Some escape while others pay
In the same war, one family can flee the country to safety while a child without such a family is caught and killed. Who survives depends partly on who has somewhere to run and someone to take them.
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An outsider sees the stakes first
A newcomer with no settled place, not even a proper name of his own, can grasp what a political crisis means while the comfortably rooted children around him remain unaware. He then becomes the one who explains it to others and stirs them to act.
Watching war turns into joining it
Children who first only observe a battle in their own town can move quickly from spectators to helpers of the resistance fighters. Seeing the violence up close is what draws them in.