Children of the Blitz
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Transcript
- Student from Wellington High School
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At the end of the Second World War did children get sent from Britain to New Zealand and what happened to them?
- Jock
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Yes, there was certainly a number actually sent during the war…really because London was going under…being bombed and they were sent out for protection. And then after the Second World War a number were sent out because it was thought that if they were brought up in New Zealand they would have a healthier life and so forth. It was a pretty cruel thing to actually happen to them. A number of them have returned back to Britain, I think there is a society of those migrants who came out. Whether that was successful or not successful I think probably depends a little bit on the individual you are talking to. We’ve actually got a nice photograph of them if I can find it in here. Here we are Child Migrants. Now, there you see the child migrants arriving in New Zealand in 1949. And what it says is, if I can read this correctly:
“After the Second World War many thousands of children, predominantly English were taken from institutions and foster homes and sent out to the white Commonwealth. Most went to Australia but between 1949 and 1953, 593 were sent to New Zealand. In some cases this forced migration was emotionally and psychologically damaging. In the 1990s moves began to restore the full legal rights of the former child migrants, and to assist them to rediscover their English families. Here we see some of the first arrivals learning of the arrangements made for them by the Child Welfare department.”
So that tells you something about that story of the child migrants.