After the Second World War, Europe was in shambles. Now that the War was over, the question was how to rebuild it? Throughout the rebuilding process that followed, many men, women, and children found themselves in foreign lands. These people, not having anywhere to call home anymore, were bounced around from place to place and country to country. These “Displaced Persons” were like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle that never seemed to fit, so they were just tossed to the side.
The Germans were the enemies in WWII and, because of that, they and the generations of Germans that came after the War had to pay for the crimes of their elders. As we see in the Zahra article, women who had been with German men during the War in particular were targeted. Women were brought out into the streets and had their heads shaven and humiliated (Zahra, 334). However, they were not the ones who were to suffer the most. During and after the War there were many children who had been born to German mother and fathers from other countries such as France and the Soviet Union. Because the Allied countries had lost so many soldiers in the war, they began a program in which these children would become citizens of their fathers native countries. They would be taken away and given a better life then their German mothers could give them in their father’s country (Zahra, 339). It was these children who were moved around like pieces on a chess board and torn away from their mothers that suffered the most. Apart from the children, other Displaced Persons were sent to labor camps and endured other hardships as well (In Wars Wake, 24). These individuals and their trials are often forgotten in history; however, their stories help to shed light on what individuals went through after the war. We cannot overlook the puzzle pieces that have been tossed to the side, because without them, the picture of postwar Europe will never be complete.
I really like your usage of “Jigsaw puzzle” and “chess pieces.” That is how these people were moved around and probably how they felt also. Like misfits. The shaving of their heads added to the humiliation of being displaced from your home. What did they think would happen when you are moved and spend a portion of your life in a foreign country? However, that was then and this is now. In a time where we saw women take more progressive roles in an American society while the men were away, we still see here that there were leaps and bounds across seas to get women and children their deserved humanistic rights.
I agree with your statement saying that the children suffered the most, just because they were fully innocent, may not have even been born when the war began. But to play devil’s advocate in this scenario– super young children just need a caring mother, regardless of where they are from. Were German mothers really that terrible or was it just the politics of the time? Either way, so many suffered and the general public does not know about the extent of it all. Educating starts from historians like us. Even if the story is saddening, it is important to let everyone know what really happened.