Children of War – Denmark 

According to research figures 5,579 people born in Denmark during or just after the German occupation are registered as children of German fathers. Their affiliation cases, which were dealt with during the period 1940 – 1951, are all registered with the Ministry of Justice, and the documents are kept in the regional archives and/or the Record Office. Until very recently information on affiliation cases in these archives was inaccessible, also to the children concerned.

Some affiliation cases in which the father was German suffer from faulty registration or register a Danish father. A qualified estimate of the actual number of ”German children” in Denmark  (also called war children), i.e. children with a German father and a Danish mother is therefore in the region of ten to twelve thousand...

 These children are now adults, and during recent years, when ”German children” have been the subject of public debate, many of them have pursued a wish to acquire more details about their roots.

Children of War – Denmark (Danske Krigsbørns Forening, DKBF) was formed in 1996 in the hope that it would become a forum where Danish war children could give support to each other, exchange experiences and get advice if they wished to find information on their paternal parent. Amongst other things, the association has obtained a ruling giving war children access to the archives holding their affiliation cases. Today the association has approx. 250 members, and many more have received counseling.