Taped Mouths, Restraints, Physical Transgressions: New Allegations Against SOS Children's Villages

The organization knew much longer than it admits today about the inappropriate treatment of those under its protection. And it wasn't just in Carinthia, but also in Tyrol. Another study reveals this. The chronology of a total failure

"She beat me with everything she could find, with the carpet beater, with the ruler, with the flat hand, with the fist — I often had a bloody nose."

"We had to shower cold and stand on the balcony in an exposed state at sub-zero temperatures. We were locked in the basement for days. I had to scrub the toilet bowl with my toothbrush and then use it."

When the children hadn't finished eating, the Children's Village mother is said to have served them the spoiled food again and again over days, "until it was moldy." When a child overate on chocolate at Easter and then vomited, the Children's Village mother is said to have forced the child to eat the vomit.

This is what a woman — we call her Katharina — tells on the phone. According to her own account, she lived in the SOS Children's Villages in the Carinthian community of Moosburg until 2005. She says she was subjected to inappropriate treatment by her SOS Children's Villages mother since the age of four, says Katharina, now an adult and mother of two children. Her own childhood won't let her go. She suffers from eating disorders and is in therapy.

"Since my Children's Village time, I've become numb; I have problems feeling emotions," she says.

Last week, Falter published an investigation into abuses at the SOS Children's Villages Moosburg. A study anonymously leaked to Falter documents serious inappropriate treatment — including physical transgressions, deprivation of liberty and food — at the SOS Children's Villages. Small children were also affected.

The conditions the study reveals did not exist at some distant time but until 2020. It was initiated by a courageous group within the organization. They are no longer with SOS Children's Villages today. The top bosses took over the helm. Instead of making the study accessible to the other Children's Villages and the authorities, management shelved the paper. The allegations were not to scratch the impeccable image of SOS Children's Villages — an organization that lives largely from donations.

Everyone had looked the other way: those responsible in the village, the regional managers above them, the authorities whose legal oversight failed. Now the opposition in Carinthia is demanding consequences; the Greens have submitted a parliamentary inquiry at the federal level.

SOS Children's Villages announced it would scrutinize the organization's structures. An external investigation commission is to be set up, chaired by Irmgard Griss, former President of the Supreme Court.

But while the Graz Senior Public Prosecutor's Office, prompted by Falter's reporting, has instructed colleagues in Carinthia to take action and review the allegations, new indications of even more far-reaching inappropriate treatment are becoming public. Several former Children's Village children are contacting the Falter editorial office.

And another study on inappropriate treatment surfaces. Again, like the Moosburg study, it is from the Institute for Men's and Gender Research in Graz. This time it concerns Imst, the very first SOS Children's Villages. And: everything points to the fact that the organization's leadership and the authorities had long known — and long before the two studies — about the cruelties. And did nothing against them.

Does SOS Children's Villages have a national problem of inappropriate treatment? Are the authority's controls inadequate? And why did everyone look the other way?

Let's take the case of Katharina. She contacted Falter by phone just hours after the Moosburg story was published. Can her accounts be true?

Katharina has proof. There is a worn letter from 2016; the sender is SOS Children's Villages. It is a concession by the organization. For in the letter, it grants her "compensation for events in the amount of 10,000 euros." "This settles and compensates all claims on your part," it says. The letter was signed by Christian Moser, still managing director of SOS Children's Villages to this day.

The internal body that determined the amount of the payment included Gerhard Stecher, deputy supervisory board chairman, and Elisabeth Hauser, herself in SOS Children's Villages management until 2023 — and co-commissioner of the 2020 Moosburg study.

The letter to Katharina proves: the executive suite knew about the inappropriate treatment in the Children's Village. Only after the Falter report did SOS Children's Villages apologize for the publicly known cases of inappropriate conduct: they were "deeply affected" and wanted to "sincerely apologize." They claim to have only learned of the conditions in Moosburg in 2020. The organization apparently forgot Katharina's case.

And Katharina is not the only affected person from this SOS Children's Villages.

Natascha lived in the house next to her. "The Children's Village mother beat me almost daily," she says with a resolute voice. Natascha came to Moosburg in 1990 and lived in the Children's Village until 2005. Once, the Children's Village mother is said to have struck her so hard on the eye that her retina detached. Since then, she has been blind in one eye. Falter has the medical report from 2003.

The Children's Village offered her a so-called clearing procedure two years ago, in which it was to be determined whether she was entitled to a compensation payment and therapy hours. Natascha refused. "I don't want any money from them."

