Verdingkinder
Victims of the Verdingkinder were mostly children from poor families who were the authorities forcibly broke away from their parents and sent to farms to work. Many were beaten every day for years, or sexually abused, and because virtually no education were not, life is much less likely they could not run the same age as more fortunate peers. These children didn’t eat at a table with the family, with few rations were given to beat almost every day, but it is also the case that had to live in the basement. “One morning, when I was four, my mother took me on a train way out into the country, to a farm. Then she said, you have to stay here now. I think that was the moment I lost my faith in people, I had to work from the start, they hit me almost every day, it was bad.” – said Peter Weber, who now 55 and he has never forgotten the day, over 50 years ago, when his childhood ended. Some children were lucky enough to stay in farming families who cared for them, but by and large they were used as child labourers, in an era, when Swiss agriculture was not mechanised, and a great deal of work had to be done by hand.