An international
conference brings
attention to the
roles deaf people
played during the
Nazi Regime
by Laura-Jean Gilbert
"It's a great
misunderstanding to
think that the
Holocaust was only
about murdering Jews.
It was also about
humiliation— about
losing one's
self-respect."
That statement, made by one of the
panelists at the international conference
"Deaf People in Hitler's Europe," was
reflected in many of the presentations and
sessions held during the June 21-24 event,
which focused on deaf people in the Europe
of 1933-1945 controlled by Nazi Germany.
Deaf people were among those who were
killed by the Nazis during the time—some
because they were Jews, others because as
congenitally deaf people they were
considered "defective" and "biologically
inferior." Others carried the shame of being
sterilized, while some were Nazi
sympathizers who did not understand the
impact of what was happening to other deaf
people around them. Some escaped before
the sterilizations and killings began. Others
survived the ghettos and concentration
camps of Germany, Poland, and Hungary.
The conference,
cosponsored by
Gallaudet's History
and Government
Department and the
United States
Holocaust Memorial
Museum (USHMM),
was a major step
forward in
identifying the roles
deaf people played
during those years,
recording their
experiences, and
opening up new
areas for research.
Over the three
days, conference participants learned about
the historical period that led to the rise of
National Socialism (Nazism), the philosophy
of racial hygiene supported by the Nazis, and
the roles deaf people played both as Nazis
and as victims. They learned of the
reluctance of members of the deaf
community to speak out about these years,
and about the post-war period, including the
German court's decision that sterilization of
deaf people and individuals with disabilities
by the Nazis was not persecution. Panels and
workshops on topics ranging from the
experiences of deaf survivors and witnesses
to the psychological, educational, and artistic
implications of deaf people's experiences set
the stage for further research.
The seed for the conference was planted in
1993 when Dr. Donna Ryan of Gallaudet's
History and Government Department and Dr.
Jane Hurst of the Religion Department
taught a course on the Holocaust just prior
to the opening of the USHMM. As part of that
course, a deaf survivor, Lilly Shirey, talked
to the students about her experiences during
World War II. This led Ryan, together with
fellow history professor and oral historian
John Schuchman, to embark on a project of
trying to preserve on videotape an oral
history of deaf people who also were
survivors. As co-chairs of the conference,
Ryan and Dr. Schuchman worked together
with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to
make the event a reality.
The conference took place at both the
Gallaudet University Kellogg Conference
Center on campus and the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum. It brought
together more than 200
participants—ranging in age from 15-88 and
including students, teachers, artists,
community leaders, professor and
researchers from the United States,
Germany, Israel, England, the Netherlands,
Belgium, Hungary, and several other
countries. Spoken and sign language
interpretation was available to participants
in English and American Sign Language,
German and German Sign Language, and
Hungarian and Hungarian Sign Language.
The "In Der Nacht" exhibit, developed by
Marla Petal and Michelle Baron, and an
exhibit of the works of deaf artist and
Dachau survivor David Bloch were on display
at Gallaudet, and participants also had the
opportunity to visit many of the exhibitions
in the museum.
The Philosophy of Racial Hygiene
Providing a historical context for the
exploration of the Holocaust and the deaf
community, history professor Henry
Friedlander of Brooklyn College, City
University of New York, explained that the
Nazis targeted three major groups—Gypsies
or "Roma," Jews, and people with
disabilities—based on the belief that all of
these groups were biologically inferior. The
scientific and medical communities did not
oppose this movement, he pointed out.
Despite their Hippocratic Oath, many doctors
agreed that they should be permitted to
destroy "unworthy life."
They began by killing babies and children
who were sent to special wards (where their
parents thought they were being sent to be
cured). Hitler then approved the killing of
institutionalized adults. The gassing of
medical patients by doctors at six killing
centers developed the technology of gas
chambers and crematoria that was later
exported to the concentration camps. The
bodies of those killed were looted both for
gold and for human organs to be used in
research.
The remarks of Dr. Robert Proctor, professor
of the history of science at Pennsylvania
State University, echoed Dr. Friedlander's
comments. Discussing eugenics and deafness
in Hitler's Europe, Proctor noted, "In the
wrong political climate, medicine can join
with evil to create terrible crimes."
In the 1920s, before the Nazis even came to
power, there was a movement within both
the United States and German medical
communities—supported in general by
society—to sterilize mentally retarded and
criminally insane people living in mental
institutions. In Germany, this became known
as the racial hygiene movement and was
promoted through professional journals and
by medical/science departments of German
universities. Germany actually looked to the
United States as a model in relation to
sterilization and to excluding people with
disabilities or congenital illness from
immigration.
