»Children Born of War«: The Life Course of Children Fathered by German Soldiers in Norway and Denmark during WWII – Some Empirical Results

This paper will address a particular group of individuals whose rights are often forgotten in the aftermath of wars and conflicts, the so-called “children born of war”. These are children who have been fathered by a foreign soldier and a local woman. In the first part of this paper, evidence from different countries will be presented and different categories of children born of war will be introduced. In the second part of this paper, some aspects of the life course of Danish and Norwegian children fathered by German occupying forces during WWII will be presented based on the results of a questionnaire survey. Finally, it will be discussed whether information accessible so far may be valid for children born of war in different conflicts at different times and to which extent it can serve as a basis for elaborating particular policies which secure the basic human rights of children born of war.