How or through whom did you come into contact with ritual abuse?

I was born into this through my parents and my grandparents from both sides. Also my environment, as I began to notice later. My neighbors, my girl friend, teachers, my pediatrician. Everyone was in on it, I didn’t realize that until later, that we actually grew up quite isolated. Now in retrospect I realize, how we had no other contact at all, but only with those who had been in this cult.

What are the typical experiences you have had as a victim?

So in this cult, everyone has a function or is meant to do something. And I had been designated as a helper, an assistant. For example, I had to watch how my siblings were abused and raped, or what they had to do, terrible violence. For example, I had to help in a church room in the kitchen, I had to help cut human flesh.

Where and in what context did it take place?

Some things were in the cellar of our house. My father also kept other children there. I remember, that where we stored the potatoes, there were also children, dark-skinned children. But it also took place in this community where we were, in these rooms. Or also in the forest, in a small house. It looked almost like a garden shed. In very different places.

What was your worst experience?

For me, the worst thing is simply this boundless powerlessness that I always felt, that I had to watch and could not help. And you can’t say anything there, because silence is the top commandment.

How do the perpetrators get the children to comply?

With threats, violence, manipulation. Just threats like they hurt the family, they kill the mother, or they hurt the siblings. And as a child, you do everything you’re told. You believe everything your parents tell you.

Finally, do you have a personal concern or message?

Yes. I think it’s very important, that there are people who have the courage to listen to us, that there are people who have the courage to believe that, and that they realize that it’s not a conspiracy narrative, as it’s being suggested now, especially in the Swiss media. There are very many people affected, like me, who have never been in therapy. And I also wish that the whole dark simply comes to light, that people talk about it!