Which person in history has had the saddest life? I suppose the little boy in this snap takes the cutlet. His name? Henk Heithuis. And I’m advising you ahead of time, his story is absolutely horrible and intimidating. Heithuis was born in the Netherlands in 1935 and placed in the foster system, to be watched for by unqualified preachers. Now preachers had a tendency of abusing youthful children under their care, there have been numerous similar cases but Heithuis wasn’t like utmost victims he was about to go public.
generally, the abuse was still pushed away, signed off, swept under the hairpiece. It’s been that way for centuries. Victims stayed quiet out of shame and fear. Not Hank Heithuis. He decided to make a stage. For himself and for all those others he’d known who were abused, molested, ravished. So he went to the police, and officially indicted the preachers of sexual abuse. This was revolutionary, and absolutely unheard of in the 1950s!
What Heithuis hadn’t anticipated, is the absolute atrocity and the far- reaching power of the institution he was about to face. Since he was still fairly a minor at the time of the abuse, and at the time he made his blameworthiness, Heithuis was still a ward of the state, unfit to make his own opinions, the court argued.
He claimed, still, that he was ravished. The preachers also came forward and denied this. rather, they rather, Heithuis was a homosexual boy who had “ enticed the preachers ”, can you imagine their audacity? The youthful victim vehemently denied the allegations, maintained he’d been ravished and that he was, in fact, heterosexual — he indeed had a gal he hoped to marry as soon as he reached the age of maturity.
The church, still, had quite a bit of influence with the courts. They induced them that Heithuis was, in fact, homosexual. And in the 1950s, homosexuality was still illegal in the now- so-liberal Netherlands. The treatment comported of either times in an institution, chemical castration, or physical castration with Heithuis, no disproof was allowed, no alternate opinion considered and no option given he was to be devitalized incontinently. Which he was.
They cured the teenaged abuse victim, drove him to a clinic down South and strapped him to a table where they surgically dampened him. After the operation they demurred him to the check Heithuis was broken. Mentally. Physically. He abandoned his musketeers and his fiancée and came a seaman. He made it as far as Japan, when he broke down and, when on reinforcement leave, set up his way to the Dutch delegacy. Then, he told his story to a diplomat who took pity on his fate. He indeed showed his scars, and explained how his hormones were now out of control, his body no longer felt like his and he was suicidal.
“ Please tell my story ” Heithuis claimed, “ make notes, flash back it. They may come for me. They may kill me. ”
Surely it would not be so bad, his friend, Cornelius Rogge, assured him. Surely they would not have him killed. How could they? But Heithuis was sure of it. Arrangements were made with the shipping company to have him brought back home to his country.
When he returned, Heithuis, helped by his musketeers who knew his story, formerly again pressed charges. This time for forcible castration, lying about his fornication and internal health problems as well as vilifying his good name. Still a fiery chap, still refusing to surrender, he wanted justice, he wanted his good name restored.
But in 1958, shortly after pressing charges? Hank Heathens got into a auto accident and failed on the spot. The police sequestered all his particular things and material handed to them by the departed. All material was destroyed on the day of his death.
