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Verdingkinder, "contract children",
[''Swiss grapple with history of forced child labor'']
Associated Press, retrieved 24/11/2011 or "indentured
child laborers"
[''Swiss 'contract children' speak out'']
BBC, retrieved 19/1/2012; and Gianna Virginia Weber: "Das ’Verdingkind‘: Eine terminologische Annäherung" The ‘Indentured Child Laborer‘: A Terminological Approach" in: Markus Furrer, Kevin Heiniger, Thomas Huonker, Sabine Jenzer, Anne-Françoise Praz (eds.): Fürsorge und Zwang: Fremdplatzierungen in der Schweiz 1850-1980 (in German), Basel 2014 (Itinera 36), p. 249-258. were children in
Switzerland who were taken from their parents, often due to poverty or moral reasons (e.g. the mother being unmarried, very poor, of
Yenish origin, etc.), and sent to live with new families, often poor farmers who needed cheap labour. In the early 2000s, many of these children, by then adults, publicly stated that they had been severely mistreated by their new families, suffering neglect, beatings and other
physical and
psychological abuse. The Verdingkinder scheme was common in Switzerland until the 1960s.
[
]
History
Investigations by historian Marco Leuenberger brought to light that in 1930 there were some 35,000 indentured children; though he suspects the real figure was twice that much, and between 1920 and 1970 more than 100,000 are believed to have been placed with families or homes. There were auctions in which children were handed over to the farmer asking the least money from the authorities, thus securing cheap labour for his farm and relieving the authority from the financial burden of looking after the children. In the 1930s, 20% of all agricultural labourers in the Canton of Bern were children below the age of 15.
The petition ''Wiedergutmachungsinitiative
The Swiss children coercion reparation initiative (German: ''Wiedergutmachungsinitiative'') was a Swiss federal popular initiative to change the federal constitution, which was launched in April 2014.
Summary
In April 2014, the collection of S ...
'' for a "restitution package of about 500 million Swiss Francs (£327m) for the 10,000 contract children estimated to be alive" was launched in April 2014 and acquired the 100,000 signatures necessary to become a national referendum.
An official apology was made on April 11, 2013 by the Swiss government.[
]
In culture
In 2008, Roland Begert, an indentured child himself, published his autobiographical novel "Lange Jahre fremd", causing a stir in Switzerland, where authorities and the general public had previously shut their eyes. Begert's story told how disadvantaged youngsters were forcefully apprenticed and put to work in industry after the war, when there was a shortage of labour. In 2012 an exhibition called "Verdingkinder Reden" ("Contract Children Speak") toured Switzerland, drawing attention to the fate of these children. In the same year, ''Der Verdingbub'' ("The Foster Boy"), a feature film, was released, reaching number one at the Swiss box office.[
]
See also
* Kinder der Landstrasse
Kinder der Landstrasse (literally: Children of the Country Road) was a project of the Swiss foundation Pro Juventute, active from 1926 to 1973. The focus of the project was the assimilation of the itinerant Yenish people in Switzerland by forcib ...
* Wiedergutmachungsinitiative
The Swiss children coercion reparation initiative (German: ''Wiedergutmachungsinitiative'') was a Swiss federal popular initiative to change the federal constitution, which was launched in April 2014.
Summary
In April 2014, the collection of S ...
References
Child labour
Society of Switzerland
Child abuse in Switzerland
Child labour in Switzerland
Yenish people
{{Switzerland-stub