Hitler's Unwanted Children II

"Patently Ridiculous that Psychiatrists Caused the Holocaust"

NADA STOTLAND: President of the American Psychiatric Association

Hitler's Unwanted Children

Sally M. Rogow

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They were ready and willing to listen to children's reports and many teachers found themselves at the mercy of children's spitefulness and misunderstanding (Bollnow,1987). In some jurisdictions all teachers were required to join the Nazi party in order to maintain their positions. Another blow to the teaching profession was the abolition of professional chairs of education at the universities. During the Nazi era there was little educational research (Bollnow,1987). For many years after the war, young people avoided the teaching profession because they believed that acts of intellectual autonomy lead to conflict with school administrators and government (Bollnow, 1987).

Schools began to face a severe shortage of qualified teachers with the military draft and beginning of the war. Untrained helpers were brought in to substitute for qualified teachers; school helpers ( as they were called) were only required to have completed intermediate schools; most were not graduates of secondary schools (Samuel and Thomas, 1949).

Social control was exercised through the free recreational afterschool programs and Nazi youth groups. Reverence for the Fuehrer and Fatherland, obedience and conformity were enforced and many parents were uncomfortable with the way their children were being indoctrinated. Many parents considered that Nazi youth activities undermined their authority and encouraged defiance. Youth activities were given preference over family and church activities. Disagreements, conflict, misunderstanding and even open enmity between children and parents were not uncommon (Mosse,1966).

By 1938, public protest was punishable and parents who opposed the new order had to resign themselves to their children's participation (Oestreich, 1947; Miklem, 1939). Membership in a Nazi youth group was necessary to qualify for apprenticeships or admission to universities and technical schools (Mosse, 1966). No child with a disability was able to participate in a recreational programs. As schools were reorganized, special

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classes were eliminated and the comprehensive system of rehabilitative education that was far in advance of that in most other countries was shattered.

Rehabilitative Education Under the Nazis

Comprehensive schools, special classes, and treatment programs were viewed by the new educational authorities as the "debris of the past." "a waste of money" (Peukert, 1987).

Almost as soon as the Nazis came to power, the number of day and residential schools were reduced and special classes in community schools were disbanded. By 1941, the day schools for children with learning problems and mental handicaps had almost disappeared entirely and those that remained had become training centers for streetsweepers, domestic workers and garbage collectors (Becker, 1985). The remaining special schools were deprived of funds at the same time as they had to register an increasing number of students (Mochel, 1981).

Standards of care in residential schools and institutions rapidly deteriorated, state inspections became perfunctory or suspended entirely and Jewish children were expelled(Burleigh, 1994: Friedlander, 1994).

Gustaf Leeman, an unemployed school teacher ( and a "party reliable"), was appointed leader of the newly formed association of special education teachers. Leeman relentlessly carried out state biogenetic policies. Special education teachers were required to deliver their students for sterilization procedures. No one with a mental handicap was allowed to live or work in the community without first submitting to sterilization (Burleigh,1994).

Teachers and administrators were required to write detailed reports on each of their students and describe their work abilities. Students who could not or would not perform the arduous and physically demanding labor were expelled from day schools. Teachers who disagreed with the new policies left the profession (Becker, 1985) In order to remain in a day school, students were required to pass state intelligence tests which were tests of acquired knowledge, not innate ability (Burleigh, 1994; Friedlander,1994).

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The tests measured knowledge of geography and history, which many students in regular schools could not answer. In addition, to ensure that as few children as possible could pass the tests, they were made increasingly difficult for those who were able to provide correct answers to standard questions ( Burleigh, 1994). Several of the psychiatrists who were involved in the planning and administering of the euthanasia (killing) programs admitted that many normal children would not be able to provide correct answers to the questions on the revised tests (Aly, 1994; Burleigh, 1994).

Some teachers tried to protect their students by teaching them the answers to test questions (Burleigh, 1994). Children who did not pass the tests were classified as "severely mentally handicapped" or "feebleminded" and were transferred to designated state institutions or psychiatric hospitals. The nurses and attendants at the state institutions observed newly arriving children who spoke fluently, talked about their lives and their family members. These observations did not prevent them from being described as "hopeless cases" despite the fact that many children were capable of reading and writing. Reports on expelled students contained comments such as "child does not know his arithmetic, he can only add", or "child can only read simple sentences" (Aly, 1993).

