stories of stolen children_okladka.jpg)
We would like to present you this publication, whose aim is to present the history of the “stolen” children from Central and Eastern Europe. It consists of texts written by authors coming from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine. They present the policy of the Nazi authorities, the process of capturing and Germanising children and, by showing the fates of particular people, how strong a mark these events left on them. The presentation of these issues from the perspective of authors coming from these four countries is also an opportunity to see how the contemporary memory of these events has been shaped in different ways.
As Dr Tomasz Skonieczny, editor of the publication, stressed in his introduction: “For many years, the story of the stolen and uprooted children was pushed to the margins of our knowledge and interest in World War II. Over the last decade, the fate of these children has, fortunately, been brought to light in Germany and Poland, thanks in part to the involvement of journalists from both countries, who discovered that many of the stolen children were still alive and ready to share their stories. It was also revealed that there is virtually no public awareness of this issue. (…)
We hope that these texts will become a pretext to (re)address this topic, as well as to reflect on other cases of violation of human rights by the authorities of totalitarian states and undemocratic regimes. The policy of taking children away was neither an invention of the Nazis, nor did this criminal practice end in the 20th century - it is still being carried out even today, for example by Putin's Russia, which, just as the Nazis did in the past, steals Ukrainian children and gives them to Russian families to raise.”
Uprooted. (Hi)stories of stolen children.pdf
This publication was created as part of the international educational project Uprooted - (Hi)Stories of Stolen Children during World War II, implemented in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine, thanks to the support of the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF).
