national identity. However,
family. Therese Brosse, a psychologist that was
many other people of the time period felt that
focused on displaced children in Europe in the
education, cultural identity, community, and other
aftermath of WWII, wrote that the greatest
factors were just as vital, or more important, than
effects on children is “the influence of events on
familial relations.
the emotional ties of the family, the rupture of
Another important consideration when the habitual living environment and, above all,
formulating solutions to the placement of the sudden loss of his mother.”27 Unfortunately,
children in Europe in 1948 is to consider the role many children had become orphans and were
of children and adolescents in making decisions unable to return to parents. For other families,
for themselves. Many children who were pre- the whereabouts of children and parents was
teens or teenagers had lived most of their lives impossible to determine. These children required
caring for and fending for themselves. At what more unique solutions to attempt to solve the
point are they legally allowed to make decisions trauma of losing one’s family.
for themselves, even and especially when those
The role of family, many thought, was
decisions are critically important and life-
irreplaceable, especially in light of the trauma
changing, such as emigrating from Europe? Many
and catastrophes faced by children. “Just as the
aid workers at the time described the children
mother is physically necessary to an infant until
as adult-like; they didn’t always play like other
he is weaned,” Brosse wrote, “the presence of
children, they stole food even when there was
the parents is psychologically essential for a child
plenty of food for all, they acted as adults, acted
at least up to the age of ‘emotional weaning’ or
as though they were capable of fully caring for
adolescence.”28 Psychologists searched for ways
themselves and facing the world on their own. It
to provide children with the care and foundation
is difficult, but important, to consider the effects
necessary to build their identity. Analysis and
that trauma has had on the childhood of the
discussion about how to establish individualism
adolescents in Europe, as well as their capabilities,
and strong identities led psychologists working
or lack thereof, in making their own independent
‘in the best interests of the child’ to identify
decisions.
family as the foundation of a strong identity.
The following sections of the background guide It was critical to the well-being of children to
will aim to explore the pros and cons of different be cared for by a family and to establish their
solutions for the placement of children. This identity. Zahra writes, “For the psychoanalytically

informed social workers in UNRRA and the
IRO in the late 1940s, the family seemed to be
the sole institution capable of raising children to
be healthy individuals.”29 Familial structures were
thought of as integral parts of the development
of individual identities in children.
Refugee Children: Finding Families
The first, and most ideal, solution was to return
displaced children to their original families. While
many people had differing opinions about the best
solutions for children, those involved agreed that
the deepest trauma faced by children was losing
their biological parents. Toby Mostysser, whose
parents were children during the Holocaust,
wrote that his mother would speak at length of
“how she missed her mother, how lonely it was
without a mother.”30 Psychologists and the UN
agreed that the most preferable option was to
return a child to their biological parents whenever
possible.
Many families were attempting to contact their
lost children and by the end of 1946 the United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
reported over 200,000 requests searching for
lost children in Polish welfare offices alone.
These numbers far exceeded original ideas about
displaced children. Actual requests searching
for lost children was more than 4 times those
to be expected based on German documents
that “indicated that at least 50,000 children had
been kidnapped.”31 These children, that had lost
contact with their families, were often living in
displaced persons camps in orphanages, without
familial structure.
For many children, there were concerns about
reuniting them with families that were living
in DP camps. Ruth Cohen, who represented
the Jewish Agency for Palestine, argued against
the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration’s policy to return children of their
families in refugee camps, “because reuniting
a child […] with his parents or relatives […]
means sending that child into what we know at
Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 11
home as slum conditions.”32 She argued that,
when returning children to their families was
conditional on poverty, that policy was not in the
best interests of children.
Refugee Children: Adoption
When it was not possible or likely to find the
biological parents of children, placement of
children in foster families and for adoption
was a highly discussed alternative at the Trogen
Conference of Community Directors.33 For
other children that had not had foster-parents
during the war, those that had been fending for
themselves or held in detainment or work camps,
many advocated for placement with new foster-
families after WWII. These policies were built on
the idea that the best environment for a child was
with loving parents, even if it was in an unfamiliar
environment. In 1946, a note published by the
Home Office and the Ministry of Health in Great
Britain “defined the qualities of a good foster
family and emphasized the need to find the family
best fitted to meet the needs of each individual
child.”34 This belief, of finding solutions for
each individual child, is incredibly important in
working in their best interest, and was founded
after an investigation by a Royal Commission and
the Children’s Act led Great Britain to believe that
the choice ‘in the best interests of the child’ was
to place them in foster-care.
Upon studying the results of placements in
foster-families, Miss Gwendolin Chesters
found that, “the children who had family care
settled down and very soon reached the level of
development and behaviour appropriate to their
age.”35 Even those that supported alternative
options for children stood no chance against
the popular support in the US for placement
in foster-families. “For the psychoanalytically
informed social workers in UNRRA and the IRO
in the late 1940s, the family seemed to be the
sole institution capable of raising children to be
healthy individuals.”36 These beliefs and findings
12 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948

