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1940. "Abandoned boy holding a stuffed toy animal amid ruins following German aerial bombing of London." Photo by the versatile Toni Frissell. View full size.
Turns out the kid did survive, although the story behind the pic is pretty sad. https://historydaily.org/toni-frissell-iconic
When a boy has his hippo, he can make it through a bad war.
To me that's one of the best pics Shorpy has ever posted, as it's so dramatic and telling of the hardships of the era.
We all have to hope the precious lad survived and lived a long
life
Although I was not born yet, my mother told me of a story from the war. The underground (subway) was where many people went when the sirens went off, my mother and my grandmother (I called her Nanny) did too. One particular time, my grandmother had come down with an illness and couldn't get out of bed. She insisted my mother go down, but she would not leave her bedside. On that particular day when the bombs fell, it broke a main water line and flooded the underground, hundreds died; my mother and my nan would have been among them, and I wouldn't be here now. I can never forget that.
[Some 60 people died when Balham Station flooded in 1940. - Dave]
Makes you wonder what the future held for him.
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