Draft:Medical Views of the Deaf during the Holocaust

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Medical Views of the Deaf during the Holocaust

THE GERMAN MEDICAL PROFESSION

The persecution of Jews and various other targeted groups during the Nazi era was not solely instigated by directives from Adolf Hitler and his devoted followers. Rather, the implementation of Nazi policies relied heavily on the active involvement or collaboration of professionals from various disciplines, some of whom did not necessarily espouse Nazi ideology. Notably, the German medical profession assumed a significant role in formulating and executing numerous Nazi initiatives. A considerable portion of doctors and nurses lent support to the regime, with many becoming implicated in the perpetration of Nazi atrocities.

At the onset of the Nazi regime in 1933, Christian nurses' associations dominated the landscape of German nursing, which was then perceived more as a spiritual vocation or public service rather than a formal profession. In response to the rise of Nazism, Germany's professional nursing associations underwent reorganization, with Jewish nurses being barred and membership restricted to politically reliable individuals deemed "Aryan" by Nazi standards.

Propaganda propagated by the Nazi regime propagated the notion that nursing constituted a patriotic duty to the state. Nazi-affiliated nurses' associations promoted values of militaristic allegiance and unwavering obedience. Nursing education curricula began incorporating Nazi ideology, with teachings on race and eugenics becoming commonplace.

Despite not all nurses aligning with Nazi ideology, many found themselves implementing the regime's discriminatory and lethal policies as part of their daily duties. Given their direct and frequent interactions with patients, nurses often served as the primary agents in enforcing the regime's medical directives. Notably, nurses played a central role in the implementation of the Nazi regime's "euthanasia" program, resulting in the deaths of approximately 250,000 children and adults with disabilities through methods such as starvation, lethal injection, or gas chambers.

THE RISE OF NAZI DOCTORS

Prior to the ascension of the Nazi regime in 1933, the German medical profession held a position of prominence and esteem worldwide, recognized for its advancements and reputation. A significant portion of German doctors subscribed to the principles of "racial hygiene" or eugenics, concepts fervently embraced by the Nazis.

Between 1933 and 1945, approximately half of all German doctors affiliated themselves with the Nazi Party and its associated organizations. While some were drawn to the regime due to ideological alignment regarding "racial hygiene," others sought career advancement opportunities or benefited, either actively or passively, from the expulsion of Jewish colleagues and the subsequent "Aryanization" of the medical profession.

German physicians and medical researchers played pivotal roles in shaping the racial legislation of Nazi Germany, with many becoming implicated in the commission of Nazi atrocities. Medical research was instrumental in defining racial categories and justifying discriminatory policies of the regime. Numerous doctors were involved in actions such as coerced sterilizations, human experimentation, and the implementation of the Nazi regime's "euthanasia" program, targeting individuals with disabilities.

During the era of Nazi persecution, particularly under Adolf Hitler's leadership, numerous instances of unethical medical experimentation were carried out on marginalized groups, including individuals who were deaf. While comprehensive documentation specifically focused on experiments involving the deaf community may be less prevalent compared to other targeted populations, it is confirmed that people with disabilities, including those who were deaf, were subjected to harsh medical trials and interventions as part of the Nazis' eugenics and racial hygiene agendas.

SS officers and German nurses gather during the dedication ceremony of the new SS hospital in Auschwitz, September 1, 1944. Among those pictured are Karl Höcker, Josef Kramer, and SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinrich Schwarz.

The Hoecker Album comprises 116 photographs capturing the final six months of Auschwitz, spanning from June 1944 to January 1945. This period coincided with the mass extermination of approximately 400,000 Hungarian Jews, although this grim reality is only subtly referenced in the album. Compiled by Obersturmfuehrer Karl Hoecker, the adjutant to the last commandant of Auschwitz, Richard Baer, the album also features prominent SS camp officers such as Rudolf Hoess, Josef Kramer, Franz Hoessler, and Dr. Josef Mengele. Notably, these images represent the sole known photographic records of some of these individuals within the Auschwitz complex.

EUGENICS

German eugenics took a distinct and troubling turn following 1933. Prior to 1914, the German racial hygiene movement bore similarities to its British and American counterparts. However, in the aftermath of World War I, the German eugenics community underwent a radical transformation. The unprecedented scale of destruction during the war, coupled with economic turmoil between the two world wars, exacerbated societal divisions between those deemed genetically "valuable" and those labeled "unproductive."

Deaf individuals, among those categorized as "genetically inferior" or "unfit", "hereditary ill" were subjected to compulsory sterilization and, in certain instances, euthanasia as part of the Nazi eugenics initiative. However, medical assessments concerning deafness were often based on fragmented information, oversimplified assumptions, and profound misconceptions. Deaf individuals were frequently grouped with others possessing disabilities, collectively labeled as "life unworthy of life" by the Nazi regime. This doctrine precipitated the implementation of the T-4 Euthanasia Program, designed to eradicate individuals deemed to have disabilities, mental disorders, or perceived defects from the German populace.

The historical narrative surrounding the plight of deaf individuals in Nazi Europe remains a lesser-explored aspect of Holocaust history. Deaf Jews encountered similar hardships to their hearing counterparts: enduring discrimination, persecution, deportation, and ultimately facing mass extermination alongside other victims and survivors of the Holocaust.

Nazi policies specifically targeted individuals with disabilities, encompassing non-Jewish deaf persons as well. Prevalent societal biases regarding the cognitive abilities of individuals with hearing impairments led to widespread institutionalization and, in some cases, coerced sterilization.

