a wartime childhood
DESCRIPTION
A closer look at the life of a child growing up during World War TwoTRANSCRIPT
A closer look at the life of a child growing up in Britain during World War II...
Created by: Jaime, Siyanda, Asemahle, Alex
This magazine was created for people nowadays to know what happened in World War 2. It shows how children were forced to adapt to moving and surviving without their parents. We explain to you about daily life for children during war time, there are pic-tures to help you comprehend what is being explained to you.
In Britain once war had been declared the children would leave to board a
train heading for the country side , leaving their parents behind for it was
too dangerous for a child to live in the war zone. Each child was given a
tag with their name and age on them. They did this so that when they went
to the country side the locals that chose a child to live with them would
know their name and age. Some children strongly disliked the country side
due to the fact that they are in a different environment, but other children
enjoyed the new environment because they could run around and discover
new things.
In the beginning of the process the children were shy, nervous and a bit
unstable because of leaving their parents, being in a new environment and
having to get along with different people that they did not know. They were
extremely anxious due to the fact that they did not know whether their
parent were dead or alive, coming into a new environment was the worst
During wartime daily life for the children was extremely different to their
past daily life, they would see soldiers patrolling the streets and houses that
were turned into rubble. They would have to carry around a gas mask all
day for their own safety incase of an emergency, every afternoon everyone
had to put up black curtains called blackouts over their windows incase
they were going to be bombed. If
they were at home and any danger
came their way the entire family
would have to run to the basement
to keep safe, if the children were
at school there were large
underground areas where the
children were kept safe incase of
emergencies such as bombs and
air raids.
Somehow the children didn't seem
to mind about what was happening around them because this was their
daily life and it was all they knew. They would play games like hopscotch,
pick berries and sometimes the soldiers would entertain them. They all still
had smiles on their faces (most of the time) and laughter, they also knew
how to have fun.
The best thing for
children in the
beginning of the war
was that the summer
h o l i d a y s w e re
extended but in the
middle of September
schools reopened.
A week before school
all the evacuees were
seated in a hall
where they were
asked their age and
if they could read or
write to determine
which education
level they would be
placed in.
A few extra teachers were hired due to the rising level of pupils.
The children who already lived in the country side all went to the same school
as the evacuees.
During the war the children all learnt basic first aid and how to use a gas mask,
this was all in case of an emergency.
Both girls and boys learnt the same thing in school.
Once the boys had finished school they would leave to join the army and some
girls would leave to go and help the injured soldiers in the hospitals while the
other girls would stay at home to look after the children and the evacuees or to
have watch duties around town.
During the war it was really difficult to import food so the locals started many
campaigns such as the“ Dig for Victory”
campaign and “Lending a hand on the Land”
campaign.
In these campaigns many of the children would
take part to help find and collect the different food
sources such as wild fruit, black berries, crab
apples and mushrooms. These fruits and plants
were all eaten raw, cooked or made into preserves.
Children also took part in collecting wild rosehips
which they turned into a syrup which they gave to
the children as a source of Vitamin C.
In this time they also rationed which meant that
they could only buy a fixed amount of food in a
week, in this way they were being economical.
During World War 2 there was a point system where instead of using money they
used points to buy groceries. This system was introduced in December 1941.
They each received 16 points but later it was changed to 20 points, they would go
to the shops and compromise with the points they got to buy groceries.
For example a tin of soup would be
6 points and a jar of fruit would be
24 points and other luxuries would
be 10 points.