Crying Hands: Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany

Appendix 1

171 Appendix 1: The Questionnaire QUESTIONNAIRE (This questionnaire will be kept by Herr H. Biesold. Your name will not be released: that is against the law.) 1. Last name________________________________________________________ 2. First name ________________________________________________________ 3. Date of birth__________________ 4. Place of birth____________________ 5. Place of residence from 1933 to 1945 ________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 6. Present residence____________________________________________________ 7. May Herr Biesold call on you?* He can sign. ________________________ 8. Which institution did you attend? __________________________________ 9. During what period? from 19____ to 19____ 10. Occupation__________________________________________________________ 11. Were you sterilized?*____________ 12. When?__________________________ 19______ 13. Where (city)______________________________________________________ 14. Who reported on you? Underline the correct agency or person below: School (institution) for the deaf family member relatives neighbors political party (National Socialists) school doctor ear doctor teacher supervisor health authority 15. Are you married?*__________ 16. Did the Nazi authorities force you to be sterilized (make threats, say that you had to, etc.)?* 17. Who wrote the threatening letter? Underline the correct agency or person below: Party (Nazi) health authority school (institution) physician at a hospital law court Please answer the questions on the other side! 18. Did the police come and take you to the hospital?____________________ 19. Do you still suffer pain from the sterilization operation?*______________ 20. Mental pain (are you often sad, do you feel lonely without children)?* __________________________________________________________________ 21. Physical pain?* ____________________________________________________ 22. Where does it hurt in your body? ____________________________________ 23. Below you can write in other comments, tell about other horrible experiences (for example, a Nazi doctor first killed the baby I was carrying). __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 24. Have you previously applied for compensation?*________________________ When? ______________ 19 ______ Where?________________________ 25. Did you know other deaf persons (including mentally retarded deaf persons ) who were done away with (killed, murdered) by the Nazis? Please include the names of deaf Jews who were deported and killed. Last name __________________ First name______________________ Previous school/institution ______________ Where were they killed (for example, district hospitals and care facilities in Hadamar, Emmendingen, Münster; Auschwitz concentration camp; etc.)? ______________________________________________________________ When were they killed (approximately) ________________ 19 ______ Please answer “yes” or “no” to questions followed by a star (*) Place, Date ____________________ Signature __________________________ Comments Some explanatory comments are required in the case of a few questions whose content will not be immediately understood by many hearing readers. Question 7: May Herr Biesold call on you? He can sign. This question was asked only on the first one hundred questionnaires that were distributed, in order to get a basic idea of the willingness of the deaf victims to have me call on them. The answers were 87 percent affirmative . The statement “He can sign” is translated from German Sign Language and explains that “the visitor can converse with you in your own language.” Question 14: Who reported on you? This question is in reference to the “application” for sterilization, the no172 Appendix 1 tification made to government authorities under the provisions of section 3.4 of the sterilization law. On the returned questionnaires, some deaf persons had written additional titles or names (for example, the mayor, the deaf school principal, or individual teachers). Question 15: Did the Nazi authorities force you to be sterilized? With this question we hoped to learn of the victims’ subjective experience of the coercive nature of the law. In actual fact, the first section of the law refers to voluntary compliance. Question 16: Who wrote the threatening letter? The ordinance (article 6 to section 12, dating from December 5, 1933) for the implementation of the sterilization law stipulates that “the responsible physician must request the sterilization operation in writing.” Preliminary conversations with victims made it clear, however, that other agencies also sent in “requests.” This question was intended to determine whether various institutions, among which the schools for the deaf, were actually implicated in the practice of referring the deaf to the authorities for sterilization . The term “threatening letter” was coined during the development of the questionnaire on the basis of the victims’ actual experiences at the time. In practice, the summons could, indeed, be perceived as a personal threat, since section 6 stipulated that the relevant persons were to be informed that the surgical intervention could be effected against their wishes and, as prescribed in article 12 of the sterilization law, with the use of physical force. Question 17: Did the police come and take you to the hospital...