Evacuee children’s things: coat, suitcase and ocarina

The Second World War (1939–1945) forced the movement of tens of millions of civilians in Europe. In Finland, too, many people had to leave their homes, either temporarily or permanently.

Those who had to leave included children who had been evacuated from the border regions of Finland and the Soviet Union and from the outer islands of the Gulf of Finland and sent to other Nordic countries, as well as those who had fled the city bombings and the Lapland War (1944–1945).

The experience of leaving becomes concrete through the items taken. The coat of a little boy and the ocarina packed in a girl’s suitcase in the collections of the National Museum of Finland are such items. They are a reminder of the brutal nature of the war, which affects the lives of civilians and is still very much with us.