Interviews with five women who, as young girls, ended up against their will in sewing workshops and laundries of the convent community De Goede Herder. For years they worked without pay under miserable conditions.
Until now, little was known about the nature and extent of the forced labour, which an estimated 15,000 girls were forced to perform during their confinement in establishments of the Roman Catholic Congregation of the Good Shepherd in Zoeterwoude, Velp, Tilburg and Almelo. For the Oral History project A spoken Monument: Child Forced Labour Girls Good Shepherd, five of them were interviewed by historian Dineke Stam and documentary filmmaker Jet Homoet.
On 24 January 2020, the film interviews Alles ging op slot (Everything went on lock) were launched. The long interviews (3 to 4 hours) will be recorded at Atria for permanent access for digital research data (DANS) and made available as of 1 March 2020.
These film interviews fill a harrowing gap in the Dutch history of forced child labour within the walls of Roman Catholic ‘youth care’.