This is a very disturbing read about institutional abuse by crypto Nazis and very conservative Catholics in Austria in the late 1940s to the late 1980s. Very similar to the treatment of Indigenous children in residential schools, and of Irish single mothers in Magdalen Laundries.
What does this kind of history tell us? That “respectable” people can get away with all sorts of unpleasant behaviour merely by being plausible sounding and having academic credentials.
And also, once again, that the Catholic Church is responsible for all kinds of authoritarian horror. I was frequently reminded of the Magisterium and their attempts to rid children of Dust in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy while reading this.
This link is to a short excerpt that then links to the long article in the New Yorker.
If you have a New Yorker subscription, here’s the direct link.
Also worth noting that if you are an Austrian who was mistreated in one of these places, you can now get compensation.
Changing Paths 