Children of the 1940s

Children and Growing Up

The lives of children everywhere were touched by the war during the 1940s. Exactly how they were affected depended on where the children lived. Children in the United States had safer, more stable lives than children in Europe during the war. They were rationed on what they could buy, some of their fathers or other relatives were away at war, and they were often expected to take part in war-related drives through school or scouting activities, but they were otherwise safer than European children who faced direct bombings.

View from St Paul's Cathedral after the Blitz
From Wikimedia Commons
(Considered public domain in the United States)

In England, many children were evacuated from London and other places at risk of bombing and sent to smaller towns in the countryside and even to other countres, like the United States, Canada, and Australia, where they would be safer. These children were away from their homes and parents for years before returning home. In 1940, fourteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth of England (later Queen Elizabeth II) made a famous radio speech for the children who had been evacuated, encouraging them to keep up their spirits and reminding them that the people back home hadn't forgotten about them. The speech actually had a dual purpose: to reassure the evacuated children and to win hearts and minds in the United States, hopefully inspiring them to join in the war effort by reminding them of the children who were in danger or had been forced to flee (as this excerpt from a Smithsonian documentary) explains.

These evacuations would later become a feature of children's literature written about this period. For example, the children in the fantasy/religious classic, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (published in 1950) had come to the house where they found the magic wardrobe because they had been evacuated due to the war. There are numerous other books about child evacuees that were written after the war, sometimes by people who had been child evacuees themselves. However, there were children's books about child evacuees even while the war was going on, some written not long after the first children from London were evacuated, including Visitors from London by Kitty Barne (published in 1940).

Scouting groups and activities were also popular during the war, both for boys and girls, and scouting organizations conducted drives to collect materials to help the war effort. Because of sugar rationing, American Girl Scouts suspended their usual cookie sales, selling calendars in 1944 and 1945 instead (Girl Scouts in World War II).

After World War II, there was a sudden rise in new births, which people began calling the “Baby Boom.” Because of this sudden increase in births, children, children’s services, and products for children and young people became particularly important for the following decades.

Children's Toys

During the war, the number of new toys available for children was reduced because factories that normally manufactured toys were converted to produce war materials. After the war was over and factories were converted back to their original purposes, there was an economic boom that produced many new products.

Some toys which are considered classic children’s toys were created in the 1940s, some as a result of accidental discoveries during the war, such as:

• Slinky - Coiled metal toy that is best known for walking itself down stairs and can be used to perform other tricks. Invented by accident by an American naval mechanical engineer in 1943, based on springs used to stabilize instruments on ships. After some refinement to the design and a demonstration at Gimbels department store in 1945, it became a popular toy. It was deliberately priced low to make it affordable to poor families. It's now considered an iconic toy.
• Silly Putty - Created by accident during World War II by a researcher trying to develop a new form of synthetic rubber. First considered as a potential toy in 1949 and popularized during the 1950s. At first, it was marketed as a stress-relieving toy for adults.
• Mr. Potato Head - Invented in 1949 and marketed in 1952. It did not include a plastic potato until 1964. Early sets just contained parts that were meant to be stuck into real potatoes. My mother and her siblings sometimes used foam balls for the same purpose because they could be reused and to avoid using actual food.

Both children and adults liked board games during the 1940s. Sometimes, they were used as entertainment for people in bomb shelters during the war. What people played would vary by country, although classic games from previous eras and decades would be pretty widely played, like Checkers/Draughts, Chess, Pachisi, and Snakes and Ladders. Technically, Scrabble was invented in the late 1930s, but it didn't really become popular until the 1950s, when the president of Macy's found out about it and started carrying it in his store. The game of Monopoly existed in its modern form by the 1940s and was being played internationally. In fact, Monopoly contributed to the Allied war effort in an unusual way. John Waddington, Ltd., which produced the British editions of the game, printed special editions to be shipped in care packages to British prisoners of war. These "special editions" contained hidden maps, real money, compasses, and other items that prisoners could use to escape. Games could also be tools of propaganda. The Nazis produced board games for children to promote anti-Jewish and pro-military ideas.

Three famous games were created after the war, in the late 1940s:

• Clue/Cluedo - The classic mystery game.
• Candy Land - Many people's very first board game for generations afterward because it requires no reading skills.
• The Game of Cootie - Assemble a "cootie" bug from the plastic parts provided.

Children's Books

Among the other children's books that were published during the war years were:

• Caps for Sale (1940) - A peddler tries to get his caps back from the monkeys who have stolen them.
• Blue Willow (1940) - A migrant girl during the Great Depression wants a permanant home.
• Betsy-Tacy (1940) - The first book in a series. It's about a young girl growing up with her best friend in turn-of-the-century Minnesota.
• Make Way for Ducklings (1941) - A family of ducks make their home in Boston’s Public Gardens, finding their way through the city with the help of some friendly policemen.
• The Runaway Bunny (1942) - A picture book about a little bunny and his mother. By Margaret Wise Brown.
• Homer Price (1942) - The adventures of a boy named Homer Price. This is a collection of six short stories about the humorous things that happen to Homer, including the donut machine that gets out of control. By Robert McCloskey.
• The Boxcar Children (1942) - The first book in the popular children's mystery series. This book was actually a simplified version of the original book written in 1924, with the scene of the father's death removed. (In the original book, the father of the children died in the first chapter. His wife was already dead, and he died of alcohol-related causes, which was why the scene was removed later. The original book never explained how the mother died or how the father became an alcoholic. You can read the original book through Project Gutenberg.)
• Fog Magic (1943) - A young girl goes back in time whenever the area where she lives is covered in fog. Briefly mentions the war and how the girl feels about it.
• Raggedy Ann series by Johnny Gruelle - The series had existed since 1918, and new books were being written.
• Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder - The series had existed since 1932, and new books were being written.
• The Nancy Drew series - The series had existed since 1930, and new books were being written.
• The Hardy Boys series - The series had existed since 1927, and new books were being written.