Participants at the
conference may have
thought, at this point,
about Alexander
Graham Bell's
initiative to stop deaf
people from
intermarrying. And if
they did not, they
were reminded of
Bell's beliefs later in
the conference by Dr.
John V. Van Cleve,
professor of history
and director of the
Gallaudet University
Press, during his
comments at a panel
on the closing day in which he and other
scholars analyzed findings of the conference
and considered possible directions for future
research.
In 1933, as the Nazis came to power, the
racial hygiene movement gained political
support. That year a law was enacted in
Germany calling for the sterilization of
anyone with a genetically transmitted
disease—including congenital deafness.
Physicians were required to register any
"defective" person.
As the war years began, Germany moved
from sterilization to euthanasia, primarily for
economic reasons. By 1941, said Proctor,
euthanasia was a part of almost every
hospital's routine—defective babies,
incurably ill old people, mental patients were
put to death. Starvation of "useless eaters"
became both policy and practice. Parents
were made to feel embarrassed if they had a
defective child. The practice was extended to
include the abortion of babies who might be
born with a congenital disability or illness,
and such abortions might be carried out as
late as the ninth month of pregnancy.
The medicalization of anti-Semitism
followed. "Solving the Jewish problem" was
seen as a medical problem, Proctor
explained, because Judaism was considered
a disease. Physical deviance was seen as
intolerable—pathological or even treason.
Proctor stressed, however, that all of these
actions were part of a larger medical
movement wherein the Nazis did extensive
research into the causes of cancer,
supported ecology, investigated the dangers
of asbestos, heavy metals, and tobacco as
causes of lung cancer, supported midwifery,
and urged people to consider vegetarianism.
The medical and scientific communities were
the major professional groups supporting
National Socialism.
Living Under National Socialism
Many deaf people in Germany after World
War II are ashamed of this time both
because of the sterilizations and because
many had joined the Nazi party, said Jochen
Muhs, vice president of the Deaf Federation
of Berlin. For these reasons very little has
been written about deaf people and this
period of history.
In putting together an exhibit in Germany to
show what happened to deaf people during
this period, Muhs interviewed many
members of the deaf community. Many of
the deaf people said they were taken in by
Nazi propaganda, which only talked about
the positive aspects of National Socialism.
They couldn't hear the rumors; they didn't
know what was happening to the Jews. "One
day the Jews just weren't here any more,"
they told Muhs. "They were sent to the east
to work." German deaf athletes who went to
the World Games for the Deaf in Stockholm
in 1939 learned what was happening in
Germany from the other athletes there.
Berlin was home to many deaf community
groups before World War II. Sterilization was
being talked about in Germany before 1933,
and some deaf organizations had joined
together to work against this idea and
formed a national organization, "Regede."
But when Hitler came to power in 1933, the
25 deaf organizations in Berlin were
subsumed into Regede, which became a Nazi
organization. A deaf Nazi, Fritz Albreghs,
was named president of the new
organization. At the beginning, this
organization had 4,700 members;
membership grew to 12,000 as additional
groups were "coordinated." All members of
the organization were, thereby, members of
the Nazi party. People who were not Nazis
were removed from office in the deaf
organizations. Deaf newspapers and other
papers were censored, and finally only one
deaf newspaper was left.
At a small group session on
"Psychological Implications of the
Holocaust for Deaf People," panelists
include (from left) Dr. Marilyn B.
Meyers from the Washington School of
Psychiatry; Dr. Irene W. Leigh,
Gallaudet professor of psychology; Dr.
Stephen Weiner, dean of the School fo
Undergraduate Studies at Gallaudet;
and Eva Jackson, deaf daughter of deaf
Holocaust survivors.
As the National Socialist party developed, it
had its deaf supporters. These deaf Nazis
cheered Hitler's rise to power. A June 1933
issue of the deaf newspaper, Die Stimme,
talks about the founding of the first deaf
storm trooper (S.A.) group, and there was
also a deaf motorized S.A. unit. But a year
later this deaf group was dissolved because
it did not fit into the Nazi image.
During the Nazi years, employment
improved for deaf people because hearing
people were serving in the army. But other
programs for deaf people—such as
recreational programs—ended. Then, in
1934, the forced sterilization of people who
were genetically deaf began.
By 1937, Muhs alleged, 95 percent of deaf
children belonged to the Hitler Youth for the
Deaf. The young members wore the letter
"G" on their shoulder (for geh"rlosen"deaf).