supported the idea that families were incredibly homes. It could also be the ideal solution for
important to the development of children. providing children with familial care, which was
considered critical to the psychological well-being
However, foster-families weren’t an ideal solution, of children. Some children, living on their own
and the process of being placed in foster-homes in DP and refugee camps, were eager to leave
often required repetitive uprooting and re- Europe behind more than they were focused on
placement. One county authority, who managed finding a family.
the placement of some thousands of displaced
children, created a record for each child had six
lines for the child to fill in the names and addresses
Refugee Children: Escaping Europe
of their past foster-parents, “which shows that
this particular authority considers several changes
of foster-parents to be quite in the day’s work.”37 For some displaced people and children, Europe
The process of continuously moving to different held too many memories of pain and conflict
foster-families and not having a stable family or for them to remain in Europe. One man, whose
home was not in alignment with ‘the best interests parents were Jewish immigrants to America after
of the child,’ even as the institution of foster-care WWII and who survived the Holocaust, wrote that
tried to be. “they [his parents] … wanted to have a security
here [in America] that the history of the 30’s
Not only were foster-children often uprooted and and 40’s had denied them in Europe.”39 It wasn’t
moved through several homes, but international just adults that sought refuge in foreign nations,
parents often had unrealistic expectations for the many adolescents and children, who had cared
children they would foster. One American social for themselves for many years, thought it was in
worker, who matched US foster parents with their best interest to leave Europe. However, for
European Jewish children, wrote, some, this transition caused “feelings of pain,
homesickness, and anxiety” as they traveled away
When people learn that the children were 1) not
from family to new countries and new families. 40
for adoption 2) predominantly boys 3) older
children and 4) just children, not geniuses, there Some organizations, such as the European Jewish
was disappointment, and sometimes withdrawal Children’s Aid (EJCA) encouraged children
of the offer of a home.”38 to immigrate to America and worked to find
placements for Jewish children within the United
These illogical and unfair expectations led to
States. This organization tried to dissolve the
unhappy foster-parents and children and created
“herd mentality” of Jewish children and make
greater issues of children being uprooted multiple
them more comfortable in the United States by
times and being paired with lots of foster-
“placing them outside of New York (and away
parents. Americans often romanticized the idea
from other Jewish refugees).”41 The largest issue
of fostering young, polite, blonde girls instead
with this policy is that the children didn’t like to
of facing the reality of the starved, traumatized
be separated from each other, and often were
children seeking refuge in America. This led to
unhappy to be forced to leave their community in
many unhappy foster placements both for foster
a new country. As more children immigrated and
parents and children.
organizations got more experience facilitating
For children that had been living without the care these transitions, even the EJCA eventually
of parents throughout the war, the transition to decided that Jewish children especially fared
foster-care could be difficult, both the adjustment better in collective homes or with foster parents
to a new environment with a new family, and the than being placed with relatives and, “By 1948,
constant instability of moving between foster the EJCA noted that a full one-third to one-half

of placements with relatives in the United States
failed.”42 In essence, it was better to put these
children in an environment specially equipped
to care for them, like community homes
(orphanages), than for them to be placed with ill-
equipped relatives.
Not all refugees sought placement in the United
States, instead, many chose to move to Canada.
One group seeking to move to Canada felt that
“their own political and religious convictions,
along with the solidarity of the group itself, were
more meaningful than family ties or nationalist
sentiments.”43 The first children immigrated to
Canada on 29 August 1949, and many followed
soon after. 44
Children believed that new opportunities, found
in Canada and the US, would allow them to
start anew. Hundreds of children fled to North
America in search of prosperity that they didn’t
believe could exist in Europe. Child immigrants
became homesick and had anxiety about those
they left behind.45 The adjustment to American
life, for Jewish children, was often far more
difficult than living in European community
homes or nationalized DP camps.46 It seems that,
although children were eager to escape Europe,
this choice was often not ‘in the best interests of
the child’. It is no surprise, then, that it was so
hard for social workers to find individual plans
for each child when children did not even know
what to choose for themselves.
Fostered Children: Staying with
their Foster Family
During the Second World War, many children
were placed with foster-families to care for them.
For children in comfortable homes with foster-
parents that had raised them for the past several
months or years, they wanted to stay in with
their foster-families. Social workers believed, “In
accordance with Anna Freud’s popular theories
[…] continuity of care was the most important
Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 13
factor in a child’s psychological well-being.”47 This
belief led to stability in the lives of children that
were cared for by loving families during WWII,
and were able to continue afterwards.
Some children had been taken from their homes
by Nazi Germany and placed with German
parents at a young age, and they had little memory
of their biological parents or origin countries.48
British and American authorities believed that it
would be ‘in the best interests of the children’
to allow them to stay with their German foster-
families, “invoking the principle that they would
be permanently scarred by separation from their
German foster-parents.”49 Eileen Davidson, a
Child Care Consultant, wrote about a conference
with Polish Repatriation Officer discussing two
Polish children who had been adopted by a
German family and who asked to stay with this
family. She wrote,
They are orphans and have no family to return
to. Permission refused. Children to be repatriated.
Picked up. Both children at Ansbach. Much
against their will. 50
For these children, removing them from their
foster-parents to place them in DP camps with
people of their own nationality was a traumatic
experience. For children that had nowhere else
to go and wished to stay with foster-families, one
asks whether moving them could possibly be ‘in
the best interests of the child,’ or if they would be
better off staying with their foster-families.
However, because these children had been taken
from their cultural homeland and adopted by
German parents under the Nazi regime, many
social workers felt that the children had a right to
be returned to their homeland and their biological
family, regardless of the wants of the child. They
believed that the children did not know what was
best for themselves. In a letter to the President
of the United Nations General Assembly, the
International Union for Child Welfare insisted
that returning displaced children to their nation
and families (regardless of the child’s wishes) was
a matter of guaranteeing basic human rights. The
14 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948

