Parallels between Germany then and now

By Donald Hank

I recently received an email from the head of the leading German home-schooling association Netzwerk-Bildungsfreiheit (Educational Freedom Network), Jörg Grosselümern, containing the text of a message he received from an acquaintance. This message (translation shown below) shows chilling parallels between the child protection system in Hitler’s Germany and the practices in use today (see the recent Laigle’s Forum article http://laiglesforum.com/2007/11/18/silencing-dissidents-by-snatching-their-children.aspx). In all fairness, these practices are also quite similar to those in many regions of the United States. The main difference is that home schooling has never been completely outlawed in the United States, and that is why good Americans need to focus on the problems in Germany and help these parents recover their children and their dignity.

Below is Jörg’s email and the text with those parallels. Those who have seen “family” court in action in this country will also be able to draw parallels of your own with the femi-nazism that pervades the atmosphere there. They will further recognize the "it takes a village" philosophy in action.

Hello Donald,

An acquaintance of mine made me aware of the parallels with the former Nazi dictatorship and the terminations of child custody that occurred there.  For the most part, Jehovah’s Witnesses were the ones affected, but the grounds for why this was done were similar to those used today against Christians.  I am sending it along for you.  If you want and if you deem it worthwhile, you can translate it and distribute it abroad.  We need a major international protest against German policy.

Best wishes,

Jörg

It is quite chilling that the reasons stated by the authorities and courts in child custody terminations in Hitler’s regime (for example, State Court in Hamburg from 1936: … “due to endangerment of the mental wellbeing of children, who would have been denied participation in the national community…”) correspond in their spirit exactly to the decision recently rendered by the Federal Supreme Court.  Only the words have been chosen somewhat differently by the Supreme Court in order to conceal the fascist spirit of the decision.

What the authorities and courts formerly called the “national community” is now referred to as “the public” by the Federal Supreme Court.  And what was once referred to as “participation in the national community” is now deemed a justified interest in “counteracting the formation of religiously or ideologically characterized parallel societies and integrating minorities in this area.”

I briefly cite the following with sources given:

Quote 1: 

The fact that the National Socialist [Nazi] regime called for the child custody to be terminated for Jehovah’s Witnesses is a tragedy in itself.  As early as 1936, reports on this are found in the Nazi press.  The following is an excerpt from among these.

“Custody rights shall be terminated for parents who, as fanatical Bible students, cannot rear their children in accordance with today’s State and because this endangers the mental well-being of the children, who are thereby prevented from participating in the national community.  Decision of the State Court in Hamburg of 5 June 1936.

Excerpt from http://www.manfred-gebhard.de/1936.htm

Quote 2:

Ca. 500 children were actually abducted from their families and taken to reformatories because they did not sing the Nazi songs along with the others and did not say “Heil Hitler.”

Excerpt from http://www.schulserver.hessen.de/ssa_htw/buedingen/bs/schulhomepage/vons/b04/standhaft.htm

Quote 3:

At about the same time when the Gestapo took note of these conflicts, the authorities began a trend aimed at taking the children away from Jehovah’s Witnesses to protect them from the “bible study heresy” and to win them back for the “national community”...  

In their court proceedings against the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the school and youth bureaus sued for termination of custody and assignment of an officially appointed custodian.  By law, parents could be denied custody for “endangering the child’s welfare.”(25) The competent authorities, who interpreted the civil code according to their national socialist legal notions, considered it beyond question that the childrearing practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses was “endangerment of child welfare” and “mental and moral neglect,” in the vernacular at the time. (26)

From 1937 on, “reform school” according to ¶ 62 of the child welfare law, was ordered immediately in conjunction with custody termination.  For the courts, this step was always necessary when parental care was contrary to the goals proclaimed in the Hitler Youth Law: “All of German youth, except in the parental home and at school, shall be reared to serve the people and the national community physically, mentally and morally in the sense of national socialism in the Hitler youth.” (32) Thus, the parents were subject to the same care giving duties as the Hitler youth.  Because the Jehovah’s Witnesses did not satisfy these care giving duties “in the spirit of national socialism,” and did not send their children to the “Hitler Youth” or to the League of German Girls,” the national socialist state considered it its duty to assign the children in question to “reform school”…

Once separation of the children from their parents had been accomplished in individual cases, generally by the youth bureaus, the Gestapo sought a Reich-wide solution starting in 1937.  With the general decree of 21 June 1937, the secrete state police bureau in Berlin required all state police bureaus to “pressure the competent civil courts to terminate the personal custody rights of members of the International Bible Students Association who endanger the mental wellbeing of their children through their illegal activities and through their adherence to the teachings of the International Bible Students Association (IBSA), in accordance with ¶ 1666 of the Federal Law.”(31) By pressuring the lower court in this way, the Gestapo tried to influence jurisprudence in IBSA cases.  This attempt by the Gestapo to influence the civil courts had disastrous consequences.  Not only did the number of custody terminations increase enormously, but another enforcement tool, the “reformatory,” was resorted to…

The court stated in this regard: … they have also been refusing to give the mandated German greeting in the school, referring to a Bible passage commonly used by IBSA members. …

On May 5, 1938, the children disappeared from their home, Elise recalls how she and her sister were picked up by police officers and two deaconesses from Stuttgart: “one day, a car drove up to the school in Ahldorf. […] we refused to get in this car.  Of course, there were tears and a struggle, until we finally got in.  But, of course, we were no match for them.  The police and teachers were there and forced us into the car.” ."(36) The Uhlmann family is only one of many others who were “ruthlessly torn apart” (37) because of their religious views…

Early in 1939, they were picked up in school by the police at their principal’s request and, without notification of the parents, taken to directly to a reformatory in Dorsten, where mostly juvenile delinquents were housed…

Termination of custody rights and placement in reformatories for members of the International Bible Students Association were a very important component of the national socialist enforcement arsenal.

Excerpt from http://www.standhaft.org/forschung/verfolgung/kinder/doku.htm

I think it would make sense to make a broad American public aware of these relationships and the spirit of the Federal Court decision using a media campaign on CBN television and the like so that pressure can be brought to bear on the Federal Republic of Germany.  It may also be possible to get the UN Human Rights Convention involved, because Germany is torpedoing and bypassing international agreements through this landmark decision.