After 1933, deaf Jewish children were
removed from the deaf schools and were
reported to the authorities. Newspapers for
teachers of the deaf stressed that teachers
must follow Nazi policies. Gradually, many
deaf schools were closed and converted to
military hospitals.
By the mid-1930s, Muhs noted, many deaf
Jews sensed that they were about to be
persecuted. They were removed from
leadership positions in deaf organizations
and athletic associations, and other deaf
people lost contact with them. A deaf
newspaper of those years carried an article
stating that contact between Jews and
non-Jews was forbidden.
One individual whom Muhs interviewed
shared his memories of Kristallnacht—the
"night of broken glass" when synagogues
were burned and Jewish businesses looted.
He saw shops being vandalized and asked his
teacher what was happening. His teacher did
not or would not speak out about what was
happening and responded only, "Read the
newspaper."
Before 1933, about 600 deaf Jews lived in
Berlin. Only about 34 survived the war.
Muhs interviewed some of them and asked
about their time in the concentration camps.
Had they told people they were deaf" They
answered that they did not tell people they
were deaf because that would have only
created more problems.
Dr. Robert
Proctor's
keynote
presentation
focused on the
science of
eugenics during
the Nazi era.
Horst Biesold
speaks about
the Nazi law
"on the
prevention of
genetically
diseased
progeny" and
how this law
was used
against deaf
people.
Dr. Benjamin
Bahan,
professor of
Deaf Studies at
Gallaudet, was
a closing
panelist and
also led a
workshop on
"Teaching Deaf
People's
Experiences in
Sign Language
and Deaf
Studies
Classes."
Jochen Muhs,
vice president
of the Deaf
Federation of
Berlin, goes
over his
presentation
notes with on
of the German
language
interpreters at
the conference.
Dr. Eugene
Bergman,
retired
Gallaudet
English
Department
faculty member,
shares his
experiences as
a young Jewish
boy in Poland,
where he was
deafened by a
blow to his head
from a Nazi
soldier.
Henry
Florsheim, who
attended the
Berlin School
for Jewish
Deaf, talks
about his
experiences as
a student at
the school.
Florsheim
escaped the
Holocaust when
his family
immigrated to
the United
States in 1936.
Forced Sterilization
In 1979, after attending an athletic event,
Horst Biesold asked a deaf friend of his
father's, "Why don't you have a family?" The
deaf man took him into another room. When
they were alone, he broke down and cried.
"Hitler cut," he signed.
That was the first time Biesold, now a
teacher of the deaf and adjunct lecturer at
the University of Bremen, learned about the
forced sterilizations of deaf people that took
place under National Socialism. "During my
12 years of working with deaf people, I'd
never heard one word about sterilization,"
Biesold recalled. "I was suddenly aware of
the complicity of my fellow teachers in this
silence."
Biesold set out to talk with more than 1,200
people in the deaf community about this
period of their lives. "I learned of the
anguish and helplessness of some of the
victims, and also of the courage of some who
resisted. I learned of the psychological scars
that deaf people carry." He also learned
about the extermination of people with
disabilities and about the murder of Jewish
deaf people. Initially, he was skeptical; he
could not believe that if such things had
actually happened, deaf people or their
advocates would not have talked about it
when the war ended.
"I asked the pastor of a deaf congregation
about this," he said. He was amazed when
she told him that at least 100 members of
her deaf congregation (of 600 people) had
been forcibly sterilized. "She encouraged me
to explore this chapter of Nazi atrocity.?
Biesold's research resulted in the book
Klagende Hande, which will be published
next year in English by Gallaudet University
Press under the title, Crying Hands: The
Effects and Long-Term Consequences of the
Law for the Prevention of Offspring with
Hereditary Diseases, Illustrated by the Case
of the German Deaf. The book, which
includes biographies of both the victims and
the perpetrators, traces the path from
genetic deafness to forced sterilization. The
Nazi geneticists said that hereditary
deafness needed to be removed from the
gene pool. Those whose deafness was not
hereditary were exempt from the law. The
goal was to eliminate inferior life.
A 1925 survey estimated there were 45,000
deaf people in Germany. In 1935 a
statistician said that 21.7 percent of children
born deaf had deaf progenitors, while
another researcher felt that one-third of
deaf children were deaf because of heredity.
After 1934 deaf people were increasingly
threatened by what they read in deaf
publications about sterilization of individuals
with congenital disabilities. These
experiences led to a sense of inferiority on
the part of German deaf people, making
them terribly ashamed of what occurred and,
therefore, reluctant to talk about it after the
war. Further, people who knew about the
sterilizations (for example, pastors of deaf
congregations and government officials)
continued to suppress the information
and/or talk about it only as a medical issue.