The cases of Natascha and Katharina show: inappropriate treatment was the order of the day at the SOS Children's Villages Moosburg until just a few years ago. Affected persons exist throughout Austria. SOS Children's Villages has paid out a lot of money. Yet nothing changed for a long time in the conditions at the children's facilities.

The children from House 16: as Falter already reported last week, their Children's Village mother had isolated them and locked them in inappropriately. The educator rationed food and removed the faucet so the children could not "drink secretly."

Falter was able to speak with three of the four children from House 16. Their statements match. They make clear how horrific everyday life must have been under the "mother's" regime.

While driving, the Children's Village mother put an "I-love-you-jacket" on them. That means: she tied the children's hands behind their backs and bound their legs. When they screamed, she taped their mouths shut.

The Children's Village mother's sanctions were malicious. After 3 p.m., the children received nothing more to drink so they wouldn't wet the bed. They were locked in their rooms or in a hallway in front of the bathroom for hours. The Children's Village mother called it the "rage corner." The toilet was locked, the affected persons recount today. That was "training," their caregiver said at the time, "so the bladder gets bigger."

Several times, even the small children had to walk the "Bocki-Bocki-Path." That was a march on foot from Moosburg to Pörtschach and back. About two times six kilometers long. The children's trouser and jacket pockets were sewn shut because a boy had once put a chestnut inside. The Children's Village mother didn't want that.

"Everyone knew what she was doing to us, but everyone just watched," says one of the affected persons. Like Katharina, the children from House 16 were compensated years later. SOS Children's Villages paid each child 15,000 euros and therapy costs. A late admission of long-suspected guilt.

From today's perspective, in this case "a report should have been made," SOS Children's Villages answered a Falter inquiry. "That this was omitted at the time was a mistake. We expressly regret that."

For SOS Children's Villages should have known about the allegations since at least 2015. The State of Carinthia was also long informed. Back then, years after their time in the Children's Village, the two boys from House 16 had revealed their experiences before doctors at the Klagenfurt State Hospital. But the public prosecutor's office quickly closed its investigations against the Children's Village mother again. The reason according to Falter information: she had not intentionally subjected the children to inappropriate treatment.

Moosburg is not an isolated case. Children far from Carinthia also experienced inappropriate treatment in a Children's Village. When the Falter story made the rounds in the media, an envelope landed in the editorial office's mailbox. It contained another study. It dates from 2022. Again, it speaks of physical, psychological, and structural inappropriate treatment in a Children's Village. And again, management covered it up. This time it's about Imst.

Imst plays a special role in the history of SOS Children's Villages. Here, Hermann Gmeiner founded the first facility for war orphans in 1951 — a model later copied in more than 500 villages worldwide. But the study casts a dark shadow over this harmonious picture.

For years, the documents suggest, a "climate of fear" prevailed in Imst. Children were subjected to physical transgressions, locked in inappropriately, and humiliated. They learned that complaints were futile — not infrequently, they were even forced to keep silent about inappropriate treatment they had suffered.

At the center of these allegations are two men: the then village director and a pedagogical director described as the boss's "right hand." Together they maintained an authoritarian system in which intimidation and abuse of power determined everyday life.

The trigger for the study on "Forms of Inappropriate Treatment in the Imst Children's Village" was an audio file from 2021. The pedagogical director is said to be heard on it putting a young person in a hopeless situation. The pedagogue is said to have berated the Children's Village girl, verbally attacking her "in the worst way."

The leader is said to have been known for crossing boundaries and inappropriately harassing female colleagues. Nevertheless, no one at the SOS Children's Villages Imst intervened — the fear of consequences was too great.

Particularly shocking is the case of a young person who was subjected to the most serious form of inappropriate conduct by a boy from the village. When she confided in caregivers, the bosses intervened. Instead of protection, the girl received blame and pressure not to press charges. Those who supported her were snubbed.

The study describes still more forms of inappropriate treatment: children were locked in rooms or pressed to the floor. Food was rationed or canceled as punishment. Some children had their trusted caregivers taken away overnight — with serious consequences for their mental health. Remnants of black pedagogy thought long overcome appear: children who wet themselves had their underwear taken away by educators, supposedly so they would learn to be "clean."

Today, the child protection organization speaks of "serious structural and oversight problems" in Imst. The abuses were addressed after the cases became known. "Today there are binding quality and control loops with external professional supervision."

