Claude Richstein

“Until I was twelve years old, I lived in a good care place. The horror only began afterwards.”

Claude Richstein was born in 1961. His parents could not keep him with them. He was brought to a children’s home and from there to a foster family in Bern who already cared for another foster boy. Here Claude Richstein spent his first years in a loving environment. His foster parents wanted to adopt him, but his biological mother did not give her consent.

At the age of twelve, Claude Rechstein was taken by his guardian to a new foster family in the canton of Valais, as his former foster parents were not prepared to take over the costs for him any longer. A year later he was moved again because his guardian had accused him of stealing cigarettes which was not true. In the children’s home in Aarwangen (AG), where work defined a big part of everyday life, Claude Richstein stayed for the next four years. At the age of 16 he was sent to the ”Pestalozziheim” in Birr (AG). Here he experienced massive violence among the internees for three months. A horror for the youngster.

After his release Claude Richstein lived together with his older foster brother in a shared flat until he was 20. The latter was an important attachment figure for him and a support on his way to a self-determined life for which he was not prepared. Claude Richstein has had many exiting jobs throughout his life and, at the age of 60, has started a new training to become a home carer.

He is grateful for being healthy and having met many people in his life who loved him. He tries to pass on some of this to people who need support today. Claude Richstein draws his strength from his faith; it has helped him to come to terms with what he has experienced and to move on.

Christina Tomczyk

“My father is my hero and an example for me.”

Christina Tomczyk was born 1974 in Basel. After her parents separated, she initially lived with her mother, until she moved in with her father, Peter Bönzli, as a teenager. Father and daughter had a strong connection from the beginning, and he supported her in all her private and professional ambitions. In 1993, Christina Tomczyk reached the final of the Miss Switzerland pageant. A year later she made her debut as a racing driver at the Swiss Kart championship.

Christina is married to Martin Tomczyk. The couple has two children. After the birth of her children, Christina increasingly asked questions about the childhood of her father. She only knew that the father of her father had died early and that her father and his siblings had therefore grown up in children’s homes. Until then, her father’s stories had only been fragmentary. Not least because the topic had moved into public discussion, the family now talked more and more about the past.

A few years ago, Christina Tomczyk and her father, an uncle and an aunt, visited the children’s homes in Bern where he and his siblings had been cared for as children. She suggested to her father to go public, to talk about his experiences. Also, to show that despite bad experiences in childhood, he has found his place in life and society. And that he has not passed on the experience of neglect, lack of affection, violence and lack of schooling to the next generation.

Peter Bönzli

“I have always had people in my life who encouraged and challenged me.”

Peter Bönzli was born in Bern in 1947. After the death of his father, his mother lost parental authority over her four children. One day, two men took Peter Bönzli away while he was playing in the street and brought him to a transitory children’s home. At the age of five, he was taken to the boys’ reform facility “Brünnen” in Bümpliz.

The first year he spent with the home director’s sons and enjoyed a lot of freedom, but this came to an end when school started: henceforth work had priority and there was little time for school. His younger brother Kurt was placed in the same facility. Together they waited for their mother to visit once a month – often in vain. Sometimes the two brothers saw their sisters, who were placed in the adjacent girls’ home, across the fence.

After finishing school, the boys from “Brünnen” were distributed among various jobs. Peter Bönzli was sent to a postman in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. After a year he moved in with his mother in Basel. He had to cancel a trial apprenticeship as a lab assistant after a work accident in 1964. After that he started to train as a salesman which was difficult for him due to his poor schooling in the facility. His professional career led him from various jobs as a salesman to business consulting. In 1992, Peter Bönzli founded his own company which he sold in 2004 and took early retirement.

Beni Freudiger

“I have been well taken care of in the children’s home.”

Beni Freudiger was born in 1958 in the canton of Solothurn. When his mother got ill, he and his older brother were sent to the children’s home “Marianum” in Menzingen (ZG) in the summer of 1960. His mother and his father, who lived separately, came to visit sometimes. Upon his entry, Beni Freudiger was the youngest. He stayed at the home for 15 years, until it was closed in 1975.

Beni Freudiger was taken good care of in the “Marianum” and was lovingly looked after by the nuns from Menzingen. He was particularly fond of one of the nuns and she of him.

The Mother Superior, who ran the children’s home Klösterli in Wettingen (AG) after the closure of the “Marianum”, always found ways to give the children special experiences. Christmas, for example, was a celebration of joy, and the way to the room with the gifts was always lit with candles. The approximately 60 children had a regular daily routine and fulfilled small assignments in addition to school. However, there was always enough leisure time. Beni Freudiger, for instance, had his own small garden where he grew vegetables.

The Mother Superior found a good commercial apprenticeship for Beni Freudiger. After a stay abroad in England, he applied for a job in an accounting firm and later trained as an accountant. Today, Beni Freudiger is the father of three adult children. Despite having been treated with good care at the children’s home, he did not know family life until he became a father himself. He missed this experience later on.

