Self-Motivated Humanitarianism?: The Study of the Evacuation of Belgian and French Children to Switzerland, 1941-1945

Citation

Sambells C (2015) Self-Motivated Humanitarianism?: The Study of the Evacuation of Belgian and French Children to Switzerland, 1941-1945. In: Niget D & Denechere Y (eds.) Droits des enfants au XXe siècle: Pour une histoire transnationale. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, pp. 21-29. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pur.89254

Abstract
Although children in war are considered dependent and vulnerable, they simultaneously possess political and national significance, raising them above other casualties of war. Evacuations were a popular method to protect children, and thereby, defend the future vitality of the state. From 1941-1945, the British, German and Swiss governments collaborated to evacuate some 60,000 Belgian and French children to neutral Switzerland for three-month periods of recuperation. Although the suffering of Belgian and French children was given as the reason behind these governments’ fierce intervention, the true motivations were politically and nationally-dependent, as each stakeholder mobilized for their own self-preservation and to further their own agendas. Paradoxically, then, the effort to protect these children and to further their rights was completed without significant regard to the children themselves. And, despite the fact that these children were relegated to an ancillary role to the interests of the nation, they were, at the same time, the ones who benefitted the most from this humanitarian intervention.