To the Bomb and Back: Finnish War Children Tell Their World War II Stories - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1789205166 ISBN 13: 9781789205169

Publisher: Berghahn Books, 2020

Synopsis

Between 1939 and 1945, some 80,000 Finnish children were sent to Sweden, Denmark, and elsewhere, ostensibly to protect them from danger while their nation’s soldiers fought superior Soviet and German forces. This was the largest of all of World War II children’s transports, and although acknowledged today as “a great social-historical mistake,” it has received surprisingly little attention. This is the first English-language account of Finland’s war children and their experiences, told through the survivors’ own words. Supported by an extensive introduction, a bibliography of secondary sources, and over two dozen photographs, this book testifies to the often-lifelong traumas endured by youthful survivors of war.

About this title

About the Author

Sue Saffle holds a Senior Instructorship in Virginia Tech’s Department of English. She is a winner of VT’s University Sporn Award for outstanding teaching and was inducted into the institution’s Academy of Teaching Excellence. In 2000–2001 she lived in Helsinki, where she began collecting the stories of Finland’s war children. Her articles about them have appeared in the journal Children and War and in the collection Children: The Invisible Victims of War (2008).

Edition details

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1789205166
• ISBN 13: 9781789205169
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 326
• Editor: Saffle Sue