Without Parents: Learning from Journeys of Children Shipwrecked by History

Abstract Journeys of children, who were “shipwrecked by history”, can teach us about the way they built themselves as they were separated from their parents, often irreversibly. The objective of this article is to highlight what could be thought and implemented today for children in need of protection measures, based on these specific experiences. Two pieces of research are put into perspective. The first refers to “the children of Terezin”. A. Freud reported on the evolution of these children for over a year. Thirty years later, Moskovitz wanted to find out what happened to them. The second piece focuses on children of Reunion Island, exiled to mainland France. Two salient points are common: filiation and affiliation; the clinic of symbolization.