Following the end of the devastating conflict, children of East Prussia went to great lengths in order to survive.
For Gisela Unterspann, the trauma of war still lingers. She feels her painful experiences as a child who had to grow up without her parents were ignored.
In the aftermath of World War II, children were often left without parents to help them bear the fallout of conflict. This was true for children of East Prussia who were separated from their families during the final stages of war. Likened to wandering hungry wolves, many of the children, isolated from humanity, were left to roam through unforgiving forests in order to survive. They became known as the “wolf children.”
The chaos created by both legislated and unofficial expulsions of Germans made it difficult for families to reunite and had a heavy impact on the fates of children of East Prussia. Some were sent to Soviet children’s homes, others fled to Lithuania and some to a new and divided