Union declared: “We feel obligated to inform you and Anneke Beekman. Catholics in this position
how concerned we are […] about the subject of also argued that the biological parents of Jewish
children removed or separated from their parents, children were unfit to parent their children in
whatever the reason […] The Declaration of the aftermath of WWII, due to their traumatic
the Rights of Child, promulgated in 1923 by experiences in concentration camps and the
our union, demands respect for the intangible Holocaust. 53 In these situations, they argued,
rights and duties of parents with respect to their
children, and the same is true of the Universal should the foster parents wish to raise the child,
Declaration of Human Rights.”51 These policies and are in a position to educate the child in
placed children back with their original families keeping with his talents, the environment from
and returned them to their homeland, but were which he came, and considering that the child has
against the wishes of the child, who had already become an integral part of this family, we do not
accumulated to life with foster parents and now wish to tear loose these bonds.54
had their world uprooted a second time. It is important to note that the situation under
Some children had been placed in the care of their which these children were hidden with Catholic
foster parents by their biological parents for their families, to hide them from the war and the
protection. Those that revolted against the Nazi Holocaust, were not the same conditions after
party throughout Europe often had to hide and the war. The price of saving the lives of these
flee, so were unable to give their children the care children was, possibly, stripping them of their
they needed. Instead, they’d pay Polish couples religious identity and the beliefs of their parents.
to care for their children, to even hide their child
Van der Molen, head of the Commission for
if necessary, while they fled to the wilderness to War-foster Children, and other Catholics that
survive. For many of these parents, “when they had taken in and fostered Jewish children during
returned at the end of the war, the child, and WWII, sought to remove the religious identities
sometimes the guardians, had been killed. Poland of the child and raise them Catholic, away from
was full of informers.”52 If the child and the their communities and their biological parents’
parents both survived the horrors of WWII, it religion. She argued that the children had already
was often difficult for them to get in contact withforgotten their Jewish identities and were fully
each other, as the separation between child and integrated in their Christian foster-families and,
parent had been so long that they could barely therefore, there was “no obstacle to requesting
recognize one another. the courts to terminate the parental rights of the
biological parents, and subsequently decide the
child’s future based merely on what she [van der
Fostered Children: Catholic Foster- Molen] deemed to be the child’s best interest.”55
Families vs. Jewish Heritage She felt strongly that her actions, though they
were opposed by the Jewish community and broke
There are several cases where Catholic couples or bonds between children and biological parents,
families took in Jewish children to keep them safe were successful in finding the solutions in the
during WWII, and later wanted to keep the children best interests of the child. She said, “It must be
and raise them in their own households. This was understood that we are not allowed to lose sight of
highly controversial because a Jewish child in a the psychological repercussions for the56 children
Catholic household, while reaping the benefits of which are the result of our decisions.” Van der
continuity of care and familial atmosphere, lost Molen, and those she defended, strongly claimed
their national and religious identities. One such to be making the best choices for children.
case is examined between Gezina van der Molen

Not only did these Catholic guardians fight to
raise children and not let them be returned to
their biological families or national communities,
but many of these actions were done with the
underlying hope “of saving not only bodies but
souls.”57 One child, Anneke Beekman, was of
Jewish origin but fostered by Catholics, the Morrst
sisters, throughout the war and lived with them
until adulthood. Little evidence existed to support
the claim that the Morrst sisters simply wanted a
child, and it is more likely that they felt a need to
save Beekman’s soul. Beekman was moved from
caregiver to caregiver while being cared for by the
Morrst sisters and “they certainly robbed her of
the chance to know her Jewish heritage.”58
After Beekman became of age, she moved to the
Netherlands and was interviewed on television
about the controversy of Jewish adoptions by
Catholic families. She appeared as a dedicated
Catholic who claimed to know nothing about her
Jewish origins, and she wore a large cross around
her neck.59 During this interview she proclaimed
her guardians as saviors and claimed to know little
about her Jewish heritage. However, later in her
life, once she began to reconnect with her roots,
she “admitted to being a little less wholeheartedly
Catholic and somewhat less distant from her
Jewish relatives.”60 Anneke’s story suggests that
by withholding her origins from her and raising
her Catholic, Van Der Molen was not actually
acting in ‘the best interests of the child’, because
that child later chose to search for her family
history, which was unavailable while in the care of
her Catholic foster-parents. Although placement
in foster-families was often the best choice
for children, this choice sometimes sacrificed
the child’s connection with their ancestry and
nationality, which could be integral to building
their identity.
The rights of biological children and Jewish
guardians were not highly thought of by Catholic
guardians. The position of Jewish guardians was
especially complicated by the legal difficulties of
a Jewish guardian attempting to claim a relative.
“The relatives must agree which of them should
Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 15
raise the child, then the courts must approve
this choice.”61 Many of these opinions, and
decisions that stemmed from these decisions,
were considered unjust and awful to the Jewish
community and members of the general public,
“who saw returning the Jewish orphans to their
community of origin as a debt of honor to the
memory of their murdered parents.”62 It was the
view of these Jewish communities that their lost
children should be returned to them, and that
they would find a way to raise that child without
needing to settle formal guardianship in the
courts.
The case of Catholic foster-parents and Jewish
children further complicates the discussion about
foster-parents and the role they played in raising
children. Although familial care was of utmost
importance to the development of the child, the
cost of this familial care was sometimes quite
high.
Refugee Children: Community
Centers and Orphanages
In order to provide children with an identity,
many psychologists and social workers advocated
for nationalized DP camps where children were
surrounded with people from their same country
of origin. After WWII, passionate exchanges
about nationalizing children took place and,
In 1948 the United Nations ‘Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide’
labelled as a form of genocide the forcible
transfer of ‘children of one group to another
group [enacted] with intent to destroy, in whole
or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group’.63
This definition was in response to Nazi Germany’s
practices throughout the war, where Aryan
children from other European countries were
kidnapped, fostered by German families, and
raised as German.64 Not only did social workers
want to fix denationalization by returning children
16 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948

