The “Other” Child Transports: World War I and the Temporary Displacement of Needy Children from Central Europe English Français Much has been written and told about the child transports, the well-known Kindertransporte, related to the Nazi period and World War II. Yet, astonishingly little is known about the child transports related to Europe’s First World War. This article is aiming to fill this research gap on the historical landscape, telling the history of child transports during and after WWI from and across Central Europe. These child transports were originally meant to provide short-term relief, but they sometimes even resulted in children’s long-term placement abroad. The organizations’ and birth families’ primary interest in the child transports was to improve children’s physical well-being, ignoring their subjectivity to a great extent. The physical appearance of a child’s body, namely its underweight, sickness, or malnutrition was conditional for the participation in the child transports of the time. Visual imagery, including drawings, photography posters and everyday objects, were essential to justify, illustrate, and document children’s suffering and their geographic displacement.

Paying special attention to the visual dimension of this particular relief activity, this article will uncover the transformation of early twentieth century child transports from the late Austro-Hungarian Empire to Europe’s humanitarian-internationalist post-WWI era. On a beaucoup écrit sur les transports d’enfants, les fameux « Kindertransport » associés à la période nazie et à la seconde guerre mondiale. Pourtant, on sait peu de choses des déplacements d’enfants durant la première guerre mondiale. Cet article entend combler ce vide historiographique, en faisant l’histoire de ces migrations juvéniles pendant et après la guerre, en Europe centrale. Ce type de migration était originellement prévu pour offrir une aide temporaire, mais il a parfois résulté dans le placement de longue durée à l’étranger. L’objectif premier des associations et des familles était d’améliorer le bien-être physique des enfants, en ignorant largement leur ressenti. L’apparence physique d’un corps d’enfant, la maladie ou la malnutrition était une condition pour être admis au départ.

L’iconographie, incluant les dessins, les affiches photographiques et les objets du quotidien, étaient essentiels pour justifier, illustrer et documenter la souffrance enfantine et leur exode. En prêtant une attention particulière aux sources graphiques de cette activité caritative, cet article entend dévoiler le passage des pratiques austro-hongroises de déplacement d’enfants du début du siècle à l’aide humanitaire internationale des lendemains de guerre. Agrandir Original (jpeg, 921k) 1While during both world wars, fathers often returned as invalids and mothers became breadwinners for their families, children suffered most intensely from the silent side- and after-effects of the wars, mainly from neglect, contagious diseases, and starvation. During and after the First World War, their disproportionate suffering no longer fell into complete oblivion. Instead, it yielded new philanthropic visions and policies of child relief that hoped to counter children’s extensive pauperization and perishing that had resulted from the war.

This article examines the impact of WWI and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on children in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and its successor states. It focuses particularly on the practice of children’s temporary displacement as one of the most documented relief activities during the last years of the war and the early post-war period. While during the war, children’s displacement was thought of as an extended summer vacation, the post-war child transports operated—geographically and in time—on a different scale. Taking both movements into account, this article aims at tracing the transformation from the late imperial to the transnational humanitarian child transports, paying special attention to the role of visual imagery to justify, illustrate, and document the children’s geographic displacement. 1 Luddy Maria, “Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century Ireland”, in Voluntas 7, 1996, (...) 2 Denness Zo, “Women and Warfare at the Start of the Twentieth Century: the Racialization of t (...) 3 Mahood Linda, Feminism and Voluntary Action: Eglantyne Jebb and Save the Children, Bas (...) 4 Zimmermann Susan, Prächtige Armut.

Fürsorge, Kinderschutz und Sozialreform in Budapest. Das (...) 2However, in the case of Hungary neither children’s poverty nor their relief was anything new. Just the intensity of both gained a new dimension in the final years of WWI and its disruptive aftermath. Already in the 19th century religious as well as charity organizations throughout Europe had been implementing philanthropic practices of child relief to counter the increased child poverty and mortality that had gone hand in hand with processes of modernization and industrialization. 1 The call for a better awareness of children’s concerns comprised their protection from physical and mental abuse, from neglect, their right to health protection and their exemption from labor. Many private and religious charities also aimed to better meet children’s care needs, helping to place orphaned or abandoned children in institutional care. Individual social workers or philanthropists like the English philanthropist Emily Hobhouse, who exposed the disastrous conditions of children in concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) 2 , or Dr. Barnardo, who created homes for poor children in Britain, promoted the concerns of children.

While 19th century child protection mainly targeted the children of the poor out of religious motivations, the turn of the century saw a shift towards the governmental intervention in the field of child protection and welfare. 3 In the case of Hungary, which is at the center of this article, public child protection and welfare became institutionalized in the framework of new social welfare laws in 1901/1903. Public child protection was not only financed but also organized through the state, with the aim of systematically decreasing child mortality. 4 The Hungarian National Child Protection League (Országos Gyermekvédő Liga), founded in 1906, served as a private charity to supplement the public child protection. In 1915 the Stefánia Association (Országos Stefánia Szövetség) was founded, providing emergency infant and mother care to take up the fight against the country’s high infant mortality. 5 Jones Heather, “International or transnational? Humanitarian Action during the First W (...) 6 Mahood Linda, op.

cit.; Baughan Emily, “The Imperial War Relief Fund and the All British App (...) 7 Audoin-Rouzeau Stéphane, Becker Annette and Smith Leonard, France and the Great War, 1914-19 (...) 8 Zahra Tara, The Lost Children: Reconstructing Europe’s Families after World War II, Ca (...) 9 Irwin Julia F, “Sauvons les bébés : Child Health and U.S. Humanitarian Aid in the First Worl (...) 3While the first decade of the 20th century saw a professionalization and institutionalization of child welfare on the Hungarian territory, the Great War affected both children’s lives as well as the situation of the child saving movement in manifold ways. The war as an international humanitarian crisis caused an unknown extent of civilian suffering, calling for broad wartime and postwar humanitarian relief on an international basis. 5 The response was the establishment of a series of international humanitarian relief organizations. The philanthropist Eglantyne Jebb and her sister Dorothy Buxton founded in 1919 one of the most important non-governmental child protection organizations, the well-known British Save the Children Fund (SCF).

