Draft:Nazi persecution of people with disabilities
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The Nazi persecution of people with disabilities was a systematic campaign of forced sterilization, involuntary euthanasia, and mass murder carried out by the Nazi regime against individuals deemed to have "lives unworthy of life" (Lebensunwertes Leben). Between 1933 and 1945, tens of thousands of people, from infants to the elderly, were killed. In the case of children, those suffering from physical deformities, mental deficiencies, or even minor disabilities such as autism or speech difficulties were murdered.[1]
| Nazi persecution of people with disabilities | |
|---|---|
| Part of Nazi eugenics, Aktion T4 | |
 Children of Schönbrunn Hospital (1934). Photo taken by an SS photographer. | |
| Location | Nazi Germany and occupied territories |
| Date | 1933 – 1945 |
| Target | People with physical, mental, or sensory disabilities |
Attack type | Forced sterilization, involuntary euthanasia, mass murder |
| Deaths | Over 200,000 killed[2] |
| Injured | Over 400,000 sterilized[3] |
| Perpetrators | Nazi Germany |
Ideology and Laws
[edit]Eugenics, inspired by principles of social Darwinism, was a central pillar of the Third Reich. Disability was seen as a "genetic stain" that had to be eradicated to preserve "racial health." In 1933, the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring was enacted, which authorized the forced sterilization of people with:[4]
- Down syndrome
- Blindness or hereditary deafness
- Autism
- Congenital malformations
- Cognitive disabilities
- Neurological disorders
- Motor disabilities
More than 400,000 people were sterilized without their consent, often without understanding why.[5]
Aktion T4 Program
[edit]In 1939, Adolf Hitler signed a secret order launching the Aktion T4 program, aimed at the elimination of disabled adults under the guise of euthanasia.[6]
The methods included:
- Overdose of morphine or barbiturates
- Deliberate starvation
- Gas chambers disguised as showers in centers like Hadamar, Grafeneck, and Hartheim[7]
Infant Euthanasia
[edit]Thousands of children with disabilities were murdered. Doctors and midwives reported babies with deformities, who were sent to "special clinics" where they were killed via injection, starvation, or abandonment.[8]
Concealment and Continuation
[edit]Although officially suspended in 1941 after protests by Bishop Clemens August von Galen, the killings continued covertly.[9] Records were falsified, and families were misled about causes of death.
Occupied Territories
[edit]In places like Poland and the USSR, extermination practices included mass shootings and starvation in locked facilities.[10]
Targeted Conditions
[edit]Victims included people with:
- Intellectual disability
- Down syndrome
- Epilepsy
- Autism
- Cerebral palsy
- Schizophrenia
- Microcephaly
- Speech disorders
- Hereditary blindness or deafness
- Motor disabilities
- Bone or facial deformities
- Brain injuries
- Mood disorders
- Chronic alcoholism
Even those considered "unproductive" or "difficult" were targeted.
Estimated Figures
[edit]More than 200,000 people with disabilities were murdered, and over 400,000 sterilized.[11] Victims also included Gypsies, Poles, Slavs, Africans (Rheinlandbastarde), homosexuals and Jehovah's Witnesses..
Continuities with the Holocaust
[edit]Aktion T4 laid the groundwork for the "Final Solution." The same personnel, techniques, and bureaucracy were later used in the extermination camps.[12]
Memory
[edit]Few perpetrators faced justice. Some doctors continued practicing post-war. Memorials now exist, such as the Memorial of Tiergartenstraße 4 and Stolpersteine. In 2011, Germany officially recognized the murders as part of the Holocaust.[13]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Nazi Persecution of the Disabled – USHMM
- ^ Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
- ^ Lifton, Robert Jay. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide.
- ^ Aly, Götz. The Nazi Euthanasia Program: The Murder of Physically and Mentally Disabled People in the Third Reich.
- ^ USHMM: People with Disabilities
- ^ Lifton, Robert Jay. The Nazi Doctors.
- ^ Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide.
- ^ USHMM - Disabled Victims of the Nazi Era
- ^ Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide.
- ^ Historical documentation on Aktion T4
- ^ Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide.
- ^ Lifton, Robert Jay. The Nazi Doctors.
- ^ Holocaust Memorial Museum