Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Forgotten Children of World War II

I have recently been made aware of an entire group of forgotten children of World War II. These are the tens of thousands of children fathered by American GIs during the war in countries such as England, France, Netherlands and post war in Germany and Austria. Many of these children grew up fatherless - in many cases, their American fathers either died in the war or returned home not aware of the existence of their child. Over the years, there was little or no notice in the mainstream press of the existence of these now aging children, some of who still continue to search for a link to their biological families. More of the mythologizing of World War II as "the best war ever" without recognition of the 183,000 American children left fatherless by the war and the multitude of children fathered by American servicemen on foreign soil.

6 comments:

mydadisavet said...

After the WAR's were over and many years after did the affects of the Japan and Korea own my family. My father Roendo F. Beloz U.S Army 11th and 187th Airborne Trooper never came back the man my mother married. or the father we once knew. My father passed away but the memories of WAR lives within the lives of his five children that grew up witness to PTSD.

Dauther of TROOPER!

american looking for german sister said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
american looking for german sister said...

my father was a vietnam vet who fathered a daughter in germany around 1968-1971. His name is samuel young. some call him david. i am searching for my sister.

carolsv said...

There is a group called Daughters of Vietnam Veterans at http://dovv.us/ and they may be able to help you.

Thanks.

Karen Gassett said...

Somewhere in Germany someone whom I've never met, has the same father as my two brothers and I do. There doesn't seem to be any cohesive effort or known centralized clearing house to find our half siblings and time is running out as we baby boomers age.

carolsv said...

Karen,

Check out the website GI Trace
http://www.gitrace.org/

Maybe your German half sibling has registered on there.

Carol