By means of this philanthropic organization, they aimed to alleviate the suffering of children from wars and other disasters. 6 What was intrinsically perverse about the system of humanitarian relief was and still is the fact that relief itself is living off war and disasters. Organizations such as the Red Cross “actually needed the war which had become its raison d’être.” Focusing on the large parts of the involved but unarmed civilian populations, which had suffered from war atrocities, international humanitarian organizations kept “advocating neutrality and peace while war […] was raging” and whilst the “mentality of war” occupied the minds of its people. 7 As the First World War targeted the civilian population and affected children’s lives to an unknown extent, it equally “inspired the first international effort to ‘reclaim’ and rehabilitate children uprooted by wartime displacement […] or ethnic cleansing 8 ,” poverty and neglect. The massive presence of starving, orphaned or sick children in the public lives of the major cities of Hungary called for their immediate relief.

9 While during the war imperial and national child welfare was still active, during the initial post-war years, national child relief organizations such as the Stefánia Association and the Hungarian National Child Protection League had to rely heavily on international support to provide the urgently needed child relief. 10 Zahra Tara, op. cit., p. 28. 11 Marrus Michael and Zolberg Aristide R., The Unwanted: European Refugees from the First World (...) 12 Inglot Tomasz, Welfare States in East Central Europe. 1919-2004, New York, Cambridge U (...) 13 Kellogg Vernon, “In Budapest and Vienna”, The New York Times, 1920/03/28. 14 Schulte Dagmar, “Conclusions, reflections and outlooks. Case studies and their contribution (...) 4The First World War marked not only “the birth of the modern refugee 10 ,” but also a new stage of children’s displacement and their resulting extensive suffering.

As in the case of Hungary, the end of the war also represented, on October 31, 1918, the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a geographic territory. Post-war Hungarian society was confronted with large territorial and populational changes. The making of the modern nation-states and the ideal of national self-determination “implied not only the naming of certain people as enemies of the nation,” but it equally demanded the expulsion of ethnic minorities from the new-style nation states. 11 As a result, a mass migration of about 350.000 refugees 12 from the former Hungarian territories took place, which produced a large number of “lost”, meaning unsupervised, orphaned or neglected children. The Hungarian child mortality rate of about 20 percent was amongst the highest in Europe. 13 Throughout Central and Eastern Europe, the immediate post-war period represented an extremely difficult situation, “with exorbitant infant mortality and [...] masses of unsupervised children. 14 ” The naval blockade of the Allied powers played much into this, as the import of foodstuffs was entirely cut off from the Central Powers since 1914.

15 Audouin-Rouzeau, Becker, Smith, op. cit., p. 233. 16 Audouin-Rouzeau, Stéphane, L'enfant de l'ennemi 1914-1918: Viol, avortement, infantici (...) 17 Rivière Antoine “‘Special Decisions’ Children Born as the Result of German Rape and Handed O (...) 5In a reaction to the intensifying child poverty in the countries of the Central Powers, a number of international political and humanitarian organizations turned the destiny of children, as the unwanted victims of war, into a public topic. Among them were the Save the Children Fund (SCF), the American Red Cross (ARC), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and Hoover’s American Relief Administration (ARA). All of these initiatives played a central role in providing material aid to the impoverished Central European countries. But how could any envisioned relief—after so many years of fierce battle and ongoing mutual atrocities—encompass the enemy population or the enemy’s children? How could humanitarian child relief for children whose parents had been fighting in the war on the wrong side become again possible?

Or what about children who had been the product of violent atrocities such as rape in periods of military occupation? As “punishment and delegitimization of the enemy’s war” stood in the foreground of the war- and postwar rhetoric, the war’s “defenseless victims were quickly forgotten,” which initially turned any relief of enemy children unimaginable. 15 For instance in the case of France during WWI many women, who had been raped by the German occupying forces, right away decided to abort the children of the ‘barbares.’ The “German blood” was believed to prevent the enemy children from ever being able to appropriately assimilate to the French nation, which therefore entirely “justified and even legitimized abortion or infanticide” as appropriate solutions. 16 The violent intrusion into the body through enemy aggression turned the “innocent” offspring into undesirable and unwanted beings, that weren’t considered worth living. 17 WWI left Europe deeply divided between the Allied and the Central Powers not just among its soldiers and armies, but also among its civil populations, that hoped for revenge for their individual suffering.

18 Mahood Linda, “The Save the Children Fund and the Russian Famine of 1921-23: Claims and Coun (...) 19 Vittachi Varindra Tarzie, Between the Guns: Children as a zone of peace, London, Hodder and (...) 20 Irwin Julia F., op. cit., p. 38. 6As the militarization of the civil population had also included children as a valuable target group, it also spoiled children’s apparently complete innocence. For this reason, either “children of the enemy” outside the Allied Powers’ own national borders were supposed to be fed or relieved. Therefore, the British and American public initially rejected the idea of politicians like Herbert Hoover (ARA) or philanthropists like Eglantyne Jebb (SCF) of providing aid to children of former enemy states. Feeding for instance Russian children, who were starving during and after the Russian Famine of 1921, was believed to further fuel Bolshevism. 18 Still, persisting individuals like Hoover and Jebb managed to advocate children and childhood as a “zone of peace 19 ,” in which only the humanitarian cause counted and opposition perished.

The fact that children did represent a “large part of the noncombattants 20 ” convinced the hesitant publics to overcome their prejudices and doubts. Furthering this concept of children and childhood, they ignored the friend-enemy scheme, which had been nourished by the violent conflict, and provided the needed relief even to the enemy’s children. For this reason, humanitarian idea of child relief did not stop before the enemy’s children, but instead worked on relieving the suffering of children on both sides of the violent conflict. In the case of Hungary, international humanitarian aid flooded the country from 1919 onwards, but before then national and imperial relief could not rely on outside help. 21 Koven Seth, “Dr.

