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I.
For many US soldiers, the Second World War began on British soil, when they entered the country after January 1942 to prepare for the opening of a Second Front in Western Europe. Two and a half years would pass until, on D-Day, 6 June 1944, Allied troops would land in Normandy; these two and a half years amounted to little less than an occupation of Great Britain by American GIs. 1
When the recruits finally engaged in war in Europe, most of them did not know what to expect. In particular, few would have guessed that US engagement in Europe would not end with the war itself. For many GIs, the relatively short period of active combat was followed by an indefinite period of a 'second occupation': this time of the former enemy Germany. Both occupations - different though they were - brought US soldiers into close contact with the local populations, and in both cases thousands of children born of GI fathers to local mothers were left behind. Starting from an analysis of the contacts between GIs and local women in both countries, this paper aims to compare the experiences of the children born of these occupations and to investigate how attitudes towards them fitted into the shifting paradigms about national and individual identity and family life in the early post-war years. The focal points will be public and governmental debates and responses to children born of those two occupations. Particular attention will be paid to discussions concerning the one group singled out in both countries: children of biracial parentage. By comparing policy responses to what was perceived in both Britain and Germany as a 'problem' group, new insights into the post-war normative discourses on key issues such as family values, multi-racial society and human rights are gained.
With the United States' entry into the Second World War in December 1941, plans for a US presence in Europe quickly took shape. After a steady military build up between January and October 1942, US troop strength reached a temporary maximum of 228,000 men. Following troop movements to North Africa, resulting in a decline in numbers to about 105,000 in early 1943, 2 numbers soared again in preparation...