Baby No. 12
An investigation series that exposes how an adoption programme orchestrated by one woman thrived in the years after the Second World War, and continues to impact those effected decades later.
August 2025
This project is a global investigation into an adoption scheme that began in Switzerland in the 1950s, and the trauma that haunts the victims today.
In the aftermath of the Second World War adoption in Europe was loosely regulated and birth and children’s right rarely respected. One Swiss adoption agent, Alice Honegger, saw an opportunity and exploited the loopholes and lack of control in adoption, in Switzerland and in the rest of the world until she died in 1997. The result is that thousands of children were displaced by Honegger via Switzerland.
Baby No. 12 focuses on the early career of Alice Honegger where she facilitated the displacement of children born out of wedlock in Switzerland, from Swiss and migrant women and placed them with affluent North American couples. This investigation reveals the true scope of the scheme and the responsibilities of the Swiss authorities. We know that she carried on this activity for decades, despite multiple legal rulings and complaints against her.
Through archival research, interviews with historians and adoption experts in Switzerland, this investigation uncovers a little-known pattern and explores the moral and legal limitations of a decades-old scheme that continues to ripple effects and real world consequences to this day.
Baby No. 12 has been published with leading media outlets in Switzerland, Italy and the United States. The podcast series produced with Rai in Italy was awarded the Silver Tower award in the Investigative Journalism Podcast category at the 2025 NYF Radio Awards.
The project is supported by Journalismfund Europe.
Illustration credit: Sveva Vicenzino.
In the aftermath of the Second World War adoption in Europe was loosely regulated and birth and children’s right rarely respected. One Swiss adoption agent, Alice Honegger, saw an opportunity and exploited the loopholes and lack of control in adoption, in Switzerland and in the rest of the world until she died in 1997. The result is that thousands of children were displaced by Honegger via Switzerland.
Baby No. 12 focuses on the early career of Alice Honegger where she facilitated the displacement of children born out of wedlock in Switzerland, from Swiss and migrant women and placed them with affluent North American couples. This investigation reveals the true scope of the scheme and the responsibilities of the Swiss authorities. We know that she carried on this activity for decades, despite multiple legal rulings and complaints against her.
Through archival research, interviews with historians and adoption experts in Switzerland, this investigation uncovers a little-known pattern and explores the moral and legal limitations of a decades-old scheme that continues to ripple effects and real world consequences to this day.
Baby No. 12 has been published with leading media outlets in Switzerland, Italy and the United States. The podcast series produced with Rai in Italy was awarded the Silver Tower award in the Investigative Journalism Podcast category at the 2025 NYF Radio Awards.
The project is supported by Journalismfund Europe.
Illustration credit: Sveva Vicenzino.
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Publications
I nuovi segreti delle adozioni in Svizzera
Internazionale, Italy
28 February 2025
Revealing Ground Zero of the Swiss Adoption Scandal
New Lines Magazine, United States
30 December 2024
Ein «hübsches Baby» für den CIA-Kadermann
Beobachter, Switzerland
24 December 2024
La bambina numero 12
Rai, Italy
12 October 2024