Since his divorce, Beni Freudiger is often on the road and travels the world. He keeps in touch with a nun who now lives in the motherhouse of the sisterhood in Menzingen. The predominantly negative media coverage of experiences in children’s homes prompted him to go public with his story. For Beni Freudiger it is important to show that there were also other, positive experiences in foster care and that loving care was also possible in the past.

Karin Gurtner

“I never solved conflicts with violence if possible.”

Karin Gurtner was born in Basel in 1958. Her mother was very young then and unmarried. Her grandparents were officially appointed as her foster parents by the guardianship authority until 1965. The grandparents loved the girl and gave her the foundation that would sustain her throughout her whole life. With her grandfather she spent many hours in the woods, observed and learnt to respect every form of life.

After her mother had married, she suddenly wrenched Karin Gurtner from her grandparents in 1963. The girl would have given anything to be able to stay with them because the visits from her mother had always been marked by coldness and distance. At the age of eleven, Karin Gurtner was placed in the home for difficult girls “Steig” (SH). In 1975, five placements followed in within a few months, including a stay in prison and then in the Psychiatric Clinic Breitenau (SH), because the authorities did not know where else to put the youth.

At the end of 1975, she was put into administrative detention in the juvenile correction facility “Lärchenheim” in Lutzenberg (AR.) Here the hierarchies among each other were very pronounced. Karin Gurtner gained influence but never used it to her advantage, instead she managed to protect other young people.

Karin Gurtner did not allow herself to be forecd into bourgeoise gender roles. She wanted to go her own way and did training time in electronic design. Later she trained as a beautician and makeup artist and opened her own business. Her mother did not leave her alone even as an adult and made sure customers stayed away. The family dispute continued over the inheritance with Karin Gurtner being accused of having plundered the inheritance of her grandmother, even though she had no access to it.

Karin Gurtner is a fighter. She draws strength from the tree of life Yggdrasil and from a motto of the old norse gods: “Get up and keep fighting!”

Kurt Bönzli

“The fact that my brother and I have contact again today is important to me.”

Kurt Bönzli was born in 1949 in Bern. When his father died, his mother lost parental authority over her four children. Subsequently, all of them were placed in care. Kurt Bönzli, together with one sister, was sent to Beatenberg for a cure and then sent for a short time to a girl’s home where his sisters were also staying. After that Kurt Bönzli spent the years from 1957 to 1966 in the boys’ reform facility Brünnen in Bern-Bümpliz. His older brother, Peter Bönzli, was also placed in this facility.

Here, work was the priority, schooling was neglected. A hard drill prevailed, the boys were beaten and self-determination was an alien concept. Sometimes Kurt took refuge in a hut made from woollen blankets and withdrew for short moments. His sisters lived in the nearby girl’s home – sometimes he could give them a wave across the fence.

At the end of their schooling the boys from “Brünnen” usually were distributed among various jobs. Kurt Bönzli wanted to decide for himself about his education and was finally able to start an apprenticeship as a cook in the city of Bern.

At the age of 20, he was released from guardianship. Kurt Bönzli enjoyed his freedom and was on the road a lot. Cooks were sought after, so he could change his job anytime and find a new one. What he did not want was to be responsible for others. That is why he didn’t want children.

During this time, he had hardly any contact with his siblings. After a heart attack, he decided to change his life. He drank less alcohol and sought contact with his older brother, Peter Bönzli. The relationship is important to him, the two see each other regularly.

Rita Brunner

“There is always a balance in life. One cannot take without also giving.” (Menuhin)

Rita Brunner was born in 1966 in Zurich. She never really knew her father, and her mother was overwhelmed with the two daughters. At the age of 6 weeks, Rita Brunner was taken to a nurse’s home in Zurich and later, together with her older sister, to a private children’s home in Ossingen. The home was closed because the operators allegedly belonged to a cult.

Under the pretext of going on an excursion, the two girls were taken to the “Kinderdörfli Rathausen” (LU). Rita Brunner was three and half years at the time and spent the next 12 years there. She had good and bad experiences in the facility, always depending on the actual educators. In addition to collective punishment, she also experienced psychological and physical violence. Hunger, fear and loneliness often accompanied her, especially in the evenings.

After completing her compulsory schooling, Rita was released at the age of 15 and placed in a position as a groom. The path to an independent life was not easy for Rita Brunner. During this time, she often thought of suicide. Then, for the first time, she met a person who wanted to know who she was and what she had experienced, who listened to her and whom she could trust. In her mid-20’s, Rita Brunner made a conscious decision for life.

On her way she met time and again people who encouraged her and supported her, professionally as well as privately. In the beginning Rita Brunner didn’t want to have a family on her own because she did not want to put anyone at risk of maybe having to live a life like she had. Meanwhile she is married nevertheless and has a grown-up son. Her husband refers to her as their tower of strength.

Today Rita Brunner is a local councillor and in her work she tries to change things positively in small ways. In particular, she tries to avoid that people who are in need of support today are violated in their integrity: she pays special attention to old-age and nursing homes.

Bruno Frick

“Reliable relationships are central to the development of children and adolescents.”

