Wartime is a source of distress for everyone caught in the maelstrom of occupation, military operations, war economy or any other circumstance brought about by armed conflicts. Children are the most vulnerable segment of society, with a wartime situation affecting them in their most delicate formative years. Once the conflict itself is over and life starts to return to normal, the experience of war remains in children as a permanent part of their lives.

Studying the history of wartime childhood can produce several different insights. Some children needed to hide as they were under a direct physical threat, others found themselves either with their parents in prison or on their own in concentration camps. Many did not survive.

Those who did survive were later accompanied by the war, sometimes for a lifetime. Some children did not have any civil rights, others needed psychosocial help which they did not receive. This was also due to the fact that children who lived far from actual combat and were seemingly unaffected were not recognised as victims of the war.

Both the wartime shortages and the transformation of needs during a time when the priority of both individuals and societies was to survive had an influence on children’s everyday life, i.e. on their relations with their peers and adults, on their play, schooling, education and the material bases for growing up. One segment of European childhood history is accounted for by wartime and post-war life in totalitarian environments in which children were given a position different to that provided to them in democratic societies.

The conference aims to identify various interdisciplinary experiences involved in the study of the circumstances which WW2 children experienced and still experience today. Up to 15 speakers (presentations up to 30 minutes)  will be selected who will present their research focussing on the following themes:

-  Childhood during WW2

-  Hiding the children of members of resistance movements and persecuted groups of the population

-  State organisations dedicated to caring for children in the occupied parts of Europe

-  Children as internees in prisons and camps

-  Children as refugees

-  Children returning home after the end of the war

-  Post-war reuniting of families separated during the war and making them operational again

-  Post-war authorities’ attitudes to different groups of children – victims of the war –  after WW2 in Europe

-  Children of occupation soldiers and women native to the occupied territories during and after the war

-  WW2 children handing down their memories to later generations – memories and values

-  Children –victims of war– in the post-war ideological environment of Eastern and Southeast Europe

-  Children of World War Two in museum projects and exhibitions

Conference Venue: City Museum of Ljubljana, Gosposka 15, SI - 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Please submit a summary in English not exceeding 300 words and a short CV to hiddenchildren@mgml.si . Participants will be informed about the inclusion of their contributions in the conference programme no later than 24 November 2014.

The publication of some contributions is planned.

The travel and accommodation costs in Ljubljana of participants delivering speeches will be reimbursed partially or in full.

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Contact:

Blaž Vurnik, PhD

MGML City Museum of Ljubljana

Gosposka 15

1000 Ljubljana

+386 1 2412516

hiddenchildren@mgml.si