Swiss Verdingkinder and Yenish Child Removals
Contract children and Kinder der Landstrasse
Verdingkinder (contract children) were placed by Swiss communes into farms and households as unpaid labor well into the twentieth century, with documented beatings, sexual abuse, and neglect. Parallel "Kinder der Landstrasse" programs run with Pro Juventute removed Yenish children to erase travelling culture. Federal apologies arrived generations late.
Damage
Swiss authorities and charities forced children into farm labor and tore Yenish children from families for assimilation.
Lives lost
Abuse deaths incompletely counted; cultural destruction of Yenish kinship central
Record Points
- Municipal poverty policy treated children as auctioned labor units.
- Survivors report systematic physical and sexual violence in placement homes.
- Kinder der Landstrasse seized Yenish children for sedentary re-education.
- Church and charity partners collaborated with cantonal authorities.
- Rehabilitation funds and memorial politics remain contested by survivor groups.
Perpetrator(s)
Victims
Contract children in SwitzerlandYenish families in Switzerland