to their own nations, they wanted to avoid further to stay with their foster families. Mark Wyman,
denationalization at all costs. They believed, who recorded the stories and struggles of
“children without a firm sense of national identity displaced children in Europe, wrote, “one of
were doomed to become rootless misfits,” and the tragedies of the postwar era was the number
that “The cultivation of healthy individuals of kidnapped children who lied in order to stay
itself seemed to require re-nationalization and with their German foster-parents rather than
repatriation of East European children.”65 These return to their true parents of whom they knew
beliefs about the importance of national identity little.”69 He wrote that this was a tragedy because
opposed placement in foreign foster-families of the injustice that had been committed towards
and fueled movements to place orphans in these children, by kidnapping them from their
nationalized DP camps. communities and placing them in Germany.
The children were willingly revoking their own
Nationalist groups were especially important national identities and biological families, just as
to establish Jewish children’s identities; these the Nazi party would’ve wanted. Eileen Davidson,
communities provided hope and community for a Child Care Consultant, wrote that the Eastern
those that had faced the worst persecution of the European children left in German foster-families
Holocaust. Grossman writes, “would surely suffer permanent psychological
For young people who had lost their entire damage, even if they were loved and well cared-
families, the Zionist peer culture, in all its for.”70 She wrote that this was not in the best
passionate intensity, offered self-affirmation and interests of the child and “one has run the danger
community, and perhaps the utopian vision that with the passage of years of contributing to the
sustained survival or at least hope.66 development of a warped and twisted personality,
a misfit with roots neither here nor in his home
This idea grew quickly and “by the end of 1945 country.”71 It was at the root of these beliefs,
at least twelve camps in the American zone were that the importance of national identity and re-
entirely Jewish.”67 These DP camps were especially nationalization of children grew.
important for the development of children’s
Many Eastern European nations felt that children
identities, social workers believed. Brosse wrote
that these communities were essential to the were a national, collective property and belonged
to the state before their belonging to foster-
psychological health of children, “their youthful
independence is not strong enough for them to families. These nations and many humanitarian
become world citizens immediately[…] without organizations wanted to repatriate the displaced
children back into their original countries in order
being first a citizen of a smaller community.”68 For
many Jewish children, nationalized communities to preserve the national identities of the children
allowed them to connect with their culture and and reverse the impact of Nazi policies. ““In
be a part of supportive communities that were the name of a radical break with the fascist past,
beneficial to their development. they insisted that the material and psychological
‘best interests’ of individual children should
guide postwar social work.” 72 The importance of
National Identity for Children nationalism, which condemned removing children
from their national identities for the sake of foster-
families, stemmed from the belief that children
There were many children that had been fostered would become rootless misfits without a national
by parents of other cultures, whether kidnapped identity. “The cultivation of healthy individuals
children from Eastern Europe in German foster- itself seemed to require the re-nationalization and
families or Jewish children hidden in Catholic repatriation of East European children after the
households, that did everything in their power Second World War.”73 The International Refugee
 Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 17

Organization, in a memo in 1948, warned, “‘Every Social workers from the United Nations Relief and
child’s future is too important to be decided by a Rehabilitation Association and the International
representative of a foreign nation….There can be Refugee Organization began to emphasize the
no doubt that in order for things to run smoothly, national identity of children more and more
the guardian must be of the same nationality of through their work. “These claims were rooted in
the child.”74 These opinions invalidated the role Zionist, nationalist, and socialist traditions dating
of foster-parents from other nations and the role back to the late nineteenth century in Central
of them. and Eastern Europe.”81 This was counter to the
growing ideas of individualist and internationalist
Some nations took it a step further than values touted by many humanitarian activists and
just condemning the role of international volunteers of the era, but persisted as a critical
foster-parents, and Poland, Yugoslavia, and perspective.82 The individualist/internationalist
Czechoslovakia created laws making it illegal for and nationalist ideologies were eventually
foster parents to adopt children of a different reconciled in the views of social workers “by
nationality in Eastern Europe.75 The results insisting that repatriation of displaced children
of losing one’s nationality and family history from Eastern Europe was essential to children’s
was traumatic, and was documented by Toby individual psychological ‘best interests’.”83 In
Mostysser, whose parents were children in WWII. this situation, just like in nearly every situation
He wrote, “My parents could not give me their pertaining to displaced children after WWII, the
history, because it had been brutally ripped away perceived ‘best interests of the child’ were of
from them and was no longer theirs to give. utmost importance and highly debated.
Instead they presented me with a great hole, a
great emptiness enclosed by my father’s hard and The necessity for children to feel a part of a
bitter silences and my mother’s spoken longing community, and to relate to the people around
and rage.”76 It was considered by some deeply them, was another strong reason in favor of
immoral, and even genocidal, to remove children nationalist communities. Brosse wrote:
from their national identities.
In the course of our many visits to children’s
This was largely in alignment with the general idea communities, we saw indeed how much the
that what was in the best interests of the children children need a country of their own if they are to
was also what was the opposite of the Nazi regime, be psychologically normal and to feel ‘like other
who stole children from neighboring nations. In people’. In a world in which it is still necessary, for
1948, the UN Convention on the Prevention and legal purposes, to have a nationality, their youthful
Punishment of Genocide officially “labelled as a independence is not strong enough for them to
form of genocide the forcible transfer of ‘children become world citizens immediately… without
of one group to another group [enacted] with being first a citizen of a smaller community84
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnical, racial or religious group, as such’.”77 This Psychologists believed that national identity was
same convention referred to children as “the critical to psychological health. Although not
.

