WUNRN
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32972893
Occupation Children Shunned in Post-War
Germany & Austria
By
Bethany Bell BBC News – 3 June 2015
A new book looks at the lives of the children of Allied soldiers in Austria and Germany after WW2.
When Christa Wais was born in September
1946, her Austrian mother had already lost contact with her father, a major in
the Red Army.
Her parents had met at the theatre in the
town of St Poelten, west of Vienna.
Her mother visited her father frequently in
the eastern province of Burgenland where he was later stationed with his
company.
But one day, when she was seven months
pregnant, she turned up to find the company was gone.
Christa is one of 30,000 children thought
to have been fathered by Allied soldiers in Austria in the decade after World
War Two.
Meanwhile it is estimated that about
400,000 children in Germany were fathered by the occupying soldiers, who came
from United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union.
Germany and Austria were occupied by troops from the US,
Britain, France, and the Soviet Union after World War II.
"There was a very negative picture of
the Soviet soldiers. Nazi propaganda of the Slav Untermensch [subhuman] played
a role.
In German, these children were often
described as "Besatzungskinder" - or "Children of the
Occupation".
They were born as the result of love
affairs, short flings, "survival prostitution" and rape, says
historian Barbara Stelzl-Marx, the author and editor of a new book Besatzungskinder:
The children of Allied Soldiers in Austria and Germany.
Many of the children - and their mothers -
faced discrimination and social exclusion.
'Nasty remarks'
"It was very difficult," Christa
Wais told me. "I don't have good feelings about my childhood. I was
excluded everywhere. All the children had been told to avoid me.
"Later even my husband used to make
nasty remarks about my background."
Ms Stelzl-Marx says there was a stigma
surrounding the children of Allied soldiers; the fathers were often still
regarded as the enemy.
"Many children were also illegitimate,
which was a problem at that time," she said.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Children of Allied forces
Estimated figures
400,000 - in Germany
30,000 - in Austria
Source:
Besatzungskinder: The children of Allied Soldiers in Austria and Germany
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"There was a very negative picture of
the Soviet soldiers. Nazi propaganda of the Slav Untermensch [subhuman] played
a role.
"In the American zone, women were seen
as having affairs because they wanted to have nice nylon stockings or chocolate."
'Something missing'
One prominent example of a
"Besatzungskind" is British singer, Marianne Faithfull, says Ms
Stelzl-Marx.
"She is the child of a British officer
[Robert Glynn Faithfull] who was based in Vienna and who married her Viennese
mother (Eva von Sacher-Masoch). They moved to Great Britain and there she gave
birth to Marianne," she said.
Many other "Besatzungskinder"
never met their fathers.
Gitta Rupp is one of three children of
British fathers whose stories are included in Ms Stelzl-Marx's book.
She describes shouting in anger at a photo
of her absent father, Paul Wade-Brown.
But she also gives a warm description of
her two half-sisters, whom she met in 2014. One, Anastasia Lewis, lives in
London, while the other, Celia Wade-Brown, is the mayor of Wellington, New
Zealand.
Christa Wais has yet not managed to trace
her father and his family, who, she believes, came from Kiev. But she is
determined to keep searching.
"You shouldn't let anyone stop you
looking for your roots, if you want to," she said. "Otherwise
something will always be missing."