Crying Hands: Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany

9. Euthanasia and Deaf Germans

160 9 Euthanasia and Deaf Germans THE EXTERMINATION of deaf people in the Third Reich cannot be ignored in this book. Deaf people were a sociocultural minority that Nazi racial hygiene theorists wanted removed from society. Deaf Germans were not “racially intact” or “hereditarily fit,” according to German eugenicists. Deaf people’s experiences therefore demonstrate a connection between forcible sterilization, the “euthanasia” action against disabled Germans between 1939 and 1945, and the mass extermination of Jews and Romany. This chapter offers evidence for this connection.1 In the course of my research on sterilization, I discovered several documents relating to the link between racial hygiene and the extermination of “undesirable” groups. In 1933, Reich Minister of the Interior Frick appointed a commission of experts to oversee population and racial policy. This group became an effective instrument for the realization of his annihilation campaign against people who were deemed “inferior,” “burdensome existences ,” and “unworthy of life.” Frick’s September 12, 1933, request that Reich SS leader Heinrich Himmler become a member of the commission for population and racial policy, and Himmler ’s quick acceptance (see fig. 9.1), may be regarded as the first step in the overall extermination strategy of the Nazi race fanatics. Enthusiasm for measures designed to rid Germany of humans supposedly unfit or “unworthy of life” can been seen in the April 3, 1940, handwritten notes of Senator Vagt, the Bremen representative in the Reich government. Vagt made these notes at a confidential meeting of the German Association of Cities. They recount a discussion of moving residents of medical or psychiatric Euthanasia and Deaf Germans 161 institutions to “primitive lodgings” where “mortality will naturally be substantially greater.” Those present at the meeting urged each other to keep these measures quiet for fear that churches would complain or that the United States, which was still officially neutral in the spring of 1940, might be looking for an excuse to join the war against Germany. As was true later, when killings became more and more widespread, the disposal of bodies was an issue of particular concern and detailed discussion. At the present time there are about 300,000 mentally ill inmates in some 600 sanatoriums and nursing homes. The facilities are urgently needed for other purposes: spare hospitals, air defense, etc. Thirty to 40 percent of the inmates are asocial elements or unworthy of life, in consequence of which the transfer of these elements to primitive lodgings will be carried out, which may cause some unrest in the population. In these primitive accommodations, mortality will naturally be substantially greater, especially in time of war. Two things are required: a. to calm the population, b. not all too many new graves are to be dug at the cemeteries and cremation is then to be preferred (which is equally necessary to prevent the outbreak of epidemics, since most are highly infectious). The Reich SS Führer Munich, September 29, 1933 To the Reich Minister of the Interior, Dr. Frick Berlin NW 40 Königsplatz 6 Dear Reich Minster and Party Member Dr. Frick, I thank you for your invitation of September 12 to join the Expert Advisory Council on Population and Race Policy, and gladly accept the invitation. As previously understood, I am most willing to make myself available for participation in the work of this important advisory council. Heil Hitler (signature) H. Himmler2 Figure 9.1. Heinrich Himmler’s Letter to Minister of the Interior Frick 162 Euthanasia and Deaf Germans It must be assumed that relatives of the deceased will resist such cremation (principally among the Catholics) or at least will request that it be carried out in another locality. In regular cases, the procedure should be as follows: inform the relatives of the death and determine whether they wish an urn to be sent; in the contrary case, deposition of the remains at the nearest cemetery that receives cremations should follow (at no cost to the family). Consequently, cities with cemeteries for cremated remains will then receive urns sent from various localities ; the cities will be asked to inform the deputy, Dr. Schlüter of the German Council of Cities, personally how the urns are to be addressed (typical case: Office of the Lord Mayor, Cemetery Administration, in . . .). If this official or others of the cemetery administration have any reservations about these matters, they must immediately be circumvented . The cremations will...