History Main / BlitzEvacuees

* The BBC reality television programme ''Series/{{Evacuation}}'' was all about this, taking a group of modern day children and putting them into the situation the evacuees faced.

** In ''Anime/WhosLeftBehindKayokosDiary, the titular child protagonist leaves her family in Tokyo to go to live with her aunt in Numazu for her own safety. This ultimately saves her life as the rest of her family (save for her immediate older brother) are killed in an American air raid.

The limitation of the plot device is that you're tied to a [=WWII=]-era setting, although similar stories can be written about refugees from later wars and political skirmishes in Europe, Asia, and Africa, especially children sent without parents. A variation occurs when the evacuees are sent out of the country, allowing for a FishOutOfWater story when they arrive ([[StrangerInAFamiliarLand or return]]). In fictional depictions they'll often be [[CreatorProvincialism shown going to America or Australia]], but in RealLife most overseas evacuees were sent to Canada (America not being in the war yet and [[TeamSwitzerland taking pains to appear neutral]], and Australia being too far away and in danger itself,... [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan yet.]])

* So long as the Blitz and a sustained government effort are required, the UsefulNotes/{{Soviet|Russia Ukraine And So On}}s would have the British trumped, at 25 million evacuees; fictional examples alone have not been fully accounted for. The focus, however, was not on the civilian population: [[IDidWhatIHadToDo the priority was to evacuate thousands of manufacturing plants]], with tens of thousands of trains' worth of industrial equipment shipped east of the Ural mountains, put back into use and the new factories built around them (sometimes InThatOrder). The RedsWithRockets had [[WeHaveReserves reserves]] because by 1942 the Soviet industrial production took the lead from Germany, and kept it throughout the war.

* Also by Michelle Magorian is ''Back Home,'' about an evacuee girl's experiences when she returns to her family. (This one was made into a movie too.) As she was evacuated to America, to a very 'modern' family, she experiences a ''lot'' of fish out of water on her return, having to adjust to a very different, and much poorer culture.
* The protagonists of Mary Norton's ''Literature/BedknobAndBroomstick''.

* ''Carrie's War'' by Nina Bawden is about two children evacuated to Wales.

* The children's fantasy novel ''Drift House'' gives this a modern upgrade; instead of being sent from London during WWII, the {{Kid Hero}}es come from New York City directly post 9/11. Their parents sent them to live in the countryside with their uncle after fearing that NYC is no longer safe.
* In Creator/JosephineTey's ''The Franchise Affair'', evacuee Betty Kane was orphaned during the Blitz and remained with the family who took her in, who were [[DotingParent Doting Fosterparents]]. Unfortunately she turned out to be a case of [[LikeFatherLikeSon Like Mother Like Daughter]], and eventually slandered the lawyer protagonist's clients to cover up some of her activities.

* Creator/ConnieWillis' SF novel ''Light Raid'' stars an evacuee protagonist. Running away from her evacuee home, dodging evac wardens and [[spoiler:rescuing her fellow evacuees from a spy]] are big parts of the plot. Oh, and finding something to wear.

* Michelle Magorian's [[RuleOfThree third]] drawing from this well is ''A Little Love Song/Not a Swan'', which is about 17-year-old Rose and her big sister Diana. They are sent to the English countryside in 1943, and end up living alone in a cottage outside a village.

* ''My Family For The War'' has an odd version. Fransiska Mangold was already an evacuee, escaping from Germany on a Kindertransport. Her first foster family was a wonderful family, though surprised at having accidentally taken in a Christian child (both sets of grandparents had converted long before she was born, but she counts as Jewish to the Reich), but the second set was awful and got on her case for being German. Happily, she is able to return to her first foster family before too long. Unhappily, her actual father dies and she is never really able to reconcile with her mother after the war.
* In Creator/EvelynWaugh's novel ''Put Out More Flags'', the protagonist makes money off of an abominable group of urchins by leaving them with different families and then blackmailing the families into removing them from their home.

