Introduction
In Europe during World War II, many thousands of children were evacuated from war zones and other areas targeted by aerial bombing. Evacuations required administration and extensive logistics, and financial resources had to be obtained.
Governments and government agencies were involved in evacuations, but to varying degrees, and their political aims and motivations differed. The following chapter takes as its starting point the evacuations of Finnish war children to Sweden during World War II. It focuses on the sick Finnish war children whose evacuation and medical care in Sweden became a concern of the Swedish state. Based on an analysis of medical records, a local case of how such care was manifested is presented. The construction of children in the material is discussed in terms of what it says about evacuations and, more specifically, what it says about the state's role in such efforts.Evacuations of children without parents from war zones to more safe places, either within the country of origin or outside, are rare in today's Europe, while the arrival of unaccompanied refugee children from war-stricken countries, seeking asylum on their own without their parents and families, is more common. In the present chapter, a historical perspective on unaccompanied refugee children is introduced, showing how the image of evacuated war children as vulnerable and exposed and in need of protection and help, which was propagated during WWII, corresponds to the present construction of unaccompanied refugee children. However, while the children evacuated in WWII were moved by adults, the unaccompanied refugee children of today are on the move themselves, challenging these long-established constructions of war children as fragile and vulnerable objects.
2