Unveiling the War Child Syndrome: Finnish War Children's Experiences of the Evacuation to Sweden During WWII from a Lifetime Perspective

During World War II, a total of 48,628 Finnish children were evacuated to Sweden and placed into temporary foster care. We studied the long-term effects of early separation among aging evacuees using a mixed-methods approach. The purpose was to understand how the evacuees experienced the evacuation event from a lifetime perspective and to determine the features of a possible war child syndrome. The evacuees expressed problems related to loss of confidence, detachment or rootlessness, and unworthiness or rejection. Feelings of rejection and unworthiness provoked shame in many of the reports. Our results suggest that support interventions should focus on processing these painful experiences.