"Eugenics" and Nazi
"Euthanasia" Crimes
This is a gateway to three distinct
websites hosted here.
(1) Eugenics: Compulsory
Sterilization in 50 American States
is a site that provides information about compulsory
sterilization laws adopted by over 30 states that led to more than
60,000 sterilizations of disabled individuals in the United States of
America. For each state for
which information is available, it includes the number of victims,
the known period during which
sterilizations
occurred, the temporal pattern of sterilizations and rate of
sterilization, the
passage of law(s), groups indentified in the law, the prescribed
process of the
law, precipitating factors and processes that led up a state’s
sterilization program,
the groups targeted and victimized, other restrictions placed on those
identified in the law or with disabilities in general, major
proponents of state
eugenic
sterilization, “feeder
institutions” and institutions where sterilizations were performed, and
opposition
to sterilization. A short bibliography is also provided. Until now
there has never been a
website providing an easily accessible overview of American
eugenics for all
American
states.
(2) The
"Special Children's Wards": The Nazi Murder
of Disabled Children deals
with the about 30 murder sites at which at least
5,000 children and youths were killed between 1940
and 1945 as part of
the Nazi children's "Euthanasia"
program. The facilities that were part of this program are listed by
nation, states, and location. It
includes a brief historical account as well as a history of
commemoration, and a brief bibliography.
(3) Exhibits
on "Nazi" Euthanasia Crimes presents
an overview of more than a dozen exhibitions on such crimes in
German-speaking countries. Some of these exhibitions have a detailed
information available through the Internet.
A fourth website will turn to
commemoration at the "T4"
killing centers.
For some thoughts on commemoration
of trauma and the collective memory landscape in Germany, see my essay "New
Analyses of Trauma, Memory, and Place in Berlin and Beyond."
On exhibits on "euthanasia" crimes in Germany and Austria, see my presentation "Exhibiting the 'Good Death': Sacredness and Trauma in the Public Display of Nazi 'Euthanasia' Crimes in Germany and Austria" (word document and powerpoint presentation).
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Comments or questions? Email: 
Lutz Kaelber, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Vermont