Young ELMS

Young ELMS introduces the escape-line story to younger audiences. The materials here are designed for school visits, family history projects and youth participants in the Freedom Trails. Use the links below to dive straight into the themed resources.

Learning Resources

Activities – Interactive puzzles, quizzes and games to explore the wartime home front.
Children at War – Accounts of wartime childhoods, rationing, evacuation and resilience.
History of Escape – Illustrated timeline and case studies that show how helpers and evaders worked together.
Young ELMS Book Reviews – Reviews written by students for their peers.

Young ELMS for Schools

Resources and activities specifically designed for teachers and classroom use:

Young ELMS for Schools – Curriculum-linked resources for teachers introducing pupils to the escape lines.
- Resources – Downloadable PDFs, worksheets and teaching materials.
- Secret Code – Learn the Prisoner of War Tap Code used by captives to communicate.
- School Links – Connect your school with partner schools across Europe, ELMS talks and teaching aids.

Beyond WW2

Post WW2 Escape & Evasion – Contemporary missions and how the traditions continued beyond 1945.

Explore More

Activities

Choose a game, puzzle or classroom challenge and complete it on screen. Printable versions are also available where they form part of the original Young ELMS school resources. Quiz Knowledge Quiz Test…

Book Reviews

Young ELMS Book Reviews All books below have been reviewed by young people for ELMS. Why not pick up a book and let us know what you think? “I HELP THE OLD TO REMEMBER AND THE YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND.” Ge…

Children at War

…And the kids did their bit too! Many people think of children during WW2 as just evacuees . True, many children were evacuated, taken from their homes in the cities to ‘safer’ parts of the country, b…

France & Belgium

World War 2 Escape Lines – France & Belgium The Pat O’Leary Line This line began in 1940 when stranded soldiers were ‘helped’ by French and Greek civilians in southern France. Following on from Du…

History of Escape

A Short History of Escape Where there are people held against their will, there will also be those who will escape. And where there is escape, there is always a ‘helper’. ‘Escape’ is something that ha…

Post WW2 Escape & Evasion

Post WW2 Escapers, Evaders and Resistance Korea · Vietnam · Falkland Islands · Gulf War · Sierra Leone Across the second half of the twentieth century, servicemen and civilians continued the tradition…

Schools

Young ELMS for Schools provides curriculum linked resources for teachers introducing pupils to the escape lines. Partner schools across Europe use these materials to connect local history with broader…