Residential Schools For Children who were Blind or Deaf Blindness and deafness were regarded as "hereditary illnesses" whether or not they were caused by a genetic condition. Children who were under five years of age when the Nazis came to power were sent directly to state institutions. Deafness is more difficult to detect at birth, but as soon as it became apparent, the child was registered by the genetic health court and reported to the authorities. Pre-school programs for blind or deaf children were eliminated. Long established residential schools faced an increasing number of social and economic restraints and like other residential schools, schools for blind or deaf students

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faced sharply reduced budgets and increased populations. Many residential schools werewere closed, Jewish students were expelled and Jewish teachers were discharged. (Some of the schools had been established by Jewish educators). The institute for the deaf in Camberg and the school for the blind in Wiesbaden were the first to be closed. In some jurisdictions blind or deaf students were subject to sterilization procedures and vocational training was stressed.

Most teachers at residential schools for blind or deaf students were men who were obliged to serve in the military, resulting in an acute teacher shortage and school closures. When schools were closed, their buildings were sold or leased to youth organizations (Burleigh, 1994). As the war progressed, almost all residential schools located in the bigger cities were closed. A teacher for the deaf brought his students to his home, where they worked with him on a farm for the duration of the war (Loewe,1996).

Schools for Children with Mental Handicaps

No group of children were as vulnerable to abuse as children with mental handicaps. Gregor Ziemer, the American director of the international school for children of diplomats, described a school for mentally handicapped boys. The "Erbhof", a hereditary estate, near Leipsig was a residential school for boys with mental handicaps and was guarded by a stormtrooper.

"Inside the wall I saw buildings in an open square, but no agricultural activities, and no animals. It was noon; all noise seemed to come from one building. We entered it. At long tables, clean but without tablecloths, sat about a hundred boys from seven to ten, dressed in blue slacks and loose jackets." (Ziemer,1941 p.78)

The grim atmosphere of the school made a deep impression on Ziemer. As he sat watching the sad faced boys, Abels, a Nazi public health official, explained that the boys were kept alive until they were ten years old. Those who could become street cleaners or do other jobs were put to work. The others were killed in the Hitler Kammer (Hitler Chamber),

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a small detached hut on the school grounds that contained a single bed and a medicine chest (Ziemer, 1941).

Most of the residential schools that were administered by Catholic orders or Protestant church groups were closed and their students transferred to state institutions. The only religious schools that remained in operation were located in rural areas. "As in all other phases of life, so in the sphere of charitable activity, all true love, all reverence, even the awe of death, was ground to dust under the heels of SA and SS boots. (Paul Oestreich, 1947, pp. 92-94).

Juvenile Homes and Treatment Centers

Nazi biogenetic theory encouraged social welfare workers to attribute everything that went wrong with their programs to the "genetic" faults of the children in their care (Peukert, 1987). Disturbed, delinquent or defiant behavior and all the failures of the social welfare system were blamed on the untreatability of child clients. Child welfare administrators separated the "successful" from the unsuccessful" welfare cases and moved lonely and rejected children out of the welfare system into state institutions and work camps (Peukert, 1987). Most of these children were wards of agencies and wardship courts were often not informed about the transfers of children from orphan homes or treatment facilities, causing a multitude of legal problems, confusion and chaos. Children who were wards of social welfare agencies, like children with physical disabilities or mental handicaps, had no effective protection.

The halfhearted, even indifferent attitude which at the best was expressed with ineffectual contradiction, constitutes one of the lowest depths to which the judiciary has sink, which demonstrates that it no longer had any independent status in the Nazi state and had finally degenerated to the level of a branch of the NSDAP, as it was then formulated" (Majer, 1994, p.26).

Forced Institutionalization

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It was important to the Nazi state that unwanted children were placed in controlled institutions, where they could be used as slave labor and/or murdered. The murder of mental patients and other people with disabilities served to free hospital beds for wounded soldiers and keep the costs of welfare programs as low as possible. Parents (including those who were members of the Nazi party) were coerced, cajoled and finally forced to institutionalize their children (Burleigh, 1994). Lies and deception combined with regulations and decrees served to ensure that parents committed their children to designated institutions. Other factors were also at work to ensure institutionalization of children. Because families with children with disabilities were deprived of family allowances, many families could not afford to provide the care their children required.

