Alfred Siegfried
| Alfred Siegfried | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 15, 1890 Lucerne, Switzerland |
| 💀Died | March 27, 1972 (aged 82) Oetwil am See, SwitzerlandMarch 27, 1972 (aged 82) |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Swiss |
| 💼 Occupation | Teacher |
Alfred Siegfried (born in Lucerne on February 15, 1890 and died in Oetwil am See on March 27, 1972) was a Swiss teacher.
He was the director of the racial hygiene program Kinder der Landstrasse, created in 1926 by Pro Juventute. In 2025, Switzerland recognized that this program constituted a crime against humanity.
Biography
Origins and family
Alfred Siegfried was born on February 15, 1890 in Lucerne. He was a citizen of Worb, in the Canton of Bern.[1].
His father, Karl Siegfried, was a hardware merchant; his mother was born Emilie Maria Josefa Lehmann[1].
He married Maria Anna Ermatinger in 1930[1].
Education and professional career
Alfred Siegfried attended normal school in Lucerne from 1906 to 1909 and worked as a primary school teacher in Lucerne from 1909 to 1913. From 1913 to 1921, he studied modern languages and history at the University of Basel, where he obtained a doctorate. From 1915 to 1918, he was a secondary school teacher and district secretary for Pro Juventute in Lucerne. In 1918, he became a secondary school teacher in Basel, where he was convicted of sexual assault on a student in 1924 and barred from teaching[1].
From 1924 to 1959, Alfred Siegfried was a member of the central secretariat of Pro Juventute. He was responsible for the section dedicated to school-age children from 1927 to 1957. In this capacity, he founded Kinder der Landstrasse, which he directed until 1958[1]. This “relief organization” separated parents and children of Travellers (Yenish, Sinti) until 1972.
He was president of the Swiss Working Community for Spanish Children from 1937 to 1939. In 1940, he founded, with Rodolfo Olgiati and Fritz Wartenweiler, the Swiss Relief Cartel for Child War Victims; he served as its vice-president from 1940 to 1941, during which time he also chaired the committee responsible for housing issues[1].
He was a member of the working committee of the Swiss Red Cross from 1942 to 1949 and served as its president until 1945. He participated in various child welfare committees within the organization during this period and chaired some of them. He was also a delegate of the Red Cross to Vienna and Budapest in 1946[1].
Alfred Siegfried authored numerous articles on social assistance for children and youth. He was convinced that the assimilation of Travellers would only be possible through the strict separation of children from their parents:
The asocial individual is always in a position of weakness compared to the general population; one way or another, they will be crushed and either integrated or rendered harmless. They are therefore of little danger to society. The asocial clan, on the other hand, must be evaluated entirely differently [...] Whoever wishes to successfully combat vagrancy must strive to break the association of Travellers; they must, as harsh as it may seem, tear apart the family community.
— Alfred Siegfried, [2]
Death
He died on 27 March 1972 in Oetwil am See, in the Canton of Zurich, at the age of 82[1].
Criticism and crime against humanity
The program "Kinder der Landstrasse", which involved separating Yenish and Romani children from their parents, considered by some to be akin to genocide[3], was exposed by Hans Caprez in several articles in the Schweizerischer Beobachter starting in 1972 and has been the subject of historical research despite resistance from Pro Juventute[4]. On 2025, Switzerland recognized that the measures of forced removal and placement of Yenish and Romani children from 1926 to 1973 constituted a crime against humanity but rejected the notion that it could be considered a genocide. The Federal Councillor heading the Federal Department of Home Affairs, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, declared that these events were "a very dark page" in Switzerland’s history and that ""[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Sara Galle (2011-11-25). "Alfred Siegfried" (in français). Translated by Olivier Meuwly. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
- ↑ Alfred Siegfried (1943-07-09). "Über die Bekämpfung des Vagantität in der Schweiz" [On Combating Vagrancy in Switzerland] (speech before a Pro Juventute committee in Zurich) (in Deutsch). pp. 1–2. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
- ↑ Thomas Huonker (2006-01-28). "Roma, Sinti und Jenische in der Schweiz – ein geschichtlicher Überblick" [Roma, Sinti, and Yenish in Switzerland – a Historical Overview] (PDF) (Speech at the Roma Day in La Prairie, Bern) (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2024-07-22.
- ↑ "Schlimmste Sippe" [The Worst Clan]. Spiegel (in Deutsch) (48). 1987-11-23.
- ↑ "Pour la première fois, la Suisse reconnaît un "crime contre l'humanité" à l'encontre des communautés Roms" [For the first time, Switzerland recognizes a "crime against humanity" against Roma communities] (in français). 2025. Retrieved 2025-02-21.
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