* Kit Pearson's trilogy (''The Sky is Falling'', ''Looking at the Moon'', and ''The Lights Go On Again'') deals with the fish out of water concept as 10-year-old Norah and her 5-year-old brother Gavin are shipped from Kent (in the southeast of England) to Toronto, Canada. The first book features Norah's homesickness and resentment of Canada (the second is her adjustment to adolescence), while the third is Gavin's unwillingness to go home [[spoiler:especially after their parents are killed in a V-2 raid. This is one of those 'very rare fictional examples'.]]
* In ''A Tale of Time City'' by Creator/DianaWynneJones, Vivian is sent to the country to live with her cousin, but is abducted by {{time travel}}ers after she gets off the train.
* ''Thirteen Never Changes'' by Budge Wilson deals with this trope. However the story is told from the point of view of a Canadian girl who has to adjust to an English girl living with her family as well as the many other children who have also arrived (including a rich girl her best friend immediately bonds with, the rich girl's handsome cousin and a snotty younger girl).

* ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'' uses the "host family is magic" example to start the plot. Three kids orphaned in the Blitz are sent to the country, and find out they're living with a witch in training. Incidentally, the movie's star, Creator/AngelaLansbury, was a Blitz evacuee herself (the LimeyGoesToHollywood version).

* In ''Film/NannyMcPheeAndTheBigBang'', the cousins sent to live on the farm are refugees from London during World War I.

* It was done by UsefulNotes/NaziGermany too, with the KLV (Erweiterte Kinderlandverschickung, or "Extended Relocation of Children to the Countryside") during the worst of the Allied bombing of German cities. Close to half a million German children, mostly from Hamburg and Berlin but also from Cologne, Dresden and Dusseldorf, were relocated by 1941, with a estimated total of nearly 3 million by the end of the war. Children were moved either to host families or government-sponsored KLV camps.

* The refugees from the war UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} is waging in UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} (both the displacements inside and outside the country) since February 2022 are essentially women and children (men between age 18 and 60 are forbidden to leave the country to be available for conscription). A number of the children [[https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unaccompanied-and-separated-children-fleeing-escalating-conflict-ukraine-must-be are not accompanied]].

* The refugees from the war UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} is waging in UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} (both the displacements inside and outside the country) since February 2022 are essentially women and children. A number of the children [[https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unaccompanied-and-separated-children-fleeing-escalating-conflict-ukraine-must-be are not accompanied]].

* In ''Film/NannyMcPheeReturns'', the cousins sent to live on the farm are refugees from London during World War I.

* In ''[[Film/NannyMcPhee Nanny McPhee Returns]]'', the cousins sent to live on the farm are refugees from London during World War I.

* Similiar thing happened in UsefulNotes/{{Finland}} during the Winter War and Continuity War, when parents sent their children to foster families in the neutral Sweden. Some of the children returned to Finland after the war was over, some never did.

* The refugees from the war Russia is waging in UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} (both the displacements inside and outside the country) are essentially women and children. A number of the children [[https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unaccompanied-and-separated-children-fleeing-escalating-conflict-ukraine-must-be are not accompanied]].

* Averted by the Royal Family. Despite constant pleas from Winston Churchill's cabinet to send her daughters to Canada to escape the blitz, Queen Elizabeth (the consort of George VI) stoically replied "The children won't go without me. I won't leave the King. [[BadassBoast And the King will never leave.]]"

* So long as [[ThoseWackyNazis the Blitz]] and a sustained government effort are required, the Soviets would have the British trumped, at 25 million evacuees; fictional examples alone have not been fully accounted for. The focus, however, was not on the civilian population: [[IDidWhatIHadToDo the priority was to evacuate thousands of manufacturing plants]], with tens of thousands of trains' worth of industrial equipment shipped east of the Ural mountains, put back into use and the new factories built around them (sometimes InThatOrder). The RedsWithRockets had [[WeHaveReserves reserves]] because by 1942 the Soviet industrial production took the lead from Germany, and kept it throughout the war.
* It was done on the other side too, with the KLV (Erweiterte Kinderlandverschickung, or "Extended Relocation of Children to the Countryside") during the worst of the Allied bombing of German cities. Close to half a million German children, mostly from Hamburg and Berlin but also from Cologne, Dresden and Dusseldorf, were relocated by 1941, with a estimated total of nearly 3 million by the end of the war. Children were moved either to host families or government-sponsored KLV camps.
* Similiar thing happened in Finland during the Winter War and Continuity War, when parents sent their children to foster families in the neutral Sweden. Some of the children returned to Finland after the war was over, some never did.

Subtrope of WarRefugees.

* In one of Denis Norden's humorous monologues on ''Radio/MyWord'', he reminisced about his own time as an evacuee (in 1935 for [[RuleOfFunny some reason]]), with the daughter of the couple he was billeted with teaching him the ways of the country. Although just ''how'' clueless the young Norden was about nature was taken UpToEleven: