The Romanian Tribune begins today the publishing of a series of articles in the matter of the Furdui family from Germany, based on an ongoing investig
The Romanian Tribune begins today the publishing of a series of articles in the matter of the Furdui family from Germany, based on an ongoing investigation that we started two months ago.
During this time members of our Newsdesk team visited Walsrode, Germany, talked to the Furdui family, contacted local authorities and representatives of the Jugendamt Heidekreis, the local press, and consulted lawyers, legal experts and child protection psychologists.
The Furdui family’s case came to international public attention in the spring of 2021, when all the seven children of the family were taken from their home in the town of Walsrode by the Jugendamt (German Social Welfare and Youth Office) Bad Fallingbostel, Lower Saxony, Germany, on the basis of allegations for abuses to which they were allegedly subjected by their parents.
Petru and Camelia Furdui are two young Romanians currently residing in Germany. Petru was born in the city of Hunedoara, and Camelia in Drobeta Turnu Severin. Camelia is 39 years old and Peter is 42. The two met in Spain, and in 2004 they got married.
A young family, with high expectations from life, Petru and Camelia set out on the path that many Romanian families dared to get on, choosing to live and work outside of Romania, at a time when the Romanian political class was plunging the country into economic and social uncertainty.
The first five of their children were born in Spain: David, Naomi, Esther, Natalia and Ruben. After spending seven years in the Iberian state, Petru and Camelia Furdui moved to Germany. It was 2012. They first settled in Mannheim, where they quickly integrated, with children attending German schools and kindergartens. In 2019, the Furdui family moved to a small, typically German, cozy town – Walsrode, in the Heidekreis District – about an hour drive from Hannover. In Germany, the family grew larger and had two more children: Albert and Leah. They lived in their own house, bought and arranged especially for the comfort of the whole family.
The Furdui family is a Christian family of Pentecostal beliefs. The Pentecostal Church is officially recognized with a number of 656 million members worldwide, accounting for about 8.5% of the world’s population. Both in Mannheim and in Walsrode, Peter and Camelia together with their seven children attended the local Romanian Pentecostal churches.
Although the pressure of the pandemic years was also felt in the Furdui family, the parents and their children adapted and integrated very well in the new city, developing quickly a relationship of appreciation and respect for the neighbors, teachers and whomever they became acquainted with.
The Furdui family is a normal, respectable family with a vast international culture accumulated over 18 years – they speak German, Spanish, Romanian and English, with high Christian social and moral values. Their children are extremely talented for their age, with various musical and artistic passions and gifts – a huge gain for Germany, especially for Walsrode.
But April 26, 2021 became fateful for the Furdui family – as in one day all their seven children were snatched by the Jugendamt Bad Fallingbostel without any explanation, without prior notice and without giving a reason.
Shocked, Petru and Camelia Furdui were left with only a business card left on the table by Jugendamt employees, while for Furdui’s children the drama of being placed among foreigners began, in physical and mental living conditions incompatible with a country that claims to be developed and democratic.
In the next two weeks, in a series of articles resulting from our ongoing investigation, we will present the abuses of the Jugendamt in the case of the Furdui family, the worrisome conditions in which the Furdui children live in the orphanages where they are placed, the refusal of the representatives of the Jugendamt Heidekreis to answer the essential questions in this case that many of our readers have asked us repeatedly.
We owe our readers and our community in the United States and abroad the responsibility and integrity of journalistic efforts to clarify this matter and bring to light facts that are not common nor typical pertaining to the abuses and human rights violations that the Furdui family has been subjected to in Germany.
The Romanian Tribune Editorial Board
COMMENTS