From WorldNetDaily...

Three families have released a letter pleading with Christians worldwide for prayer because of their "difficulties" – fines equal to thousands of dollars, frozen bank accounts and even the threat of the sale of the family home – because they homeschool their children.

The letter comes from Alexander and Helene Schneider, Johann and Katharina Harder and Heiko and Anna Krautter and was released through the International Human Rights Group, which already has been working on the case of German homeschooler Melissa Busekros....

IHRG President Joel Thornton told WND the situations are becoming more dire and parents more fearful about losing custody of their children because of the advancing stages of the Busekros case.

"We are turning to all believing gospel Christians and Baptists in the CIS, Europe and America," the three sets of parents wrote. "We are three families of the church in Bischofswerda, and we homeschool our children. For that reason, we had to deal with numerous difficulties with the authorities."

The families cited fines of about $4,000 for the Harder and Krautter families and about $2,500 for the Schneider family – so far.

"Measures such as freezing our bank accounts, compulsory mortgages, insolvency of our self-employment are making our lives difficult," the letter said. "Even the custody of our children was to be taken from us, but GOD prevented it."

Now more fines are being imposed, and "even our homes are to be sold for that," the letter said.

"We ask that you pray for us and that you make your voice heard before the secular powers," said the letter.

Thornton said he and several others working on the government's attacks on homeschoolers traveled to Bischofswerda to meet with the families.

"The German government is taking these actions simply because these parents homeschool their children," he said. "With a very strong Christian faith and a conviction that they should be allowed to raise their children in a Christian educational environment, these families are taking a stand, particularly regarding their right to oversee the sex education of their children as well as protect them from occult influences....

"The youth welfare office has asked the parents to come in for a meeting on the week of 16 April. Often, this is how the youth welfare office begins taking charge of the children," Thornton said.

For those who don't want to try to type out the addresses listed at the bottom of the letter, they are as follows...

State Education Office
Sächesische Bildungsagentur
Regionalstelle Bautzen
Otto-Nagel-Straße 1
D-02625 Bautzen
Germany

Higher Administrative Court
Observerwaltungsgericht
Ortenberg 9
D-02625 Bautzen
Germany

WorldNetDaily had previously reported about not only Melissa Busekros but also the Brause family...

Five "well-educated" children have been ordered into state custody by a court that applied to a second family a ruling taking a 15-year-old homeschooler from her family and sending her to a psychiatric ward.

The action fulfills a dire forecast from a human rights group that the government's success in the first case would encourage officials to act against other families in Germany.

The newest ruling comes from a court in Saxony and affects five members of the Brause family, according to officials with the International Human Rights Group....

"Apparently, Germany has decided that it can determine when and where the children go to school; and where they live while doing so," noted Thornton. "The youth welfare, supported by the police force, can take the children out of the home at any time with or without notice."

CBN also reports about the Brause family...

The parents can only regain custody by placing their children in public school, and the children may be physically removed by the state at any time....

The court decision in Zittau came despite the fact that the judge admitted that the children were well-educated under the direction of the Philadelphia school, a German homeschooling umbrella organization to which their parents belonged. 

The court accused the parents of not providing their children with a public school education as they themselves had received.

The family applied to educate their children at home because the parents believe it is their duty before God.  The judge stated that the parents’ obedience to God put the interests of their children “second.”

Court documents show the judge also complained that the children answered her with the same opinions that their father had voiced; showing that they have not had the opportunity to develop independent personalities. This echoes the Busekros case in Bavaria, in which the Erlangen Youth Welfare Agency told a court that the daughter was influenced too much by her father, and was not developing a personality of her own. 

The judge accused the parents of abusing their children by keeping them from public life (in public school) and “forcing” the children to follow their own lifestyle.

The German government's stance as related by a "K Horstmann" who gives his title as "Ministerial Director" in a letter to Netz-Bildung Freiheit (Net-Education Freedom) who questioned the forced removal of Romeike children from their home apparently is...

It is known to the ministry of education that primary school students can be particularly burdened by the related  contradiction between the norms of the parent-house and that of the public school through such forced escorts.

In order to avoid this in future, the education authority is in conversation with the affected family in order to look for possibilities to bring the religious convictions of the family into line with the unalterable school attendance requirement. [emphasis added]

That is pretty much an echo of this statement...

The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled.

...which is, of course, a quote from a previous German leader by the name of Adolph Hitler.

Certainly we remember what happened when the world stood by and idly watched him force his ideas on others.

If you wish to express your outrage with the tourism people in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, the following is the contact information...

Tourismus Marketing GmbH Baden-Württemberg
Esslinger Straße 8
70182 Stuttgart
Germany

phone: +49 (0) 711/ 2 38 58-0
fax: +49 (0) 711/ 2 38 58-98
e-mail: info@tourismus-bw.de

The contact page for the German state of Baden-Württemberg is at http://www.baden-wuerttemberg.de/en/contact/88538.html.

Also there is now a web site specifically for information and support for Melissa Busekros at http://www.FreeMelissaB.com/

Crossposted at JackLewis.net