Verdingkinder

Common card · No. 314569

Verdingkinder, Verdingsbuben, "contract children", or "indentured child laborers" were children in Switzerland who were removed from their families by the authorities due to poverty or moral reasons (e.g. the mother being unmarried, very poor, of Yenish origin, neglect, etc.), and placed in foster 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 foster families, suffering neglect, beatings and other physical and psychological abuse. The Verdingkinder scheme was common in Switzerland from the 1800s until 1981.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Charles Martin and David Fairchild., Public domain