Among the children's books that were published after the war:

• The Hidden Treasure of Glaston (1946) - A Medieval adventure story about a search for the Holy Grail.
• Goodnight Moon (1947) - A soothing bedtime story.
• The Surprise Doll (1949) - A little girl has six dolls, each from a different country around the world, but she wants a seventh doll so that she can have one for every day of the week. The local dollmaker makes one for her that not only looks like her but has characteristics from each of her other dolls.
• Pippi Longstocking books - Pippi is a girl with red pigtails that stick out from her head and amazing strength who lives alone in a small town in Sweden. Her father is king of an island of cannibals. The first book was published in 1945, originally written in Swedish and later translated into English.
• Trixie Belden series - A mystery series. The first book was published in 1948.

Resources

General Documentaries

Jewish children evacuated from Germany

An elderly man, Bernd Koschland, describes being sent away from Germany on the Kindertransport. He went to live in England and lost contact with his parents during the war. For many years, he didn't know what had happened to them, but he later learned that they were killed in a concentration camp. If he hadn't been sent away, he probably would have been killed, too.

Child Evacuation Documentaries

These include first-hand accounts of the experience of being a child evacuee by people who were children during World War II.

A Family in Wartime: Evacuation

A man, John Allpress, describing his experiences as a child evacuee.

An evacuee tells her story

A video of an elderly woman, Pamela Muchmore Costello, describing her experiences as a child evacuee with her siblings.

Evacuation CBBC

A reality tv show from the early 2000s, where groups of modern children live as child evacuees in 1940s England. It explains a little about the history of evacuees and focuses mainly on what the children's lives would have been like. The modern children have to get used to eating 1940s food (probably not as much of a culture shock for real 1940s evacuees, who would already have been accustomed to the limited, vegatable-heavy diet imposed by rationing) and life in the countryside with animals, farm chores, primitive plumbing, outhouses, and chamber pots (which would have also been a culture shock to city children from 1940s London, as some of the real-life evacuees have said in interviews). The series focuses on two sets of children, one set being sent to a farm and the other to a manor house, although both have animals and farm chores. They explain the limited belongings that the children brought with them, the name tags that they had to wear with their information on them, and the little boxes with gas masks that all children had to carry with them, hanging from their shoulders on strings.

Evacuation from London WWII

An elderly man, David Evans, describing his experiences as a child evacuee. He describes the culture shock of coming from city life to country life, where there was no running water or modern plumbing, and people were using paraffin lamps (called kerosene lamps in the United States) instead of electric lights. Through the mid-20th century, many people who lived in rural areas of Europe and the United States still lived in ways that were close to the previous century, without modern conveniences.

Evacuation of children during the war

A video of an elderly man, Mervyn Kersch, describing his experiences as a child evacuee. Mervyn was Jewish, so he needed to be provided with Kosher food during his time with his foster family. He was 14 years old when he was evacuated, and before the end of the war, he was old enough to become a soldier. As a soldier, he participated in D-Day.

Evelyn born 1930 talks about 1939 evacuation of children

A video of an elderly woman in 2009, Evelyn, describing her experiences as a child evacuee in 1939. Evelyn later died in 2015.

The Great Evacuation of 1939: Children Flee Britain

Newsreel footage of the evacuation of children from London in 1939. This other video is part of a newsreel from 1940 about the second wave of evacuations.

Jewish children evacuated from Germany

An elderly man, Bernd Koschland, describes being sent away from Germany on the Kindertransport. He went to live in England and lost contact with his parents during the war. For many years, he didn't know what had happened to them, but he later learned that they were killed in a concentration camp. If he hadn't been sent away, he probably would have been killed, too.

Mothers who waved goodbye: Evacuation in World War II

An explanation about the decisions mothers made to send their children out of London during World War II. Includes an advertisement for a book about the subject of motherhood and WWII evacuation.

Operation Pied Piper - Evacuee Stories

An explanation about the evacuations of children during WWII. People who were children during WWII talk about their memories of the war and bombings and the circumstances under which they were evacuated from their homes.

WWII - Evacuation of Children - UK - Clips

Newsreel clips of the evacuation of children from London. Most of it has no sound, but there are clips of children boarding buses and trains to be taken to the countryside and boarding ships to be taken overseas. Overseas evacuees were sent to place like the United States, Canada, South Africa, and Australia. Many of these evacuees did not return to their parents until after the war was over, being away for about five or six years. Some of them were orphaned or abandoned before the end of the war and never saw their parents again. All of the children in the footage are carrying only mimimal luggage (evacuees couldn't take more than they could carry easily) and all of them have the usual name tags attached to their clothes and the little boxes on strings that held their gas masks.

Websites

Child Evacuees in the Second World War: Operation Pied Piper at 80

An article about the evacuation of children from London and other major cities in England in 1939 on the 80th anniversary of the event. Some of the evacuated children were minorities, as shown in the picture of a young black boy walking with the other evacuees. Many of the children returned to their homes in the following year and had to be re-evacuated.

Children's Literature of the 1940s

These sites have lists of children's books that were published in the 1940s.

Forgotten Books and Stories: Books from the 1940s.

The 1940s page from my website/blog where I do reviews of children's books. I include some historical information with the pages for different decades, some of which is duplicated here.

Goodreads — Best Children’s Books of the 1940s

A list of 95 books from Goodreads of books published in the 1940s. The books are listed individually, not sorted by genre or series. Click on individual titles to read descriptions and reader reviews.

Classic Children’s Books By The Decade: 1940s

A list of 10 recommended books from this decade with descriptions.