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Deaf History Overview
The deaf culture is a culture that is focused on sign language and connections made to one another. There are quite a few people surrounding the deaf culture. These people are well remembered for their development to the deaf society; from Helen Keller, I. King Jordan, to Laurent Clerc. There are also horrific events in the history of the deaf, during the Nazi Era. Adolf Hitler was gaining power, it was a bad time for Germany, they had lost during WW1. The people of Germany were looking for a leader that could restore their economy up again and pride in their country, they turned to Hitler. Hitler would soon start production for his plan of racial hygiene, that would not only include the extermination of the old and disabled, but also the deaf.

During Hitler’s reign in Nazi Germany, he wanted to create a perfect Aryan society. To accomplish this Hitler started the euthanization of the disabled. In the beginning, it started with the sterilization of any person with a disability. In 1939, however, Hitler sought to get rid of all disabled (included but not limited to the "blind, deaf, physically disabled or mentally handicapped, orphans, juvenile delinquents and adolescent non-conformists...") persons in Germany. The disabled were then referred to as "useless eaters". The severity of this euthanization excluded no one. Children were taken from their parents and homes and were killed. Any child suspected of having a "defect" was tested and if they were determined to be mentally ill or presented any defects, they were transported to special wards. Within these special wards, these children were either killed through lethal injections or starved to death. After the children were killed, parents and/or guardians were then told that the children died of natural causes. It is estimated that 2,000 deaf children were taken, judged, then killed in these ways. Unfortunately, deaf people were a minority that the racial hygiene theorists thought needed to be removed and cleansed from German society being referred to as “hereditarily unfit” or not “racially intact”.

Euthanasia of the Deaf
During the Nazi Era, many minority groups were targeted and victimized by the Nazi Regime to create a superior race. A group in particular that has not been profoundly discussed was that of the deaf society. Many people and groups collaborated in the killings; those including teachers, family members, doctors, nurses, etc.

In the book “Crying Hands” the deaf were being taken from an institution and transferred via buses and were then euthanized. These buses had darkened windows that transported “patients”. These institutions had crematoriums, which could be seen from afar due to the large amounts of smoke that were being emitted. One such institution was called Castle Grafeneck (Euthanasia Center). There were many institutions where the deaf were being taken to be euthanized. People around the deaf community knew some of them, one person said there was a 17 or 18-year-old man that had been taken and killed. Most residents didn't give out any names of the victims. There were many different responses from people, but no persons were able to determine exactly how many had been taken and murdered. It was estimated that there was a total of 10,654 patients that were sent to gas chambers according to the book.

There were organizations put in place to oversee the production of racial hygiene. “Crying Hands” by Horst Biesold discusses some of these organizations: “1. The Reich Cooperative for State Hospitals and Nursing Homes (RAG), who identified people with disabilities, 2. The Public Foundation for Institutional Care, which managed personal and financial questions, and 3. The Charitable Patient Transport Company (Gekrat), which was responsible for the collection and transfer of disabled people to the observation and killing centers”. “Children’s wards” were established, and the children who were placed there were considered handicapped children. They were killed by “injections of morphium- hydrochloral or luminal, or by starvation”. Inmates like many others were sent to “euthanasia centers” and murdered. The book estimates that at least ten thousand were killed.

To shadow what was happening in the Nazi Era, officials had to “dispose” of the thousands of bodies they had accumulated. One form was through cremation; Cremation avoided any possible demands for autopsies. So, false registries were put in place at the euthanasia centers. Death certificates were given, and the centers would take care of the process of disposal, and send letters of condolence. Explanations for the death of some of these victims varied from severe influenza, circulatory weakness, heart problems, miliary tuberculosis, and appendicitis. Discrimination/Misconceptions Against The Deaf: There are still several people that have misconceptions about the deaf/ deaf culture. As a society, we can change that by informing ourselves of the type of false ideas encircling around the deaf society. Here are a few misconceptions from DeafUnity.org: ·        Hearing aids restore hearing loss ·        Deafness only affects older people ·        Deaf people can’t listen to music ·        Deaf people don’t talk

Misconceptions about the deaf not only leads us to disassociate ourselves from the deaf society but leads to discrimination. Many deaf people have suffered through discrimination, not only during the Nazi Era in Germany but today as well.