Freudenberg.
A 12-year-old is stabbed, suspects are girls almost the same age. Freudenberg is under the impression of terrible news.
A twelve-year-old girl from Freudenberg was killed, presumably by two people who were almost the same age. More and more details of the cruel deed are also making the rounds in Freudenberg on Tuesday.
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Freudenberg, school center
Shortly after noon on this rainy March Tuesday. Rush hour in front of the Büschergrund school center. One bus after the other approaches the stops. The young people seem relaxed, some laugh. The supposed normality is deceptive. A patrol car from the city’s public order department is parked in front of the Esther Bejarano comprehensive school. Uniformed men are watching the process behind the glass pane of the canteen, and the city flag in front of the building is flown at half-mast. Her 12-year-old classmate from the 7th grade was found dead on Sunday, stabbed to death, possibly by two girls of almost the same age. They’re about to say it on the news. Two teachers are standing in the parking lot, they too are talking about what happened. But not with the reporter. The school shut down its website: “We lost our student, classmate and friend over the weekend. She was violently torn from our midst and from her family far too early. Our thoughts and wishes are with her family and friends now and in the near future. We wish them a lot of strength.”
+++ Also read: Terrible suspicion: girl (12) killed by children in Freudenberg +++
The school counselor
What if someone tells about those boys and girls at the bus stop right at home? Or when other children in Siegen, Kreuztal or elsewhere find out what terrible things happened in Freudenberg? “That would be good,” says Beate Schwagmaier, head of the regional school advisory service in Siegen-Wittgenstein – good if the girl or boy speaks: “Children shouldn’t eat up any fears.” And what do you say then? “I would probably ask back.” What does the child know, what does it think, what does it think? And then age matters. “Six-year-olds don’t really have a concept of death. But they know that there are massive arguments among themselves.” Conversations can become more demanding with older people. But it’s also important for them to “make it clear that it’s something unusual,” says Beate Schwagmaier, “something very bad, but nothing that happens again and again.” That, according to the head of the school counseling service, is the way it is a very mature attitude: don’t count on the next catastrophe every day. And yet we cannot guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen again.
+++ Read also: Twelve-year-olds from Freudenberg stabbed: children suspect +++
Children shouldn’t be afraid – and you can give them the tools to strengthen themselves: “What can you do when you have a fight?” According to Beate Schwagmaier, an exchange between parents can also be helpful: How to deal with a fight, with Bullying among children? “It’s important to know what’s going on with the kids. Parents don’t always have to intervene, but they do have to be able to give advice. You are the most important person for your child.” Parents should observe carefully: If a child no longer sleeps well or eats poorly, this could also be a psychosomatic reaction to unresolved experiences. Which is not good at all: Keeping children away from bad news. Because it doesn’t work, “that’s an illusion.” And because it creates a taboo, because bad fantasies solidify. “Parents must have the ability to correct fantasies.”
Freudenberg, Evangelical Church
Pastor Thomas Ijewski unlocks another door and welcomes those who arrive. Here, too, there is a rule of language: Only the superintendent speaks to the media. Inside the church, which is now open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., are a man and two women. The women passing through, actually for tourist reasons here in the picture-book old town, the old patch. You heard the news. “How terrible.”
On a table is the book of condolences for the girl, who could have celebrated her 13th birthday in August. “We are with you from the bottom of our hearts,” writes one family. “Thank you for the time that was possible together,” says another page. The girl’s first class teacher was in church: “When I talk about you or think of you, my eyes light up.” Some overcome their speechlessness with difficulty, their entries are short: “Simply unbelievable.” And: “We don’t have any words. Our thoughts are with you.” For comfort, there is desolation: “The question of ‘why’ remains unanswered, and nothing will ever be the same again.” Mayor Nicole Reschke and her deputies Daniel Knie and Alexander Held offer condolences on one side : “We express our powerlessness and seek consolation in mutual silence.”
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The Superintendent
“We are making an offer for people who need a place where they can express their feelings, their sadness, their horror,” says Peter-Thomas Stuberg, Superintendent of the Evangelical Church District of Siegen-Wittgenstein. “Churches have been places of refuge for centuries,” he says, explaining the decision to make the offer in Freudenberg. On the one hand, people there could experience community even in difficult moments. “The other thing is that we offer human closeness: to hear, to speak, to at least seek ways of relief together.”
It is up to the visitors whether they would like to talk or whether they would rather sit alone on a bench and pray, reflect or pursue their feelings. It doesn’t matter which religion they belong to or whether they believe at all. “We want to help people to endure the pain,” says Peter-Thomas Stuberg. “A church is a special place. That is something different than being alone in the living room at home.”
In Freudenberg, people would have to deal with an additional aspect. “The initial shock is mixed with the shock that follows because of the circumstances,” says the superintendent in view of the results announced during the press conference in Koblenz. Not only was a 12-year-old girl killed – the crime was also confessed to by two girls, 12 and 13 years old.
Freudenberg, Marktstraße
“It’s bad,” says a woman from Freudenberger who is walking through the old patch. “You don’t see anyone on the street.” She herself is regularly out and about in the forest where the girl was killed. “It just scares you.” She follows the latest developments in the news and wants more information about the inexplicable. Those responsible for the crime must be punished, she demands. The girl’s death is also an issue down in the hit market. Only snippets of conversation can be heard, “Police” is one of them. The people in the region know each other, a senior sends greetings to an acquaintance. “It’s horrible,” says a senior from Freudenberger about what happened. Not only the people in Freudenberg, but everyone is “appalled”. “Scary” is what happened – she lacks the words, everything seems unreal.
+++ Read also: Twelve-year-olds from Freudenberg stabbed: children suspect +++
The mayor
“For all of us, what we have heard is appalling and beyond our imagination,” said Freudenberg Mayor Nicole Reschke after the press conference in Koblenz. In view of what happened, people would like answers, some of which would have been given – “but the question of why remains open”. Specially trained professionals are still available as contact persons at the school where the girl was killed. It is important to take individual needs into account. There are students who now need their regular lessons and the safe framework of routine – and others who need discussions. In addition, a mourning room has now been designed in the school. The children and young people are not pushed into anything, it is all about offers. “Even for us adults, it’s difficult to deal with,” says Nicole Reschke, describing the situation. “Sunday was the worst of my tenure. And this scenario does not end. It’s very stressful for a whole city.”
Freudenberg, somewhere
Her family lives here. There is nobody on the street. A bobby car and children’s toys are in front of a house. Below, at the bus stop by the town hall, on Mórer Square, a TV reporter is waiting patiently for people to have their feelings documented in pictures and sound.
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