https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/campaign-launched-to-support-mothers-bid-to-be-reunited-with-twin-sons/
Campaign launched to support motherโs bid to be reunited with twin sons
Beth Alexander has been fighting for access to her twin sons Samuel and Benjamin in Vienna courts after the breakdown of her marriage
By Jenni Frazer January 31, 2022, 9:01 am
A major global campaign was launched this week to support the bid of the family lawyer Beth Alexander to be reunited with her twin sons, Samuel and Benjamin.
The two boys live in Vienna with Ms Alexanderโs ex-husband, Dr Michael Schlesinger, whom she has been fighting in the Vienna courts after the breakdown of their short marriage.
Despite repeated attempts to gain regular and normalised access or visitation rights, Ms Alexander, a British citizen, has had minimal success in the Austrian courts. Last summer, she was able only to see her sons for one brief, supervised visit, for the first time in five years. Dr Schlesinger has successfully argued that she is mentally ill and unfit to take care of their sons, who are now 12 and approaching their barmitzvah in June this year.
Ms Alexander said she had an estimated 5,000 supporters who were โitchingโ to help her. She also has the backing from Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Hendon MP Matthew Offord and Jewish Womenโs Aid.
The case has been in and out of the Vienna court system since shortly after the twinsโ birth, with different rulings given which have severely affected Ms Alexanderโs ability to see or bond with her children on a regular basis.
The latest blow came after she applied for improved access through the International Child Abduction and Contact Unit, but her application was kicked back to the courts. The same judge who originally ruled against Ms Alexander, Judge Susanne Gottlicher, now says it would โnot be in the best interestโ of the boys for there to be any contact at all with their mother โ including phone calls.
Ms Alexander said that her ex-husband had even insisted, at last summerโs short meeting, that Samuel and Benjamin only spoke to her in German. โI speak to them in English but the boys reply in German โ and they have said to me, โMamma, English is forbiddenโโ.
She added: โIt was a supervised meeting, so everything was censored and the children were very uncomfortable. It was really a form of abuse: whatever I said, the [supervisor] was listening and would say, oh, youโre not allowed to say thatโ.
She said that previously the limited access arrangements had worked well, culminating in a โwonderfulโ holiday that she had been able to have with her sons.
This, she thinks, was the final straw for Dr Schlesinger, who, she claims, โcouldnโt bearโ the fact that the relationship was working so well. โHe went to social services and my access was reduced to just three hours a week.โ
Ms Alexander eventually left Vienna in 2016 โbecause I couldnโt see a way forwardโ. She returned to Britain and qualified as a solicitor and reignited her campaign to improve her access to the twins โ but now all contact has been denied.
Describing her ex-husband as โintimidatingโ and โa bullyโ, she said she believed her sons had been scared into telling the court that they did not want contact with her. โHe was sitting outside the courtroomโ, she said.
Now, as their barmitzvah approaches, Beth Alexander is desperately hoping to bring her sons back to the UK to celebrate here. She said: โThe barmitzvahโs in June. Obviously, Iโm not included in any of the arrangements and I donโt even know what date it is, or whether I am allowed to attendโ. Her supporters, she said, were being asked to contact the president of the Vienna Jewish community, Oskar Deutsch, to protest against the draconian rulings.