Cighid

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Cighid is a children's home in Romania , near the city of Oradea in the area of ​​the village Ghiorac , municipality of Ciumeghiu on the Hungarian- Romanian border. The home was built in a former hunting lodge that belonged to the Hungarian noble family Tisza (Hungarian name Csegőd ).

The home gained worldwide attention in the course of coming to terms with the communist tyranny in Romania when, shortly after the fall of Ceaușescu in 1989, Western European journalists found neglected and neglected babies and children with physical and mental disabilities as well as developmental delays.

This discrimination against people with disabilities also included euthanasia and palliative care . The case is also viewed from the perspective of medical ethics and the sociology of domination .

Six kilometers away is the cemetery for the victims of Cighid with 137 graves.

prehistory

The communist regime of Romania under Nicolae Ceauşescu sought from 1970 to increase the number of inhabitants in the country in the medium term. For families with fewer than five children, contraception or termination of pregnancy were prohibited with the threat of imprisonment. Needy or sick mothers had to carry the pregnancy to term against their will. Many tried to get an abortion with wires or drugs . Disabled children were often born. These were then deported to social orphanages, where unwanted children were also sent. On behalf of the state, doctors examined the toddlers at the age of three.

The “strongest” were called the “stars of our future”. Ceaușescu planned to recruit them for his presidential guard, the so-called "falcons of the fatherland". The leaders of the Securitate secret police also pre-selected recruits. Children with birth defects, disabilities, chronic illnesses or developmental delays , on the other hand, were referred to as “irretrievable” (Romanian: irecuperabili ). These children died in the “homes” after just a few weeks of hunger , frostbite , hypothermia , diseases and poor hygiene . The homes were also called Kindergulag (based on communist camps, Russian: Gulag ), death camps or waiting room for the afterlife . In Cighid people were supposed to die without killing: through gross neglect and neglect . Some women in the area were instructed to give porridge and then immediately close the doors again. Doctors issued death certificates as a precaution, as they rarely visited the home.

Worldwide fame

The Cighid home near the European route 671 gained worldwide attention shortly after the fall of Ceaușescu: in 1989, Western European journalists found a file on which more than 240 children were listed by name. In Cighid - as in other Romanian institutions (e.g. the Bradca home ) - babies and children with physical and mental disabilities and developmental delays were found . The international media published pictures of neglected and neglected children. The press described their living conditions as inhuman: The so-called isolator, for example, was a shed with boarded-up windows in which 17 small children were held captive. In the darkness of the room they had to tell by the smell whether it was porridge, feces or vomit. At that time excrement was carried out of the house by shovel.

In the spring of 1990, the pediatrician and later director of the home, Pavel Oarcea, was commissioned to look after the Cighid home. Oarcea refused to blame the system for the conditions alone. He did not accept the statement of the helpers working there that the situation was like this, that it was the fault of "those up there who give the orders", because: "Ceausescu did not work here."

donate

International donations were used to build four new houses. The old castle building was also renovated by volunteers. A thermal spring was discovered on the home grounds , which is used for the heating system and for a therapy pool. 137 children died in Cighid, the remaining orphans remained in the home.

Further development

The European Union initially refused Romania admission to the EU, partly because the country did not care for its orphans. As a result, Bucharest equipped children's homes better. However, capacities were overloaded as the number of Romanian children in care had risen to 150,000. After the end of the dictatorship in Romania, the former owner of the hunting lodge wanted to have the property returned.

When they reached adulthood, those children were threatened with admission to psychiatry, as Romania did not have any facilities for adults with disabilities. 112 children and young people survived Cighid. In Oradea, to whose catchment area Cighid belongs, a facility for disabled adults was created (see assisted living ). The 18 plus project was founded so that children in care do not have to go to Romanian psychiatry later .

In 2007 the first diagnosis and therapy center for the disabled "Panduri" was opened in the capital Bucharest, after 16 years of construction. The project was heavily financed from Frankfurt, which is why it is also known as the “Frankfurt House” in Bucharest. It is the first hospital to be built in Romania since the end of communism . So far, the country has concentrated on renovating its mostly run-down hospitals.

In psychology, the children's homes in Romania led to an intensified investigation of the so-called survivor syndrome and also of mother loss.

Web links

Commons : Cighid  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Claudia Lepping: Romania's forgotten children: In the home of sore souls - after the Ceausescu dictatorship they are allowed to live again. tagesspiegel.de , September 7, 2000, accessed January 12, 2015 .
  2. ↑ The Beasts. The "Securitate", Ceausescu's feared secret police, turned out to be a relentless terrorist group. In: Der Spiegel from January 1, 1990.
  3. ↑ Maxim Leo: Annoying Orphans. berlinonline.de, November 27, 1999, accessed on January 12, 2015 .
  4. ↑ The Battle for the Children of Cighid. spiegel.de, archived from the original on December 22, 2002 ; accessed on January 12, 2015 .
  5. ↑ The Second Lives of the Children of Cighid. welt.de, May 26, 1997, accessed January 12, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Heike Vohwinkel: Once upon a time, children lived here like animals - "Schloß des Grauens" in the Romanian town of Cighid has become a showcase home thanks to German donations. welt.de , July 8, 1998, accessed January 12, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Claudia Lepping: Romania's forgotten children: In the home of sore souls - after the Ceausescu dictatorship they are allowed to live again. tagesspiegel.de, September 7, 2000, accessed January 12, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Hans Riebsamen: "Frankfurt House" in Bucharest. (No longer available online.) Faz.net, September 20, 2007, archived from the original ; accessed on January 12, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Nathalie Jung, Christine Martin, Saskia Hellwig, Johanna Schirm, Johannes Schaden, Jörg Sesterhenn: Loss of mother in humans and animals. (PDF, 1.06 MB) uni-koblenz.de, accessed on January 12, 2015 .

Coordinates: 46 ° 41 ′ 58.2 "  N , 21 ° 38 ′ 22.2"  E