They Took Down Every Photo of Me

My name is Bernd. I’ve been a Scientologist for 31 years. In the time before I became a Scientologist, I was an athlete, in particular, a fencer. I was the deputy director at the Olympic training center in Tauberbischofsheim.

Those were the graduates back then who did this fencing training with me to become certified coaches. This whole thing was suddenly stopped, when two employees of the fencing club came to our home and told me I could keep my job but I would have to say that Scientology was a mistake. And I was not willing to do that. And since I wasn’t willing to do that, I said, “Okay, you can go now. I won’t do that.” And then, of course, I had to give up my job.

The photos that existed of me in this fencing center all had to be removed the day after I was dismissed. Ultimately, it was a very extreme situation for us. Because in Tauberbischofsheim, all government offices—such as the tax office, county office, schools—all of them were indoctrinated for two weeks by so-called sect experts who did nothing but spread lies about what I supposedly had done or what Scientology supposedly is. Actually, they got the data or information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. And a smear campaign was simply launched against us. That means we could hardly go anywhere anymore without people whispering about us or suddenly there would be complete silence because no one wanted to talk to us anymore. The friends we had eventually withdrew because they were threatened with immediate dismissal. And at the fencing center, 70 people were employed full-time and there were about 500 athletes. And they were forbidden to speak with me or even talk about the subject of Scientology at all, or else they would lose their jobs.

I was no longer allowed to work in this sport because after my dismissal in this sport you had to testify that you are not a Scientologist, that you are not in contact with Scientologists or even talk to them at all. Something like that is unthinkable, and that was over a period of 30 years. I think about how I could have brought a lot of benefit to this sport, with the knowledge that I had and still have. But it was simply impossible to get back into the sport and to continue applying what I knew and why I had done all that training in the first place.