How Switzerland, Scotland And Norway Seized Children From Itinerant Families

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) In the 20th century, children from itinerant Yenish families in Switzerland were systematically taken from their parents and placed in institutions – part of a state-backed effort to destroy their way of life. Similar practices existed in Norway and Scotland, where for decades, authorities and charity organisations targeted people with itinerant lifestyles. This content was published on May 15, 2025 - 09:00 10 minutes Janine Schneider

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Between 1926 and 1973, Swiss authorities and charity organisations forcibly took Yenish children away from their families. At the end of February 2025, the Swiss government formally recognised these actions as crimes against humanity.
Switzerland was not the only country in 20th-century Europe trying to erase nomadic cultures.

Antigypsyism – a specific form of racism toward these groups – was widespread across Europe, and systematic abuses were committed in many places. Yet the practices in Scotland, Norway and Switzerland were notably similar.

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For decades, aid organisations in these three countries sought to eradicate nomadic or itinerant lifestyles by forcibly removing children from their parents – all under the guise of care, and with the backing of the state.

What Elizabeth Connelly experienced

In 1910, near the Scottish city of Perth, Elizabeth Connelly was sitting alone with her three daughters in their caravan when the“cruelty man” arrived – an inspector from the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He took them all to his office.

Elizabeth, who could not read, was made to sign a document which, unbeknownst to her, gave consent for her daughters to be taken away. Gracie, Mary and Margaret, aged between six and ten, were taken to a children's home, then shipped to Canada and forced to work as domestic labourers. They never saw their mother again.

Gracie, Mary und Margaret were taken from their mother in Scotland in 1910. Lynne Tammi-Connelly Arne Paulsrud did not know his origins

In 1944, in the small Norwegian town of Tollnes, seven-year-old Arne Paulsrud was taken from his mother and placed in a children's home. Staff at the institution told him that his mother was“unfit” and should never have had children. The two were forbidden from seeing each other.

Only as an adult, after his mother's death, did Arne Paulsrud learn that he was Romani. She had kept it secret out of fear of the authorities.

She too had been taken away from her parents and had grown up in foster care.

Ursula Kolleger was taken by the police as a baby

In 1952, in the Swiss village of Rüti, the police took six-month-old Ursula Kollegger and placed her in a children's home. The aim was to separate her from her family and raise her in a“settled” lifestyle.

Throughout her childhood and adolescence, the Yenish girl was moved from one institution to another. She was never allowed to see her mother again.

An estimated 12 million Roma live in Europe today, making them the continent's largest minority group. Despite a very heterogeneous population, they are united by their common language, Romani. While the vast majority of Roma do not lead a travelling lifestyle, they have always been regarded as a nomadic people – a perception shaped by centuries of persecution.

Roma who have lived for centuries in western and central Europe refer to themselves as Sinti. The term is particularly common in Germany. In Norway, Roma communities which have been there since the 16th century refer to themselves as Tater or Romani, distinguishing them from the Roma who came to Norway after the abolition of slavery in 1856, from what is now Romania.

Travellers and Yenish

Travellers in Scotland and Ireland call themselves Nawken or Mincéirí. They are not related to the Roma and have their own distinct language. However, like the Roma, they have long been labelled as“nomads” and subjected to similar anti-gypsy stereotypes and discrimination.

The same is true for the Yenish, who live in Switzerland, France and Germany, and who also speak their own distinct language.

Thousands of kilometres and many decades separate the experiences of Elizabeth Connelly, Arne Paulsrud and Ursula Kollegger. And yet their stories are disturbingly similar.

This is no coincidence. Since the 16th century, authorities in northern, central and western Europe have used deeply repressive practices against those who were pejoratively labelled as“gypsies” or“vagabonds.”

Banned from settling, refused citizenship, and turned away at borders, authorities chased them out under threats of drastic punishment and shuffled them around from one country to the next.

By the end of the 19th century, police in various European countries began collecting personal data on travelling communities in so-called“gypsy registers”. The Nazis later used these records to carry out the systematic persecution and genocide of Roma, Sinti, and Yenish people during the Second World War.

A decree by Empress Maria Theresa

But the destruction of a people often begins long before violence – with ideas, laws, and language, designed to erase them. In 1773, Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa issued a decree that Roma children as young as four were to be taken from their families and raised elsewhere. It is unclear how strictly these laws were enforced. But Maria Theresa's policies laid the groundwork for ideas that would become widespread in countries like Switzerland during the 20th century.

Starting in 1926, the Swiss charity Pro Juventute set out to remove Yenish children from their families to“settle them down” and thus combat the“evil of vagrancy”. By 1973, the organisation, supported by public authorities and church organisations, had taken 600 children from their families.

Today, an estimated 2,000 people are believed to have been affected by these removals.

Read more about how for decades, Pro Juventute, a Swiss charitable foundation dedicated to supporting children and young people, systematically tore nomadic Yenish families apart:

More More How Switzerland tried to wipe out Yenish culture

This content was published on Oct 1, 2023 For decades, the Swiss foundation Pro Juventute, which supports children and young people, systematically tore nomadic Yenish families apart.

Read more: How Switzerland tried to wipe out Yenish cultur

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