Hearing of former wards of the state who were being detained in ‘institutional care’ between 1945 and 1975, before the “Bundestag” Committee of the German Federal Parliament for receiving and hearing Petitions from concerned members of the public.

A hearing of former wards of the state who were being detained in 'institutional care' is to take place before the "Bundestag" Committee of the German Federal Parliament for receiving and hearing Petitions, on 11 December 2006.

The upcoming hearing is the result of a formal Petition brought before the Committee by the registered Association of former Wards of the State ("Verein ehemaliger Heimkinder e. V. ") on behalf of its members by the chair of the Association [non-members, however, are not for that reason necessarily excluded from the Petition].

The pertinent points of the demands made contained in the Petition are:

[1] the formal recognition of former wards of the state who were being detained in 'institutional care' as victims of all manner of the violation of their human rights;

[2] formal and binding provisions to be made to meet in full all legitimate claims of the Petitioners that they may have against the State and be entitled to as a consequence of the formal recognition of the violation of their human rights;

[3] the formal condemnation as totally unacceptable even by yesteryears’ standards of the practices of detention, correction, discipline, incarceration, solitary confinement and "work therapy" [brute force and brutality, and in many instances practices of incarceration, solitary confinement, compulsion and discipline going far beyond those which were even back then referred to as "Black Paedagogy"] that were being used and applied in order to compel children and minors to comply with all orders they were given and all that was expected of them, including all work requirements, whilst detained in ‘institutional care’ in Germany during the period from 1945-1975;

[4] the clarification of the question of pension entitlements for forced unpaid slave labour that children and minors were compelled to perform in these institutions (predominantly in church enterprises enjoying total tax-free status) under the failure of their masters and proprietors at the time to pay relevant health and superannuation contributions in respect of the work performed;

[5] the formal recognition and admission that all forms of forced unpaid slave labour that children and minors were compelled to perform as wards of the state detained in 'institutional care' constituted an unlawful and illegal act on the part of the perpetrators, proprietors and enforcers alike;

[6] a formal undertaking and guarantee that all costs for short and long-term current and future treatment and therapy that these victims of institutional child abuse may require as a consequence of current, recurring and residual traumata, including all forms of post traumatic stress, resulting from their unjust and unconstitutional detention and abuse, will be met by the State, without fail;

[7] a scientific study of this whole ingnominious chapter in the social history of the German Federal Republic;

[8] the consideration also, at the time when all these matters the subject of this Petition are being considered, of all similar events affecting former wards of the state who were being detained in 'institutional care' in the former East Germany [the former GDR – where the same ingnominious things happened to children and minors in 'institutional care', although to a far lesser extent than in the West];

[9] an actual open and public hearing before the "Bundestag" Committee of the German Federal Parliament for receiving and hearing Petitions, where former wards of the state who were being detained in 'institutional care' and are now the subject of this Petition are guaranteed an audience and will in fact be heard;

[10] an exhibition accurately depicting the institutional-life-situation of former wards of the state who were being detained in 'institutional care' in Germany during the period from 1945-1975 and of the conditions under which they were being detained and forced to perform unpaid slave labour, an exhibition which is not to exclude the desperate situation most of them found themselves in following their release, and many of them continue to find themselves in today, with a clear indication of how all these negative experiences shaped the remainder of their lives to almost every such individual’s serious detriment;

[11] the formal acknowledgement of full moral and legal responsibility by the State resulting from its failure to exercise duty of care (a) from the State-enacted and over decades applied child-internment policies and practices themselves and (b) from the totally inadequate supervision and control – in many cases indeed the total non-existence of supervision and control – over the institutions in which these children and minors were being detained by order of the State.

[12] the special creation of an independent Supervisory-Body overseeing all institutional care facilities currently existing or being planned (including all aged care facilities), in order to ensure, that similar abuses and human rights violations to those that former wards of the state detained in 'institutional care' had to suffer and endure in the past, in Germany, are not likely ever to occur again either in the present or in the future.

It is high time that Germany not only accept the constitutionally guaranteed and by international treaty covered Rights of the Child, but that it also without fail put into practice these Rights of the Child and that it leave no doubt at all that human rights in Germany apply to all citizen, adults and children alike, no matter what the age of any particular person.

It is high time that Germany begin to develop a real moral sensitivity to the grave injustices perpetrated when human rights of an individual are being violated and that it begin to realise and accept that abuse of the human Rights of the Child are equally a crime against humanity!

A detailed explanation and elucidation of the circumstances and conditions, under which former wards of the state who were being detained in 'institutional care' had to live and undergo unpaid slave labour, can be found under "Thema" [ @ http://www.vehev.org/Thema.html ].

A questionnaire for those of the former wards of the state detained in 'institutional care' who wish to participate in a survey, can be found here [ @ http://www.vehev.org/images/Fragebogen.pdf ].