Up until 1979, none of these deaf people had
received any kind of financial remuneration
or compensation for what had happened to
them. After Biesold's study, he said, "We
brought these documents to the table of a
cabinet meeting of the Federal Republic. The
finance minister decided spontaneously to
establish a fund of 20 million German marks
for reparation." In addition to his book,
Biesold has made a film, Nazi Injustice to
Deaf People, that was shown on German
television. Now, said Biesold, "for the first
time, a closed persecuted group is being
asked about their experience and about the
administrative aspects of what happened to
them."
Opening Doors
This opening of the doors of silence also
occurred at the Deaf People in Hitler's
Europe conference. In addition to the
keynote speakers, participants heard from a
variety of presenters. Panelists Simon
Carmel, Jochen Muhs, Henry Florsheim,
David Jackson, and Eugene Bergman
discussed their research and/or experiences
as survivors and witnesses to the events of
1933-45. Members of the Deaf Jewish
Community of Budapest, Hungary, discussed
their experiences in the ghetto, labor
brigades, and concentration camps. (See
sidebar.) Concurrent workshops focused on a
range of topics, from Holocaust education for
deaf students, issues in deaf history, and
psychological implications for deaf people to
preservation of deaf people's experiences,
videotaped history interviews, artistic
expressions of deaf experiences, and
memorials to deaf victims of Hitler.
Participants were touched by the
experiences of deaf individuals who lived
through these years—those who left Nazi
Germany with their families before the
sterilizations and killing began, or who were
sent away while families remained behind;
those who experienced these years as
members of the German deaf community, or
who survived the ghettos or the
concentration camps. The psychological
damage and guilt—for surviving when others
didn't, or for being a Nazi sympathizer and
ignoring the plight of other deaf
people—remains even 50 years after the war
has ended.
The important thing, all the participants
agreed, was that much more needs to be
done in this study of Nazi persecution of deaf
people and especially of deaf people's
response to their situation. Further, it is
especially important to videotape and record
for posterity the experiences of those deaf
survivors who are still living and who are
willing to share their memories of these
years.
"We accomplished what we set out to do,"
Schuchman and Ryan said at the
conference's conclusion. They pointed out
that one of their goals had been to bring this
whole topic of deaf people and the Holocaust
to the attention of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum in order to
encourage interest and further research on
the topic and how it fits into the whole
picture of Holocaust studies. "I think this is
the beginning of an ongoing relationship
with the museum," said Ryan. "They are
interested in pursuing the topic."
"We were able to demonstrate the
complexity of the topic," added Schuchman.
"It isn't just a simple victimization story."
The two cochairs of the conference are
working on producing the video proceedings
of the conference and are also starting to
work on an anthology that will include
papers from the conference, additional
papers, and their own commentary and
writing. They also plan to continue work on
the oral history project of videotaping
survivors' memories of these years.
Another result of the conference, they
pointed out, was that it brought together
people from around the world, each working
on his or her own slice of this period of
history. They mentioned, for example, the
connection that has been made with the
Fortunoff Video Archives of Holocaust
Testimonies at Yale.
"Some people think we have a Gallaudet
Holocaust Project," Schuchman commented,
noting that this is not true. Rather,
Gallaudet has two faculty members who
have been doing independent study in this
area and now are hoping to find some
funding to expand their project. They are
also, under the auspices of Gallaudet's
Center for Global Education, planning a
study tour to Eastern Europe (including
Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and
Hungary) during the summer of 1999.
Peter Black, senior historian at the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
emphasized the need for further study. Only
in the last decade, he said, have scholars
begun to study Nazi treatment of people who
were physically or mentally disabled. And
only in May 1988 did the German legislature
repeal the Nazi laws regarding deaf and
disabled people. He reinforced Horst
Biesold's call for further research about deaf
people's feelings, involvement with, and
reaction to, the Nazi regime.
"Was resistance attempted?" asked Black.
"We need to learn more about the
disappearance of deaf Jews and deaf
Gypsies. We need to know more about what
difference in treatment occurred between
genetically deaf and late deafened
people—by people who were oral vs. people
who signed. We need to know more about
deaf people in other countries. And we need
to know more about how deaf people coped
and survived."
Related Stories:
Stories of Survival
One Participant's Response
Laura-Jean Gilbert is director of the
Publications and Production Department at
Gallaudet University.
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