Swiss Review 6/2019

14 Swiss Review / November 2019 / No.6 Fight for justice Ursula Biondi was 17 years old when she was sent to Hindelbank prison. She had not committed any crime. Rather she was admitted by the Zurich Guardianship Department to a “closed reform school” because she had fallen pregnant as a minor. The fun-loving girl had previ- ously been put into a girls’ home, which she ran away from several times. While still at home, she argued with her parents about going out, fashion and music. Her Italian father did not want to be viewed in a negative light by the authorities due to his citizenship application, so her par- ents agreed to a second placement for their daughter. They did not know that the “reform school” was a women’s prison that also housed criminals. Ursula was not able to get an education there. When she gave birth to her son, the authorities took him away and forced her to give him up for adoption. But she fought back and her baby was returned to her three months later. After a year in Hindel- bank, where she was forced to work in the laundry, she was released in 1968. She moved to the anonymity of Ge- neva, had a family, worked in the IT department of a UN organisation and in the social field. “I was fortunate,” she says, “but that was hard-earned”. Biondi was severely traumatised. The fear of being exposed as a former Hindel- bank inmate worried her for a long time. The injustice that she suffered haunted her. Biondi published her life story in 2002; it was picked up by the magazine “Beobachter”. She has been closely involved in the apprais- al and redress of the “administrative detainments” for years. The term is belittling, she warns: “It hides a horrific cruel bureaucratic arbitrariness.” She sees the report of the expert committee as valuable. But one thing still worries the dedicated campaigner who was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2013 by the University of Fribourg. Due to the extremely late rehabilitation of the former “de- tainees”, the following generation has never known just what freedoms they had to fight for. “We were still sanctioned with prison for ways of life that are now wide- ly accepted,” says Biondi who gives talks at schools so that people today remain vigilant against official arbi- trariness. Society Ursula Biondi in prison attire in 1967. The then young mother was banished to a detention centre. Photo: private/provided Ursula Biondi had the courage to write a book about her story. Photo: Jos Schmid measures, ranging fromadditional fi- nancial payments to the victims through to the suggestion that a House of the Other Switzerland be set up as a place to raise awareness about these processes. The Swiss Justice Minister, Karin Keller-Sutter, ac- cepted the recommendations. A deci- sion also needs to bemade onwhether to extend the elapsed deadline for the solidarity contribution of 25,000 francs per person. This could see fur- ther victims making contact, along with those who live abroad and have not so far lodged a claim. Repression in the constitutional state The Expert Commission’s report con- tains four hundred pages of histori- cal knowledge, and it holds a mirror up to the country. There is no other way to put it: until recently, Switzer- land was actually an uncomfortable, even repressive place for the margin- alised, the poor and non-conformists in society. There was a real second class and very few people were con- cerned by it. In a nutshell, the most important findings of the IEC are as follows: ■ ■ At least 60,000 peoplewere admin- istratively detained in 650 institu- tions in the 20 th century. The number is higher than expected. Locking peo- ple up without a criminal conviction was not just an aberration of Swiss law; there was an actual system. ■ ■ The lower class in particular at- tracted the attention of administra- tive justice: the poor and the mar­ ginalised without permanent employment, social or family net- works. However, those who were part of minority groups such as the Yenish were also detained, along with in- creasing numbers of rebellious young people after the Second World War. ■ ■ The decision to institutionalisewas made by militia bodies: municipal were two federal apologies, a Reha- bilitation Act and a parliamentary resolution to organise a solidarity contribution for victims of all com- pulsory social measures. Besides ad- ministrative detainees, former con- tract children, institutionalised children and people who were forci- bly sterilised demanded recognition of and redress for their suffering (“Swiss Review” 5/2018). The Federal Council appointed an in- dependent expert commission (IEC) to examine the administrative deten- tions in particular. More than thirty researchers were involved in the work. After four years’ work, the com- mission has published ten volumes in the last few months, including por- traits of victims. This autumn they presented their final report and rec- ommended further rehabilitation