What are Kalinka’s mother and brother’s points of view in relation to the case and to the association ?

When the association “Justice for Kalinka” was founded in April 2001, its founders immediately informed Kalinka’s mother and brother of this initiative, explaining the composition of the committee, the commitments they made and the actions they planned.

In 2001, Kalinka’s mother, Danièle Gonnin, could not say anything about Kalinka’s death. She had declared to a journalist that she did not object to the idea of a trial, but considered Krombach was unable of a murderous act. She had an interview with the treasurer (of the association) in May 2001. The death of her daughter, she finally explained, was too overwhelming a burden. She did not feel strong enough to undertake an action. After this meeting she broke off all relation.
D. Gonnin belatedly acted jointly with the public prosecutor in March 2010 in view of the trial of March-April 2011. Yet she did not take part, even through her lawyer, in the proceedings aiming at keeping Krombach detained before the trial and at counteracting all his appeals for release. Her statement of March 31st 2011 is also a strange mixture. On the one hand she is clear-sighted as to the loose morals of Krombach (the reason why she left him) and she cleverly analyses his attraction for borderlines and taboos, illustrated by his conquest of the married woman and mother she herself was. On the other hand she appears charmed, trusting, dependant on Krombach up to a state of blindness. She used to perform medical acts in his surgery (X-rays, injections, blood samples ) providing he took the responsibility. She took for granted vague explanations about Kalinka’s death and surprisingly learned about the rape of L. Stehle ( committed in 1997) only during the investigation of 2010, when the judge “opened her eyes”. When she is questioned about her feelings, she only speaks of “compassion” for D. Krombach. Nevertheless she asserts her need to know the truth.

For his part, in 2001 Kalinka’s brother, Nicolas Bamberski, was uncertain about the case and did not try to find out the part Krombach had played in Kalinka’s death but he considered aberrant the non-enforcement of the judgement of 1995, which induced him to join the association.
The 11 year-old child he was when Kalinka died had avoided pondering over this death and even talking about it, with the understanding of his parents who wanted to spare his feelings. He had stayed in this state of mind over the years, but the rape of 1997 filled him with doubt. At 40 years of age, he came from the USA where he lives, to give testimony at Paris on April 1st 2011, driven by the haunting desire to obtain an explanation of his sister’s death. He had the great courage to relive the instants of the evening previous to Kalinka’s death, instants to which a trivial quarrel between brother and sister had afterwards added its poison. He searched his memory, with all his heart, for details that could enlighten the court.