REGENSBURG, BAVARIA — (CNN) As many as 547 former students of the Catholic Regensburger Domspatzen choir school in Germany were abused physically, and in some cases sexually, over a period of 70 years, an independent report has alleged.
The 440-page report, commissioned by the Regensburg Diocese, found a culture of violence across the school, from pre-school classes to boarding houses, allegedly committed from 1945 until the report was commissioned in 2015.
“Pre-school victims of the Regensburg Domspatzen in (the towns of) Etterzhausen and Pielenhofen described the institution as a prison, hell and a concentration camp,” the report’s co-author lawyer Ulrich Weber said at a press conference Tuesday.
“Many of them called the time there as the worst of their lives, marked by violence, fear and helplessness.”
Of 547 students, 500 said they had been the victims of physical violence, such as beatings, while another 67 said they had been the victims of sexual abuse. Some had experienced both.
“Reasons (for physical violence) were misconduct or poor performance of the students, but also arbitrariness by the educators,” the report said.
Forty-nine people, including school staff, are alleged to have taken part in the abuse, nine of whom are accused of sexually interfering with the children. It is not known if a criminal investigation will begin.
Reports of abuse at the German school first emerged in 2010.
Former musical director at the school, Georg Ratzinger, the brother of former Pope Benedict, apologized to the victims in a newspaper interview at the time, saying he wasn’t aware of any sexual abuse.
However, Ratzinger admitted he, too, slapped children as discipline. “I did have a very bad conscience doing it, though,” he said in the interview.
The Domspatzen, which literally means “cathedral sparrows” in German, is a centuries-old Catholic boys choir, based at St Peter’s Cathedral in Regensburg, which has performed all over the world.
“The whole educational system was based on musical bests and thus the success of the choir. Victims reports were not taken seriously,” the report’s authors wrote.
The German school has yet to release a statement on the report’s findings, but the report said efforts have already been made to remedy “former organizational weakness.”
“The transparency and willingness to cooperate between the leaders of the Domspatzen and the bishopric in relation to this investigation is evaluated very positively,” the report said.
The Diocese did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment, but Michael Fuchs, the Vicar General of Regensburg diocese since 2005, told the Guardian, “We all made mistakes and have learned a lot. We see today that we could have done things better and sooner.”
Allegations of historic child abuse in Catholic institutions have repeatedly emerged across the Western world in recent decades.
In early 2017, an Australian report estimated about 7% of Australian priests had been accused of abusing more than 4,000 children in Catholic churches and schools between 1950 and 2015.
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