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.

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.

Sergio Devecchi

“Out of shame, I remained silent for a long time and then opted for a reassessment.”

10 days after his birth in 1947, Sergio Devecchi was placed in the Protestant children’s home in Pura in the canton of Ticino. Prayer, labour and obedience accompanied him throughout his childhood. After 12 years, he was suddenly sent to another children’s home. He escaped several times and tried to return to Pura by foot. Finally, his guardian transferred him to the children’s home “Gott hilft” in Zizers in the canton of Grisons. Shortly after confirmation, he was brought back to Ticino, again without being informed in advance, by a hitherto unknown uncle.

Here, Sergio Devecchi started a commercial apprenticeship and lived in a room in Lugano at the age of 17 without any support from the authorities. He was lonely and suffered hunger again and again. With the support of private individuals and the “Young Men’s Association” things were looking up. In 1969, Sergio Devecchi began to study in Basel to be a social education. He then worked as educator and home director in various institutions in Ticino and the German-speaking part of Switzerland and was, among other things, president of the Professional Association for Social Education and Special Needs Education (Integras).

Out of shame, Sergio Devecchi disclosed his growing up in facilities only after he was retired. He still is active as a consultant in his former field of work and committed to the socio-political reassessment of compulsory social measures and placements.

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.

Mario Delfino

“I am fine – if it weren’t for these stories.”

Mario Delfino was born in Italy in 1955. For the first five years he grew up in an orphanage in Bergamo, where he had a loving carer. Then he was adopted by a Swiss couple and brought to their home in Thalwil (ZH). Here he wasn’t fine: he was often locked up and beaten. Finally, his adoptive mother brought the boy to a children’s home in Altdorf (UR). Mario Delfino experienced the time there as strongly marked by religion but not by violence. After four years, the nuns from Menzingen sent the boy back to Thalwil to his adoptive parents.

At the age of 12, Mario Delfino and two school mates stole a cash box. They found 40,000 Swiss francs in it but returned it to owner by post. A few days later, Mario Delfino was arrested in the schoolyard and taken away in handcuffs. The next four years he spent in the “juvenile reform facility” in Knutwil (LU). The home was run by German monks who inflicted massive physical and sexual violence on Mario Delfino and other boys.

In 1972, when he was 16, Mario Delfino was released from the facility. But his adoptive mother no longer wanted him with her and called the police. The youngster had to wait for three weeks in a detention cell in Horgen (ZH) until the juvenile attorney took time for him. It had been him who had committed Mario Delfino to Knutwil back then and now he envisaged another administrative detention. But when a social worker joined the conversation, Mario Delfino experienced for the first time that someone took time to listen to his story. The social worker took him to her home and found him a job.

Later he moved to Zurich. With the help of Ernst Sieber, a priest for the homeless in Zurich, he found stability in life. Together with his wife Katharina Delfino, he worked as a caretaker in a school in Zurich for 18 years. He is father of two adult sons. Mario Delfino is member of the project team “Our faces – Our stories”.

Annemarie Iten-Kälin

“It is time that the history of the orphanage in Einsiedeln is also investigated.”

Annemarie Iten-Kälin was born in 1956 in Willerzell (SZ) as the eighth child of the Kälin family. When she was between seven and eight years old, she lost both parents in quick succession: the mother died of a serious illness and the father committed suicide half a year later. The family was ripped apart, for the oldest ones jobs were found or they were rented out for work and the four younger ones were placed in the orphanage in Einsiedeln. This was initially run by nuns from Ingenbohl. At the end of the 1960s, the management changed and a male home director took over.

The hope that there would be more space for joie de vivre lasted only a short time. Admittedly, the children received toys and there was more free time. But the home director also punished arbitrarily and with violence. Furthermore, he committed sexual assaults for which he was never prosecuted. When the situation in the orphanage became known through a letter from Annemarie Iten-Kälin and a supervisor was to be appointed, the home director couple resigned. They blamed her and her sister for this.

Annemarie Iten-Kälin had to complete an internship to become a kindergarten teacher. At the children’s home “Klösterli” in Wettingen (AG) she witnessed a loving relationship with the children which showed her that things could be different – even then. During her education at the Seminar in Menzingen, Annemarie Iten-Kälin met her future husband. She then moved back to Einsiedeln, and they started a family. When her daughter got sick, Annemarie Iten-Kälin and her husband with son Michael accompanied her until she died. She recorded her daughter’s life and death in the book “Stefanie, ein Engel auf Erden”.

Now her second book is almost completed. It is her story which stands for many others. Annemare Iten-Kälin fights persistently for justice, also for the history of Einsiedeln’s orphanage to be reassessed. The political decision to do so was taken in summer 2022.

Uschi Waser

“My life was good until the day I read my files.”

Uschi Waser was born in 1952 in the canton of Zurich. At the time of her birth, her mother was unmarried. Because of her Yenish origins, Uschi was placed in care and under guardianship. In the first 13 years of her life, she was placed in 26 different places. After having been abused for years by her stepfather, Uschi Waser was raped by her uncle on the night of her 14th birthday and subsequently placed in administrative detention in the Catholic institution “Zum guten Hirten” in Altstätten in the canton of St. Gallen.

After her release, Uschi Waser founded a family and after her divorce cared alone for her daughters. When she inspected the files, she learned that the assessment from her guardianship files had been interpreted exclusively to her disadvantage in the lawsuit against her stepfather and uncle. Her life was never the same after the inspection of the files.

For many years, Uschi Waser has been committed to reassessing administrative coercive measures and placements as well as the role of the judiciary in this context. She was the representative of the victims of Pro Juventute at the “Round Table on Compulsory Social Measures and Placements Prior to 1981” (2013-2018) and has chaired the “Naschet Jenische” foundation since the 1990s. In 2022, Uschi Waser received the Somazzi Prize. It is awarded annually to a woman or group of women who fight for education, women’s rights and peace.

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.