A Book by Kerstin Lieff and Sonya Winterberg

Wolf Children of the Eastern Front by Kerstin Lieff and Sonya Winterberg is a remarkable and thought-provoking book that sheds light on a lesser-known aspect of World War II. Through extensive interviews and meticulous research, the authors bring to the forefront the poignant stories of numerous children who were caught in the midst of this devastating conflict. The book delves into the lives and experiences of children who were inadvertently left behind, orphaned, or abandoned during the final years of World War II on the Eastern Front. Many of these children were born and initially raised in what was once a part of the Nazi Third Reich, specifically in the region known as East Prussia. However, as the war drew to a close and Germany was facing defeat, the fate of these innocent souls took a drastic turn.

The aftermath of the war saw the division and occupation of Germany, and these children found themselves in a world torn apart by political upheaval and societal fragmentation. With their homes destroyed, families torn apart, and their future left uncertain, they were forced to navigate a landscape of chaos and uncertainty. While some of these “Wolf Children”, as they came to be known, managed to find new lives and opportunities for themselves, the majority were left destitute and desperate. Struggling to survive amidst the ruins, they faced not only physical challenges but also emotional and psychological hardships. The scars of their childhood experiences continued to haunt them well into their adult lives.

Through the stories shared in Wolf Children of the Eastern Front, the authors seek to bring attention to the plight of these people, and perhaps shed light on a marginalized group that Germany should have been helping for nearly 70 years now. Another book I read last year, The Forgotten German Genocide, talks about similar groups of people that fell victim to German expulsions from previously held Nazi territories, usually by the USSR.

“During the bitter winter months of 1944-45, hundreds of thousands of Germans fled East Prussia from an advancing Red Army. […] In the ensuing chaos, 20,000 children lost their families – to the mayhem, to starvation, epidemics or gunfire. Even the youngest suddenly found themselves alone in the world, needing to forage for food and find shelter. They hid in bullet-riddled barns and wandered from house to house, begging for help. While many died, there are the few that managed to survive. Their experiences are unimaginable: toes frozen off, endless hunger, rape, physical abuse. Those considered lucky were eventually taken in, even lovingly cared for, primarily by Lithuanian farmers, but nearly to the last of them, they grew into adulthood illiterate and poverty-stricken. Yet a surprising truth lives within nearly every one of these victims – an overwhelming sense of hope and forgiveness. They are the Wolf Children.”

– Pen & Sword Military publishing

The authors go to great care to talk to some of these surviving “Wolf Children”, now almost certainly elderly, to discuss their lives and what they remember about the end of the war. In some cases, the person has acclimated to a normal life, and with others, the scars of their youth are still very present. The narrative jumps in between the authors taking part in a tour of Germany put on through a charity that helps “Wolf Children”, and the interviews conducted with willing participants from that same trip. Some 35 “Wolf Children” tried to experience a taste of their former homeland some 65 years after they left. Some wanted to try to reconnect with family, while others wanted to see if they could find anything of their pasts – family photos, names, records etc. Most of these people on the tour ended up living in Lithuania and never truly assimilated into Lithuanian society. They moved through life like ghosts, often used as slave labor or exploited due to their status as being nearly stateless and without any sort of parental guardianship.

After World War II, the fate of East Prussia was sealed as it became a divided territory between Poland and the Soviet Union, with a small chunk of land ceded to Hitler going back to Lithuania. These events reshaped the geopolitical landscape, leaving lasting effects on the region. The partition allocated large portions of the once German territory to the Soviet Union, including the notable region of Kaliningrad. A large portion of the “Wolf Children” found themselves, at least temporarily in Lithuania, that is until being a German was deemed illegal there. Ones that could pass as being “real Lithuanians” got to stay, whereas others were almost undoubtedly sent off to East Germany.

Some of the participants found old wounds opened on the trip, with an example being a somewhat distressed woman that wanted to meet her brother, only to discover he had no desire to see her. For a lot of these survivors, attempting to go back to Germany after the fall of the USSR was not as easy and happy as they had expected. Their mere existence was a blemish on the German psyche, a reminder of a bygone era that most Germans wanted to move past. For most of these people, middle-aged in 1991, they found that their families were largely deceased, incapable of taking them in, or entirely disinterested in being burdened with destitute uneducated family members that they had not seen for 40 years. Jumping ahead an additional 20 years past that (2017 was the tour I believe) was even worse for anyone that held out hope for that long.

Some of the saddest things to read about in this book are the lost identities of the “Wolf Children”. Many adopted new names depending on where they ended up, and many learned a new language, losing their native tongue in the process. Many had to suppress their pasts since their existence was illegal in many parts of the USSR, including Lithuania, with many finding that spilling it was a one-way ticket to deportation or a forced labor camp in Siberia. Many participants felt that they were living a double life and yearned to go “back to how it was”, no matter how impossible that would be.

One man was forced to leave his adoptive Lithuanian family in his early twenties and managed to escape to West Germany, so his mind was clouded for decades about how his life would have been had he stayed there. He had met up with the group, one of a few “Wolf Children” that spoke German in any way, and realized he would have likely been dead already had he stayed. Lithuania has a low life expectancy, rampant alcoholism, and a high suicide rate. He realized he had dodged a bullet and was finally at peace with his past.

Overall, this book was somewhat bleak and goes to really show that the total cost of any war does not end when the final shell is blasted from a cannon. 2023 has seen numerous horrible conflicts flare up, and when reading books such as this, I can’t help but wonder about similar cases happening. Are there modern Ukrainian “Wolf Children”? Palestinian? Iranian? It’s sad and makes one feel somewhat powerless to do anything about the situation. I’m glad I read Wolf Children of the Eastern Front by Kerstin Lieff and Sonya Winterberg and hope more of these people have found peace. I know that nearly eighty years have now passed since the end of World War II, and with that I’d imagine most of the “Wolf Children” are sadly deceased. Even if direct action, like pensions or governmental assistance, for these people is largely not possible, hopefully they can remain a case study of how NOT to treat people after a war. The “Wolf Children” of East Prussia were “an inconvenience” after the fall of the USSR, and that dismissive attitude ultimately did so much harm to people that had already been through so much.

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NOTE: I received a free preliminary, and likely unedited copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of providing an honest, unbiased review of the material. Thank you to all involved.