Knowledge available so far indicates that the consequences for many of the children have been devastating, independent of whether the relationship between mother and father was of a loving or exploitative nature. The children are born with a stigma of belonging to the enemy and are often treated as such, both, at the social and political level. Some have been abandoned, abused, mobbed, excluded from family and community and even harassed by the state.

Little evidence exists on this topic, as the mothers are often too bitter, shameful or traumatised to talk about it. The children themselves may have no knowledge about their real biological origin or they know, feel and hear about their origin from relatives or community members, but are too afraid to address the issue – they learn from early years that this topic is a taboo.

Nevertheless, some information exists from different conflicts and countries such as children fathered by German soldiers and local women in occupied countries during World War II, children fathered by US soldiers and Vietnamese women during the Vietnam war, and children born of rape as a military strategy of ethnic cleansing during the civil war in former Yugoslavia. 

Some researchers working on this topic in different historical and geographical contexts met in Cologne in December 2006. A summary of questions address at this meeting can be found below.