Since much of the war was fought in Europe, Americans felt fairly safe. However, all that
changed on Sunday, December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl
Harbor. Suddenly, a war that seemed so far away started to get
closer to their homes in America.
After that, some cities began making the people who lived there put dark paper
or dark curtains over their windows so that if bombers came, they would not see
the city. They also turned off the street lights and sometimes had air raid
drills. Children, like Annemarie Johansen from Number the Stars, who lived in the Nazi-occupied parts of Europe, were also forced to put blackout curtains over
their windows. They had a curfew during the night and soldiers on the
streets.
In Denmark and other occupied
countries, some people joined the Nazi army, while others stayed with their
original jobs. Many Jews in occupied countries lost their jobs because the Nazis
closed down their shops. Though the war was mostly fought on non-American soil,
Americans were affected by the war also. One change was that the U.S.
factories that once made every day appliances began to make weapons and other
war-related items. Since most of the men who worked in the factories left to
fight in the war, women worked in the factories. In some states, even children worked
in factories part-time. The war, as terrible as it was, helped get the United States
out of the Great Depression. Because more jobs opened up in the army and in the
factories that made war materials, less people were out of work.
During the war, everyday items were
hard to find. If a family lived in a Nazi-occupied country, it would be hard to
find a new coat, clothes, shoes, hats, and gloves. If one of those items was
found, it would be very expensive. Usually mothers would have to make and
re-make dresses, shirts, and other clothing items for their children. In Number the Stars, Kirsti’s mother bought
her shoes made of fish scales because there were not any other shoes that she
could buy, and Kirsti needed new shoes.
It was also hard to get food items, because most of the food was used to
feed the Nazi army. In America,
many food items, shoes, and gas were rationed to make sure that the army had
enough to eat and enough other provisions that they needed.
In Nazi-occupied countries during
the war, life was very different for the children who lived there. Many of the
things that children enjoyed so much disappeared when the war began. Many
foods, such as ice-cream and frosted cupcakes, were almost impossible to find.
Children living in Copenhagen could not visit Tivoli Gardens
any more, because the Nazis had closed it and burned part of it when they came.
Families did not take vacations either. Since most families had trouble just
getting food on the table, they did not spend money on pleasures. Most children
would play with whatever things they already had. As for school, most children
continued to attend, except for Jewish children who had been prohibited from
taking classes there. In America,
children also went to school and made do with what toys and things that they
had. They had parks and places to play, but not many things to play with, since
factories that used to make toys had begun to manufacture weapons.
Sometimes in German-occupied
countries, older children, like Lise Johansen and her fiancé Peter, joined
resistance fighters and fought against the Nazis. A few children may have even
helped as Annemarie did when she helped her Jewish friend Ellen escape to Sweden.
Children in America
helped the war effort in many ways also. One way was by planting Victory Gardens. When the seeds that they
planted grew, they would use the produce as food for their family so the farmers
could send more food to the troops overseas. They also collected leather,
paper, string, cloth, and metal to be recycled and given to the factories to be
made into items for the army. In Chicago,
Illinois, children saved
$263,148.83 worth of change for the government to buy two airplanes, 125 jeeps,
and a motorcycle. Many older boys even joined the army.The lives of children and their families were changed because of World War II. Many families gave up their old way of life to help the war effort. Many in Europe were forced to give up their old way of life. Even though many families experienced hardship during the war, they still continued to fight for what they believed was right.
– By Clara May
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Sources:
Josephson, Judith
Pinkerton. Growing up in World War II.
Minneapolis:
Learner Publications Company, 2003. Print.
Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing
Group, Inc., 1989. Print.
Nicholson, Dorinda
Makanonlani. Remember World War II: Kids
Who Survived Tell Their Stories. Washington D.C.:
National Geographic Society, 2005. Print.
Whitman, Sylvia. Children of the World War II Home Front.
Minneapolis:
Carolrhoda Books, Inc., 2001. Print.
