Overcoming The Past, Determining Its Consequences and Finding Solutions for the Present: A Contribution for Deaf Studies and Sign Language Education (review)

This book gathers twenty-six papers from the proceedings of the Sixth Deaf History International Conference, held in Berlin in 2006. The overarching theme is the evolution of the treatment of deaf people from persecution and exclusion in the ancient world and the Middle Ages to more tolerant treatment and education in the nineteenth century, then to sterilization and murder during the Second World War, and finally to postwar emancipation and acceptance as a linguistic minority. The papers deal with the treatment of the deaf in many countries, including France, Britain, Germany, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Israel, and Finland. The conference was partly inspired by a plea from Peter Black, in a 2002 book about the deaf during the Nazi era, for further research into the history of the deaf in modern Western civilization.¹ This collection helps fulfill that goal.

The first section, "Applied Deaf History," presents the ancient and medieval background in which the deaf were looked upon and treated as mentally and morally defective because they could not listen and communicate. Although attitudes improved in modern times, the deaf have been excluded in many countries. Two examples are the negative treatment deaf Japanese Americans received in internment camps during the Second World War and the exclusion of the deaf in early twentieth-century Sweden. During the Stalinist purges, many deaf intellectuals were persecuted and executed. Other essays treat deaf peoples' struggle to organize, establish schools, and achieve a positive cultural identity. The stunning paintings of deaf Israeli artist Uzi Buzgalo, reproduced in full color in Zaurov and Günther's anthology, illustrate the contributions deaf people have made to modern society.

Section Two, "Societal and Political View[s] of Deaf History and Genetics," establishes an important distinction between those who became deaf as a result of accident or illness and those born deaf as a result of inheritance—still an active concern. Although schools for the deaf were founded in the early twentieth century, the emergence of "eugenics" led to beliefs and practices that disadvantaged the deaf. An extreme manifestation appeared in the 1933/1934 Nazi "Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring," which mandated the sterilization of thousands of people. This was followed by the "euthanasia" program from 1939 to 1945 in which thousands more deaf people were murdered in state-run facilities.

The section "Deaf Holocaust" underscores the fundamental distinction between being a deaf German Christian and a deaf German Jew. Deaf German Jews were murdered primarily because they were Jews. Mark Zaurov eloquently states: "One striking difference between forced sterilization and Deaf Holocaust is that there were deaf persons who volunteered to be sterilized whereas there were no deaf Jews who volunteered to be killed" (p. 106). Still, there were important distinctions between deaf Jews in mixed marriages able to survive openly, those on false papers, others who were hidden or were able to escape, and children accepted into other countries but whose parents had to be left behind. This section is also notable for the many personal accounts by deaf Holocaust survivors.

The final section, "Interrelation between Science, Education and Society towards Deaf People," includes histories of the emergence of using sign language and written language in the education of the deaf in various countries. Sign language was invented and developed in the nineteenth century, but it was only after the Second World War and especially in the late twentieth century that it became widely practiced. Today's use of signers at public meetings and events shows that deaf people are now recognized as a group entitled to a dignified identity.

One of the most fascinating essays traces how the Torah and Kabbalah became accessible to the deaf. Although the Torah instructs the Jewish people not to curse the deaf, Jewish attitudes in...