Bernardos Artistic Fictions: Photography, Sexuality, and the Ragged Child”, (...) 22 Burman Erica, “Innocents Abroad: Western Fantasies of Childhood and the Iconography of Emerg (...) 23 Halttunen Karen, “Humanitarianism and the pornography of pain in Anglo-American culture”, in (...) 24 Mahood Linda, “The Save the Children Fund and the Russian Famine of 1921-23: Claims and (...) 25 Sontag Susan, “Looking at war”, in The New Yorker, 2002/12/09, p. 86. 7The newly emerging public and international awareness of the suffering of the war victims resulted in an increased visual representation of children’s suffering in public discourse. In this sense, World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire not only triggered displacement, starvation, illnesses, neglect, and housing problems. The war and its dire consequences equally resulted in an increased publicity for children’s health and physical concerns. Contemporary media outlets played an important role in the philanthropic effort to draw attention to children’s needs.

Already early philanthropists like Hobhouse or Barnardo used photography of children (not always only in a truthful way) to create publicity and mobilize empathy for children’s poverty or suffering. 21 In the immediate post-WWI period the image of the starving child figures in major visual and printed media of the time as one of the most frequently used images. In her much acclaimed work Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag introduces the immense human fascination with the iconography of suffering. She wonders why images of severely harmed human bodies, mutilated, slaughtered, tortured, or killed, have become an essential component of the representation of war and war atrocities. This “disaster imagery 22 ,” embracing the relations between catastrophe and visual media, plays heavily on feelings of empathy, compassion, and pity with the aim to trigger immediate activism. The imagery of pitiful suffering was born from the belief in the power of “spectatorial sympathy” and the strange “fascination with pain” to appeal to the sensitivity and empathy of the spectator. 23 This new humanitarian visual and verbal rhetoric countered the politically propagated claim of the undeserving enemy or villain, who was morally not worthy any sympathy or support.

24 Yet, the imagery of war could equally be used to provide an opportunity “for regarding—at a distance, through the medium of photography—other people’s pain”, including casualties, mine injuries, or the visibly physical suffering that results from poverty, starvation, and hunger. 25 To regard the pain of children from afar affected only in very subtle the way of its distant viewer. 26 Ashby Wilson Richard and Brown, Richard D. eds., Humanitarianism and Suffering: The Mobilization o (...) 8The visual world of disasters, emergencies, and wars, however, does not only depict human suffering, but it also equally embraces the pictorial representation of emergency relief and humanitarianism. The mobilization of pity, compassion and empathy was central in raising awareness for children’s suffering, which was expected to lead to financial support for relief measures.

26 Hugo Slim identified the ambivalence involved in humanitarian relief in periods of war and other human disasters: 27 Slim Hugo, “Relief agencies and moral standing in war: Principles of humanity, neutral (...) “If humanitarian values are given too much consideration in situations of war or political violence, political and military leaders fear that they might undermine their followers’ will to fight, or provide succour to their enemy. Nevertheless, it is part of the paradox of human nature that humanitarian values can be present in war. 27 ” 28 Vernon James, Hunger. A Modern History, Cambridge, MA, London, UK, Harvard University Press (...) 29 Audoin-Rouzeau, Becker, Smith, op. cit., p. 227. 30 Healey Maureen, “Mobilizing Austria’s Children for the War”, in Healey, Vienna and the Fall (...) 9Since the late nineteenth century, and in particular following World War I, war and relief have gone hand in hand, employing similar and often identical images of suffering.

As James Vernon has argued, throughout modern history the hungry only had become figures of humanitarian concern “when novel forms of news reporting connected people emotionally with the suffering of the hungry.” In the early 20th century physical signs of starvation no longer represented social stigmata, and the hungry were no longer perceived as “lazy, morally inadequate human beings. 28 ” The visual depiction of the needy and the suffering gained momentum when the traumatic impact of World War I severely affected the physical integrity of the societies and populations involved. The extreme violence of Europe’s First World War resulted in a new perspective on the mutilated, starved, and suffering human body. As World War I represented (WWI) as the first total war and had mobilized a “culture of violence”, it left its populations “unable to see how deeply and irreversibly affected they were by its brutalization. 29 ” The imagery of suffering became radicalized insofar as it was driven by hatred for the enemy. As an easy means of political and national self-victimization in the postwar period, children were considered ideal to serve as the iconographic bearers of suffering, and their physical vulnerability was given immense attention.

As “[t]he child was the quintessential represented political subject, spoken for but not speaking 30 ,” children’s imagery served political as well as humanitarian aims. From its very beginning humanitarian organizations used child images to create and to publicize its humanitarian identity. Child imagery was always useful in connoting humanitarian organizations with widely appreciated ideas of childhood. In the period after WWI the increasing visual representation of children allowed to appeal for the relief of children’s suffering across Europe. Images of children’s suffering conveyed a moral force upon the spectator, engaging him/her with the victims of the war and engaging financially in their urgent relief. 31 Hubinette Tobias, “From Orphan Trains to Babylifts: Colonial Trafficking, Empire Build (...) 32 O'Gallagher Marianna, “Children of the Famine”, Beaver, 88, 2008, p.

50-56; McCaughlin (...) 33 Ressler Everett M., Boothby, Neil and Steinbock Daniel J., Unaccompanied Children: Care and (...) 34 Smirnova Tatiana M., “The Outcomes for Soviet Children Evacuated to Czechoslovakia in the Ea (...) 35 Danforth, Loring M., Van Boeschoten Riki, Children of the Greek Civil War. Refugees an (...) 10In the history of child relief one such relief activity and possibly the most drastic relief campaign was the short- and medium-term relocation or displacement of impoverished children, which was much documented by the contemporary media. One of the best-known forms of this child saving practice started as a social experiment in the mid-19th century USA. By means of the Orphan Train Movement, the US-Children’s Aid Society sent between 150.000 to 200.000 abandoned, orphaned or homeless children from large cities to foster parents in smaller cities and villages to to regain control over the massive immigration to North America.