Fearing loss of all services, parents committed their children in the belief that they would be better served in an institution than at home without treatment. In addition, the regulation that banned children with any type of disability from treatment in ordinary pediatric hospitals (even for ordinary illnesses) effectively forced parents to institutionalize their children. Public health officials, responsible for enforcing the institutionalization of children with disabilities, persuaded dubious parents with promises that their children would receive the most advanced and expert therapy on open wards ((Heimansberg and Schmidt, 1993).

Parents who refused to put their children into institutions were accused by these same officials of neglecting and depriving their children of needed treatment. Persistent refusal often resulted in threats; parents were told that if they did not institutionalize their children they would lose their guardianship rights (Burleigh, 1994). Single mothers who refused to part with their children found themselves assigned to contractual labor, which in the end, forced them to surrender their children (Freidlander, 1994).

As the war progressed, the numbers of children needing social and welfare services increased and directors of welfare facilities, orphanages and other treatment centers were

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strongly advised to transfer children to designated state institutions and psychiatric hospitals, where they were assured the children would receive proper treatment, education and healthy recreational activities (Gallagher, 1990). As soon as children were transferred, they were assigned to work in the kitchens, laundries, and to cleaning and maintenance staff. Children as young as 12 and 13 worked full time for long hours with no pay.

Institutions that had been known for their successful rehabilitation programs like Kalmenof -at -Idstein (in Saxony), an institution founded by enlightened clerics and philanthropic Jewish businessmen, were taken over by the state and transformed into work camps and killing centers. Kalmenof established to serve children with psychiatric illnesses, neurological disabilities or mental handicaps became one of the main child killing centers (Aly, 1993). The director, Dr. Spornhauer was ejected from the grounds by a squad of SS men, while the new director, Dr. Miller, looked on holding a revolver. Jewish doctors and nurses were dismissed and the staff were obliged to belong to Nazi organizations and participate in Nazi celebrations and parades (Burleigh, 1994). Miller immediately increased the numbers of patients and sharply reduced the staff and Kalmenof became nothing more than a work camp. Children who tried to escape were severely punished (Gallagher, 1990).

In most state institutions, the sharply reduced budgets combined with overcrowding created unhealthy and unhygienic conditions. In 1938, Professor Kleist of the University of Frankfurt protested the fact that one physician was responsible for 400 to 500 patients. This meant that children were rarely examined or given therapy or treatment (Burleigh, 1994).

Daily Life in State Institutions

Forced institutionalization and transfer of children from religious and private schools, orphan homes and treatment centers caused massive overcrowding. By 1940, child populations in institutions had doubled or tripled. There were 600 children at

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Hadamar on children's wards built for 300 (Burleigh, 1994). The institutions were not prepared for the numbers of children crowding the wards. There were not enough beds and newly admitted children had to sleep on unhygienic straw mattresses. There were not enough wheelchairs or mobility aids and children who were unable to walk were kept in their beds or highchairs or lay on mats on the floor (Friedlander, 1994).

Many of the new nurses and attendants were unsuitable people with little child-care experience. Professional nurses who were active trade union members were dismissed and their places taken by former domestic or farm workers, recruited from the ranks of unemployed members of the SA, Nazi women groups or the League of German Maidens. They had little understanding of the children in their care and grateful for employment, they simply followed orders (Burleigh, 1994). The new staff were assigned to look after so many children that it was impossible to give more than cursory attention to individual children. If a child became ill, he or she was often not treated (Burleigh, 1994).

Malnutrition and hunger were common, the standard diet consisted of turnips, potatoes and a few slices of bread. There was so little food in some institutions that kitchen workers brought food from their homes (Burleigh, 1994). After the war, newly appointed directors found children looking like half corpses (Friedlander,1994).

Life in the asylums took on a military character, ecclesiastical asylums as well as
state institutions reflected the "Fuhrer" and the politicization of institutional life (Burleigh, 1994).

"At Marieberg on summer evenings, the handicapped pupils marched in 'neat order through the asylum courtyard and out into the grounds. From there one Hitler song after another rang out until the onset of night put an end to the singing" (Burleigh, 1994, p.51)

The emotional toll on children was enormous; fear, resistance and rebellion were silenced with drugs, electric shocks, and beatings. Letters from children to their parents have been discovered and tell of their anguish, loneliness and despair.

