Dr Horst Biesold's archive in the IDGS library: Insights into the medical crimes committed against deaf people in Nazi Germany

24 April 2024, by Pamela Sundhausen

Photo: UHH/IDGS

The library at the Institute of German Sign Language collects media on the linguistics of sign languages, Deaf culture, Deaf education, sign language interpreting, sign language teaching a.o. with an international focus.

This unique collection has made the IDGS library internationally recognised. What many people do not realize, however, is that the library also houses the so-called "Biesold Archive", an extensive collection of research data compiled and left to the IDGS by Dr. Horst Biesold (1939-2000), who, as part of his doctoral thesis, dealt with the racial-hygienic "Law for the Prevention of hereditarily ill offspring" of 1933 ("Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses") and its effects on the deaf communities in Germany.

On 24 April 2024, the head of the library, Guido Joachim, gave an introduction to this archive to students and staff of the IDGS.

With his presentation, Guido Joachim took us on a depressing journey through time into one of the darkest chapters of German history. He began by placing the formerly mentioned law into the context of the political and social developments in Germany at the time:

In the context of so-called "racial hygiene", deaf people were stigmatised by the National Socialists as "hereditarily ill" along with other groups of people who were not entitled to pass on their lives. They were ordered to present themselves voluntarily for sterilisation in a hospital. Those who did not comply with this order were often subjected to the procedure under duress.
After the procedure, the victims were instructed not to talk to anyone about it.

Biesold, a historian and teacher of the deaf from Bremen, was made aware of the topic of forced sterilisation of the deaf under National Socialism in the early 1980s by deaf acquaintances who were involuntarily childless. For further research, he called on people to confide in him via the TV programme "Sehen statt Hören" and the Deutsche Gehörlosenzeitung (German newspaper of the Deaf) to tell him about the injustice they had suffered. More than 2,000 people affected then contacted him. Using questionnaires and careful interviews, he succeeded in getting those affected to reveal their suffering after 40 years of silence.

Horst Biesold himself also had his say in the film presented and reported on the often agonizing experiences of the victims, but also on the massive barriers that were placed in his way by the schools for the deaf during his research, as well as the difficulties experienced by those affected in claiming compensation.

However, the audience found the film sequences in which those affected victims reported on what was done to them, usually under duress, particularly harrowing.

It was only through Biesold's research that it was revealed what was done to deaf people under National Socialism:

Entire classes of pupils and students were sent for sterilisation by their headmasters, meaning that most of those affected were still minors at the time of the procedure. But deaf people who did not attend schools for the deaf were also reported - mainly by the health authorities or the NSDAP. Pregnant deaf women fell victim to the doctors twice: Even up to the ninth month, forced sterilisation was often preceded by forced abortion.
Deaf people were systematically sterilized and usually suffered from pain, depression and feelings of shame for the rest of their lives after the procedure.

The archive is available to the research community by appointment during the library's normal opening hours. Anyone wishing to view the data stored there as part of a scientific project should contact Guido Joachim so that a user agreement can be concluded in advance.

After the presentation, there was a lively exchange and the wish was expressed, among other things, to digitize the archive in order to protect this unique testimony to the injustice against deaf people in the long term and to be able to open it up to the research community digitally.

Biesold's dissertation was published in 1988 under the title: "Klagende Hände. Betroffenheit und Spätfolgen in Bezug auf das Gesetz zur Verhinderung erbkranken Nachwuchses, dargestellt am Beispiel der ‚Taubstummen‘."
An English translation is also available: "Crying Hands: Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany".

A personal report by Simon Kollien in DGS can be found at this link.

Photo: UHH/IDGS