Waiting: 1940

I have seen this picture before. The children are looking at British Spitfires fighting German Messerschmitts. Still a dangerous place to be.

I find it interesting to look at the expressions on the kids' faces.

Some look amused, others curious, some worried, one scared. Some of the older kids are holding the younger ones. All are looking up to see if the planes are coming.

The trench itself looks awfully flimsy... makes me wonder how many people died in trench collapses instead of the falling bombs.

"The next time I see some spoiled kid whine about having his xBox taken off for a month..."

My thoughts exactly.

And yes, this needs to be set to Pink Floyd music.

I just finished reading Judith Kerr's trilogy Out Of the Hitler Time- an autobiography of her childhood fleeing Germany, being a Jewish refugee in France and then England. Her description of the normalcy of life before the bombing, then what it was like to be in a building when the one next door was demolished, was one of the most vivid accounts I have read.

Judith Kerr would be about the age of the dark haired girl in the photo who is on the verge of becoming a young lady.

I wonder what happened to these children. I wonder if any are still alive and if they know they are on the Internet today.

To these kids, the bombs dropping was real. I'm trying to look in their eyes and see fear, but I hardly do. In fact, they seem to be almost amused.

I wonder how I, as a dad, would prepare my children to see the horrors of war. I honestly don't know how I would handle it. That's got to be one of the saddest and most difficult tasks a father must do.

The next time I see some spoiled kid whine about getting their stupid cell phone privileges taken away for a day…

Did you see the frightened ones?
Did you hear the falling bombs?

This is perhaps one of the most frightening photographs I've ever seen.