Wolf children Wolf children ( ) was the name given to a group of orphaned German children at the end of World War II in East Prussia . When the Red Army conquered East Prussia in 1945 , thousands of German children were left on their own , because their parents had been killed during bombing raids or during harsh winters without any food or shelter . Older children often tried to keep their siblings together , and survival — searching for food and shelter — became their number - one priority . Many went on food - scrounging trips into neighboring Lithuania and were adopted by the rural Lithuanian farmers , who often employed them . Most of these children made these trips back and forth many times to get food for their sick mothers or siblings . They were called “ wolf children ” because of their wolf - like wandering through the forests and along railroad tracks , sometimes catching rides on top or in between railroad cars , jumping off before reaching Soviet control stations . All who assisted the German children to survive had to hide their efforts from the Soviet occupation authorities in Lithuania . Therefore , many German children ' s names were changed , and only after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 could they reveal their true identities . Evacuation impossible . Between the end of 1944 and January 1945 civilians were forbidden by the Nazis to evacuate . The Nazis viewed evacuation as a sign of capitulation . As the Red Army got closer , many prepared to evacuate anyway . Until the last minute , NS Governor Erich Koch gave orders that fleeing was illegal and punishable ( " strenges Fluchtverbot " - flight strictly forbidden ) . At the last moment flight was allowed . The invasion prompted thousands of men , women , and children to flee ; however , many adults were killed , leaving many orphaned children . The children fled into the surrounding forest and were forced to fend for themselves . Many German children who were not fortunate enough to escape were killed by Allied bombs . Thousands more found themselves abandoned , orphaned , raped or kidnapped . At the end of World War II the Soviet Army told the German population , " " Wojna kaput - damoi " " ( " the war is over , go home " ) . They needed people to work for them and to raise food to feed their troops in the occupied territories . However , most homes had been destroyed by British and Soviet bombardment and the Soviet ground assault on East Prussia . Fate of war orphans in Königsberg and surrounding . Surviving by roaming around and begging . After Soviet occupation and when parents and grandparents had died from hunger and diseases , these orphan children had to care for themselves . Not to die from starvation meant they were condemned to live " begging , drudging , stealing " . Lithuanian Aid . Lithuanian farmers , who sold their products in the townships of East Prussia In 1946 , looked for children and young people , to support them in their daily work . Thus many children streamed regularly to the Baltic region to get food in exchange for products or their labor . Others were condemned to roam around begging . The Lithuanians helped the children of East Prussia commuting to Lithuania to find nourishment and called them " vokietukai " ( little Germans ) . They adopted some of the younger ones , even though Lithuanians risked severe treatment by the Soviet authorities should it be detected that they sheltered Wolfskinder . Some of the children remained in the Lithuanian farms permanently . Exact statistics are not available . But according to rough estimates , 5 , 000 German children and young people stayed in Lithuania in 1948 . " " Most of them became orphans by war and flight in the stage of child or baby . They had to care for themselves and find out how to survive . Many reached Lithuania , where they worked at farms to gain their living . Most had no chance for school education . A larger part never got lessons to write or read . In many cases , the children got new Lithuanian pre - and family names and became Lithuanians . There was no choice , as it was forbidden for them to opt as Germans . " " Committal to special homes for children . Later on , those who could be identified as German orphans in former East Prussia were sent to stay in Russian homes for children . Adoption by Russian families . Orphans from former East Prussia were also adopted by Russian families . Documents about these adoptions are not open to public . Expulsion to Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany ( later GDR ) . In 1946 , the Soviets began emptying Samland of Germans . In October 1947 , the Soviets decided to resettle 30 , 000 Germans from Kaliningrad Oblast by trains to the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany ( later GDR ) . On 15 February 1948 , the Ministerial Council of the USSR decided to resettle all Germans , declaring them illegal residents in their own homeland . According to Soviet sources , 102 , 125 persons were resettled in 1947 and 1948 . Of those , only 99 , 481 arrived . ( Communist GDR sources attribute this to " perhaps a Soviet calculation error . " ) In May 1951 , another 3 , 000 East Prussian " Umsiedler " came to the GDR . The Soviets eventually put German orphans in orphanages administered by Soviet military officers but staffed mostly with some of the remaining Germans . In Fall 1947 , 4 , 700 German orphans were officially registered in Kaliningrad . In 1947 The Soviet Union sent trainloads of orphans to the communist GDR ; these train rides took four to seven days , partly without food or toilet facilities and some children did not survive . In 1948 , the children ' s village of Pinnow , then Kinderdorf Kyritz , was opened . Orphans who managed to live with Lithunian farmers remained there mostly undetected . At that time some of the young orphans had no knowledge of their identity , information in search files was vague , the occupational development difficult . Flight from GDR to the West . Later on some orphans managed to flee from the GDR to West Germany where they had better living conditions . Stories of survivors . None of these events were reported in the press , and they only became known to the public after 1990 , because the official Communist Party line in Russia and Poland was that there were no Germans in these areas . This had been their official position as early as the Potsdam Agreement in August 1945 . Historian Ruth Leiserowitz , who lived in Lithuania , researched and published books about the " Wolfkinder of East Prussia " under her maiden name Ruth Kibelka and her married name . Some historical records given by children from East Prussia survived , about how their families were overtaken by advancing Soviet Forces as they tried to flee . They were sent back to their old homes in East Prussia , found them destroyed , were expelled from their homes and then died from starvation , cold and typhoid fever . The orphans had to find a way of surviving and became Wolf children . Another five orphans , born in the years 1930 - 1939 , told Ruth Leiserowitz how they managed to survive . In the end , these Wolf children were transferred to a children ' s home in the GDR . In an obituary notice for an East Prussian woman , born in 1939 and deceased in 2009 , it was revealed that she had lived under terrible conditions as an orphan without home and shelter in East Prussia and Lithuania . The story of one survivor can be read in “ ABANDONED AND FORGOTTEN : An Orphan Girl ' s Tale of Survival in World War II by Evelyne Tannehill , ” in which Evelyne and her family fell victim to the Russians who invaded her parents ' farm by the Baltic Sea in East Prussia . Her family was separated ; only after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was she able to return to East Prussia to revisit her childhood homeland . One outstanding story is that of Liesabeth Otto , born in 1937 , who , after her mother had died from starvation , went with her brothers and sisters to her homeplace Wehlau , where she managed to survive until 1953 by working and begging . In 1953 , because of stealing food and clothes she was sent to a detention camp for children . After an odyssey through many detention camps , later on looking for work in the USSR , she located her father and brother in West Germany in the 1970s . Wolf children today in Lithuania . Fate . Some hundred Wolf children were discovered in Lithuania after the separation from Russia . Today almost 100 still live there . From the beginning of the 1990s on , Wolf children have fought for their German citizenship . They have their own association . The Federal Office of Administration within the Federal Ministry of the Interior ( Germany ) held for a long time to the standpoint that persons who left Königsberg territory after World War II had renounced their German citizenship . From January 1 , 2008 on , compensation is granted by Lithuanian law for those persons who suffered on account of World War II and the Soviet occupation . Consequently , Wolf children get a small additional pension . In German laws , the Wolf children are not mentioned . From private sponsors they get a small quarterly stipend , organized by Wolfgang Freiherr von Stetten . Today , some Wolf children ' s aim is to learn the fate of their relatives , obtain German citizenship , reunite with the families , and leave the country for Germany , remaining faithful to German culture . Association . The association " Edelweiß - Wolfskinder " is headquartered in Vilnius . Another location is in Klaipeda . It gets support from German donors . The members can meet and exchange views and stories . The members are old and weak and rarely can speak the German language . Aid for the German minority in the Baltic states will expire about 2008 . Search for Relatives . The Communist Regime and the Iron Curtain lasted from 1945 - 1991 . Once the Iron Curtain fell , people could once again travel to research or reclaim their identities as Germans . The German Red Cross helps to identify and locate family members who lost contact with one another , such as the Wolf children , during the turmoil in East Prussia . “ It was only the politics of Gorbatschow which allowed the opening of the Russian archives . Since the 1990s , the fates of about 200 , 000 additional missing persons have been clarified . More information about the fates of Germans who were taken prisoners and died still remain in unopened archives in Eastern and South - eastern Europe . In Memory . The President of Lithuania , Valdas Adamkus , stated that an exhibition will be opened in Bad Iburg which will be named “ The Lost History of East Prussia : Wolf Children and Their Fate ” . Five kilometers north of Tilsit on the crossroad of A 216 Tauroggen - Tilsit with A 226 from Heydekrug there is a memorial for Wolf children ( " Wolfskinder - Denkmal " ) . The goal of the memorial is to publicize the fate of all human beings who were killed or died from starvation in East Prussia in the years 1944 - 1947 , and to remember the orphan children left behind . Another memorial , the House of Wolf children , will be created with a permanent exhibition to remember Wolf children in Mikytai / Mikieten at the crossroad Sovetsk / Tilsit . This memorial will be organized by historians of the Verein Wolfkinder . Geschichtsverein e . V . in Berlin . " " The aid by Lithuanian people for the hungry East Prussians was invaluable . Every historical record brings new facts and insights . Mentioning this time and these circumstances will always cause thankful thoughts for the Lithuanian people of that time . " " Former German president Christian Wulff was visited on May 10 , 2011 by a group of so - called Wolf children from Lithuania . The leader of the parliamentary group within CDU / CSU for expelled , relocated and German minorities , Klaus Brähmig , believes that research on Wolf children should be intensified : " " The president gives an important sign of solidarity by meeting Wolf children , whose fate is not well known in Germany . It is encouraging that politics and the media report more and more on these orphans , of whom many up to now are not aware of their German descent . The union goes on requiring , that scientific research ought to be intensified and matters of Wolf children dealt within the Bundesvertriebenenstiftung " . "