Dateline: May 15

On Tuesday night, Dateline explores a very dark chapter in Switzerland’s history, in a tale which sounds deeply familiar….

Up until the 1950s, hundreds of thousands of Verdingkinder – or contract children – were taken from their parents, or from orphanages, by the government, and exploited as cheap labour. Up until the 1980s, others were locked up in ‘re-education’ institutions for their perceived rebellious or promiscuous behaviour.

In the most extreme cases, babies were taken away from their teenage mothers, who were then sterilised.

Dateline video journalist David Brill travels to Switzerland and meets some of the stolen children, now grown, but still living with the vivid memories of their youth. With parallels to Australia’s Stolen Generation, he finds that the stories behind Switzerland’s dark chapter in social engineering are only now being revealed.

Many victims are now speaking out, fighting for recognition and compensation from the government. Only some of Switzerland’s stolen generation have received an official apology for the years of mental and physical abuse they endured, which for some continued into the 1980s.

This has been a taboo topic in Switzerland for decades, but David Brill reports that the secrets of the past are now being brought to a wider audience. This year an exhibition about the fate of many children has toured Switzerland, and a feature film Der Verdingbub (The Contract Boy) was released and reached number one at the Swiss box office.

9:30pm Tuesday on SBS ONE.