When Chamberlain and Hitler signed a document that Germany would not invade any other country, as he was dabbling to invade small neighbors. This document was called The Munich Conference. To avert war Chamberlain allowed Germany to occupy Sudetenland, the German speaking part of Czechoslovakio.
This news was greeted with much jubilation in Britain. The British people were desperate to avoid another war. Their main, ally, France was weakened and definitely not ready for fighting a war. Many British people were most ignorantly sympathizing with Germany, which they felt had been treated unfairly unfairly following it's defeat in 1918. I'm sure that the hundreds of thousands of British soldiers did not share that sentiment.
The infamous Munich Conference was described as unmitigated disaster, when Germany attacked Poland and Britain declared war. Churchill took over where Chamberlain left off. Interestingly and sadly of course ,Chamberlain died of colon cancer. Ironically, Britain eas in much better hands under Churchill.
What happened to the British civilians is not often thought of, but rather the different battles in the war are discussed. Well, the government wanted to evacuate all children and infants to the countryside. The evacuation was obviously designed to protect them from the expected the bombing onslaught of London and surrounds. At this stage of the war no bombing was taking place and the people called it the phoney war. Little did they know! An advertisement headline in a newspaper of August 1939 read: 'Visit the Belgian coast where everyone is happy, peaceful and smiling'.
The operation of evacuation was called:' Pied Piper'. The country was divided into zones. The major centres were billited on the available private housing in more rural areas. In other words, families that were able to take in children and care for them, sending them to school etc. This was a good idea and thousands lifes were saved, but these families received a healthy allowance to take care of these poor displaced children.
There were those only interested in the money and not dedicated to the children. As horrible stories have emerged, I will share one that could drive the strongest to tears. A 9 year old girl who had a very close relationship with her mother in London had to be re-homed. The spinster whom she was placed with, treated her like a slave, didn't allow excursions to the parks, library, socializing etc.
This particular girl was plump with healthy cheeks, was placed in the cellar and only received small rations and water. When she was finally able to get the attention of the spinster's brother, he broke down in tears as he saw this scrawny girl, cobwebs in her hair and black with coal. The spinster was admitted to an asylum by her brother.
Luckily other children found homes with surrogate mothers, fathers and the rest of the family. As the war intensified, more children were evacuated, even to some British colonies. How traumatized an experience that must have been, especially to those who lost their own mothers in the bombings.
Sources : Wikipedia, Danann Bookazines, Own knowledge.