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Dear Mother,

They have brought me here.. Dear Mommy. I do not want to stay with these people. I want to go free. I do not stay here. Please come and get me. (translated from German records cited in 30.9.1988 "Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung").

The lives of institutionalized children were further brutalized by visits from members of the SA, SS, Hitler Youth and League of German Maidens who were taken on tours of institutions. These visitors regarded these tours as "freak shows" and there were many instances of nasty and brutal behavior towards the children who lived in the institutions (Aly, 1993; Burleigh, 1994). More than 20,000 visitors came to the Eglfing - Haar institution. Dr. Pfannmuller, the director, took his visitors to the wards and lectured them ( in front of the children) about the necessity of killing disabled for the "good of the nation". Pfanmuller advocated killing children long before the child euthanasia program was put into effect and used starvation as his preferred method (Burleigh, 1994).

Parents Were Also Victims

After the children were committed, parents discovered how little control or influence they had over their children's lives. They had no choice about which institution or hospital their child was sent, many children were sent so far from their homes, that parental visits were difficult. Several institutions discouraged parent visits altogether. Many parents became suspicious when they received official reports which exaggerated the degree of their child's disability or were contrary to their knowledge about their child and were contradicted reports they had been given by family doctors. Children who were speaking and playing independently at home were described as incapable of speech and "severely feebleminded" (Burleigh, 1994). An eleven year old boy whose parents were persuaded to commit him because his mother could no longer pick him up to bathe him, was an avid reader and spoke fluently. He was able to feed himself, but the reports his parents received described him as totally helpless and severely feebleminded (Burleigh, 1994).

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It was mainly in the case of children who were severely disabled that reports were consistent with parents information. Many, many parents questioned the reports the reports they received. Suspicion heightened when parents who managed to visit their children. When they saw the thin emaciated bodies of children who only a few weeks earlier had been chubby and robust or noticed the bruises on arms and legs they complained loudly to the nurses, attendants and directors. Heartbroken parents were told that their child was refusing to eat or was hurting him or herself (Friedlander, 1994).

Desperate parents were frustrated in their efforts to bring their children home. When they arrived at the institution to take their child home, they were told that their child had been moved to another place (Burleigh, 1994). Parents who thought they were placing their children for temporary care or treatment were also unable to get their children released. Persistent parents were stonewalled and threatened with legal actions. Very few children were released. Children who were transferred to state institutions from religious homes and schools were moved from place to place without informing their families where they were located. Parents simply received official form letters telling them their child was in transit and would be sent to another unnamed institution (Burleigh, 1994). Many parents could not keep track of their children. The real purpose of forced institutionalization became evident after 1939, with the initiation of the killing programs.

The Euthanasia Programs in Hospitals and Institutions

Murdering children was a high priority on Hitler's agenda. In 1939 a few days after war was declared, Hitler issued the decree which gave physicians the authority to murder children. The decree was issued in war time to minimize the effects of public and church protest (Kogen, et al, 1993). The killing program was referred to as the Euthanasia Program or "mercy death" the Nazi euphemism for murder. Other terms such as "disinfection" and "special handling" (Sonderbehandlung) were also used (Aly, 1993).

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The child program was planned first, but it was soon followed by the adult program which also included children.

The Chancellory of the Fuhrer (the Kdf, the Kanzlei des Fuhrer) appointed the physicians who operated the child program under the name of a fictitious organization, the "Reich committee for the Scientific Registration of Severe Hereditary Ailments". (Burleigh, 1994; Friedlander,1994).

Thus, from the very beginning, the true aims of these powers to kill-which furthered racial and political goals and the protection of the domestic and wartime economy by the extermination of 'inferior races' and 'human ballast' unfit for work-were hidden behind the justification of a "mercy death". (Kogon, Langbein and Rueckerl, 1993, p.16).

Despite the claim that the German population supported the killing "useless" people, a heavy curtain of secrecy surrounded the euthanasia programs. Everyone involved was sworn to secrecy and was required to sign an oath of loyalty and promise not to talk about the killing programs. Employees who talked about the killing "action" were reported to the Gestapo and were punished with imprisonment (Kogon, Langbein and Rueckerl, 1993). The Euthanasia programs claimed more than a quarter of a million lives of children and adults who lived in Germany's hospitals, institutions and asylums (Aly, 1993).