...and they looked quite a bit younger than us...

They probably were, school leaving age then was 15. I started work as a boilermaker apprentice at 16, having spent 8 months before that as a trainee because I was too young to start my apprenticeship. The bastards got 2/3 of a year extra cheap labour out of me.

"Save your tears for the living humans. "
Well said Peace, just because people were ill treated it doesn't mean that we should ignore or condone the ill treatment of animals.