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Sketch War io instal the new1/21/2024 In the midst of these generally miserable conditions, however, there was a certain political dynamism and optimism, particularly among left-wing psychologists and intellectuals whose position in the former regime had been insecure (due to antisemitism, for instance), but who now saw the postwar political constellation coalescing before their eyes as something altogether more promising. Footnote 6 For thousands of children, hiding in shelters, bombing, devastation and death had been among their first experiences of life. Footnote 5 Social welfare institutions were hit hard by the war, and these already chaotic conditions were aggravated by the additional lack of schools, kindergartens and orphanages. Footnote 4 Masses of half-orphaned, orphaned and homeless children were living in general poverty and destitution. Footnote 3 Hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jewish citizens had died in Auschwitz, and the revisionist politics of the interwar period had reached a dead end. The “last ally” of Hitler was now a defeated country, occupied by the Red Army and governed by the Soviet-led Allied Control Commission. Moreover, I make a tentative distinction between children as victims and children as sufferers in order to suggest (i) that not all war-related suffering found its manifestation in postwar public constructions of victimhood and (ii) that there was in fact a wide range of war-related experiences among children.Īfter World War II, Hungary was economically and socially in ruins. My particular focus is the agency of people who did the actual practical work with children, such as psychologists, teachers and civil society activists, but I also refer to political and ideological constructions of childhood. I also examine how the processes of healing were understood, and what kind of social and political meanings were attributed to the children’s traumas. By analyzing a variety of source materials, such as published expert discourse, journalism and ego documents, I explore how children’s suffering was interpreted in different contexts. This chapter examines how children’s wartime suffering was culturally constructed in the particular time-bound context of victimhood and trauma in postwar Hungary. As a consequence, new psychological theories of healthy and harmonious childhoods and family life occupied the policymakers in postwar welfare states. After the traumatic experiences of war, the children were seen both as vulnerable and in need of protection, but also as potentially dangerous and in need of control due to the “war inside” that they now suffered from. To counteract the psychological legacy of wartime violence, children (and their families) came to occupy a privileged position in many postwar societies. Footnote 1 These lost childhoods were not only a painful reminder of the experiences of wartime violence and upheaval, but were also brandished as symbols in discussions about the reconstruction of Europe. Across these devastated European landscapes, psychologists, social workers and journalists encountered children who were at once physically fragile yet disturbingly unchildlike at the same time-“little old men and women,” trying to learn how to play and go to school again after their life-changing adventures. Having been separated from their homes and families to escape the horrors of war, ethnic cleansing and genocide, they caught the attention of many around the world and concerns were raised about their mental health, and how they would readjust to postwar realities. The aftermath of World War II in Europe saw huge numbers of orphaned and dislocated children. The chapter suggests a multiplicity of responses to childhood trauma, from abstract and future-oriented policy-talk to teachers and psychologists promoting specific ways of healing such as offering children moments of joy, taking them on nature trips and exploring poetry. The particular focus is on the agency of people who did actual practical work with children, such as psychologists, teachers and civil society activists. Laine-Frigren uses a wide variety of source materials, such as published expert discourse, journalism and ego documents to explore how children’s suffering was interpreted and worked upon in different contexts, how the processes of healing were understood, and what kind of political meanings were attributed to children’s traumas. This chapter examines how children’s wartime suffering was culturally constructed in postwar Hungary.
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