Regarding other allegations investigated by Falter, no "verified" information is yet available, SOS Children's Villages writes. But they want to pursue them. Including that case that is said to have occurred in 2019. The village director and the pedagogical director "dragged" a child who showed aggressive behavior to a lockable sports field. They pinned the child to the ground, pressing their knee into the boy's back and twisting his arms behind his back. The boy was ten years old at the time. Days later, the incident repeated itself — this time the village director called for a civilian service worker. The boss pinned the boy by the hands, the civilian service worker by the feet. Again, the case was only incompletely documented; again, it was not reported.

Pinning children is prohibited in Austria. In the SOS Children's Villages Imst, the study states, physical transgressions in the form of forceful holding, carrying away, and locking in were common.

It was the kindergarten educators who sounded the alarm. They reported endangerment of child welfare. The Children's Village leadership is said to have then removed the children from kindergarten. "We were only able to get them back because of the mandatory kindergarten requirement; the city of Imst threatened legal action," the kindergarten reported in the study.

The Imst study documents several times how female employees stood up against the executive suite. Their criticism was nipped in the bud. When an employee raised objections to the "strict ways of dealing with children," she was offered a mutual termination.

SOS Children's Villages terminated the pedagogical director in 2021. Despite harsh allegations, they parted with the Children's Village boss amicably. A mistake, as the organization admits: "From today's perspective, this approach was wrong. In the case of serious allegations, it is necessary to terminate the employment relationship immediately and with clear, consistent steps."

The picture the studies paint is devastating: not only were the allegations known longer than admitted and presumably even more serious, the abuses were not concentrated on just one SOS Children's Villages but formed a pattern at multiple locations. Again and again, it was concealed and ignored. Management West — responsible for Imst — looked the other way at the complaints about the village director's "unpredictable and unprofessional" leadership style. It "never" responded to the workforce's cries for help, as the Imst study states.

"Not in all cases" could the children and employees at the SOS Children's Villages Imst be protected, the child protection organization admits in a response to Falter. "Today, tightened reporting, complaint, and supervision standards, regular audits, and mandatory child protection training apply."

But how could it have come so far that neither authorities nor the public had insight into the Children's Village system? A former senior employee who wants to remain anonymous speaks of a "cult of cover-up" built by managing director Christian Moser himself. Moser has worked in the organization since 1996 and has led it for 17 years.

In a high-ranking committee meeting where Moosburg was discussed, Moser is said to have refused any information. The policy was: what had to be protected was the SOS Children's Villages brand.

The inappropriately treated children were fobbed off with compensation payments; studies that revealed inappropriate treatment were shelved. And alleged perpetrators were terminated amicably and with the best references. They then found employment in other pedagogical institutions.

Within SOS Children's Villages, all safety loops failed. An intact external image was apparently more important to the organization than the conditions inside. But what happened beyond that? Where was the oversight of the authorities?

The State of Carinthia claims to have controlled the Children's Village carefully several times. However, statements from former state employees who contacted Falter show that one could — and should — have intervened much earlier. This is confirmed even by the independent child and youth advocate of the State of Carinthia, Astrid Liebhauser. The allegations against the Children's Village mother, she tells Falter, were "not entirely unknown." However, the SOS Children's Villages Moosburg was a "closed system."

Until a few days ago, the state did not even have the Moosburg study. It had been requested "several times" from SOS Children's Villages, a spokeswoman writes. Now it was in the mailbox — four years after the researchers had documented the inappropriate treatment.

How negligently the authorities acted is also shown by the case of P. The pedagogue worked in Moosburg until 2016. He took images in an exposed state of the children and saved them on his private laptop; one of them — showing a small boy with exposed intimate area — is said to have been his desktop background. The village director and his bosses knew about it. But instead of reporting the incident, they issued the man an impeccable reference.

To this day, he works for the Carinthian Kinderfreunde in a leadership position in a residential home for unaccompanied minor refugees. The legal guardian of the children is the State of Carinthia, which must have known about the pedagogue's behavior since the Moosburg study at the latest. That the man, a "dangerous person" as the study calls him, continues to work with children apparently bothers no one there.

A child protection organization that torments the children entrusted to it. Responsible parties who duck away. Authorities that aren't interested: this story is a declaration of bankruptcy.

Yet SOS Children's Villages only needed to take itself as a model. When cases of inappropriate conduct in international Children's Villages became known in 2021, the child protection organization set up a commission to come to terms. Chaired by Waltraud Klasnic, former ÖVP politician and experienced affected person protection attorney of the church. The 150-page report dealt with cases of inappropriate conduct in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Nepal, Peru, Sri Lanka, and Uganda. SOS Children's Villages disclosed it and celebrated its supposed transparency.

At the same time, two studies vanished into the drawer. This time it was about Austria: about Moosburg and Imst.