Friday 16 November 2018, 18:30
Swiss Social Archive, Stadelhoferstrasse 12, Zürich – Media Centre
Book launch attended by authors Sabine Bitter and Nathalie Nad-Abonji with address by Yangchen Waldburger Zahn
Industrialist Charles Aeschimann had 160 Tibetan child refugees brought to Switzerland at the start of the 1960s. The “Tibeterli” were to grow up in the proper care of foster families, receive a sound education and then return as a young élite to their families, whether in exile in India or perhaps in the newly freed Tibet which many exiles expected
These children still had real parents and this brought criticism on the Olten industrialist’s scheme. It was said that Aeschimann lacked the necessary experience for what he was doing. Nonetheless federal authorities let him proceed. How was an individual effort of this kind possible? What has since become of these children? How do we view the contested program now? This new book searches for answers to a number of outstanding questions and contributes to the record of resettlement in Switzerland from other lands in the second half of the 20th century