31 In reaction to the Irish Potato Famine in 1845-1852 children were also sent abroad and even adopted by families in Canada and Australia. 32 In the framework of the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923), the Ottoman Empire forcefully abducted those Armenian children to Russia and Greece, which had not been killed right away. 33 In reaction to the Russian Famine of 1921, 2000 Soviet children from famine-stricken provinces were sent abroad. Although many offers had come from various Western ‘bourgeois’ countries, Soviet Russia only accepted the offer to send her starving children to Czechoslovakia. 34 As a means of protection also during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) orphaned and abandoned children were taken to the Soviet Union, Mexico, France and England. 35 Throughout the Nazi-period Jewish children were evacuated to Britain. Throughout WWII, in Europe, children were evacuated from urban areas, among which the Kinderlandverschickungen in Germany and the British evacuation plans are well known. During the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) children were transported to Central and Eastern Europe.

36 See on this chapter 9: “‘A Perfect Jungle of Intrigues, Suspicion and Hyprocrisies’: The Ear (...) 37 “History the Early Years“ of Save the Children. [ (...) 38 Rappaport Helen, “Eglantyne Jebb“, in Encyclopedia of Women Reformers, vol. I, Santa B (...) 39 Tábori Kornél, Egy halálraitélt ország borzalmaiból [From the Horrors of the War], Bud (...) 11During and after WWI, These transports were perceived as a necessary means to guarantee the bodily well-being of the impoverished and starving children. The history of the child transports or other relief measures during and after the First World War cannot be written without taking into account its visual propaganda. Photographic footage, drawings, posters, paintings, postcards, and other visual material accompany almost all contemporary written sources of child relief. They document the children’s suffering before the relief activities, the implementation of the activities, and the children’s transformation by means of the relief.

Eglantyne Jebb, the founder of SCF, even argued that it was photographic imagery that had initiated her own activism, and that it had greatly helped to create publicity for the cause of the children. 36 Already during the early Balkan wars (1912-1913) Eglantyne traveled to the conflict zone to deliver money to the Macedonian Relief Fund. 37 Witnessing there the suffering of Muslim Albanian refugee children, Jebb’ returned to Britain with the plan to raise funds for the relief of the refugee children. 38 Short after, WWI started and the problem of children’s neglect, starvation and illnesses in the Eastern parts of Europe radically intensified. Jebb remembered her sister coming back from Central Europe with some of the first images of suffering children, which led her to start publicizing their misery on the streets of London, simply by sharing the photographs. Initially Jebb’s and Buxton’s activities for the support of the enemy’s children generated opposition and was even met with stirring hostility by parts of the British society. A report about children’s life in Budapest from 1920 links photography with its claim to impart ‘the’ truth.

On an inspection tour through Budapest’s poor neighborhoods, the members of the Entente Missions to Budapest have “inspected the dwellings of poverty shown in the preceding photographs and have convinced themselves of the truthfulness of the particulars stated.” Based on this experience, they felt committed to “limit […] [them]selves to reporting facts of the truthfulness, which may be verified by means of names and addresses or other adequate evidence. 39 ” Documenting the ‘real existing’ misery verbally and visually played a vital role for the reinvention of child relief during WWI and its aftermath. 40 Translation from German by the author. Letter by the Niederösterreichische Landesberufungsvor (...) 41 Vincent C. Paul, The Politics of Hunger: Allied Blockade of Germany, 1915-1919, Ohio, Ohio U (...) 42 Cox Mary Elisabeth, “War, Blocakdes, and Hunger: Nutritional Deprivation of German Chi (...) 43 “History“ of Save the Children, op. cit. 44 den Hertog Johan, “The commission for Relief in Belgium and the Political Diplomatic History (...) 45 Kramer Alan, Dynamic of Destruction.

Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War, Oxford (...) 46 Herwig Holger H., The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914-1918, London, (...) 47 Hegedüs Judit, “Kleinkinderpflege- und Kinderschutzbewegung während der k.u.k. Monarch (...) 48 Sontag Susan, op. cit., p. 42-43. 12Whereas in the beginning of the war, the mobilization of children at the home front was the central element of visual propaganda, during its final years the degeneration of children’s health became a central topic. Famine, severe malnutrition, epidemic, disease, and physical neglect shaped the lives of children.

On February 25, 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Social Welfare in Vienna reported about the planned “Accommodation of Austrian Children in Hungary” that the “industries in lower Austria, which have reached their full development throughout the war, have […] intensified the problem of food supply,” and that “mothers, whose children show all signs of severe malnutrition, constantly visit […] [their] counseling services. 40 ” The war and its industries as well as the blockade of the Central Powers from 1914 until 1919 (even beyond the armistice) restricted the supply of foodstuffs through imports. 41 This means of economic warfare was seen as responsible for children’s severe starvation and overall deprivation. 42 Eglantyne Jebb and her sister Dorothy Buxton campaigned against the Allies’ starvation policy and distributed in early 1919 leaflets “A Starving Baby and Our Blockade Has Caused This” in Trafalgar Square. 43 Already during the war Herbert Hoover started his Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) to relieve the suffering of the civil population in German-occupied Belgium, which faced a serious food crisis.

44 Although in Austria-Hungary the Hunger crisis was even more severe, its reason was not merely the hunger blockade. 45 Its own radically diminished agricultural production and its interrupted intra-imperial transport of foodstuffs led to famine. 46 International humanitarian relief was initiated only much later. The destiny of urban children in Budapest was seen as particularly severe, because the major cities had suffered more from the war than Hungary’s rural regions. The increasing industrialization and urbanization had already generated the problem of child neglect and abandonment from the late nineteenth century onwards, but children’s severe malnutrition culminated in the immediate post-war years. 47 These disaster stories and their visual representations relied either on personal stories of suffering children and their families, or on an abstract, iconic child image to generalize the suffering of the child. The imagery of suffering, used by humanitarian organizations, was often supplemented with a depiction of its immediate alleviation, uncovering a dichotomist visual language: “The practice of representing atrocious suffering as something to be deplored, and, if possible, stopped, enters the history of images with a specific subject: the sufferings endured by a civilian population at the hands of a victorious army on the rampage.

