The Zaremba family from northern Saxony claim that they are not poor. After all, you have a house, but its condition is catastrophic.
Bad Düben – The Zaremba family from Bad Düben (Northern Saxony district) claim that they are not poor. After all, you have a house and don’t live on the street. But the condition of this dilapidated ruin is so catastrophic that a normal life is unthinkable. RTLZWEI visited the Zarembas as part of the program “poor Germany – Your children “.
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Florentine (14) with her siblings as well as Papa Daniel (37, back) and Mama Doreen (36, 4th from right). © RTLZWEI
In the dilapidated building in the Tiefensee district, cold, lack of hot water and empty wallets rule. The blended family, consisting of parents Doreen (36) and Daniel (37) and eight children, lives in a 120 square meter house inherited from Daniel’s grandfather, which was last renovated in 1975. And you can see that in every corner.
Because the grandfather only lived in two rooms on the ground floor during his lifetime and had the rest filled up, many rooms lack the most basic and natural things.
The bathroom door consists of a wooden panel, the unclad corner bathtub stands on wooden feet, the lid on the toilet cistern is missing, there is no hot water and sometimes no electricity. A wood stove is used as the only heat source, but it cannot heat the top floor.
All of this leads to major hygienic problems. “Since we don’t have any warm water, we boil it off the stove and put it in the tub so that we can at least wash ourselves,” says the eldest daughter Florentine (14).
One after the other, the seven children are quickly bathed in the same water before it gets cold. The family also has to brush their teeth over the bathtub, as there is no sink in the bathroom.
The 14-year-old secondary school student makes a bitter confession: “I haven’t had a warm shower for about three years. You don’t feel comfortable and dirty, even if you’ve just washed yourself.”
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Florentine (here with sister Paula on her lap) supports her parents wherever she can. © RTLZWEI
Mama Doreen, who broke off her training as a cook and last worked in a clothing store, would like to go back to work when the baby Paula is old enough.
The family currently lives on around 3000 euros per month, consisting of the parents’ Hartz IV and child benefit. Because the inherited house had a mortgage of 66,000 euros, which Papa Daniel only found out after he inherited, the financial situation of the Zarembas is fatal.
In addition, the 37-year-old suffered a gastric rupture while the renovation work was being carried out independently and has been unable to work since then. “I thought I might be able to do it all on my own. I couldn’t put a tile on the wall, it fell off again. I took over everything myself,” admits the family man, confused.
Because money is running out at the end of the month and the fridge is often empty, various bag soups are mixed with eggs so that there is something on the plates at all.
Especially for the children, especially the eldest daughter Florentine, it is difficult to have privacy in the middle of puberty. She doesn’t bring friends home out of shame, she hardly has any free time because she often helps with the house. At least she can distract herself with two horses that her aunt gave to the family. The ninth grader wants to train as an educator. Because she wants to lead a better, more orderly life than right now.
You can find the whole episode on demand at TVNOW.
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