Aryan slaves, Jews, Russians, Slavs and European men

It seems bizarre to imagine that Finland and Switzerland, which today are among the countries with the best quality of life on the planet, suffered from slavery in their recent histories. While the Finns were treated as a commodity on the Black Sea, between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries, Switzerland has been tarnished by the practice have done to their own people. And it until at least 35 years.
Crimean-slave-tradeWikimedia Commons
Even before the horror of black slavery left deep wounds in their history, the forced migration of people for slave labor was a reality that haunted people today go further than we could imagine being exploited.
The Egyptians enslaved the Jews of antiquity, while the Romans enslaved the poor, barbarians and criminals, often without ethnic distinction (between centuries I and V, most slaves were born in Italy). After the fall of the Roman Empire, it was more a matter of Christians against Muslims: some enslaving others, according to the area they had. It is no coincidence that many extremist Islamic state currently defending the enslavement of "infidels": no escape or other less radical Muslims.
But human trafficking Crimean had a different focus: most slaves were white from Ukraine, Poland and southern Russia. And among them, few men workers. The exploited people were children and women for domestic service - which often included sexual exploitation.



The Crimean Khanate was largely supported this trade, and had a preference for women and children who had an exotic beauty and therefore more valuable. The market there valued blacks from sub-Saharan Africa and Circassian peoples of the Caucasus. However, the most expensive and profitable variety was, by far, Finnish children between 6 and 13 years old. Blondes with blue eyes and preference, these children were bought from smugglers in Karelia district, south of Finland, and resold for a profit margin of up to 133,000% in the Black Sea.
under-the-yoke-trimmedWikimedia Commons
Russians, tartares and Persians used to mount numerous offensive to Finland for the specific purpose of capturing children to sell them on the market. At the time, there was a consolidated Finnish state and although the territory already had almost all been converted to Christianity during the Middle Ages, a large portion of the population was still pagan. Thus, they had no church's protection and were still treated as potential purchase for both Muslims and Christians. To get an idea of ​​the horrors that these Finns faced, it was estimated that at least once every 10 years between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, local villages suffered attacks in search of slaves. Some families pay to recover their relatives, but most did not have enough money. And children caught too young to walk were abandoned on ice until death.



This may seem very distant in time, but in the case of the rich Switzerland, the practice spread between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The "Verdingkinders" (in Portuguese: Children under contract) were taken children from poor families and single mothers by the authorities under the pretext that they would not have living conditions. Then the boys and girls were sold to farmers and factories, where they would be condemned to forced labor. Interestingly enough, most of these children also suffered from constant beatings and sexual abuse. This was a common reality at least until the 50s.
The documentary Verdingkinder Reden (unpublished in Brazil), 2012, includes testimonies of many of these people were denied childhood. An estimated 100 thousand children have been enslaved during the period. The end of practice came only in 1981 with the addition of clauses to Swiss law in order to ensure that deprivation of liberty under the purpose of social assistance became illegal. However, the stain left on the history of the country was so strong that even today it is treated as taboo - both by those who were enslaved when the authorities. The Association for Stolen Children (Association for Stolen Children, in Portuguese) chaired by Walter Zwahlen, has only 40 members (even with the estimate that 10,000 children enslaved are still alive), and the first official apology from the country came only in 2010, after a parliamentary inquiry he recognized as unjust imprisonment of several women who were "fugitive" from the fields where they worked. A project to offset the enslaved victims being processed since 1999 the Swiss parliament. But so far, nothing has been set.