collective property of national communities”, everyone originally agreed with this, on Child
which highlights the importance of children’s Welfare Officer for the United Nations Relief
national identities.”78 These ideas were especially and Rehabilitation Administration working in
important in the thoughts, politics, and laws of with Jewish children wrote that she couldn’t
East Central European nations. 79 This definition understand the emphasis on national identity at
and understanding of children was widely used first, however, she quickly learned “that for both
for refugee relief and human rights movements psychological and practical reasons, national
after the Second World War.80 grouping was best during the insecure and
18 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948
traumatic times in the lives of the displaced.”85
Another worker in the International Refugee
Organization in Germany, Vinita A. Lewis, wrote
that the largest Social Problem in Europe was
“the lost identity of individual children”, and that
knowing one’s origins was a basic human right.86
This belief was upheld by definitions of genocide
that had been written by the UN, and by the
beliefs of many psychologists.
Despite the support for national identity and
community from psychologists, welfare workers,
and others, many of the claims surrounding
these claims were inaccurate. For instance, the
importance of national identity balances on the
assumption that every child has a single national
identity that is identifiable for them. However,
“many parents and children in multilingual
regions of Imperial Austria were bilingual,
indifferent to nationalism, or flexible in their
national loyalties.”87 How could children or adults
without defined national identities benefit from
being placed in camps and communities based on
their national identity? A historian on the subject,
Tara Zahra, wrote,
The real threat to nationalism was not the forcible
denationalization of children. It was rather the
frustrating national lability and apathy of their
parents. Nationalists’ campaigns to prevent the
alleged denationalization of children therefore
represented nothing less than an aggressive
strategy through which middle-class activists
sought to first create and then consolidate
homogenous national communities.88
Some nations, like France and Eastern European
countries that had lost much of their population in
WWII, emphasized the importance of nationalism
as a way to repopulate their countries. Pierre
Pfimlin, who represented the French Ministry
of Public Health and Population, “described DP
children as a valuable ‘blood transfusion’ who
could replace dead soldiers and thereby counter
a ‘menace of extinction’ that allegedly threatened
the French nation.”89 These arguments placed
the importance of national needs over the best
interests of the children, but were still highly
important for nations that had witnessed their
populations decimated in the past decade.
There was a solution, founded by Vera Stuart
Alexander, that was anti-nationalist. Alexander
created and raised funds for a Stateless Children’s
Sanctuary in the West Indies which would grant
refugee children UN citizenship and was an
alternative to nationalism. Her organization
believed that displaced children did not have
strong national identities or loyalties and were
able to view nations without bias or prejudice.
The project would include a passport valid in any
UN nation, with the goal of giving the children
the ability to travel, work, and live anywhere in the
world. The organization believed that, “Having
lost their birthright, the children would at least
inherit the earth.”90 However, this concept wasn’t
widely popular and didn’t gain enough traction to
be widely used.
Community Centers
Community centers and DP camps were set up
throughout Europe to provide shelter and food
for refugees. For unaccompanied or orphaned
children, they also served as care facilities and
educational centers. These camps were often
based on national identities, and this organization
of DP camps was pragmatic because the human
rights promoted by the UN were often dependent
on national citizenship.
In the eyes of UN child welfare specialists,
postwar East European governments, and many
Jewish agencies, restoring children to the national
collective was essential to the broader campaign
to democratize and denazifiy postwar Europe and
to the individual psychological rehabilitation of
DP youths.91
Realistically, it was often easier to sort people
into DP camps based on nationality and culture,
and then work on solutions within those camps,
than to try and find individual solutions for
 Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 19

individualized children. These generalizations deportation of their parents). Lastly, the question
were far from perfect, but they were practical. of resettling some of these children among
orthodox Jews arose. In taking its decision in each
Communities served to make children feel less specific case, the Commission had to take account
alone in the world, argued Dr. Marie Meierhofer, of the probable wishes of the dead parents and,
who wrote that “we [her and community members] even more, of the genuineness of the emotional
like to take all the children of one family, or at bonds between the child and the foster family.94
least two or three, as this gives the group a family
atmosphere.”92 By building units based loosely For children in this situation, and especially for
on family structures, many communities were children that never had foster-families, there was
able to mimic the familial atmosphere necessary a strong need for orphanages, national identities,
for children while creating national and cultural and community.
foundations.
Jewish people rallied together in Displaced
Persons camps after the war, trying to rebuild
community, find family, and support one another
Jewish Children and Community
after suffering the Holocaust. “The war’s death
Centers toll of Jews was finally estimated at almost 6
million, 72 percent of European Jewry.”95 They
In American, British, and French occupation held onto hope and they held onto each other
zones throughout Germany and Austria, all- and for young people that had lost entire families,
Jewish DP camps were created. At least twelve Zionist communities “offered self-affirmation
existed by the end of 1945. The United Nations and community, and perhaps the utopian vision
Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and that sustained survival or at least hope.” 96 Jewish
Jewish agencies fought for control over displaced people living together were able to connect deeply
Jewish children and Jewish agencies, like the and band closely with one another.97
American Joint Distribution Committee and the
Jewish Agency for Palestine, fought over the best
locations for displaced Jewish children. They Education in Community Centers
disagreed on whether children should be cared
for “through family placement with surviving
Some psychologists argued that the best way to
relatives or foster parents or through collective
respond to lost and orphaned children’s needs
(and nationalist) education in Palestine.”93 Despite
was through educational programs. Brosse wrote
these disagreements and disparities between
that the greatest problem facing war-handicapped
differing groups, it was widely agreed upon that
children was “the problem of the educational
Jewish children benefited from the national
relationship between the child and the adults
identity and cultural community present in Jewish
who have charge of him.”98 Whether children
DP camps.
were living with biological families, orphanages,
Many Jewish children had been taken in and foster parents, other countries, or their homeland,
fostered by families during the war, but these education was at the forefront of issues towards
families had no intention of adopting the children. providing for children’s developmental and
This left the homeless and without families in the intellectual needs.
aftermath of WWII.
The setting where the child was living was critical
Moreover, certain children could not accustom to the education they received, and psychologists
themselves to the unfamiliar environment argued for a social structure that would create
because of their own psychological suffering (the harmonious development of physical, emotional,
20 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948

