Emma Dal Mas about „Post-war childhood relief: the case Caritas Children in Austria.“

Emma Dal Mas, European University Institute, will discuss childhood relief actions in Austria after 1945; specifically, she will address actions carried out by Caritas Austria. For her research she used materials preserved at the Austrian State Archive, at the Diozesaner Archiv in Vienna, and issues from the Diozesaner Zeitung and Viennese newspapers. While Caritas planned the Kindertransporte abroad so that children could recover from Austrian winters, childhood was also central for the psychological and material renewal of post-war Europe.

First, Emma Del Mas will discuss how after World War II families were conceived by the Catholic Church as a bulwark against the advance of Communism, then she will focus on the poor post-war childhood conditions of the Viennese children. To fight back malnutrition and a TBC epidemic, the Austrian state founded the In-und Auslandshilfe. However, while Caritas reported to the Austrian authorities on its own relief activities, the Christian associations organized the Kindertransporte as a private matter. Once abroad, children were hosted by Catholic families in Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland for a period that could go from six months to one year. To conclude, she will analyze the case of the transports to Spain.

Emma Dal Mas is currently working as a PhD Researcher at the European University Institute. Her research areas include the History of XX Century, Central European History and History of Migrations. Publication: ‘Le Missioni dello Special Operations Executive in Veneto: 1943-1945. Aspetti generali e peculiarità, Protagonisti. Rivista dell’Istituto Storico Bellunese della Resistenza e dell’Età Contemporanea, XLIV, no. 125, December (2023): 69 – 94.