For around four centuries, ecclesiastical and secular courts pursued alleged witches, with active involvement from the population. However, it was not only adults who were put on trial from the 15th to the early 18th century. Numerous children, the exact number of whom has not yet been determined by scholars, were also accused of witchcraft and sorcery offenses and executed. Over four hundred of these cases are presented for the first time in this study, undergoing detailed analysis. The focus of the investigation is on the legal proceedings involving Swiss witch children, which, after a long period of taboo, are now entering modern research in this way. By incorporating the cultural and mental history of the time, the study explores the following questions using the example of the witch children: Under what sociocultural, demographic, and economic conditions, or based on which religious and legal-political models, is a society willing to sacrifice members of the next generation? And what mechanisms causally determine this behavior, which appears across different epochs, despite contradicting the principles of humanity and endangering the preservation of the species?.