and intellectual needs of the child. All displaced The children needed educational systems, Brosse
children due to WWII had been deprived of these wrote that, while appropriate education was
needs for many years, they argued, and therefore, critical, even the best education systems couldn’t
the need was even greater.99 Social workers and fulfill the child’s needs “unless their boarding
psychologists analyzed the needs of children and arrangements are organized on a family basis.” 104
decided that the child should be placed in a family However, others argued that a community focused
that can fulfill their needs or in the following three on good education and raising the children was
situations. more beneficial than placement within a foster-
family.105
1. That the child should be placed in a family or,
if that is impossible, in a community organized
on a family basis;
Additional Quotes and Viewpoints
2. That, before a child is placed, his background of the Time Period
should be studied at length by experts and he
should be given the necessary educational tests,
so that directions may be given to the family and Psychologists
the school;
“In accordance with Anna Freud’s popular
3. That individual psychological assistance should theories, they held that continuity of care was the
be provided, so that the relation of the child and most important factor in a child’s psychological
his environment may be supervised at intervals to well-being”106
ensure that the environment is allowing the child
to develop in the best possible conditions.”100
UN Organizations
Psychologists, social workers, and others essentially
argued that stateless children needed nationalities “The International Red Cross asserted that
to provide for cultural identities, homeless 13 million children in Europe had lost their
children needed homes or close substitutes, and natural protectors, and the UNRRA had 50,000
all children needed parental figures to provide for unaccompanied children in its care a few months
their education and upbringing.101 after V-E Day. When the IRO took over the
camps in 1948 it found that nearly a fourth of its
Education was considered of the utmost DPs were under age seventeen.”107
importance to the development of children, and
this was especially true in national and refugee
The World and Germany
camps. Each nationality group had their own
school for more than just language barriers,
“religious and national goals were often present France
in this schooling.”102 The nationalism and religion “France clamped down on Soviet repatriation
present in education made it necessary to separate operations after it learned that three French
Jewish children from others and to divide born children had been kidnapped and were
educational facilities by children’s’ nationalities. A being held in the Soviet Union’s heavily guarded
part of the importance placed on education was Camp Beauregard near Paris. Police charged into
due to “fears of other, alien, influences on their the building in November 1947 and freed the
children in the chaos of postwar Europe.”103 This captives, uncovered a substantial arsenal, and
served to exacerbate the importance of separation provided French authorities with an excuse to
based on nationalism and religion. order repatriation drives reduced.”108
 Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 21

Great Britain “For the western Allies’ military forces in the

“As the result of long investigation by a Royal spring and summer of 1945, getting people back
Commission and under the impetus of the home was everything. But a great many DPs had
subsequent ‘Curtis Report’ and the new Children’s no intention of leaving Germany or Austria for
Act now before Parliament, Great Britain has some other place, and they expected the Allied
opted for the former solution: placement in soldiers and the UNRRA workers to provide
foster-homes.”109 the care they needed to be comfortable in very
uncomfortable times.”113
“In Great Britain, emphasis was already placed on
the importance of the choice of the home for United States
boarding out in the note published jointly by the
Home Office and the Ministry of Health in 1946; “In the name of the oft-cited ‘best interests
it defined the qualities of a good foster family and of the children’, British and American military
emphasized the need to find the family best fitted authorities often preferred to leave the children in
to meet the needs of each individual child.”110 German homes, invoking the principle that they
would be permanently scarred by separation from
their German foster parents.”114
Czechoslovakia
“Jewish displaced persons, meanwhile, were
subject to regulations that reflected persistent
International Refugee Organization
anti-Semitism and an association of Jews with “IRO policy specified: ’The recommendation
Germandom and Germanization. A decree from made for the repatriation or settlement of the
the Ministry of Interior in September of 1946 child should not be contrary to the wishes of the
declared that all Czechoslovak Jews were eligible child. Such wishes shall be assessed in the light of
for Czechoslovak citizenship after the war, even the age of the child and of all the circumstances.
if they had declared themselves Germans in the They shall be taken into account only if they
1930 census, so long as they now ‘profess to have been expressed freely, and provided they are
belong to the Czech, Slovak, or another Slavic based on considerations which, in the case of a
nationality, and never acted against the Czech or person over 17 years of age, would be considered
Slovak nation.’”111 as valid objections.”115

Germany
“Jewish displaced persons, meanwhile, were
subject to regulations that reflected persistent
anti-Semitism and an association of Jews with
Germandom and Germanization. A decree from
the Ministry of Interior in September of 1946
declared that all Czechoslovak Jews were eligible
for Czechoslovak citizenship after the war, even
if they had declared themselves Germans in the
1930 census, so long as they now ‘profess to
belong to the Czech, Slovak, or another Slavic
nationality, and never acted against the Czech or
Slovak nation.’”112
Austria
Questions a Resolution Must
Answer
What, if any, is the importance of culture in
the lives of displaced children? What is the
responsibility of host nations towards allowing
cultural or national traditions and identities?
What is the best solution for the vast quantities of
displaced children in Europe? If there are certain
solutions that work best for certain children, how
do you distribute different policies to different
groups and how do you determine which groups
receive which policies?
22 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948

What should be done with Jewish children
throughout Europe? Is the best solution for
them the same or different than other displaced
children? What role does religion and cultural
identity have in the lives of children that have
faced genocide?
more than two years in Amsterdam before they
were found. She documents her experiences and
provides invaluable insight into her minds and the
minds of young Jewish people during WWII.
The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

What policies should be put in place to assure A story about a young Jewish girl that is transported
the best long-term care for displaced children back in time to WWII and experiences the
throughout the world? atrocities of the Nazi regime and concentration
camps. Provides insight into the horrors of WWII
How can the recommendations decided on by this through the eyes of a child.
committee accommodate the differing views of
nations where displaced children reside currently? Maus by Art Spiegelman
A beautifully drawn graphic novel about the Nazi
regime and WWII
Suggestions for Further Research
History Books about WWII
War-Handicapped Children by Therese Brosse
Contemporary Issues
Brosse wrote reports on the status and psychology
Issues pertaining to children’s rights, international/ of children after WWII for the benefit of the UN
intercultural adoption, and wards of the state and decision-making authorities. She also took
continue to be highly prevalent today. In the US, detailed notes on many important discussions
Native American tribes must give permission about policies for children. An online summary
for foster families to adopt Native American and version of her writings can be found here.
wards of the state.1 UNICEF’s current policy on
international adoptions argues that in situations The Lost Children by Tara Zahra
where children are displaced due to conflict or
war, all resources must be exhausted in finding A well-written history book on displaced children
relatives or caretakers in the child’s own country in the aftermath of WWII.
before that child can be adopted in another The Third Reich Trilogy by Richard J. Evans (The
nation. These cases, and more, demonstrate the Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in
relevance of discussions about cultural identity vs Power, The Third Reich at War)
familial care today.
These books are a well-acclaimed overview of the
Nazi regime, covering the rise to power to its final
Further Readings days.
A Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The well-known diary of Anne Frank, a young
Jewish girl who hid with her family in an annex for
1 Nytimes.com. 2020. Who Can Adopt A Native
American Child? A Texas Couple Vs. 573 Tribes. [online]
Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/
health/navajo-children-custody-fight.html> [Accessed 26
September 2020].
 Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 23

