Young and vulnerable, some had no family of their own and no-one to protect them.Alone and with no support, they were brought to live in institutions where they hoped for love and care.
What many of them found was as far from their ideal as was possible.
Abuse of many kinds, perpetrated by many individuals, the memory of which has lasted for many years.
Now the victims of such abuse in both Catholic and state-run institutions in Northern Ireland are making their anger heard.
The publication of the Ryan Report in the Irish Republic was the most recent catalyst.
Commissioned in 2000 and published this year, it was damning in its verdict of what happened in similar institutions in the Republic of Ireland.
Physical, sexual and emotional abuse there was described as "endemic and widespread".
Discrimination
The group Justice for the Victims of Institutional Abuse in NI said that report should have also covered Northern Ireland and they were discriminated against because it did not.
The victims now want their own report and political and public support for their goal is getting stronger.
Just a short time after they handed over a petition containing thousands of signatures, the Assembly supported a motion calling upon the Executive "to assess the extent of abuse and neglect in children's homes in Northern Ireland".
It is the first step on a long road for the victims.
Patrick Murphy, 71, and his brother William, 65, were young boys when they were orphaned.
They were separated, but unknown to the other, they both spent time in Rubane House in Kircubbin.
It was a place where they were both subjected to shocking and distressing abuse, graphic in its detail.
"Literally terrified"
Patrick was the first to go there, aged 11.
"One one occasion, I was sent down to collect a film and they gave a ten shilling note and when I got down to the bus stop I found out that I had lost it," he said.
"I was literally terrified so I jumped on the bike and just started cycling and ended up on some beach somewhere.
"The police came along and picked me up and when I came into the police station, I can remember very well what they said.
"PJ you come along now, there is a good lad. All this in front of the police. And no sooner was I outside the police station until I was picked up as though I was an animal into the back of the car."
The warning to Patrick was chilling.
"The took me by the scruff of the neck and and hit me round the head and said - 'next time you do that, you will not end up in a police station'.
The reception back at Rubane House was even worse.
"I was taken downstairs and they cut all my hair off which was something terrible then. They then put me across the table and literally beat me with a cane on the bare buttocks.
"I felt that if I could have ended it, I would have done."
Crushed
William also went to Rubane House later, not knowing that his brother had already been and gone.
Having previously lived with foster parents he describes as "good people", he was in for a shock in his new abode.
His account contains graphic detail of sexual abuse by one of the monks, known as brothers, who lived there.
"I was put into a shower along with a big brute of a brother. He took his cloak off and I had to soap him and wash him down," said William, his voice breaking with emotion.
"Then I remember a bell going - it must have been for lunch or something and he told me that I was not to tell anybody what happened. That was to continue after that for years.
"You could have woke up in the middle of the night and a brother standing naked in front of you.
"When you were sitting at the end of the bed, he would have stood on your feet and if you did not know what he told you, he would have stood on your toes. Many a night my feet were crushed."
Patrick and William have only recently been able to speak to each other about their own experiences.
Patrick explained why they both believe now is an important time for the victims.
"Most of the people I have met have tried to bury it but we cannot. It keeps raising its head," he said.
"It's as real now as it was in the fifties when it was happening."
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SIC: BBC