Children of the War

Children of the War

"It keeps coming back to me. I try to forget it and calm down. But it's something we have to bear that can't be erased. Millions of people are affected in the same way." Klaus Höhnert, who lost his entire family during an air raid in 1943. They were far too young for what they witnessed, too young for what they suffered and what they did. No one had prepared them for nights spent in air-raid shelters and days in trenches, the endless trails of refugees, evacuation, starvation, terror and death. These horrifying experiences and unbelievable survival strategies have remained in the memory of these children until old age, albeit in some cases still repressed. They include those who killed people when they joined the German Volkssturm or the Russian partisans, convinced that they were fighting for a just cause. How have they ever been able to live with what they did? The horrors of air raids, occupation and starvation were first experienced in World War II by children in Poland, France, Britain and the Soviet Union - which is why 'Children of the War' takes an international approach to the subject. The narrative in this two-part documentary is consistently presented from the children's viewpoint. It reconstructs the trauma of an entire generation.

Run time: