Woman who had to give up a child holds State liable
The first of more than ten thousand mothers who had to give up their child in the 50s, 60s and 70s, a woman went to court. Trudy Scheele-Gertsen (73) calls it disgraceful in the newspaper Trouw what happened to her and her son. She does not want compensation, but recognition of the suffering caused to her and her son.
Scheele-Gertsen became pregnant unmarried in the late 1960s and ended up in a home for unmarried mothers in Oosterbeek. Although she clearly stated that she wanted to keep her child, she had to give up her son immediately after birth. In those days, she insisted on seeing him once more.
Her lawyer, Lisa-Marie Komp, tells Trouw that the Child Protection Board could have known that she wanted to keep her child. In addition, says Komp, Dutch law and the Convention on Human Rights signed by the Netherlands had already established that the bond between mother and child is essential.
Scheele-Gertsen was also not informed of her rights, namely that she was entitled to assistance, to financial support from the father. Her child ended up in a home and was adopted after almost three years. She would later read in his file that he missed his mother in those early years and cried a lot.