Europaeum Oxford-Geneva Bursary
22012/2013 Geneva Scholar’s Report
My research project examines the living standards of German children during the
First World War, and the changes that occurred in their nutritional status before and after
the War. German children were especially vulnerable to changes in internal food supply, as
the country had imported roughly 25% of its foodstuffs before the First World War, in
addition to large amounts of fertilizer for their crops. When the British entered the War,
they imposed a blockade against the Germans. Foodstuffs and fertilizer, among other
goods, were prevented from entering the country. Germans referred to this blockade, both
during and after the War, as the “hunger blockade” and accused the British of starving noncombatants including women, children, and old people.
To assess the veracity of such claims, I searched German archives for anthropometric
indicators, such as weight and height of civilians. I discovered that the heights and weights
of German children were recorded yearly. I collected a data set in the archives in Germany
representing approximately 600,000 measurements of German school children taken
during and after the War, from 1914-1924
The data were divided by age, gender, location, and school type. Twenty-three locations
were represented in total. Using contemporary sources I was able to match school type
with the relative socio-economic groups children would have belonged to.
The data show that children of all genders, social class, and location, were deprived.
Yet deprivation occurred at an even greater and more significant rate when socio-economic
class is considered. Lower class children started the War already smaller than children
from other classes, yet they were the first to lose both stature and weight, descending to
their nadir in 1918. Middle class children floundered, with the lowest weights and heights
occurring 1919. Upper class children didn’t reach their minimum weights and heights until
1920.
Perhaps the most surprising result of the analysis was that the poorest German children
began to recover weight and height well before the middle and upper classes did. This
recovery rate is
constant and
significant. By 1920
they approximated
their own pre-War
standards in weight,
by 1921 they
surpassed them,
approaching middle
class weight
standards.
What might explain this surprising result in the data showing strong recovery of working
class children in Germany compared to middle and upper class, children whom might be
expected to have enjoyed a greater capacity to capture more additional calories than
working class children? Germany hyper-inflation hit a high in 1923.
I suggest that international aid, especially in the form of food stuffs, was a major factor.
I spent most of April in Geneva thanks to the Oxford – Geneva Europaeum award I
received. I was hosted by Jasmine Champenois at the Graduate Institute of International
and Development Studies, and attended classes by Davide Rodogno on the history of
humanitarianism. I greatly admire Rodogno’s historical work on humanitarian intervention
and international aid. The history of international aid he presented in his lectures gave a
very useful context in which to place my own work on aid in Germany after the First
World War.
Having a base at the GIIDS was enjoyable, even though the majority of my time was spent
in three separate archives: the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) archive,
the Achives D’Etat, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies (IFRC). I set out to understand how widespread international aid to Germany was
after the War. I also sought to understand how different aid organizations operated and
who in Germany received their aid.
Most of my research in Geneva focused on reading and photographing primary sources
written in German, a language in which I am fluent. I was apprehensive, however, that my
lack of French would hinder my ability to find and access those documents in the various
archives across the city, especially as an archivist wrote to me in our correspondence that
“Reading of French is absolutely necessary to whatever kind of historical investigation
exploiting our sources”. Fortunately, many kind people at the archives helped me. In the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) archive, for example, after several
weeks of visiting the archive and going through the catalogue I assumed I had seen
everything related to children in Germany during and after the First World War. The
archivist Fabrizio Bensi wrote me, after I was all finished and back in my apartment in
Geneva, if I perhaps would consider returning to the archive to view another box of
materials he thought might be useful. I had missed this particular box as their contents
were outside the simple French search terms I had been using. Inside the box I found
telegrams that documented aid sent to Germany. I felt extremely gratitude for Bensi’s
kindness.
A great boon in mapping out how Swiss aid to German children was delivered after the
War was found in the reports and pamphlets stored and carefully documented in the
Achives D’Etat. Records here show that aid to German children was widespread, and that
it took many different forms. Although some resources such as foodstuffs were directly
sent to Germany, more often German children were invited to spend periods ranging from
several weeks to several months with Swiss families or in special Swiss children’s homes
where they were fed and nourished. This form of assistance started during the War on a
private basis. It wasn’t until after the War that a more centralized governmental
organization was founded to assist with child feeding and transportation. Always in these
circumstances, Swiss authorities targeted their assistance for German children who were
the most deprived.
The Archives D’Etat also contained a wealth of photographs of children in some of these
feeding homes, or standing in large groups with signs around their necks waiting to be
transported. It was important that the names and locations of especially young children
were recorded so that the children could be returned to their German parents after their
feeding time in Switzerland.
My time spent in Geneva, thanks to the Europaeum Oxford-Geneva award, also gave me a
much better flavor for the struggle many countries felt towards aiding Germany, even
children, just after the First World War. Evidence for this came primarily through my
research at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC),
with the help of archivist Grant Mitchell. The German Red Cross did not join the League
of Red Cross Societies until 1922, a year later than everyone else, due in part to residual
negative feelings towards Germany after the War. As I photographed and read through
published reports of the Red Cross a better picture of the evolution of international food
aid emerged. Although much food aid was sent to Germany, there were political tensions,
especially as many individuals and groups were still concerned about the well being of
citizens in their own countries. The ethos of internationalism was still evolving, even
within the high ideals and international institutions that emerged after the First World War.
Other groups such as the Save the Children organization began in response to news of the
desperate plight of German children after the War. Save the Children, founded in England,
quickly became a multinational organization and by the 1920s had offices headquartered in
Geneva.
During my time in Geneva I also learned that some organizations, which I assumed would
have been involved in child-feeding after the War, did not participate in the post war effort
to help German children. For example the League of Nations decided that they would not
become involved with feeding children in Germany due in part to the large apparatus
already serving those children.
Taken together the archival findings indicate that millions of German children received aid
and additional meals after the First World War, and that such aid continued through the
early months of armistice to the mid-1920s. Furthermore, nutritional aid was almost
universally targeted to children who were most in need. As working class children were
most impacted by nutritional deprivation, they received a disproportionate amount of
additional foodstuffs.
These findings indicate that the steady and continued recovery of German children after
the War is indeed largely due to the largesse of Germany’s neighbors, including neutral
countries such as Switzerland, and former enemies of Germany including Great Britain and
the United States. The same anthropometric data that allow for the assessment of
deprivation during the War can also be used to calibrate the effectiveness of international
aid after the War. Future research to assess the effectiveness of aid could be implemented,
including studies of specific aid efforts by different governmental and non-governmental
organizations.
Mary Elisabeth Cox
July 24, 2013