48 ” In the same way as these images were much needed to raise funds for child relief activities, textual propaganda was central in stressing the dependence between the lucky recipient and the humanitarian beneficiary. 49 Translation from German by the author. Letter by the k.k. Amt für Volksernährung to the (...) 50 Hämmerle Christa, Kindheit im Ersten Weltkrieg, Wien-Köln-Weimar, Böhlau, 1993, p. 333 13In a letter to the Ministry of Social Welfare, the first of its sort, which Kaiser Karl had founded in 1917, the Austro-Hungarian People’s Nutrition Office thanked Karl I for his initiative. Any help provided to the city and its children “represented an extraordinarily valuable support to our metropolis which has suffered more than any other of the capitals of the belligerent States. Not only these benefitting by the Committee’s humanitarian activity, but every citizen of this town will always remember these noble efforts towards alleviating human suffering.

49 ” The imperial Kaiser Karl Wohfahrtswerk, which was named after the last Austrian Emperor Karl I and located in Vienna, pushed for child relief during the last years of the war, even if it provided only temporary help. 50 On July 1, 1918, the official commissioner of the Kaiser Karl Wohlfahrtswerk clarified for which children the relief was intended: 51 Translation from German by the author. Expositur des k.ung. Regierungskommissar für da (...) “This children’s action stands under the highest patronage and is able to care for the poorest children of the population [...] [...] [T]hese poor children, among which mostly war orphans can be found, should receive weekly the same food rations as our needy children. [...] I must emphasize that we plan to only provide for the poorest children of the population. Therefore special care shall be taken with [the] selection process. 51 ” 14Urban children were the main target group, as the cities had suffered most intensely from the war and its industries.

Not only through the war, but already since the late nineteenth century, the “city” had turned into the embodiment of overpopulation, lack of food, missing hygiene and sickening industrialization. The war had intensified many of these urban problems, but children most severely suffered from the lack of food. Before a child would, however, receive child relief, it had to pass a medical examination. Their overall physical condition as well as their weight decided which children were to receive child relief in the cities and villages, and which children were to be sent to the countryside or the seashore. Children, who were not too ill, but thin enough to pass the examination for necessity, were ideally suited to participate in the campaign. “Infront of the recruiting commission” 80 Abbáziában nyaraló Magyar gyerekek. Visszatérés egy vitorlásútról. 1918. Reference 61.6 (...) “Hungarian Children coming back from a boat tour”, 1918. 80 81 Translation from Hungarian by author. Pettko-Szandtner, A Huszonötéves…, p. 306.

20Even if the images of children lying at a sunny beach in Abazija were taken during the war, they presented an entirely peaceful situation. Activities such as lying on the beach, taking sunbaths, and swimming in the sea or everyday practices of physical hygiene, including hair brushing and washing were documented. Doctors and nurses were always part of these holidays to supervise the children. These idealized summer images created a strong counter-image to these children’s often otherwise devastating war experiences. These visual sources represent a situation that calls to mind a nice and exclusive summer holiday, without any traces of the war’s impact on the children’s appearance. The visual propaganda provided ideal images of childhood that stood in sharp contrast to the children’s actual everyday life during the war. In the discourses about the child transports, it becomes apparent that children’s physical needs had become a public concern. Texts about nutrition, health provisions, hygiene, clothing, living conditions, and environmental issues accompany most of the images. Important elements of these “war holidays” were “a change of air and surrounding, […] social contacts with other children, sun and air baths, physical exercise, healthy appetite, new clothing, and a better development of bones, muscles, and blood.

81 ” 82 Translation from German by author. Leaflet of the Kaiser Karl Wohlfahrtswerk, “Kinder… (...) 83 Translation from Hungarian by the author. “Magyar gyerekek nyaraltatása”, in Pesti Hirlap, XI (...) 21Beyond these aspects of health, hygiene, and appropriate clothing, the Kaiser Karl Wolfahrtswerk interfered even more extensively with the private lives of the involved children and their families. The stay with the foster parents was not supposed to be interrupted by any contact with the birth families or other unwanted guests. An advertising leaflet for the “Kinder aufs Land”-activity indicates that “[a] visit of the children in the countryside [by the parents] must be avoided at all costs, because it means an unwanted nuisance to rural residents. [...] If unauthorized visits take place, the children will be immediately returned to their parents. 82 ” It seems that the stay in the countryside not only pursued the purpose of an improved nutrition and healthy environment; it was meant to strengthen children’s emotional independence and their social abilities.

Some newspaper sources yet indicate some serious troubles with the accommodation and feeding of the foster children after their arrival to the Adriatic seashore. An article in the Pesti Hirlap from August 4, 1918 reproaches the Austrians for their disorganization and the apparently unequal implementation of the ‘child holidays’ in Hungary and Austria: “A minor incident disturbed this advertisement holiday, through which the lousiness of the whole organization turned out: they [the Austrians] did neither think of the accommodation nor of their feeding. 83 ” The debate not only covers a fight over the questionable quality of the Austrian child relief, but it equally uncovers mutual nationalistic prejudices and stereotypes. 84 Translation from Hungarian by the author. Vadnay Tibor, “Károly Király Gyermeknyaraltat (...) 22Yet, in the public journals of the time it is reported that those children who participated returned physically strengthened. Much emphasis was placed on physical exercise and hygiene.