Endnotes
1 Unicef.org. 2020. Learning from Experience: 1946–1979. [online] Available at: <https://www.unicef.org/stories/learn-
ing-experience-19461979> [Accessed 23 September 2020].
2 Wyman, Mark. 1988. DP : Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Philadelphia : London: Balch Institute Press ; As-
sociated University Press. 87.
3 Paldiel, Mordecai. 1993. “Children on the Run.” DIMENSIONS: A Journal of Holocaust Studies, Vol. 7 No. 1: 20.
4 NobelPrize.org. 2020. The Nobel Peace Prize 1965. [online] Available at: <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/
peace/1965/unicef/history/> [Accessed 23 September 2020].
5 NobelPrize.org. 2020. The Nobel Peace Prize 1965. [online] Available at: <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/
peace/1965/unicef/history/> [Accessed 23 September 2020].
6 Unicefyouth.com. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.unicefyouth.com/history> [Accessed 23 September
2020].
7 Unicefyouth.com. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.unicefyouth.com/history> [Accessed 23 September
2020].
8 Unicef.org. 2020. Learning From Experience: 1946–1979. [online] Available at: <https://www.unicef.org/stories/learn-
ing-experience-19461979> [Accessed 23 September 2020].
9 Unicefyouth.com. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.unicefyouth.com/history> [Accessed 23 September
2020].
10 Nations, U., 2020. UNICEF | United Nations. [online] United Nations. Available at: <https://www.un.org/en/
ccoi/unicef-united-nations-childrens-fund#:~:text=The%20United%20Nations%20Children’s%20Fund,devastated%20by%20
World%20War%20II.> [Accessed 23 September 2020].
11 Grossmann, Atina. Jews, Germans, and Allies : Close Encounters in Occupied Germany. Princeton: Princeton Univer-
sity Press, 2007. 132.
12 Grossmann, Atina. Jews, Germans, and Allies : Close Encounters in Occupied Germany. Princeton: Princeton Univer-
sity Press, 2007. 132.
13 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism after
the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187. 2017.
14 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Education ; 1.
Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
15 Wyman, Mark. 1988. DP : Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Philadelphia : London: Balch Institute Press ; As-
sociated University Press. 87.
16 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Education ; 1.
Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
17 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of Modern
History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
18 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Education ; 1.
Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
19 Paldiel, Mordecai. 1993. “Children on the Run.” DIMENSIONS: A Journal of Holocaust Studies, Vol. 7 No. 1: 20.
20 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of Modern
History 81 (March 2009): 45, 57.
21 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of Modern
History 81 (March 2009): 45, 57.
22 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of Modern
History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
23 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of Modern
24 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948

History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.

24 Zahra, Tara. 2017. “Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism after the
Second World War.” Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953. 187-217.
25 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
26 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
27 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
28 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
29 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
30 Mostysser, Toby. 1975. “The Weight of the Past: Reminiscences of a Survivors’ Child.” Living After the
Holocaust: Reflections by the Post-War Generation in America, Edited by Lucy Y. Steinitz with David M. Szonyi. 4.
31 Wyman, Mark. 1988. DP : Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Philadelphia : London: Balch Institute
Press ; Associated University Press.
32 Zahra, Tara. 2017. “Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism after the
Second World War.” Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953. 187-217.
33 Brosse, Thérèse. 1950. Homeless Children: Report of the Proceedings of the Conference of Directors of
Children’s Communities, Trogen, Switzerland [July 5-10, 1948]. 41.
34 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
35 Brosse, Thérèse. 1950. Homeless Children: Report of the Proceedings of the Conference of Directors of
Children’s Communities, Trogen, Switzerland [July 5-10, 1948]. 
36 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
37 Brosse, Thérèse. 1950. Homeless Children: Report of the Proceedings of the Conference of Directors of
Children’s Communities, Trogen, Switzerland [July 5-10, 1948]. 41.
38 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
39 Goldstein, Norich, Rosenfeld, Steinitz, and Szonyi. 1975. “Five Children of Survivors: A Conversation.” Liv-
ing After the Holocaust: Reflections by the Post-War Generation in America, Edited by Lucy Y. Steinitz with David M.
Szonyi. 33-53.
40 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
41 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
42 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
43 Zahra, “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” 83.
44 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
45 Zahra, “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” 62.
46 Zahra, “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” 63.
 Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 25

