 about aid to children in Norway.
In the fall of 1946, an essay competition was organized for mainly 7th grade students with the topics ”A memory from the war” and ”When peace came”. The initiative came from The Norwegian Total Abstainers’ Society, and the essays are found in their archive. They give us a good opportunity to take part in the children’s own descriptions and interpretations of experiences from the war years and the peace day. Many of these essays describe dramatic memories that have made strong impressions. Bomb attacks and panicky stays in bomb-shelters, airplanes that have been shot down and encounters with traumatized prisoners of war, are among the themes. Some tell about the anxiety they felt when someone close to them were involved in illegal work, the fear of house searches and experiencing their father being arrested. Despite the fact that the events described often are dramatic, we also get insight into the elements of children's everyday lives, their everyday chores, and their food and housing situation. The children who chose the theme ”When peace came” not only tell about the overwhelming feeling of peace and freedom, but also about the everyday life in war that they left behind in May 1945.
PA-0379 Norske Kvinners Sanitetsforening (organizing of food and clothes for children, including in corporation with Svenske Norgeshjelpen (the Swedish help to Norway))
S-2073 Den norske Relief-Central i Sverige. About help for children, especially box 40 and 41