Out of Harm's Way: The Wartime Evacuation of Children from Britain

The author, Jessica Mann, was herself an evacuee as a young child. Her parents, as immigrant German Jews, were themselves refugees from the death camps of Germany. When England suffered military disaster after military disaster, invasion seemed imminent. Jessica's parents were almost resigned to their own eventual murder by the Nazis, but hoped to spare their children the fate of many of their uncles, aunts, and cousins who did not manage to get out of Germany in time. There was an extensive internal evacuation program within the United Kingdom during the war. Many children and some of their parents were relocated to rural areas where the risk of air raids was much less than the major cities. This aspect of the war and some of the effects on postwar British policy are mentioned in this book. There was a tendency for the upper class to tap their social and family connections to their peers in the British Dominions and in the United States to arrange for the evacuation of their children. This caused such an outbreak of discontent among the lower classes that arrangements were made for the evacuation of some of their children as well. The evacuation mostly ground to a halt after the loss of many evacuee children when their ship was torpedoed. This book covers some example experiences from children evacuated to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. Details of various evacuee experiences from departure from home to their evental return to their families is detailed. The political, diplomatic, and social environment in which the evacuees lived is covered in some detail. Some limited discussion about the long-term effects on the children is includes as well. This book was obviously thoroughly researched and professionally written, as evidenced by the extensive bibliography provided. My only complaint is that the book was written to a required length and many fascinating accounts were omitted to that end. Perhaps the author can remedy this situation with an expanded revision of the book.

Evening Standard, 14 March 2005 A fascinating book...a splendid piece of social history...Mann's witness deserves a distinguished place in 20th-century history Literary Review, March 5, 2005 'this splendid account of...children in the Second World War provides us with a unique and valuable historical document' Glasgow Herald 'Mann's book makes for a read that is illuminating and sobering, riveting and sad.' The Telegraph 'Neither the evacuees nor the reader could ask for a better chronicler than Mann.'