Beate Kelly, author of Il-Germanizi: Jugendamt Deutschland and the c(h)ase of children in Gozo Part 1 launched recently, and which tells the gripping story of the German children who were under a German care order and reported missing back in Germany in June, said she is a victim of the Jugendamt (the child welfare department in Germany) in the same way other German families discovered to be living in a Gozo apartment in June, are.

She said that the Jugendamt took her grandson away from her elderly daughter’s care for no apparent reason.

Ms Kelly then sought ways to get away from the system so that history does not repeat itself with her other grandsons. She ended up in Gozo living with Marcus and Sonja Bergfeld. Her grandson who was taken away by the Jugendamt has been placed in foster care ever since he was taken away in 2012.

“Only last year,” she said, 40,000 children were taken away by the Jugendamt, and this, she added, is a result of a “failed” child welfare system.

 “Nobody has the power to supersede the decisions of the Jugendamt,” Ms Kelly explained.

Several international media reports speak of the Jugendamt’s Swat-style raids in homes of German families to take children away from the care of their parents without any reason whatsoever.

Ms Kelly’s book gives an account of two German children and their mother, German national Sabrina Albrecht, found in Gozo leading to the abduction of her children. In an interview with this newsroom, the Bergfelds had claimed that their five children had been taken away by the welfare department (the Jugendamt) and this was the reason why they had set up a foundation here.

Initially, it had been thought by local police when they first discovered one of Ms Albrecht’s children roaming in a field that she had abandoned her child. Further investigations revealed that the children were under a German care order and reported missing back in Germany.

Initially, the Gozitan police had also reason to believe that it was a case of human trafficking when they discovered a number of families living in the same Gozo apartment, but this was not the case.

The Bergfelds had set up a website to promote their foundation, which was not registered in Malta and said that they were using it as a means to raise funds to ‘assist’ families in their situation. It was pulled down after The Malta Independent had released excerpts of the website which promoted Malta as a “safe haven” in more illegal ways than one.

‘I was told by the Bergfelds that they would get me a job in Malta’

Ms Kelly said that when her grandson was taken away, she started to search the internet to find more information on the Jugendamt, initially thinking that the case of her grandson was an isolated one.

However, the more she surfed the net, the more she discovered that thousands of families had been victims of the Jugendamt, all victims having their own chilling story to tell.

Ms Kelly then stumbled upon a website which spoke of Malta and Gozo being a safe haven for victims of the Jugendamt and that the founders can help them flee the system and start over afresh.

“When I first contacted Ms Bergfeld, she said that she would help me get a job. On my arrival, she said that they were out of funds, contrary to what their website stated, that they assist families financially until they find a job.

“The next thing I knew, I was paying for food and water for all the German families who were living at the Gozo apartment. Ms Albrecht was the next one on the list to pay for food and water the following week. There was never any mention about me getting a job here either,” she said.

Ms Kelly said that she, along with other family members, escaped from the Bergfelds a week later after they arrived.

“From the very beginning, I smelt a rat; the foundation seemed quite unreal to me,” she said.

“I strongly suspected I was about to be taken for one long ride,” Ms Kelly continued.

Author was a whistleblower on separate case; says could never find a job in Germany after that

Ms Kelly said that she was a whistleblower in a case involving elderly persons in Germany.

She explained that she worked at an elderly home in Bavaria but could not go on witnessing the horrific events which took place at the supposed elderly care home.

Recounting some of the incidents, she said that at least three elderly patients had fallen down the steps, which did not have adequate protection in place, with their wheelchairs. Two of the victims had died as a result.

“I had reported the case to an individual who is quite popular and influential in Germany, who in turn reported the case to the authorities and to the media. After that, I could never find a job in Germany again,” she said.

She also implied that her grandson was taken away by the Jugendamt as a vendetta for having spoken out on what went on at the elderly residence.

Ms Kelly also wrote a book on her whistle blowing case entitled Hello Adolf, Hello Eric, referring to Adolf Hitler, and Erich Honecker (the leader of East Germany between 1971 and 1989). The title of her book implies Germany is still living those times. Germany has no whistleblowers’ act in place.

Turning to the case of the German children in Gozo, Ms Kelly said that one won’t find one single report in the media on the case and this is all a result of the authorities’ influence on the German media.

“I had been interviewed by two German journalists from two different media organisations on the Gozo case but heard nothing ever since,” she said, adding that the journalists disappeared into thin air.

