Where Children Run Ryan Oman

Where children run is the chilling true story circling the lives of two young boys David and Dennis Pischke. This book retells the story of how these two boys managed to survive over a decade of abuse and starvation at the hands of their mentally ill stepfather. The duo had to endure un relentless torment and ever possible kind of abuse. They were physically abused and beaten just about everyday of their short lives. They were verbally abused to the point where they both thought they were worthless. They were emotionally abused so that by the end the twins were so emotionally numb they wouldn’t blink an eye at horrific events that would scar most of us for the rest of our lives. At times the book even hints at sexual abuse. It is truly amazing how strong the human spirit really is.

For Bob Domko beating the children was as natural as breathing. It didn’t matter how minor the crime a child would commit in that household the punishment was always severe and was always brutal. We as readers don’t completely understand the mindset of Domko and therefore do not understand why he chooses to beat these kids. It could be because of power and that is how he asserts himself as the alpha of that family seeing that it is not his own. He could beat them because of the pure pleasure and enjoyment that he gets out of it, you can see the amusement that he gets out of it because after every beating he sits on his favourite part of the couch puffs on a cigarette and grins to himself thinking about what he has just accomplished. Whatever the reason for those acts of violence no excuse would ever justify that kind of treatment to another human being especially a child.

We have all probably herd the saying “sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me” that statement is completely false. Verbal abuse can have the same adverse affects on a child’s mind as physical abuse. This type of abuse can cause emotional trauma which results in long lasting damage. Verbal abuse can also undermine a child’s self esteem which in turn damages the child’s ability trust and form relationships. This lack of trust and relationship making ability can be seen in the Pischke twins. Whenever they saw a new face on the farm the immediate reaction was to run and hide in the bush, even if this person was there specifically there to help them. It also took them a while to trust anyone enough to open up and talk to and talk to them.

The emotional trauma these boys endured is nothing short of a miracle. Some of the things these boys saw as mere children would give the majority of us Posttraumatic stress disorder. One of these events occurred after the twins mentioned to Domko the dogs that one of their neighbours had that was trained to bring in the cattle. The next day as the boys were walking to school they saw how Domko had hanged the dogs by from the trees. They were so terrified that if they told anyone about what they had seen that Domko would do to them what he had done to the dogs. Another traumatic event occurred when Domko started to attack one of the boys and Bruno their beloved dog protected the child. Domko was infuriated by this and ended up getting his gun and shooting the poor animal right in front of the boys.

Neglect is another form of abuse and the only time this children were giving any attention at all is if they were being yelled at or beaten. Many days no one even bothered to feed these poor children. This malnutrition caused them to be very small for there age. Children need lots of guidance and reassurance when they are at David and Denis’s stage of development and if they don’t get that guidance there is no tell how screwed up they could grow up to be. The lack of attention can be just as harmful to a child as the wrong kind of attention.

No one deserves the cruelty that went on inside that household. No one has the right to treat any human being the Domko treated those kids. How those boys dealt with that childhood and still managed to become functioning members of society is beyond me. Where Children Run is a true testament to how strong the human spirit truly is.