JPA OneToMany not deleting child

i have a problem with a simple @OneToMany mapping between a parent and a child entity. All works well, only that child records are not deleted when i remove them from the collection.

The parent:

@Entity

public class Parent {

    @Id

    @Column(name = "ID")

    private Long id;



    @OneToMany(cascade = {CascadeType.ALL}, mappedBy = "parent")

    private Set<Child> childs = new HashSet<Child>();



 ...

}

The child:

@Entity

public class Child {

    @Id

    @Column(name = "ID")

    private Long id;



    @ManyToOne(cascade = CascadeType.ALL)

    @JoinColumn(name="PARENTID", nullable = false)

    private Parent parent;



  ...

}

If i now delete and child from the childs Set, it does not get deleted from the database. I tried nullifying the child.parent reference, but that did not work either.

The entities are used in a web application, the delete happens as part of an ajax request. I don't have a list of deleted childs when the save button is pressed, so i can't delete them implicitly.

Any pointers? Thanks in advance for your time

Source: Tips4all