trotzdem da! 
One of the largest camps for Polish displaced persons, with more than 2,000 people, was set up in the former Flossenbürg Concentration Camp in Bavaria.
Photo: unknown. Private property Danuta Grygorczyk
The German Wehrmacht’s unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 marked the end of the Second World War in Europe. The previously forbidden relationships between Germans and prisoners of war or forced labourers were no longer prosecuted. In the chaotic conditions of the early post-war period, couples found it difficult to reunite or stay together. Liberated prisoners of war returned to their home countries, while others, including many former forced labourers, were housed in camps for displaced persons (DPs) by the Allied military administration. The people in these camps were looked after by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Some of them were sent back to their home countries against their will.
It is not known how many former forced labourers and prisoners of war were able to take their children home with them. For fathers who previously had been prisoners of war or had been deported for forced labour, as well as for German fathers, the end of the war usually meant separation from their wives and children. Once released, German women who had been imprisoned for “forbidden contact” were sometimes able to return to their children if the latter had stayed with relatives. Other children, however, continued to grow up in foster or adoptive families.
It is not known whether the child was born from a forbidden relationship.
Photo: H. Budowle. The National Archives, College Park, Maryland, United States
After liberation, Johann Maciejko wanted to stay in Germany with Thea Klingenhäger in order to raise their child together. However, her family opposed this. Johann Maciejko emigrated to the United States in 1947. He never saw his son Detlef again.
Private property Klingenhäger
Even after liberation, parents of children from forbidden relationships often remained stigmatised. Reproached for having had an illegitimate child with the “enemy”, German women who returned to their hometowns from prison continued to be ostracised. Married women were also accused of adultery. Women who were merely accused of having forbidden relationships were shunned as well.
The suffering of these women remained taboo in the post-war societies of the divided Germany. Many of the women remained silent about their experiences of persecution out of shame. Former forced labourers from the Soviet Union who returned to their home countries were especially likely to be suspected of having collaborated with the Germans. They tried to keep secret their relationships with Germans and to conceal the origin of their children born from such relationships.
Józef Swiontek and Marie Döscher married after the end of the war. Marie’s German citizenship was revoked when they married. In the 1950s, she and their children were able to gain citizenship in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Arolsen Archives
At school, Eduard Spörk was insulted as a “Franzosenkind” (Frenchman’s child). When he asked his mother about the meaning of the words, she told him about his father, the former French prisoner of war Antoine Ménan.
Photo: unknown. Private property Spörk
Growing up without a father was not uncommon in Germany in the immediate post-war period. Many fathers had been killed in the war, found themselves as prisoners of war of the Allies, or were considered missing. However, children whose fathers were known to have been forced labourers or prisoners of war were often treated differently to most other children. For many of them, marginalisation remained part of their everyday life in their local environment even after liberation, especially at school, and sometimes even within their families. They were often stigmatised as illegitimate children and for being outside social norms. The children were repeatedly subjected to racist insults and discriminated against.
At school, Eduard Spörk was insulted as a “Franzosenkind” (Frenchman’s child). When he asked his mother about the meaning of the words, she told him about his father, the former French prisoner of war Antoine Ménan.
Photo: unknown. Private property Spörk
