During the civil wars in Spain (1936-1939) and Greece (1946-1949), children were directly and indirectly involved in the conflicts, either actively participating in the war effort or as victims of hostilities, bombings, displacements, and, most importantly, orphanhood, hunger, and suffering. Each opposing side developed its own policy of care for the war-affected children, combining humanitarian, strategic, and propagandistic goals. Thousands of boys and girls were separated from their families and transferred to special centers to escape the hardships of war and to be educated according to the ideologies of each side. The separation from their families was a traumatic experience, but often offered them better living conditions and prospects for their professional rehabilitation or education.

The book "Children of the Civil War" comparatively examines the policies followed by the adversaries in the Spanish and Greek civil wars for the war-affected children. It presents the political and social conditions under which the "Social Welfare" (Auxilio Social) in Spain and the "Queen's Fund" in Greece were established and developed, the effects that the perceptions and practices of philanthropy and social welfare had on their work during the 20th century, as well as the ideological values on which these two organizations operated, identifying similarities and differences, continuities and discontinuities.