The child evacuees of World War Two

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 1 September 1939 was Kitty Baxter’s ninth birthday, it was also the day her life and millions of other people’s changed with the beginning of World War Two. Kitty was among the hundreds of thousands of children taken out of UK cities and into the countryside, away from the risk of German bombs. She’s been speaking to Laura Jones. (Photo: Child evacuees leaving a London train station. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	My Indian Life is back for season 3, the podcast that explores what it means to be
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0:40.2	When War broke out across Europe in September 1939, over three days,
0:45.7	hundreds of thousands of children were evacuated from cities around the UK
0:50.4	and sent to live in the countryside.
0:52.4	I've been speaking to Kitty Baxter, who was taken from London to the rural county of Suffolk
0:57.4	in the east of England.
0:58.8	The children are evacuated from the fear of war that may be fought over our own city streets.
1:03.6	That danger remains and every mother who loves her children should leave them in the peace of the country.
1:09.3	With this all we're going out for the day, we all jump on the coach laughing
1:13.2	when I got on the coach at her and wave to my mother and she was crying and I didn't know why she was crying.
1:21.9	Before the world changed in September 1939,
1:25.4	life for eight-year-old Kitty Baxter in Canberwell London was full of her family.
1:31.2	We lived in accounts for flats, two bedrooms.
1:34.7	We slept five in the bed, but that didn't matter.
	...

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