Children's detection in the Black Forest: trauma and abuse exposed
Children's detection in the Black Forest: trauma and abuse exposed
The memories of Bettina Rosenberger on the summer holidays 1975 are characterized by dark sides and pain. As a child of just twelve years, she experienced a time during her stay in a so -called recreation home in the Black Forest that she found to be trapped and oppressed. The strict rules that prevailed there made it impossible for her to laugh or to move without being afraid of punishment. "Anyone who was caught whispering had to stand on the cold hallway for two hours," she says and remembers the censored letters that the children wanted to write to their parents.
These shocking experiences form profound changes in their lives. Before these summer holidays returned as a happy and open child, she now felt quiet and sad. The stay left sustainable traces that it has developed a pronounced adaptability to this day, paired with the constant fear of showing misconduct. An example of her insights is that she ensures that she visits the toilet before each employment, a rule that she was preserved from the home.
The reality of the sentence children
According to estimates, around one million children in Baden-Württemberg experienced similar things to Bettina. The children were sent to the so-called recreation or spa homes, often with the hope of improving their health, while many suffered violence, neglect and abuse. These interventions should serve to promote children who were too thin or suffered from lack of exercise. But instead of healing, many children found terrible conditions.
nationwide, experts appreciate the number of sending children between 8 and 12 million. In the memories of the affected people, reports of ill -treatment, meal compulsion and the alienating atmosphere often appear in these facilities. Talks with the parents were so undesirable that many children secretly tried desperately not to worry their parents.
"The homes were chronically underfunded, the state supervision was only sparingly existing," explained Christian Keitel, project manager, when presenting the research results in Stuttgart. Many children who came back from these homes wore mental scars. "The children were terrified, many thought, they couldn't get back home anymore," added Keitel.
A look into the dark past
As part of their research, the experts created a list of around 470 homes in the southwest, which was active between 1949 and 1980. The majority of these facilities were in the Black Forest, including 56 in the Black Forest Baar district alone. Such numbers underline the extent of the problem that many families have kept silent for decades. The public discourse on these topics has increased in recent years, simply because the children of that time often did not have the opportunity to talk about their experiences.Bettina Rosenberger says that after her return from the home she did not find the strength to inform her parents about her bad experiences. When she was picked up by her father at the Stuttgart train station, she broke out in tears, which he thought was sad about the end of the holiday. Her words that she never wanted to go back to the home remained peppered with the hint that there was a deeper, inexplicable pain experience. "I didn't want to do a guilty conscience," she explains after many years of subsequent thinking.
In the self -help group for sentence children who have visited her since 2021, Bettina has started to process her experiences and tried to get out of the role of the victim. This community has created important support for many. However, the home stays and the associated trauma remain part of their history, which will never be fully completed for many affected people.
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