An exhibition by the Mecklenburg Foundation and the State Center for Political Education M-V
Around one million Germans who were forced to leave their homes in south-eastern and eastern Europe as a result of the Second World War ended up in Mecklenburg and the remaining part of Pomerania west of the Oder. More than a third of them were children. How did they experience their arrival and reception? What was childhood like in a foreign environment in the immediate post-war period? What could the host society do for these children under the dictates of the Soviet-style reorganization? Many contemporary witnesses have reported on their fate, often in writing, at an advanced age. On the basis of conversations and reports, more recent literature and sources, the exhibition provides an insight into childhoods that were characterized by hunger and loss, deprivation and hard work. Especially in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the fate of displacement affected almost every second inhabitant, the memory is still very present today despite decades of silence under socialist conditions. Children on the run - this is still a highly topical issue. The consequences, as the experiences of those interviewed show, have a lifelong impact.
