update - text format errors fixed.
In the following chilling yet fascinating account Beth Alexander describes her allegations of abuse by her husband - culminating in his calling the police to have her committed to a mental hospital.
In the following chilling yet fascinating account Beth Alexander describes her allegations of abuse by her husband - culminating in his calling the police to have her committed to a mental hospital.
Often when an intelligent, self-confident woman claims abuse by a husband who is perceived as a wonderful man - the question is if these allegations are true - why didn't she just walk out. Why would anyone tolerate this treatment. Unfortunately it is very common - and there are many factors. In this case her version is supported by the police report.
As with many divorce accounts - it is important to realize this is her side of the story. If Dr. Schlesinger wishes to present his side - I will provide a forum for his version.
Its difficult to read, as the first half of the page - seems to be a header - repeating the very first few paragraphs. It might have to be reformatted.
ReplyDeleteTry a different browser - it looks fine on my computer
ReplyDeletefixed the problem - thanks for the notification
DeleteIt's difficult to read, but not because of the formatting. It is difficult to read because of the horrific ordeal that Beth and her children have had to endure.
ReplyDeleteShocking.
Dear Shocked,
DeleteYou are so right - it's difficult to read, not because of the formatting - which by the way looks fine on my computer.
It's difficult to read because of the horrific ordeal that Beth and her children have had to endure. Unfortunately, her situation and experience with the judicial system (in countries around the world) is 'par for the course'.
But, cases like Beth's and her children will continue as long as the courts & govts. consider these human rights violations 'private matters' and out of the 'jurisdiction' of the courts.
What is happening to women & victims of domestic abuse in the courts is the same dynamics as seen in discrimination & oppression of any group. This should be particularly evident to the Jewish community in Austria who not so long ago were 'witness' to the atrocities of which people & govts. are capable.
Many years ago I started reading the book "Sophie's Choice" (after having seen the movie years before). After reading the first pages, I closed the book and never opened it again -- I remember what Sophie's choice had been (after seeing the movie), and could not face the horror that this poor woman had faced.
If any group can understand the dynamics of discrimination & oppression it is the Jewish community in Northeastern Europe & Nazism. Winston Churchill (a distant cousin of mine) repeatedly lobby-ed European & American govts. about the atrocities and dangers of Nazism.
For this reason I call upon the leaders of the Jewish communities in Austria and England to meticulously examine the fact of Beth's case. And most importantly the elevated level of rights violation in her case.
Here are some 'fast facts' about domestic abuse:
--- Globally, 500M-1.5B children & 2.45B women suffer violence in their home &/or communities
--- Globally, 33K women & 20-30K children each year are murdered by family member bcse, of domestic violence
--- Domestic violence costs society in Europe, N. Amer. & Australia €186–250B ($252–338B) per year, costing TRILLIONS of €/$ globally
--- 'Western' family courts award custody of ≈ 200,000 children/yr. to abusive parents for an avg. of 10-16 yrs.). At present ≈ 2–3.5M children are habitually abused by custodial parents (global est. 20–100M)
--- In 'Western' countries an est. 250M women are victims of domestic violence, w/ 4000 murdered by intimate partners/yr, w/ court systems re-victimizing victims instead of protecting them as obligated under the law.
Women have great protections in courts; it is men facing false accusations that lack court protection.
Deletedrc, where are the statistics to back your claims? You should provide evidence if you are going to make such wild generalizations.
DeleteWe are not talking about a general situation here. We are talking about the Schlesinger case, where two children were taking from
Deletetheir perfectly capable mother for
no good reason.
After three yesrs in their father's care Sammy and Benji are being
deprived of their mother which has resulted in their under achievement.
Either the Courts have made a grave mistake, or corruption has taken place.
Either way they have not given any good reason, nor has the father why the boys can't have
more conact than they have with
their mother and why the father
messes with the pittance contact.
All this custody case means to the father is power! He doesn't care about his boys, or he would
make sure they see their mother
as much as possible. He just hates seeing the boys happy with
their mum and her happy with her children.
What an evil man Michael Schlesinger is !!!
i cant physically understand how anyone could allow that cruel family to be a part of the twins' lives let alone give them custody! they all deserve to rot in jail.
ReplyDeleteI quite agree! It is disgusting that Michael's mother and sister were accomplices in Michael's attempt to have the mother of his children committed!
ReplyDeleteWe have established and the court has retracted their notion that Beth was not at any time suffered from any mental illness.
Why would a grandmother take part in such a plot? Didn't she do enough damage when she kicked her husband out leaving Michael without a father in his life as she refused him any access? She then helped to break up Michael's sister Tina's marriage leaving their daughter without a father! Then they sought to break Beth's marriage and HER!
Beth has been tested to the hilt! Anyone would have caved under the strain.
Beth however has maintained a sound and positive attitude to do the best for her boys and this is why we will not leave any stone unturned until she has her children safely back in her custody where they belong.
The boys cannot remain with the Schlesinger family. They have shown us all why!
This reads more like an account from the "munsters" family than from a merciful Jewish family.
ReplyDeleteAt the best of times many doctors are control freaks who have to have everything done their way or the highway since they are used to ordering underlings and patients around all day.
This delusion of being an ubbermentch is a yetzer hora that doctors must overcome but in Austria a center of the Germanic heartland it must be even harder because over there the entire nation thinks they are ubermentchen. They gave the world some of the worst propagators of delusional master-race theories. Too bad Jews still live in Austria, adam moshech achar sevivav, people are drawn to and take on the attributes of their host nations and the Austrians are one nasty lot.
