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Federal Councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and Guido Fluri of the foundation bearing his name pose in Langenthal in front of the approximately 800 invited former indentured children.
Keystone
Around 800 former indentured and institutionalized children gathered in Langenthal on Saturday. In her speech, Federal Councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider recalled the deep wounds that compulsory welfare measures and out-of-home placements left on society.
The Guido Fluri Foundation had extended the invitation to the national summer festival. Baume-Schneider, this year’s guest of honor, stated in her speech that those affected “deserve historical clarity and an honest examination of what happened.” What had happened to them was wrong.
Switzerland has begun to come to terms with what happened. This requires patience and courage. “We must ask all the questions, including—and especially—the uncomfortable ones,” said Baume-Schneider. There are still too many gray areas, particularly regarding the persecution of the Yenish and Sinti. This process of coming to terms with the past must be conveyed in museums, universities, history books, and schools.
According to Guido Fluri, the initiator of the reparations initiative, the guests are among the last surviving eyewitnesses to a dark chapter in Swiss social history. “They experienced severe mistreatment and abuse in homes and on farms, in foster care, or in church settings. Their biographies and memories are now part of Swiss history,” the foundation’s statement read.
The Guido Fluri Foundation gained prominence in 2014 with the launch of the Reparations Initiative. Its goal was to secure financial reparations for indentured children and victims of compulsory welfare measures, as well as to facilitate a scholarly examination of the issue. In 2015, the Federal Parliament adopted a counterproposal that incorporated the key points of the initiative.
Until 1981, tens of thousands of children and adults in Switzerland were affected by compulsory social measures or out-of-home placements. Indentured children were exploited as cheap labor on farms, experienced severe physical and psychological violence, and were often sexually abused as well.
Victims included indentured and institutionalized children, Travellers, Yenish people, and forcibly adopted children, as well as individuals committed to closed institutions—so-called “administratively cared-for persons.”
13.06.2026, 12:30
13.06.2026, 13:00