A minority of deaf Germans fell victim to the Nazi regime's "euthanasia" initiative, a systematic program of mass murder aimed at individuals with disabilities. Attempts by deaf individuals to emigrate to the United States were often met with challenges from immigration authorities. Even those who succeeded in immigrating frequently encountered prolonged detention, reflecting concerns about potential dependency on state resources.

Speech lessons by palpation of the larynx in the Israelite Deaf-Mute Institution Berlin-Weissensee, Berlin, 1934

MEDICAL INVOLVMENT

The experience of the deaf community during the Holocaust is a frequently overlooked aspect of this historical period. Deaf Jews endured the same hardships as their hearing counterparts in Nazi-occupied Europe, including discrimination, persecution, deportation, and mass murder. Additionally, deaf individuals, both Jewish and German, were specifically targeted under Nazi policies, with many subjected to forced sterilization and encountering barriers to emigration due to perceived disabilities.

The Museum's Deaf Victims of Nazi Persecution and the Holocaust Initiative is dedicated to preserving and sharing the narratives of deaf survivors. A special program focusing on the deaf experience during the Holocaust era will feature discussions led by a Museum archivist, curator, and the producers of the independent traveling exhibition, "In Der Nacht," which documented the accounts of deaf survivors in the late 1980s. Following the program, an audience question-and-answer session will provide further engagement with the topic.

Deaf individuals, alongside others deemed "genetically inferior" or "unfit," were subjected to enforced sterilization under Nazi eugenics legislation. The Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring, commonly known as the "Sterilization Law," was a legislative measure implemented in Nazi Germany on July 14, 1933, and enforced from January 1934 onwards. This law authorized the compulsory sterilization of individuals deemed by a "Genetic Health Court" to suffer from various purported genetic disorders, despite the fact that many of these conditions were not actually genetic in nature.

German teachers of deaf students were aware of racial hygiene theories and often linked eugenics with their professional responsibilities. One of the most eager advocates and instigators of the Nazi sterilization law of 1933 was Herbert Weinert of Dresden. In an essay that appeared in 1934, he wrote that “educators of the deaf were and still are interested in eugenics problems,”

The T4 killings, AKTION T4, initiated a systematic process for the implementation of the child "euthanasia" program. They distributed meticulously crafted questionnaires to various public health institutions, hospitals, mental asylums, and nursing homes caring for chronically ill and elderly individuals. These questionnaires, accompanied by cover letters, were designed with limited space and wording, giving the impression of a routine statistical survey. However, the true intention of the survey was subtly indicated by the emphasis on the patient's ability to work and the specific categories of patients to be identified, including those with psychiatric or neurological disorders, non-German or "related" blood, the criminally insane, and long-term institutionalized individuals.

Under the guise of gathering data, "medical experts" covertly recruited and organized into teams of three, began evaluating the completed forms from January 1940 onwards. Based on their assessments, T4 officials initiated the removal of selected patients for the "euthanasia" program from their respective institutions. These patients were transported via bus or rail to central facilities equipped with gas chambers, disguised as shower rooms. Upon arrival, victims were subjected to lethal doses of pure carbon monoxide gas. Subsequently, their bodies were incinerated in crematoria adjacent to the gassing facilities.

Workers then collected the ashes of the deceased from communal piles and placed them in urns, along with fabricated death certificates, to be sent to the relatives or guardians of the victims. This process was carried out with meticulous attention to detail, presenting a fictitious cause and date of death for each victim.

AFTERMATH - THE NUREMBURG LAWS

Following the conclusion of World War II, the Allied powers established courts within their respective occupied zones in Germany to adjudicate cases involving German officials accused of war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. In Nuremberg, Germany, American military tribunals oversaw twelve significant trials targeting prominent German industrialists, military personnel, SS members, and other individuals deemed responsible for atrocities. Among these Subsequent Nuremberg Trials was the Doctors Trial, which focused specifically on medical professionals accused of participating in unethical and criminal activities during the war.

As an opening statement by Brigadier general Telford Taylor was Chief of counsel during the "Doctors Trial" quoted, "The defendants in this case are charged with murders, tortures, and other atrocities committed in the name of medical science. The victims of these crimes are numbered in the hundreds of thousands. A handful only are still alive; a few of the survivors will appear in this courtroom. But most of these miserable victims were slaughtered outright or died in the course of the tortures to which they were subjected. For the most part they are nameless dead. To their murderers, these wretched people were not individuals at all. They came in wholesale lots and were treated worse than animals."

During the Nuremberg trials, German doctors defended themselves by asserting that their experiments were comparable to those conducted by both German and American scientists prior to the war. They argued that no clear distinction existed between legal and illegal human experimentation according to international law or established norms. This argument raised concerns for two US doctors, Dr. Andrew Ivy and Dr. Leo Alexander, who had assisted the prosecution during the trial.

Consequently, on April 17, 1947, Dr. Alexander submitted a memorandum to the United States Counsel for War Crimes. This memorandum delineated six criteria that delineated legitimate medical research. The trial's verdict on August 19 reiterated nearly all of these points in a section titled "Permissible Medical Experiments." Moreover, it expanded the original six points into ten, which came to be known as the "Nuremberg Code."

The Medical Case constituted one of the twelve war crimes trials conducted before an American tribunal, forming part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings. This trial specifically addressed the actions of doctors and nurses implicated in the euthanasia of physically and mentally impaired individuals within Germany, as well as those who conducted medical experiments on individuals incarcerated in concentration camps.

During the proceedings, Brigadier General Telford Taylor, serving as the chief prosecutor, presented a July 1942 report documenting Nazi experiments involving high-altitude conditions. This presentation served to introduce evidence into the trial proceedings. Additionally, General Taylor outlined the objectives of the prosecution, emphasizing the pursuit of justice for the crimes committed within the purview of medical experimentation and euthanasia.