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German Court Places Custody of Yet Another 5 Homeschooling Children with Government's Youth Office

By Peter J. Smith

ZITTAU, Germany, March 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A German court in the eastern province of Saxony has revoked custody of five children from their homeschooling parents, placing the fate of the children into the hands of the Jugendamt, the local youth welfare office.

The Christian Broadcasting Network reports the court ordered the Jugendamt, an organization created by National Socialist chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1939, to retain custody of Rosine, Jotham, Kurt-Simon, Lovis and Ernst, the children of Bert and Kathrin Brause of Zittau, until they are returned to public school.

Although the children still remain with their parents, the Jugendamt may seize them forcibly at any time, as was the case with 15 year-old Melissa Busekros in Bavaria. Busekros was snatched by 15 police officers over 6 weeks ago to a psychiatric clinic in Nuremburg for "school phobia," and continues to remain separated from her family in an undisclosed location.
 
According to court documents translated by the International Human Rights Group (IHRG), the judge gave her order on the basis that the Brauses' refusal to send their children to the public school violated Germany's mandatory school attendance law.

While the judge admitted that the Brause children were well-educated under the direction of the Philadelphia school, a German homeschooling umbrella organization, she accused the parents - both having college degrees - of abusing their children by denying them the benefits of the public school.
 
The judge complained the Brause children answered her with the same opinions of her father, concluding they lacked independent personalities. In the Busekros case, the Erlangen Jugendamt told the Bavarian court she was influenced too much by her father and thus had an underdeveloped personality.

Bert and Kathrin Brause defended their decision to educate their children at home, saying it was their duty before God. However, the judge responded that their obedience to God had put the interests of their children "second."

Homeschooling has been illegal in Germany since the days of the Third Reich. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler banned the practice in 1938 in order to indoctrinate all young Germans in the Nazi ideology through the public schools, and created the Jugendamt in 1939 to supervise and control families politically.

An anonymous source within Netzwerk-Bildungsfreifeit, a homeschool advocacy network, told World Net Daily that Germany is not far from "an intolerant dictatorship" with the Jugendamt at the service of the state ideology.

"Parental rights are more and more abolished. If you do not educate the way the state wants, the so-called Jugendamt (youth welfare office) is quick to check out if they can take away the custody of your children."

Authorities have dealt increasingly with Germany's estimated 300-500 homeschoolers in a manner consistent with National Socialist (Nazi) Germany as parents face imprisonment, heavy fines, the state seizure of their children, or are forced to seek asylum for their convictions in neighboring countries.

To contact the German embassies in Canada and the United States.
 
In Canada:

German Embassy
1 Waverley Street
Ottawa, ON, K2P 0T8
Tel.: 613-232-1101 Fax: 613-594-9330
Email:

In the US:

German Embassy
4645 Reservoir Road NW
Washington, DC, 20007-1998
(202) 298-4000
The embassy can be e-mailed from its website: http://www.globescope.biz/germany/reg/index.cfm

To express concerns to German authorities:

President of the Federal Republic of Germany
11010 Berlin
Germany
Telefon: +49 30 20 00-0
Fax: +49 030 20 00-19 99
E-Mail:

Chancellor
Angela Merkel
Willy-Brandt-Straße 1
10557 Berlin
Germany
Telefon: +49 180 272-0000
Fax: +49 1888 272-2555
E-Mail:

Politician Joachim Herrmann
Chief of the CSU Party, also knows the Busekros family personally
Joachim Herrmann
Ludwig-Erhard-Straße 9 a
91052 Erlangen
Germany
Telefon: +49 9131- 53 45 38
Telefax: +49 9131- 61 18 40
E-Mail:

Related LifeSiteNews coverage:

German Homeschooler Parents Ordered to Undergo Psychiatric Evaluation http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07031308.html

Melissa - HomeSchooled Teen in Germany Begs for Help to Go Home to Family
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07031501.html

Authorities Ask German Homeschooling Family to Give up Custody of Other 5 Children
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022602.html

European Human Rights Court Rules State May Deny Parents Right to Home School Their Children
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06092708.html

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