Bruno Frick was born in 1957 as the oldest of three brothers and grew up with his family on the lake of Zurich. He first encountered children living in the Wädenswil orphanage as a Scout Leader. When the orphanage closed, and the children and youths were distributed to other places, a 14-year-old did not want to go to another facility. She asked Bruno Frick if she could live with him and his flatmates. The competent authority granted the request and appointed him as foster father, later as guardian.

In 1978, Bruno Frick began studying to become a social and special educator. For his final thesis he interviewed many former residents of the Wädenswil (ZH) orphanage. This work and his studies caused him to think more critically about society, and he came to the conclusion that constant relationships are central to the development of children and adolescents. He has always been guided by this, as the educational manager of the “Jugendsiedlung Utenberg”, as a foster father and later as a father of his own children. Since the 1990s, Bruno Frick has offered integration support, mainly to young adults aged 18 and over who left the home where he worked. At the same time, he ran a socio-educational foster family together with his wife. Six foster children lived between four and 18 years in his family.

As a member of the board of trustees of the Guido Fluri Foundation, Bruno Frick has been committed since 2014 to the concerns of those affected by compulsory social measures and placements in care and to a broad social discussion of this topic.

MarieLies Birchler

“Sometimes I lack the words.”

MarieLies Birchler was born in Zurich in 1950, the first of five siblings. In 1951, the authorities brought her and her younger brother to the orphanage in their home community Einsiedeln (SZ). Both children were undernourished, sick and neglected. In this orphanage an eleven-year ordeal of violence and fear under the regime of the nuns from Ingenbohl started for MarieLies Bircher.

As a bedwetter and with her bright nature, she had a particularly hard time. She was pushed under water, beaten up badly, locked in the attic for days. Exposures, humiliations, insults and the accusation of being possessed by the devil dominated her everyday life. As she grew older, MarieLies Birchler started to fight back, until, at the age of 13, her guardian picked her up and took her to the reform school “Burg” in Rebstein (SG). There she got better. However, it was only at the reform school “Waldburg” in St. Gallen, where she was sent to in 1968, that she was able to build up trust to an educator for the first time.

At the age of 20, MarieLies Birchler was released from guardianship. She trained to become a psychiatric nurse and later worked in leading functions. In 1978, her brother Hanspeter committed suicide, a heavy blow for the young women. MarieLies Birchler kept silent about her childhood for the most part until her numerous traumas caught up with her and made her ill. She suffered several breakdowns, could no longer work and had to apply for a disability pension.

When she was better again, she supported families and their children and continues to do so to this day. MarieLies Birchler has also been involved for several years in the reassessment of compulsory social measures. She does this for all those who cannot or no longer can speak for themselves. She is part of the project team “Our faces – Our stories”.

Anton Aebischer

“This smile has protected me and led me through life. It does not show how much unspeakable suffering is hidden behind it due the arbitrary behaviour of officials in those days!”

Born: 21^st July 1948, Aarau

Hometown: Guggisberg (BE)

I have made it and am an independent person, citizen of this state, “home country” (“landscape of institutions”)! I got nothing from the state. I had to work hard for everything on my own. On the contrary: the state gave me a hell of a start in life! My youth was stolen from me in the facilities. With defamatory “expert reports” (Oberziel, St. Gallen), which still hurt today, with mental separations from the rest, the “normal” society, from so-called experts, luminaries at the time!

I was discharged from the army with “the best of thanks for the rendered services” as a private with an officer’s function in my last service! Moreover, with additional voluntary services in the army, without credit, I also served the state. Of course, I have had various professional jobs, also for a longer time, where I was made redundant for economic reasons. I took the opportunity to buy into the pension fund with a three-digit amount, so that today I am not dependent on the state, unlike many. I am a full taxpayer! I do not have to thank anyone!

Yvonne Barth

“I worked my way up from nothing.”

Yvonne Barth was born in Basel in 1953. Her mother moved again and again and took her two children with her. Yvonne Barth did not feel safe with her. At the age of three, she was sent to the children’s home “Vogelsang” in Basel on monthly basis and in 1958 to a foster family in Davos Wiesen (GR). Yvonne Barth missed her older sister and begged her mother to be placed in the same facility which was arranged in 1961.

Yvonne Barth stayed in the children’s home “Röserental” in Liestal (BL) until she was 12 years old. Here she was often teased by the other kids because she squinted and was walking clumsily due to adhesions on her feet. The girl was not encouraged by the adults: because of her outward appearance, she wasn’t thought of being capable of anything. During this time, animals were important to her: they gave her the closeness and affection that she missed in people.

As an adult, Yvonne Barth continued her education. She trained as a medical massage therapist and opened her own practice. Music always gave her strength – and does to the day. Yvonne Barth was always quick to learn an instrument and still composes her own songs.

She sang her song “Placement in Care from the Perspective of those Children” for the first time in front of an audience at the memorial event for the victims of compulsory social measures in Basel in autumn 2021. It is important to Yvonne Barth to be part of the reassessment – also for all those who are no longer here.