Thui arrogant doctor treated his wife and kids as if he was a concentration komandant and she and the kids his prisoners to do his bidding. No sense of mercy or of one's spouse being an equal partner and even recognizing that one's kids are humans not dirty animals that need to be "cleaned" (a typical obsessive-compulsive meshugas of "cleanliness ubber alles") yet one wonders with all the "cleanliness" mania why the kids are so neglected today. The reason must be that it's part of power struggle and once the good doctor feels he is in total control he switches to cruise control and lets others worry about the kids.
This is a very sick family. The mother should be happy she got away with her life and was not bumped off in the middle of the night somewhere. She should never go near the maniacal Austrians without a bodyguard at all times.
Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hyde is not well and very dangerous, no doubt about it. His shnooky chabad "rabbi" is a joke, good that the world sees them on display to warn away others from getting involved with Jews from Austria.
Recipients and Publicity, yes you might have a point that people can be drawn to and take on the attributes of the country they live in.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, there is something deeper going on here.
To begin with, why would a husband and father in the first place be so DESPERATE to get rid of his beautiful, intelligent young wife, who only wants the BEST for their children.
What was his sick MOTIVE?
We seriously have to ask ourselves why did he want total control over the children.
Quite often abusive husbands want to keep their wives in the home to carry on with the abuse, (although he is still abusing her from afar), but Michael Sclesinger did not want Beth around.
After reading Beth's diary, how are these children being treated behind closed doors?
Why are people in high places in Austria allowing, what the world can see, to carry on happening.
Why is Rabbi Biderman protecting Michael Schlesinger
What the hell was this inhumane monster doing bossing his wife around like that when she had the tough job of dealing with not just one baby but two of the same age? That is no way to treat your wife and the mother of your children! Mothers need extra special protection by their partners after multiple births - it is absolutely different from having "just" one child.
DeleteI believe every word Beth has written, there is no other conclusion other than that she made a disastrous mistake marrying this abuser of herself and her kids. Investigator has asked the question, "What was his SICK motive?" I have my suspicions. He was desperate I believe to marry her - her parents complained that they hadn't known each other long enough. But when he did, seems he realised marriage was not what he'd imagined it to be and so he decided in favor of total control to get what he wanted. Then the kids came along and challenged that viewpoint completely. Noise, sleepless nights, a young mum in a foreign city with her own particular problems from getting no moral support from an unsympathetic husband. Couldn't possibly end well.
But why was he not a happy and supportive husband from the beginning? Something unexpected must have happened. Dr Schlesinger had a tough childhood - without a father, but not under ordinary circumstances. The man was banned from his son's life by the boy's mother. The child, teenager and young adult must have had mentors within the community to compensate for the inexplicable loss of the most important male figure in his life. That alone is not enough to explain his sick personality tho. What else can have happened? Today I read about a dying man who, on his deathbed last week described the abuse to which he had been subjected as a child:
" ...destroyed my life … to touch somebody else is really hard for me.......". Men who themelves were abused in some way as children have mostly never functioned as others do. Lots of possibilities..........Poor Beth, Sammy and Benji.
Beth, you are a hero. May Hashem bless you and your children and foil the evil plans of their wicked father and his cabal of sinister cohorts, including the chabad joke of a rabbi
ReplyDeleteYou're right Rabbi Biderman is a joke!
ReplyDeleteHe has been complicit from the start!
Chabad worldwide, in particular, Chabad Headquarters in New York
need to be made aware of this bad egg
amongst them. Rabbi Biderman has
much to answer for and like Rabbi
Halpern who was finally exposed for
wrong doings in London and other
Chabad Rabbis as well, it is no good
anyone burying their head in the sand,
because chickens will come home to
roost, they always do if Chabad do not
hold Rabbi Biderman to account now
this one man will severely damage the
reputation of Chabad, which will be
very difficult to repair!
Chabad work hard by sending Shalichas to outlandish places where
life is hard for them.
Do Chabad really want to risk their reputation for the sake of one bad egg,
Rabbi Biderman.
Rabbi Biderman needs to be made to account!
It is not only Hashem who will help Beth it is her magnitude of supporters who will not let this matter rest until justice is seen to be done.
Justice can be done by the father and the Jewish community in Vienna!
If you feel a good approach is to write personal letters to Rabbi Biderman and the directress of the Chabad kindergarten in Vienna incase Rabbi Biderman is not visiting this site then go to this link
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chabad.org/centers/default_cdo/city/Vienna/country/Austria/jewish/Chabad-Lubavitch.htm
press on it and it gives you email access to all of the Chabad institutions in Vienna. If enough of us flood their inboxes they will need to find a new online system to protect themselves from their own corruption. Reading our emails should wake them up a little and clog the system a bit
Start writing
Another approach would be to google your local Chabad, write them a letter about Rabbi Biderman, Beth and the twins and the bad press its giving to Chabad overall. Give them the link to daas torah so that they can follow these conversations if they feel to
Google Chabad central headquarters in the USAand write them letters expressing your concern about Rabbi Bidremans actions and demanding that they look into it before Chabads name worldwide gets slandered as this story growsinto an international phenomenon. Get off this website now and start writing. It will only take 5 minutes of your time and may get to the right people...the converted on this site dont need converting
While I was reading the article, I thought - oh G-d, that is like my story! I understand well Beth´s overreacting (I also did). Beth is not the only woman with this problem in Vienna, there are many cases like this. The only what makes this story so special is the enorm unfair trial and the harm effect on the children. I met Beth in spring 2010, about one month after that day. I would never have thought what she had experienced. She was so ellegant, calm and nice, I wondered how she can manage the twins and be like this
ReplyDeleteAre you a friend of Beth's then? Why don't you put up a post in her favour?
ReplyDelete