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Disabled Germans During The Holocaust

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Sometimes the disabled Germans who were institutionalized were murdered by being given a medicine that put them to sleep so they’d never wake up, or in other words, killed them. However, many still believed that “this is not murder, it is a putting-to-sleep” (Unworthy to Live. 2017. Facing History and Ourselves). Although this method of killing was a lot less harsh than many of the other ways the Nazis murdered the Jews and other disabled Germans, in the end, the victim dies, so technically, there is no difference. Both is murder. The victim group most feared by society during the Holocaust was the Disabled Germans, this fear was propelled by the Nazis use of propaganda, sterilization, and ultimately mass murder (euthanasia).
Disabled Germans …show more content…
She was born on September 15, 1911 in Vienna, Austria, to a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, though she was raised Catholic. She grew up in Vienna along with her little sister. At the age of five, her father died in World War I. Growing up, she loved to swim and go to the opera. Once she finished her secondary education, she decided to go to law school. However in 1933, age 19, she began to show signs of a mental illness. In 1934, her condition got worse. By 1935, she had to give up her law studies and job as a legal secretary. To make matters worse, Helene had a major breakdown due to the loss of her dog, Lydi. In 1936, she was finally diagnosed with schizophrenic and placed in Vienna's Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital. This meant that she was taken away from her family, which is also what happened to many of the Jews sent to their concentration camps. Two years later, 1938, the Germans had annexed Austria to Germany, and Helene was constrained in Steinhof. After weeks went by, her condition started to improve, and her parents began to believe that she should soon be released. Helene was soon transferred to yet another hospital; this time it was Niedernhart, which was right across the border of Bavaria. After that, she was moved to a prison located in Brandenburg, Germany. During her experience there, she was forcefully undressed, then sent to get physically examined, and …show more content…
Hereditary and Racial Science for Elementary and Secondary Schools. 2009. German Propaganda Archive, research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/erblehre.htm#2. Accessed 5 Feb. 2018.
Costs for the Genetically Ill — Social Consequences. 2008. German Propaganda Archive, www.bytwerk.com/gpa/vogel.htm. Accessed 2 Feb. 2018.
“Helene Melaine Lebel.” Holocaust Encyclopedia, www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/idcard.php?ModuleId=10006301. Accessed 7 Feb. 2018.
Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases. German History in Documents and Images, germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/English30.pdf. Accessed 1 Feb. 2018.
Unworthy to Live. 2017. Facing History and Ourselves, www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-8/unworthy-live. Accessed 7 Feb. 2018.
Warshawski, Sonia. “My Holocaust Experience.” OMS Gymnasium, 2 Feb. 2018, Overland Park. Speech.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

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