Children in the Great War

Child. War.

Two of the most antinomic words.

Yet, from 1914 to 1918, the war was an integral part of children’s lives and, 

conversely, children were at the heart of war. 

Be they witnesses, victims or actors, they were incapable of escaping a conflict that upset their lives, deeply, daily and totally. Confronted with the psychological, physical and symbolic violence of the war, and the brutalisation of society, children became the precious legacy of the period’s wartime culture.