Tibor Vadnay, the summer action’s former commissioner of administration, remembered that the “children returned home with a body, which had significantly gained in strength and weight, been trained through the swimming, tanned through the sun bathing, and with a rosy complexion and in [a] good mood. 84 23Apart from increasing the well-being of these children, Kaiser Karl seemed to have simultaneously pursued a political aim. Correspondence of the Kaiser Karl Wohlfahrtswerk indicates that Kaiser Karl had hoped to strengthen the bonds between the increasingly disconnected crown lands as well as strengthening the severely afflicted monarchy. Visually connoting their power with children’s secured destiny, which the war had turned questionable, served to counter the fading power and support of the royal couple among the people. “The Royal Couple among Children” 124 Translation from German by the author. Gesellschaft Helvetica-Hungaria, “Vergangenheit”, (...) 125 Translation from German by the author.

Zentralstelle der schweizerischen Hilfsaktion für unga (...) 36As the child transports mostly originated either from a religious or a humanitarian background, taking a poor Hungarian child into one’s home was considered an act of solidarity and compassion. Frida Victor, a Hungarian teacher who had accompanied the transports to Holland in the early 1920s, recalls in 1928 how the Netherland’s “deep religiosity warmed up [t]he peaceful, orderly and healthy Dutch family life. 122 ” The reports are full of detailed descriptions of the host’s overall national characteristics, but the issue of religion is almost always addressed. In the case of Switzerland, Irén Marton, a Hungarian supervisor, acknowledges the everyday presence of religion in one foster family: “The Swiss are also religious, in the family I found almost next to every bed a bible. 123 ” Despite the equally difficult economic situation in Switzerland, the Zentralstelle der schweizerischen Hilfsaktion für ungarische Kinder, founded by the pastor Carl Irlet 124 , invited over 16.000 Hungarian children for a stay in Switzerland.

In a letter to Eglantyne Jebb from 1921, Irlet outlined his own private motivation. He felt urged to “continue the blessed work of Christian charity” and bring a new convoy of Hungarian children to Switzerland despite the poor economic conditions of his own country”. He specially thought of the needs of “the middle class and refugee families in Budapest,” which he believed to be “so pressing” that everyone should be “committed in spite of all possible considerations to continue.” But because of their tight money situation, Irlet saw no other way than to address himself again to Jebb and the SCF, begging her “to quickly provide help 125 .” Any “blessed Christian charity” had to regularly rely on financial support from organizations such as the SCF, support that was often provided. As the transports were largely funded through the SCF, it is not astonishing that most of the SCF reports about the transports praised the success of the endeavor. 126 Letter by Mr.

Bohlen to Lord Wardale from 1920/12/20, Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, (...) 37On December 20, 1920, a man called Bohlen wrote a letter to Lord Wardale concerning the work of the British High Commission in Budapest: “Dr. Amstrong-Smith tells me that the children sent to England under the ‘Hospitality Scheme’ were so carefully chosen that in their case the scheme proved an entire success unlike those sent from Vienna. 126 ” The relief effort was presented as such a success that foster parents sent letters to SCF asking about the ways in which they could to maintain contact with their former foster children. One letter, addressed to Mrs. Vajkai, tells the story of a foster boy from an orphanage: 127 Letter by the Allocations Department to Julia Vajkai from 1922/03/01, Eglantyne Jebb Pa (...) “We have an enquiry from a foster-parent of last year regarding a boy (card no.

6378), LAJOS VIRÁG, RAKOSKERESZTÚR, near Budapest, Orphanage. The year’s adoption of this child ran out last June. The adopter […] continued to subscribe into this year hoping the same boy would benefit; but it was found necessary after June to assign him a Viennese child instead. He is rather sad about it and anxious to keep up relations with Lajos Virag but has failed to get an answer to a letter he wrote. […] Perhaps you could […] inform us of the child’s present circumstances. 127 ” 38Sometimes, stays abroad would be repeated if the foster parents were willing to host the child another time. As a “question sheet for children’s aftercare committee” from 1922 shows, a close social examination was applied not only to the general, financial state of a family, but also to the long-term effectiveness of the child transports: 128 “Child’s Protection League: Question-sheet for the Children’s [After Care] Hospitality (...) “Clean home, well kept.

[…] Children, who were in England are visiting the English classes regularly, are corresponding with foster-parents; they are both healthy, one of them anemic. It is a numerous family, so they have troubles enough how to nourish and dress their children. They are middle class people and deserve help. 128 ” 129 Translation from Hungarian by the author. Pettko-Szandtner Aladár, A Huszonötéves…, p. 312. 39When the children returned from their stays abroad, they would often be equally closely examined. Just as in the case of the Kaiser Karl Wohlfahrtswerk, the physical state of the children would serve to judge the relief effort’s impact. A child’s increased weight after having passed through the relief program would be taken as proof of its overall success. Many reports refer also to the successful cultural integration of the foster children and their ability to emotionally affect their foster parents.

At the same time, the reciprocal influence, made also mutual—and often biased—perceptions visible: “The less temperamental and colder natured hosts right away fell in love with the children and could easily enchant the direct, attached, intelligent, and easily adaptable Hungarian children, who after the deprivations at home accepted with greatest joy the smallest gifts and who could cheer up the mood of the hosts’ children. 129 ” The Hungarian child is presented here as the main motor in the relationship’s transformation to the better. 40But little is mentioned about the children’s possible disintegration from their birth families. As the image, entitled “Here are the Dutch Fathers and Mothers” shows, sometimes—possibly not only language-wise—no difference was made between “foster parents” and parents. The foster parents simply turn here into the children’s parents. “Here are the Dutch Fathers and Mothers” 56 Ibid. 57 Fischer Vladimir, Waltraud Heindl, and Alexandra Millner (ed.), Räume und Grenzen in Österreich-Ungarn, 1867-1918.

