Judge Rules German Homeschooling Family May Retain Custody of Children Forced to Attend Public School

A German couple whose children were seized by authorities due to concerns that they were being homeschooled rather than sent to public school has been granted the right to retain custody of their two youngest children, who are still minors, as they are attending a state school — albeit under duress.

According to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, the same judge who ordered the children’s removal six years ago called for a hearing this year to prove the school attendance of the two minors. The children appeared before a Darmstadt court two weeks ago, but before a different judge due to concerns about bias.

More >> Judge Rules German Homeschooling Family May Retain Custody of Children Forced to Attend Public School

The Little-Known Tragedy of Forced Adoptions in East Germany

When Uwe Mai thinks about his childhood, he sees the Saale River. Bending gently, it flowed past his parents' home in Calbe just south of Magdeburg. He only had to dash across the road and down some steps to reach the riverbank, lined with big old trees to climb and rocks to skip across the water.

More >> The Little-Known Tragedy of Forced Adoptions in East Germany

The German Government Forcibly Removed These Children From Their Parents Over Homeschooling

The Wunderlich family wanted to do what thousands of families in America do with no questions asked: educate their children at home.

But homeschooling is not allowed in Germany, and the state has relentlessly pursued the Wunderlichs and even seized their children. One morning in August 2013, 33 police officers and seven social workers showed up at their front door, threatening to open it with a battering ram. The parents cried as their children were carried screaming out of their home.

More >> The German Government Forcibly Removed These Children From Their Parents Over Homeschooling

The East Germans split up families, too. It caused lifelong trauma.

Katrin Behr was only 4 years old when her life was turned upside down forever.

“They came early in the morning and took away my mom,” Behr recalls of that fateful day in 1972 in East Germany, when she became the victim of a large-scale, secretive socialist scheme to separate children from parents considered politically defiant. Her mother’s crime? She wanted to flee the repressive socialist country into U.S.-protected West Germany.

More >> The East Germans split up families, too. It caused lifelong trauma.

European Court of Human Rights to Hear Case of German Family Forced to Send Children to Public School

The European Court of Human Rights is set to hear the case of a German family that was forced to send their children to public school after they were seized by the government because they were homeschooled.

More >> European Court of Human Rights to Hear Case of German Family Forced to Send Children to Public School

The Nazi child snatchers: A new exhibition tells the haunting stories of the foreign children torn from their families and savagely abused in order to turn them into 'perfect Aryans'

The Nazi child snatchers: A new exhibition tells the haunting stories of the foreign children torn from their families and savagely abused in order to turn them into 'perfect Aryans'

The Nazis stole Halina Bukowiecka in 1941 when she was just seven. After her mother died of pneumonia three years earlier and her father had gone to fight for the Resistance, Halina had lived with her grandmother in the German-occupied Polish city of Lodz. Her grandmother’s application for child benefits from the city’s Youth Office was to have disastrous consequences — it meant the authorities now had Halina on their radar.

Overwhelmed By Thousands Of Refugee Children Traveling Alone, Europe Considers Adoption

Overwhelmed By Thousands Of Refugee Children Traveling Alone, Europe Considers Adoption

In a yellow, concrete dorm building for refugee children located just outside the city center, there's a room at the end of a long, dark hallway. A group of children, ages 7  to 16, huddle in the doorway, peering in at its exotic content: a pool table. Inside, children wield cues, slapping balls wildly across the green felt table, betting candy bars on the outcome of the games.

Constitutional Court allows 'FCK CPS' sticker

Note: It's not about CPS but it's still worth posting for nostalgic reasons.

Constitutional Court allows 'FCK CPS' sticker

The Constitutional Court decided on Tuesday that it is within someone's right to freedom of expression to wear the FCK CPS logo, but only if the insult is aimed at police in general.

Forced Adoption under the East German Regime

Forced adoption in communist East Germany - Katrin Behr is a comitted fighter for the victims' rights.

Japan returns boy to Germany under new child custody treaty

Japan returns boy to Germany under new child custody treaty

The Japanese government has helped return a boy to his German home in the first such case since adopting an international treaty on cross-border child custody disputes, an official said Wednesday.

• Boy returns to Germany under Hague pact, in first for Japan

TURKS PROTEST ADOPTION OF CHILDREN BY GERMAN FAMILIES

TURKS PROTEST ADOPTION OF CHILDREN BY GERMAN FAMILIES

A Turkish nongovernmental organization is spearheading a protest in Germany's Düsseldorf against the adoption of Turkish children by German families.

German's search for biological mother hints at abuse of adoption law

German's search for biological mother hints at abuse of adoption law

German national Maria Chaya Schupp's search for her biological mother in India, the country from where she was adopted by a German couple back in the year 1981, has thrown light on the trend of dodging the law in cases of adoption domestically and internationally.

‘German social workers abducted my two sons’

‘German social workers abducted my two sons’

A German mother is demanding to know how her two sons were secretly flown out of Malta by German social workers while they were under the care of the State childcare agency Appoġġ.

Social worker fined for death of addict's son

Social worker fined for death of addict's son

The court in Leipzig decided on Monday that the social worker had to take some responsibility for the death of the toddler in June 2012, after his mother, 26, died.

German town won't let couple name their child 'Wikileaks'

German town won't let couple name their child 'Wikileaks'

Hajar Hamalaw, an Iraqi-born journalist, wants to pay tribute to Julian Assange’s whistle-blowing website, but Passau in Bavaria won’t have it, saying the name ‘endangers’ the child’s welfare. Hamalaw and the child’s mother have now been calling their son Dako.

DHS allows German home-schooling family to stay in US

DHS allows German home-schooling family to stay in US

A German home-schooling family facing deportation following the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear their appeal is being allowed to stay in the U.S.

SUPREME COURT SENDS HOMESCHOOLERS PACKING

SUPREME COURT SENDS HOMESCHOOLERS PACKING

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to intervene in a lower court’s order that would send a Christian homeschooling family back to Germany to face what the parents describe as persecution by the government because of their beliefs.

After Traumatic Police Raid, Home-Schooled Children Returned to Family

After Traumatic Police Raid, Home-Schooled Children Returned to Family

Dirk and Petra Wunderlich’s children were returned to them after a court hearing Thursday, three weeks to the day after their four children were seized during a police raid. The Wunderlich children were returned after the parents promised they would send their children back to a state school.

40 Children Taken From Christian Community After 'Massive' German Police Raid

40 Children Taken From Christian Community After 'Massive' German Police Raid

Forty children have been taken from a Christian community in Bavaria in a raid by German police following allegations of child abuse, though the members have said they spank children only to discipline then.

German Raid on Home-Schooling Family Draws Condemnation

German Raid on Home-Schooling Family Draws Condemnation

German officials’ seizure of four home-schooled children last week prompted strong objections from American home-schooling advocates.