Goodnight Children, Everywhere
Voices of Evacuees
The History Press Ltd; August 1, 2009
ISBN-10: 0752452827
ISBN-13: 978-0752452821
Can you imagine a million or more children, some as young as three years of age, being rushed out of Los Angeles or New York to outlying areas in the space of two or three days? Their parents, who have been asked not to see them off at railways stations, have no idea where the children are going or, indeed, if they will ever see them again.
That was exactly the situation in London and other major British cities as war with Germany was about to be declared. September 2009, marks the 70th anniversary of “the evacuation” at the beginning of World War Two in Britain. I was one of those evacuees.
Goodnight Children, Everywhere, is a book full of stories. Many of the children were placed with good people who treated them well but not all were as fortunate. Well-to-do hosts often relegated their evacuees to the “downstairs” to live with the servants. Others picked older, strong children to work as unpaid maids or farmhands. Some children were malnourished and otherwise ill treated. Some were moved from billet to billet, rejected by household after household.
The “evacuation” is still a vivid memory for those involved. For some, it profoundly affected the rest of their lives.