47 Zahra, “Lost Children: Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism after the Second World
War.”, 202.
48 Zahra, “Lost Children: Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism after the Second
World War.”
49 Zahra, “Lost Children: Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism after the Second
World War.”, 201-202.
50 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
51 Zahra, Tara. 2017. “Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism after the
Second World War.” Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953. 187-217.
52 Mostysser, Toby. 1975. “The Weight of the Past: Reminiscences of a Survivors’ Child.” Living After the
Holocaust: Reflections by the Post-War Generation in America, Edited by Lucy Y. Steinitz with David M. Szonyi. 3-21.
53 Samuel-Tenenholtz, Bela Ruth. “Define Saving - Gezina Van Der Molen and Anneke Beekman.” Shaanan,
no. 14 (2009): E23-40. http://app.shaanan.ac.il/shnaton/14/19.pdf
54 Samuel-Tenenholtz, Bela Ruth. “Define Saving - Gezina Van Der Molen and Anneke Beekman.” Shaanan,
no. 14 (2009): E23-40. http://app.shaanan.ac.il/shnaton/14/19.pdf
55 Samuel-Tenenholtz, Bela Ruth. “Define Saving - Gezina Van Der Molen and Anneke Beekman.” Shaanan,
no. 14 (2009): E23-40. http://app.shaanan.ac.il/shnaton/14/19.pdf
56 Samuel-Tenenholtz, Bela Ruth. “Define Saving - Gezina Van Der Molen and Anneke Beekman.” Shaanan,
no. 14 (2009): E23-40. http://app.shaanan.ac.il/shnaton/14/19.pdf
57 Samuel-Tenenholtz, Bela Ruth. “Define Saving - Gezina Van Der Molen and Anneke Beekman.” Shaanan,
no. 14 (2009): E23-40. http://app.shaanan.ac.il/shnaton/14/19.pdf
58 Samuel-Tenenholtz, Bela Ruth. “Define Saving - Gezina Van Der Molen and Anneke Beekman.” Shaanan,
no. 14 (2009): E23-40. http://app.shaanan.ac.il/shnaton/14/19.pdf
59 Samuel-Tenenholtz, E36.
60 Samuel-Tenenholtz, E36.
61 Samuel-Tenenholtz, Bela Ruth. “Define Saving - Gezina Van Der Molen and Anneke Beekman.” Shaanan,
no. 14 (2009): E23-40. http://app.shaanan.ac.il/shnaton/14/19.pdf
62 Samuel-Tenenholtz, Bela Ruth. “Define Saving - Gezina Van Der Molen and Anneke Beekman.” Shaanan,
no. 14 (2009): E23-40. http://app.shaanan.ac.il/shnaton/14/19.pdf
63 Zahra, “Lost Children: Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism after the Second
World War.”, 187.
64 Wyman, 92-93. and Zahra, “Lost Children: Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism
after the Second World War.”, 188.
65 Zahra, “Lost Children: Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism after the Second
World War.”, 216.
66 Grossmann, Atina. Jews, Germans, and Allies : Close Encounters in Occupied Germany. Princeton: Princ-
eton University Press, 2007. 132.
67 Peck, Abraham J. 1995. “The Displaced.” DIMENSIONS: A Journal of Holocaust Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1: 13.
68 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
69 Wyman, Mark. 1988. DP : Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Philadelphia : London: Balch Institute
Press ; Associated University Press.
70 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
26 Background Guide: United Nations Children’s Fund, 1948

71 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
72 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
73 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
74 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
75 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
76 Mostysser, Toby. 1975. “The Weight of the Past: Reminiscences of a Survivors’ Child.” Living After the
Holocaust: Reflections by the Post-War Generation in America, Edited by Lucy Y. Steinitz with David M. Szonyi. 3-21.
77 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
78 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
79 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
80 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
81 Zahra, Tara. 2017. “Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and Internationalism after the
Second World War.” Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953. 187-217.
82 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
83 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
84 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
85 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
86 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
87 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
88 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
89 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
90 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
91 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal of
Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.
92 Brosse, Thérèse. 1950. Homeless Children: Report of the Proceedings of the Conference of Directors of
Children’s Communities, Trogen, Switzerland [July 5-10, 1948]. 41.
93 Zahra, Tara. 2009. “Lost Children: Displacement, Family, and Nation in Postwar Europe.” The Journal
 Harvard Model United Nations China 2021 27

of Modern History 81 (March 2009): 45-86.

94 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
95 Wyman, Mark. 1988. DP : Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Philadelphia : London: Balch Institute
Press ; Associated University Press.
96 Grossmann, Atina. Jews, Germans, and Allies : Close Encounters in Occupied Germany. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2007. 132.
97 Peck, Abraham J. 1995. “The Displaced.” DIMENSIONS: A Journal of Holocaust Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1: 11-
14.
98 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
99 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
100 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
101 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
102 Wyman, Mark. 1988. DP : Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Philadelphia : London: Balch Institute
Press ; Associated University Press.
103 Wyman, Mark. 1988. DP : Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Philadelphia : London: Balch Institute
Press ; Associated University Press.
104 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
105 Brosse, Thérèse. 1950. Homeless Children: Report of the Proceedings of the Conference of Directors of
Children’s Communities, Trogen, Switzerland [July 5-10, 1948]. 41.
106 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
107 Wyman, Mark. 1988. DP : Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Philadelphia : London: Balch Institute
Press ; Associated University Press.
108 Wyman, Mark. 1988. DP : Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Philadelphia : London: Balch Institute
Press ; Associated University Press.
109 Brosse, Thérèse. 1950. Homeless Children: Report of the Proceedings of the Conference of Directors of
Children’s Communities, Trogen, Switzerland [July 5-10, 1948]. 41.
110 Brosse, Thérèse. War-handicapped Children; Report on the European Situation. Unesco. Problems in Educa-
tion ; 1. Paris: UNESCO, 1950.
111 Zahra, Tara. Kidnapped Souls : National Indifference and the Battle for Children in the Bohemian Lands,
1900-1948. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008.
112 Zahra, Tara. Kidnapped Souls : National Indifference and the Battle for Children in the Bohemian Lands,
1900-1948. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008.`
113 Peck, Abraham J. 1995. “The Displaced.” DIMENSIONS: A Journal of Holocaust Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1: 11-
14.
114 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.
115 Zahra, Tara. “Lost Children.” In Lost Children : Displaced Children between Nationalism and International-
ism after the Second World War., Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (2017) 187-212. 2017.