The Allocation

Well into the twentieth century, this was a reality in the Netherlands: children, the elderly, and people with disabilities were auctioned off to the lowest bidder. A forgotten practice that author Menno Lanting stumbled upon while researching his great-grandmother’s life story. In *De bestedeling*, he reconstructs for the first time this harrowing history of outsourcing, in which vulnerable people were treated as commodities. Drawing on archives, personal accounts, and historical documents, Lanting shows how this system worked—and what it meant for hundreds of thousands of lives. Although those placed in care were officially entitled to care and an education, the reality was often harsh and inhumane. *The Bestedeling* is a revealing and moving book about poverty, the will to survive, and forgotten lives. It sheds new light on a painful and little-known chapter of our history. “Out of a thousand families, one takes in a child out of love, and 999 do so because self-interest is the main or only reason for taking in other people’s children.”