Kulturwissenschaftliche Annäherungen, Basel, Francke, 2010; Fink Maria, Die Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie als Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft, München, Trofenik, 1968. 58 Report by Wagner, op. cit. 59 Report by Wagner, op. cit. 60 Translation from German by author. K.u.K. Ministerium des kaiserlichen und königlichen Hauses und des Äussern, “Wiener Kinder in der Schweiz”, Wien, 1918/01/07. Österreichisches Staatsarchiv/Archiv der Republik (ÖStA/AdR), Bundesministerium für soziale Verwaltung (BMfsV), Jugendfürsorge, 1918, 903. 62 Ibid. 63 In Hungary it became known as the Károly Király Gyermeknyaraltatása. 64 Pettko-Szandtner Aladár, A Huszonötéves àllami Gyermekvédelem Emlékkönyve, Budapest, A. M.

kir. népjóléti és munkaügyi Miniszterium, 1928, p. 304. 65 Translation from German by author. Pester Llyod, 1918/03/31, Kabinettsarchiv Korrespondenzakten 1918:291, Haus Hof und Staatsarchiv, Vienna, Austria. 66 Translation from German by author. “Der König und die armen Kinder”, in Deli Hirlap, Kabinettsarchiv Korrespondenzakten 1918, 291, Haus Hof und Staatsarchiv, Vienna, Austria. 67 Translation from German by author. Leaflet of the Kaiser Karl Wohlfahrtswerk, “Kinder…”, ibid. 68 Károly király gyermeknyaraltatása. Indulás a Keleti pályaudvarra, 1918. Müllner János felvétele, Reference: 12862.116. Budapest History Museum, Museum Kiscell Picture Collection.

69 Károly király gyermeknyaraltatása. Beszállás a vonatra. 1918. Müllner János felvétele, Reference: 13862.112. Budapest History Museum, Museum Kiscell Picture Collection. 70 Károly király gyermeknyaraltatása.A vonaton. 1918. Müllner János felvétele, Reference: 13862.111. Budapest History Museum, Museum Kiscell Picture Collection. 71 “Österreichische Kinder auf kostenlosem Urlaub in Ungarn”, Magyarorszag nyaralásra induló ausztrák gyerekek vonatja induló elött a bécsi palyaudvaron. 1918. Reference: 61.654. Historical Photo Gallery, Hungarian National Museum Budapest. 72 Barona Vilar Josep L., “International organisations and the development of a physiology of nutrition during the 1930s”, in Food & History, 6, 2008, p. 130.

73 Treitel Corinna, “Max Rubner and the Biopolitics of Rational Nutrition,” in Central European History, 41, 2008, p. 11. 74 Weindling Paul, “From Sentiment to Science – Childrens Relief Organizations and the Problem of Malnutrition in Interwar Europe2, in Disasters, 18, 1994, p. 203-212, p. 204. 75 Translation from German by author. Leaflet of the Kaiser Karl Wohlfahrtswerk, “Kinder…”, op. cit.. 77 Idem. 78 Károly Kiraly Gyermeknyaraltatási akció. [Kaiser Karl Holiday Action], “Needy Hungarian Children in Austria. Sunbathing. 1918. Reference: 61.646. Historical Photo Gallery, Hungarian National Museum Budapest. 79 Austriaban nyaraló Magyar gyerekek. Reggeli toilette. Reference 61.651. Historical Photo Gallery, Hungarian National Museum Budapest.

80 Abbáziában nyaraló Magyar gyerekek. Visszatérés egy vitorlásútról. 1918. Reference 61.644. Historical Photo Gallery, Hungarian National Museum Budapest. 81 Translation from Hungarian by author. Pettko-Szandtner, A Huszonötéves…, p. 306. 82 Translation from German by author. Leaflet of the Kaiser Karl Wohlfahrtswerk, “Kinder…”, op. cit.. 83 Translation from Hungarian by the author. “Magyar gyerekek nyaraltatása”, in Pesti Hirlap, XI. évfolyam, 180 szám, 04/08/1918, p. 1. 84 Translation from Hungarian by the author. Vadnay Tibor, “Károly Király Gyermeknyaraltatása”, in Béla Kádár and Vilmos Sarbó, (ed.), A Nagy Vihar Hajótöröttei, Budapest, Wodianer, 1927, p.

147-171, p. 160. 85 „A királyi pár a gyerkek között“, in Az Érdekes Ujság, VI évfolyam 49, Oktober 19 1918, p. 38. 86 Translation from German by author. Leaflet of the Kaiser Karl Wohlfahrtswerk, “Kinder…”, op. cit. 87 Translation from German by the author. K.K Ministerium für soziale Fürsorge, “Unterbringung österreichischer Kinder”, 1918/08/28. Österreichisches Staatsarchiv/Archiv der Republik (ÖStA/AdR), Bundesministerium für soziale Verwaltung (BMfsV), Jugendfürsorge, 1918, 21959. 88 Healey Maureen, “Mobilizing…” p. 213. 89 Translation from Hungarian by the author. Vadnay, Károly Király…, p. 154. 90 Ibid.

91 American Relief Administration European Children’s Fund, Final Report of the Work in Hungary written by the Members of the American Child Welfare Mission, Budapest, 1920/06/01, p. 1. 92 Letter by Dr. John Szekeres to the Save the Children Fund, “A crisis in intellectual and physical work in Hungary”, Budapest, 1921/10/27, Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham. 93 Chaneby William L., “Starving Budapest: Capital of Human Misery”, in The New York Times, 1920/05/30. 94 Liber Andrew, “Account on circumstances of subsistence in Budapest. How is life in Budapest?”, Budapest, 1921/10/21, 34 pages, p.

29-30, Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, EJ 155 Hungary, Folder n° 2, 1920-21, International Commissioners Reports and Correspondence, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham. 95 Brubaker Rogers, “Aftermaths of Empire and the Unmixing of Peoples provides a very inspiring analysis of the interconnection between the end of empires and migration”, in Karen Barkey and Mark von Hagen (ed.), After empire. Multiethnic Societies and Nation-Building. The Soviet Union and the Russian, Ottoman, and Habsburg Empires, Boulder, Colorado, West View Press, 1997, p. 160. 96 Translation from Hungarian by author. Liber, “Account on circumstances…” p. 2. 97 Translation from Hungarian by author. Tábori, Egy halálraitélt…, p. 1. 99 Ibid. 100 Burman Erica, op. cit;, p. 239.