“The way the Jugendamt operates makes one think he or she is living in Nazi Germany; families are afraid of a loud knock on their door in the early hours of the morning with police bursting in, and taking away their children.

“The Jugendamt, which dominates Germany’s controversial family court system, takes children when it wants, from perfectly normal families,” Ms Kelly said.

Jugendamt’s well-documented treatment of families, especially homeschoolers, has now become an international issue. 

A few years back, the issue had been raised in the European Parliament and has this year been raised once again.

“Philippe Bouland, a French MEP, has raised the issue this year; the only way one can solve the problem of the Jugendamt is by doing so outside Germany since if you try to sort the issue internally, it would never happen,” Ms Kelly convincingly argued.

Quoting excerpts of a book written in German by Michael Tsokos, the head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Berlin called Charité - one of the largest University hospitals in Europe - Ms Kelly says that Prof. Tsokos argues that the child protection system in Germany failed years ago because the Jugendamt was placing children in the care of, for instance, drug addicts. In his book, the professor states that 200,000 children are mistreated each year in Germany and a child dies everyday as a result of such mistreatment.

But contrary to what one might think on reading excerpts on the cover of the book, she says, the professor has only harsh words for Germany’s child protection system.

How the case of the German children evolved

One of Ms Albrecht’s children was in the Jugendamt’s custody and this is why she came to Malta, out of fear that the Jugendamt would take away her two other children, same as what Ms Kelly feared would happen to her other two grandsons.

While the children of Ms Albrecht were in the hands of Appogg, after the children were placed on a temporary care order in Malta until the court decided on their fate,  a German social worker by the name of Eva Marie Friedrich came over to Malta and subtly ‘snatched’ the children from their care and returned them to Germany.

Earlier this year, a Maltese court ordered that the children are returned to their mother, who is still in Malta. But as yet, the children have not been returned by the German authorities.

In an interview with this newsroom, Alfred Grixti, the CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services in Malta, who is responsible for the operations of the child welfare agency in Malta – Appogg - had said that the children have not yet been returned by the German authorities and the Maltese courts have therefore instructed the FSWS to proceed by asking the German courts to revoke a care order they were under as a means to repatriate them.

Mr Grixti said that this will lead to a legal battle between the Maltese and German authorities, since from the looks of things, the German social welfare agency does not seem like it is going to give the children up any time soon.

After the incident, an inquiry report found that there needed to be more stringent checks at the Malta airport to avoid a repeat of the abduction.

The Chalk Circle Foundation website

Some content of the Chalk Circle website which had been removed before the website was eventually pulled down included ‘If you are prisoners of the German anti-child system, take your child and come to Malta’. The website has been once again activated ever since.

In an interview with this newspaper, Marcus and Sonja Bergfeld had admitted that their website was not registered in Malta.

Some of the content also removed, included an HSBC Malta account number, along with the name of the account holder, German lawyer Kai Jochimsen.

A warning had been issued by the Malta Chamber of Advocates that the lawyer cannot practice in Malta since he is not registered according to Maltese law.

When this newsroom contacted the Bergfelds to ask them about the bank account on their website, they stated that it was an “oversight” since they had temporarily removed certain content of the website until the relevant documents are processed.

The Bergfelds said they were assisting families who fled the German “anti child” system in more ways than one, even financially. But from the looks of things, a number of individuals who spoke with this newsroom corroborate Ms Kelly’s version of events that the Bergfelds deceived many German families, especially when it came down to finances.

According to Ms Kelly, it could be that the Bergfelds lost control of the situation since it may have been the situation whereby at first, the Bergfelds were genuinely trying to help families who suffered the same fate they did.

Mr Bergfeld had insisted that they do not help families who have problems with the authorities in Germany but only assist ones who could be potentially at risk of losing their other children to the Jugendamt. This newsroom had posed this question to him after it resulted that Ms Albrecht’s children were under a German care order and reported missing back in Germany.

“The system the Jugendamt uses is expired to say the least,” he had said.

 “We are up against an extremely powerful system and this is why the German authorities are claiming we are trafficking humans,” Mr Bergfeld explained.

Worthy of note is that this newsroom made various attempts to find out more information from the German authorities on this particular case and others, but the authorities remained tight lipped.

 

 

The e-book, Il-Germanizi: Jugendamt Deutschland and the c(h)ase of children in Gozo Part 1, is currently available online on amazon.de. A hard copy is expected to be printed in the coming months.