Henk Heithuis
Henk Heithuis (* 1935 ; † October 25, 1958 ) was a Dutch student at a Catholic boarding school who was the victim of sexual abuse and was later neutered .
Life
Henk Heithuis was born the child of divorce and had been in a nursing home in the south of the Netherlands since he was one year old. In the Vincentius monastery in Harreveld , which was run by Catholic monks , he was to be trained as a craftsman from 1950 to 1953.
abuse
On January 30, 1956, Henk filed a complaint against the friars of the Harreveld boarding school. He threw them in front of him in Harreveld boarding school, where he was a student, for having sexually abused several times between 1951 and 1953. Even in 1955, after Henk had finished school, he returned to boarding school on the weekends because his family did not want to take him in. On these weekends there should also have been sexual acts between friars and Henk.
castration
As a result of the complaint, Henk was accused of seducing the monks. He was then admitted to the Roman Catholic psychiatric hospital Huize Padua in Noord-Brabant . He was called a pervert. He was castrated for "treatment".
The surgery took place in St. Joseph Hospital in Veghel . Heithuis was 20 years old at the time and a minor under Dutch law at the time. In the medical file it is stated that Heithuis was "eugenized". In addition to Heithuis, ten other minors are said to have been neutered.
Life after castration
Henk worked as a seaman . He was bullied on board . He suffered badly from the psychological and hormonal consequences of castration. In 1957 he reported to the Dutch consulate in Kobe , Japan , where he had disembarked. With the help of IJsbrand Rogge, who was then working at a Dutch bank branch in Japan, Heithuis returned to the Netherlands. Rogge's brother Cornelius and his mother Thea received him and looked after him. Heithuis' water and hormone balance had become unbalanced as a result of the castration and he was in very poor physical and mental health. He started taking hormones for the effects of castration. Henk told IJsbrand Rogge and his brother Cornelius in 1957, then 24 and 27 years old, about his life as a foster child in Catholic children's homes, boarding schools and psychiatric facilities. Henk once showed the brothers his genital mutilation; according to the brothers, "everything was gone". In 1957 Heithuis filed another complaint, this time because of the castration. He planned a legal and journalistic campaign against the people who had done this crime to him; he had used the time after his return to the Netherlands to forge plans against the church. He has filed a lawsuit to get compensation for his mutilation.
Heithuis died in 1958 a few days after filing the lawsuit due to a car accident. Heithuis' car was rammed by another car on the autobahn and he was killed instantly. The police confiscated and destroyed all of his personal belongings and his trial documents on the day of his death. Heithuis himself had always spoken of his fear that “they will grab me again”.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Abuse scandal in the Netherlands That they'll grab me again . April 14, 2012.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Uni-Münster 2012: ABUSE: Castration allegations against the Catholic Church in the Netherlands
- ^ Gunda Schwantje: Church in the Netherlands: Castration against homosexuality . March 21, 2012.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Benjamin Schulz, DER SPIEGEL: Abuse: Catholic Church in the Netherlands had boys castrated - DER SPIEGEL - Panorama .
- ↑ Deutschlandfunk 2012: Forced castration by the church? In the Netherlands, the judiciary is examining shocking allegations
- ^ Church in the Netherlands: Castration against homosexuality , taz, March 21, 2012
- ↑ a b De Werelden van IJsbrand. Kobe, Japan 1957 .
- ^ A b Bruno Waterfield: Dutch Roman Catholic Church 'castrated at least 10 boys' . March 19, 2012.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Heithuis, Henk |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch student |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1935 |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 25, 1958 |