101 Cherna Andrew, “Report to the American Red Cross on Investigation in Austria and Hungary”, 1923/09, p. 5, Records of the American National Red Cross 1917-1934, 953.08, Hungary, Budapest Unit WWI, Reports, Statistics, Surveys and Studies, National Archives at College Park, Washington. 102 Translation from French by the author. “Union Internationale de Secours aux enfants. Extract from Report of Bunier. Delegate of C.I.C.R.”, 1920/10, p. 1-2, p. 2, Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, EJ 155 Hungary, Folder No. 2, 1920-21, International Commissioners Reports and Correspondence, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham.

103 Rottenbiller Fülöp, Az Országos Gyermekvédő Liga harminc évi működése 1906-1936, (Thirty years work of the National League for Child Protection), Budapest, Fővárosi Nyomda Részvénytársaság,1936, p. 23. 104 Letter by J. E. Vajkai to Elgantine Jebb, 1920/15/05 (most probably 1920), Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, EJ 151 Hungary, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham. 105 Ibid. 106 Golden L. B., “Report to the Council of the S.C.F. and the Executive Committee of the UISE on the SCF and UISE Work in Central Europe and the Balkans”, Geneva, 1926/03, 14 pages, p. 3.

Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, EJ 166 Hungary, Folder n° 2, 1920-21, International Commissioners Reports and Correspondence, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham. 107 Hoover and the ARA equally aimed at establishing long-lasting local structures, which could after the end of the war or any other type of distressing situation be continued without further personal help of the ARA. 108 Translation from Hungarian by author. Tábori Kornél, Egy halálraitélt…, last cover page. 109 Mademoiselle Ferrieré’s Report, 1920/09/24, Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, EJ 155 Hungary, Folder n° 2, 1920-21, International Commissioners Reports and Correspondence, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham.

110 Letter to Save the Children Fund, Christmas 1922, Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham. 111 Hajtó Vera, “The ‘wanted’ children. Experiences of Hungarian children in Belgian foster families during the interwar period”, in History of the Family, 14, 2009, p. 206; see also Ferenc Gergely, A Magyar Gyermekvédelem Története, Budapest, Püski, 1997, p. 32. 112 Rottenbiller Fülöp, Az Országos Gyermekvédő Liga harminc évi működése 1906-1936, (Thirty years work of the National League for Child Protection), Budapest, Fővárosi Nyomda Részvénytársaság, 1936, p. 25, 27.

113 „Hatszáz Magyar gyermek hazaérkezése Hollandiából. [Six hundred Hungarian children arrive back from Holland]”, in Érdekes Ujság, 1921, IX Èvfolyam, 39 Szám, p. 4. 114 Translation from Hungarian by the author, “Nyilatkozat”, 1928/03/31, Magyar Országos Levéltár, K 319-19-1941-23, Csomag 4. 115 “A külföld a Magyar gyermekért”, [Foreign countries for Hungarian Children], in Új idök, xxvi Évfolyam, 11 szám, 1920/04/24, p. 27. 116 Mühlbeck Károly, “Foreign countries for Hungarian Children”, in Új Idök, 11 (1920). 117 See for this the inspiring work of Hajtó Vera on the child transports to Belgium. Hajtó Vera, op. cit.

118 Translation from Hungarian by the author. Letter by the Magyar Kir. Titkos Tanácsos Üv. Elnök to the Elüljárósághoz Szalkkszentmárton, Budapest, 1938/11/21, Magyar Országos Levéltár, K 319-19-1941-23, Csomag 4. 119 Ibid. 120 Nevinson Henry W., “The Black Outlook in Europe”, in The Manchester Guardian, 1920/03/08, p. 14. 121 Translation from Hungarian by the author. Krúdy Gyula, Liga Gida Kalandjai. Hollandiában És a Világ Egyéb Tájain, Budapest, Országos Gyermekvédő Liga, 1923, p. 3. 122 Translation from Hungarian by the author. „A magyar gyermek—a nagyvilágban“, in Csálad és gyermek 1. Évf.

5-6 Szám, September 1928, p. 3-6, p. 4. 123 Ibid., p.5. 124 Translation from German by the author. Gesellschaft Helvetica-Hungaria, “Vergangenheit”, [ [last accessed 2012/07/26]. 125 Translation from German by the author. Zentralstelle der schweizerischen Hilfsaktion für ungarische Kinder, Baden, Schweiz, 1921/10/14, addressed to the International Save the Children Fund in Geneva. Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham. 126 Letter by Mr. Bohlen to Lord Wardale from 1920/12/20, Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham.

127 Letter by the Allocations Department to Julia Vajkai from 1922/03/01, Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham. 128 “Child’s Protection League: Question-sheet for the Children’s [After Care] Hospitality Committee”, 1922, Eglantyne Jebb Papers Hungary, A 0407, EJ 149-166, EJ 151 Hungary, Save the Children Fund Archive, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections, University of Birmingham. 129 Translation from Hungarian by the author. Pettko-Szandtner Aladár, A Huszonötéves…, p. 312. 130 Mühlbeck Károly: “Itt a hollandi papák és mamák”, [Here are the Dutch Fathers and Mothers], in Uj Idök, xxx Évfolyam, 29 szám, 1924/06/01, p.

435. 131 Translation from Hungarian by the author. “Katta Hollandiaban elfelejtett valamit”, in Uj Idök, XXX Évfolyam, 29 Szám, July 13 1924, p. 52-53. 132 Idem, p. 53. 133 Idem, p. 53. 134 Sontag Susan, ibid., p. 19. 135 Kennedy Dennis, “Selling the Distant Other. Humanitarianism and Imagery-Ethical Dilemmas of Humanitarian Action”, in The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, 2009/02/28, [ [last accessed 2012/08/04].

Question: Which organisation was established in London by Eglatine Jebb and her sister Dorothy Buxton in 1919, originally to alleviate starvation in Germany after the war?
Answer: Save the Children Fund