VERDINGKINDER REDEN
ENFANCES VOLÉES

FREMDPLATZIERUNGEN DAMALS UND HEUTE
REGARDS ET TÉMOIGNAGES D'ENFANTS PLACÉS

17. SEPTEMBER 2010 – 9. JANUAR 2011

At long last listen
What really goes on inside a child who has been separarated from its parents and who grows up in an alien environment? How does it cope with the absence of its attachment figures, with lack of security and ostracism? How does this influence the child? And how does it deal with this in later life?

The exhibition “Verdingkinder reden – enfances volées” wants to keep a chapter of Swiss history from being forgotten and wants to allow former discarded children and children raised in institutions to have their say in personal testimonies. At the centre of the exhibition are the audio documents. They were selected from 300 interviews, which were held in the course of two research projects about external placement and the system of hiring out children in the Romandie and in German Switzerland. Those affected talk about their lives, their recollections, and how they dealt with their experiences.

Basis of content
The history of extra-familial upbringing in Switzerland has not been fully explored scientifically. There are merely papers on individual institutions or regions. Therefore, many questions remain unanswered today. Beside the living conditions of the children, of their families and foster families, scientific research should also consider the motives, function, and sphere of influence of the authorities and educational institutions. This cannot be accomplished by this exhibition. Its assertions are based solely on the content of the interviews with former externally placed children held in the course of research projects of the Ecole d’Etudes Sociales et Pédagogiques in Lausanne and the University of Basel between 2003 and 2007.

Publications
The research groups have each published a book: “Versorgt und Vergessen”, edited by Marco Leuenberger and Loretta Seglias, Zürich 2008. “Enfance sacrifiée. Témoignages d’enfants placés entre 1930 et 1970”, edited by Geneviève Heller, Pierre Avvanzino, Cécile Lacharme, Lausanne 2005.

Accompanying Events in German >

www.verdingkinderreden.ch >

Material für Schulklassen >