Through The Eyes Of Innocents: Children Witness World War II - Softcover

Werner, Emmy E

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813338689 ISBN 13: 9780813338682

Publisher: Basic Books, 2001

Synopsis

World War II was the first modern war in which more civilians than soldiers were killed or maimed: When it ended in August 1945, more than thirty-nine millions civilians had died as a direct result of the war, and some thirteen million of these were children. In Through the Eyes of Innocents, Emmy Werner tells the story of the children of World War II through their own words. Drawing on diaries, letters, and journals kept by youngsters caught up in the war, Werner shows the universality of their experience. Children and teenagers from a dozen countries - England, Germany, France, Japan, the former Soviet Union, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Poland and the United States - are all represented in some 200 eye-witness accounts. Werner focuses on their shared reactions to the war, the hardships they endured, how they coped, and how the war experience shaped their lives. The message they share with other children in contemporary wars is an extraordinary affirmation of life and the sustaining power of hope and human decency.

About this title

Review:

Emmy E. Werner survived World War II on the ground, as a child living in Germany, with a family split over both sides of the conflict. That war set more than a few gruesome records, but perhaps the most tragic was that, for the first time in modern history, more civilians than soldiers were maimed or killed in the fighting. Thirteen million were children, and another 20 million were left orphaned by the war. As one of the survivors, Werner carries a unique qualification for crafting this moving and well-researched book, a sweeping, reverently assembled collection of children's eyewitness accounts of that traumatic and uncertain time.

Pulling together contrasting experiences from over 200 different children and teens (drawing from diaries, letters, journals, and a handful of adult interviews), Through the Eyes of the Innocents paints an impressively rich and varied picture of the war. Children on every side of the conflict recount images and incidents ranging from the benign to the horrific, whether it was German youngsters in the Ardennes decorating Christmas trees with radar foil or a 12-year-old writing to MacArthur, begging him to let her "get down in the trenches and mow these Germans down 5 by 5." But Werner manages to temper the horror with hope, devoting much attention to postwar recovery and rebuilding (especially the efforts of CARE and UNICEF), and pleading that we remember the words of the "wide-eyed and defenseless" as we confront the violence of today. --Paul Hughes

About the Author:

Emmy E. Werner is a developmental psychologist and research professor at the University of California at Davis. She is the author of many books, including Through the Eyes of Innocents (Westview Press 2000); Reluctant Witnesses (Westview Press, 1998); Pioneer Children on the Journey West (Westview Press 1995).

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0813338689
• ISBN 13: 9780813338682
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288