Children and war
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Websites
Military use of children
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_use_of_children
Useful Wikipedia summary of the historical context and current use of child soldiers worldwide.
Sparta: The fall of the empire
www.historynet.com/magazines/mhq/3033226.html
Extensive article that originally appeared in MHQ: The quarterly
journal of military history, covering Spartan education, government,
social system and ‘self-destructive behaviour’.
Is the Children’s Crusade fact or fable?
www.straightdope.com/columns/040409.html
Cecil Adams (‘the World’s Smartest Human Being’) answers this question on his website (and US syndicated column): Straight Dope: Fighting ignorance since 1973. The answer? A little bit of both.
A Powder Monkey’s Life
www.twogreens.com/wakeup/peopleonboard/pdrmnky.htm
Enthusiasts’ site with the story – based on fact – of Samuel Robbins who, as a 13-year-old, served on HMS Victory. Includes photographs of modern children dressed in clothes of the period and posed on the Victory.
John Travers Cornwell
www.seacadets.co.uk/vc/cornwell.htm
The story of the 16-year-old who died at the Battle of Jutland and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Hitler Youth
www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/index.html
A ‘complete history in five chapters’ on the History Place website. Also contains audio clips of the Hitler Youth anthem (which ends ‘our banner means more to us than death’) and of speeches by Hitler and Hitlerjugend founder Baldur von Schirach.
World War II: 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Division fought in Normandy
www.historynet.com/magazines/world_war_2/3024746.html
Article from World War II Magazine about the 12th SS Hitlerjugend Division, whose ranks were filled with boys as young as 16 and which fought fanatically and suffered appalling losses.
Children’s Rights: Stop the use of child soldiers!
www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/hrw-reports.htm
Links to recent Human Rights Watch reports on the worldwide use of child soldiers.
Statement of Angelina Acheng Atyam
www.hrw.org/reports97/uganda/angel.htm
Personal testimony of the mother of a Ugandan child soldier, kidnapped
when she was 14 years old. Ms Atyam is co-founder of the Ugandan Concerned
Parents Association.
Worldwide Problem of Child Soldiers
www.teachkidspeace.org/doc300.php
Overview and statistics of the global use of children in warfare, on the Teach Kids Peace website, a project of HonestReporting/Middle East Media Watch.
Books
The Spartans: An epic history by Paul Cartledge (Pan, 2003)
Cartledge argues that the Spartans are our ancestors, every bit as much as the Athenians. But while Athens promoted democracy, individualism, culture and society, Sparta embodied militarism, totalitarianism, segregation and brutal repression.
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The Face of Battle: A study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme by John Keegan (Pimlico, 2004)
The direct experience of individuals at 'the point of maximum danger': the physical conditions of fighting, the emotions and behaviour generated by battle and the motives that impel soldiers to stand and fight rather than cut and run. Keegan conveys the reality of three battles for the participants, whether facing the arrow cloud of Agincourt, the levelled muskets of Waterloo or the steel rain of the Somme.
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Life in Nelson’s Navy by Dudley Pope (Chatham Publishing, 2003)
An account of shipboard life in Nelson's navy at the end of the 18th century, when the Royal Navy dominated the world's oceans. The book covers every aspect of naval life: ships, daily routine, medicine at sea, food and clothing, arms and battle, and the face of the enemy.
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Trafalgar: The biography of a battle by Roy Adkins (Abacus, 2005)
This is the Battle of Trafalgar as seen by the crews of the British, French
and Spanish ships who fought it. Where this book really scores is in the
many excerpts from letters written by ‘ordinary’ seamen of both sides.
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Boy Soldiers of the Great War by Richard van Emden (Headline, 2005)
Groundbreaking oral history of the more than half a million British boy soldiers who fought in the trenches, drawing on the stories of the last survivors as well as on diaries and letters.
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A Social History of the Third Reich by Richard Grunberger (Penguin, 1977). Out of print; may be available from libraries or specialist bookshops.
Hitler's Germany was horrific, yet a sort of ordinary life went on. How did people talk during the Third Reich? What films did they see? What political jokes did they tell? What was the impact of the regime on farmers and the family, the Churches and civil services, health care, education, ‘justice’, the army and the arts?
A Hitler Youth: Growing up in Germany in the 1930s by Henry Metelmann (Spellmount, 2004)
Autobiography of a railway worker's son who joined the Hitler Youth at the age of 12 and became involved in the Nazi movement, which was passionately opposed by his parents. A detailed and sometimes painfully honest personal account.
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In a Raging Inferno: Combat units of the Hitler Youth 1944-45 by Hans Holzträger (Helion, 2005)
The author spent many years collecting material and interviewing veterans of the Hitler Youth combat units. The result is a fascinating and sometimes disturbing book, packed with eyewitness accounts and rare photographs.
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Children of War: The Second World War through the eyes of a generation by Susan Goodman (John Murray, 2005)
Compelling first-hand stories reflecting not only British life in the towns, suburbs and countryside, but also the experience of those who arrived as refugees.
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Armies of the Young: Child soldiers in war and terrorism by David M Rosen (Rutgers University Press, 2005)
With a critical eye to international law, Rosen urges readers to reconsider the situation of child combatants in light of circumstance and history before adopting uninformed child protectionist views. In the process, he paints an unsettling picture of the role of children in international conflicts.
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My Gun Was as Tall as Me: Child soldiers in Burma by Kevin Heppner (Human Rights Watch, 2002)
An account of the presence of children as young as 11 who are recruited into Burma’s national army.
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Innocents Lost: When child soldiers go to war by Jimmie Briggs (Basic Books, 2005)
The horrific stories of some of the thousands of children who have fought in three dozen conflicts around the world, dramatically told in their own voices.
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