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Helmut KentlerRT Documentary / YouTube

July 26, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The state government of Berlin in Germany for decades knowingly placed foster children with pedophiles. The New Yorker recently published a piece entitled “The German Experiment That Placed Foster Children with Pedophiles.” Written as a human-interest piece, it follows the life of a German man named Marco who was a victim of the state-sponsored program. Marco was only one of the victims of a large-scale operation that has revealed the dark pedophile underbelly of governmental activities in Berlin’s recent history.

The program that placed children with sexual deviants was called the “Kentler experiment” or “Kentler project” — named after Helmut Kentler, whom the New Yorker calls “one of the most influential sexologists in Germany.” He was a psychologist and a professor of social education at the University of Hannover. Since his death in 2008, sexual-political positions in his writings have been criticized as promoting and abetting pedophilia. It has since been alleged that Kentler himself sexually abused children.

According to an article by Germany-based Deutsche Welle, “The ‘Kentler Project’ in West Berlin routinely placed homeless children with pedophile men, assuming they’d make ideal foster parents.”

The experiment went on for decades and was condoned by the authorities in Berlin throughout almost thirty years. The pedophile foster parents even received a regular care allowance.

Kentler was himself a homosexual. He remained single, but adopted and fostered numerous sons. In 1973, a man named Fritz Henkel began fostering boys, and a teacher noticed that he was “always looking for contact with boys.” Within a few years a caseworker noticed that Henkel seemed to be in a “homosexual relationship” with one of his foster sons.

An investigation by public authorities began, and Kentler swiftly intervened on Henkel’s behalf, calling himself the accused foster father’s “permanent advisor.” The investigation was dropped, and as files have been released, it is clear that Kentler intervened on Henkel’s behalf on more than one occasion. Henkel was only one of many pedophiles with whom foster children were placed.

Researchers at Hildesheim University have done extensive investigation into the program. They conducted interviews with victims, as several have spoken up since the death of Kentler. What they have found is a network of collaboration that includes educational institutions, state welfare officials, and the Berlin senate. According to the work done by Hildesheim University, pedophilia was “accepted, supported, defended.”

The Kentler project itself was limited to Berlin, but has since become the focus of a national investigation. The Berliner Zeitung, a local print and online publication, reported on this development in May, saying “the scope and number of victims of the experiment remain unknown, though Berlin is already compensating two victims.” The government of Berlin stated, “It can be assumed that there was a network of actors that strengthened and legitimised pedophilic positions. Pedophilic assaults were not only tolerated in different constellations, but also arranged and justified.”

The collaboration between educational institutions and the government goes even deeper: The university researchers found “that several of the foster fathers were high-profile academics.” High ranking members of the Max Planck Institute, Berlin’s Free University, and a now-closed non-religious boarding school called the Odenwald School, were found to have been a part of the network of abuse.

As is the case in many countries, the systemic abuse of children has filtered into both secular, and religious organizations. In Germany, although the bulk of the national and international news coverage focuses on abuse in Catholic institutions, secular and Protestant groups have admitted they also failed to adequately police pedophile attacks on children in their care. The reasons for why this sort of thing seems to have been so common throughout the decades of the Kentler project may be a bit unclear, but there was a time when some psychologists believed that therapy could “cure” pedophiles.

It was Kentler’s opinion that by placing neglected young boys with pedophile care-givers, both parties would benefit: The boys from having a place to call home, and the abusers from the opportunity to become loving foster parents. However, we now know that Kentler abused at least two of his own sons. Thus, it is dubious that his motivations for the program were untainted by his own disorder. In this experiment, it was the children and adolescents who were greatly harmed while the authorities stood by.