Saksalaisten sotilaiden lapset. Ulkomaalaisten sotilaiden lapset ...

generally took care that the adopted child was raised well and received an
education. For these reasons, these illegitimate children have succeeded in their
fields and had good or at least reasonable jobs. The adopted children may also have
been by their nature positive and balanced. Compared to other illegitimate children
of German soldiers, the children who were adopted are the group that coped best.
Many illegitimate children fathered by German soldiers grew up in the care of their
grandparents and particular their mother's mother in their earlier years. The
explanation for this is the awkward personal situation of the mothers in the late
1940s and early 1950s. If a mother had a job and an income that sufficed for two
people, she was able to acquire a home for herself and her child and to arrange day
care in one way or another. These women continued their lives as single mothers.
However, only some of the mothers of illegitimate children had this opportunity.
At least a third of the women who answered the questionnaire adopted another
survival strategy. The arrangement required that the child remain home, often in
the care of the grandmother, while the mother left to live and work in another
community. From the beginning, this arrangement was meant to be temporary and
the grandmother often provided the care on an on-going basis. These women
intended to abandon this system as soon as their income and life situation were
better organized.
Having the grandmothers take care of the children while the mothers worked in
another community served the interests of the mothers in many ways. When the
family that had raised the mother was taking care of her child, she could be certain
that her child was safe and living in reasonably good conditions. This also meant
that child care could be arranged with individuals who had not shunned, rejected or
blamed the mother. When care was unofficially set up in a small family circle, it
could be silently arranged and hidden from public view. Often only the
acquaintances, near neighbors and friends of the grandmother knew or had an
inkling about what was going on. When the child care had been arranged with the
grandmother, the mother was left free to look for work elsewhere. Generally, this
proved to be easy after the child care had been arranged. Moving to a new job
broke the visible connection between the mother and the illegitimate child fathered
by a German soldier, as at most few knew about the mother's past in her new
community.
When the relatives, neighbors and locals at home knew about the child fathered by
a German soldier, a mother often encountered rejection, grief, and accusations, so
that a move to another community served as an escape route from the gloomy and
repressive conditions at home. In their new community, these women had an
opportunity to focus on their jobs and on getting their lives in order. Many of them
succeeded in these efforts in a couple of years. They did contribute to their
children's upkeep from their jobs by sending money or otherwise compensating
their own mothers by sending children's food, clothes, and supplies. The mothers of
the illegitimate children sent these items through the mail or they brought the
supplies themselves when they came home on holiday. As a consequence of these
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