The forgotten orphans of World War II

DW (English)

Luise was four when she had to flee East Prussia — then part of Germany, taken over by Soviet troops in 1944 — for Lithuania in the aftermath of WWII. She was one of thousands of German children forced to survive alone as borders shifted, and their parents died from disease, hunger, or violence. In Lithuania, she was given a new name and forbidden to speak her mother tongue.

Transcript

00:00Luisa Kvitsch and Johanna Rüger are among the last surviving wolf children, the forgotten

00:06children of Germany's exclave East Prussia, who struggled to survive in the aftermath

00:11of World War II.

00:12I remember once again that I struggled with a handful of people, and I was alone, I was

00:21alone.

00:22Just me.

00:23In 1944, as the Red Army advanced, it took brutal revenge on Nazi Germany for its invasion.

00:29of the Soviet Union and the atrocities German forces had committed there since 1941.

00:37Families in East Prussia were torn apart, homes destroyed, and a mass flight began.

00:43Children there, shielded up until then from the horrors of war, suddenly found themselves

00:48alone.

00:49Around 20,000 German children fled starving to neighbouring Lithuania.

00:56Alone in a hostile world, they became known as the Wolf Children.

01:02Luisa was four years old when she had to flee Königsberg.

01:06In Lithuania, she was taken in by a family, although it put them in danger.

01:10During the German occupation, the Wehrmacht had devastated the country, and German had become

01:15the language of the enemy.

01:16Luisa was given a Lithuanian name and forbidden to speak her mother tongue.

01:19When I was already in this family, the first was forbidden to speak German, only Lithuania.

01:28Luisa was given a Lithuanian name and forbidden to speak her mother tongue.

01:35When I was already in this family, the first was forbidden to speak German, only Lithuania.

01:42But at the same time, I made it heimlich, with my teddy bear, the same thing I became.

01:49There were many ost-preußische children in Lithuania, and we were all as if fascists.

01:58As they fled, they witnessed the sexual violence committed by Soviet soldiers, experiences

02:04that, along with hunger, marked them for life.

02:07I never wanted to marry Nini, because everything was happening here for me.

02:14I don't belong to this group, I am a foreign person, and at the same time, something has

02:21changed.

02:22After the war, Johanna was taken to East Germany, while Luisa stayed in Lithuania.

02:28Eighty years later, they came together in Lithuania, the country that had once saved their lives,

02:35to remember, and to grieve.

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