Building Bridges of Trust: Child Transports from Finland to Sweden during the Second World War |
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Authors: | Ann Nehlin |
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Institution: | Historiska Institutionen, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden |
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Abstract: | Seventy thousand children were moved to Sweden from Finland during the Second World War with the purpose of giving them a break from the calamities of war. Moving children for this reason was common practice in the Western world during the twentieth century. Officially, the motives have always been humanitarian, but political motives have often played an important role — commonly, to foster suitable citizens within planned societies. Political goals were important in the moving of Finnish children, but in a different way. In this article, I suggest that the children were used as ‘commodities of compassion’ in a Swedish politics of indemnification. |
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Keywords: | Finnish war children child transports child removal schemes evacuations of children politics of indemnification commodities of compassion |
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