It happens in free societies as well as in dictatorships. But in East Germany, the topic has been hidden for ideological reasons. Including the victims, according to a study.
Ronald is twelve years old and finds Railways great. The leisure offer of the pioneer organization Ernst Thälmann comes in handy: He can participate in a project as a ticket checker. Great, he had found it, “may it be”. So it is in the on Wednesday in Berlin presented a study on sexual abuse in the GDR. But soon, by Ronald lives hell. For three years the child is raped by an employee of the project is brutal.
What has to suffer, the Boy in the East of the divided country, would have to him can also happen in the West. Because the circumstances that enable abuse, are not a question of the political system: trust is abused. Perpetrators can be parents, teachers, schools, coaches in sports clubs or churches. A major difference between the East and the West, there was but: In the DDR of child sexual abuse was a taboo, because he damaged the image of the allegedly superior socialist man.
Crime statistics were manipulated
For ideological reasons, crime was captured with a low physical damage unlikely to be statistically or published. So the Regime tried to give the impression that socialism will bring about a “crime free society”, says Cornelia Wustmann. The teacher and social worker has been involved in the study and, since January, the research group “Torgau – home education in special children’s homes in the GDR”. The Cover up and Hiding of the crime has not resulted in gender-based violence according to the study, “that they existed as well as child abuse and child killings so that more or less”.
Behind the walls of the children’s home of Torgau, the GDR attempted Regime, the small occupant ideologically re-educate
The reactions of the victims were then again as in any other society: feelings of shame and guilt. No opportunities to talk about sexuality. Lack of trust to reveal themselves to adults. Victim Ronald puts it this way: “I really had someone I could talk to. My father might have been someone else. But the power was too rarely at home.”
“Organized violence” in the children’s home Torgau
The basis of the now published study, 29 written reports of the Victims, whose names have been changed. Almost two-thirds of those Affected are women. These reports were in the statistical sense, not representative, stressed the authors Team. Particularly useful the Closed youth Torgau was a visit to the memorial “”. Corinna Thalheim was in 1985, several months in this notorious GDR children’s home. Her “crime”, as she says herself: “for a couple of days of school absenteeism”.
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Wrong state of the GDR, a victim remembered
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Wrong state of the GDR, a victim remembered
The home experienced as “organized violence” with a single goal: “re-education”. Today, Corinna Thalheim is involved in the Initiative “Twisted souls”, the support group of Victims of sexual abuse in the GDR homes single. The policy calls for more financial and medical support. Many of those Affected lived “on the border to old-age poverty”. What is likely to be due to the fact that most get due to the lack of legal regulations, no funds from the victims compensation act.
“Silence holds up today”
This is also why the Independent Commission’s support for the reappraisal of child sexual abuse, the claims of the victims. Necessary, among other things, therapy offers and advice, the former Federal family Minister Christine Bergmann said. The social Democrat, is a member of the Commission. “The Silence was and continues until today.” The current study should also encourage others Affected, “the silence taboo-breaking”.
Those Affected also ask that the limitation period for sexual abuse to repeal a criminal to keep legal processing of the cases open. So far, only two victims have shown the perpetrators. In both cases, no one was convicted.