On This Day in History: May 10

Hans Asperger was a Nazi

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For a time, pioneering pediatrician Dr. Hans Asperger was considered a hero who saved autistic children from extermination by the Nazis by emphasizing their intelligence. Except that’s bullshit. Asperger was a Nazi collaborating assbucket complicit in their murders. 

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: May 10, 1934--

Born in Austria in 1906, Asperger earned his medical degree in 1931. Three years later, on May 10, 1934, he joined the Austrofascist Fatherland Front. That name should give you some indication as to his political leanings. 

During World War II Asperger published his definition of autism, which resembled the work of a Russian neurologist from two decades previous. It wouldn’t catch on until decades later, after Asperger died, but the real story is how he ingratiated himself to the Nazi regime during the war, and the cost in lives to neurodiverse children.

Because Nazis were all about “purity.” That was their excuse for the Holocaust. It wasn’t just Jews sent to their deaths but also Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, people with mental and physical disabilities, and anyone seen as “asocial.” 

Beginning in 2009 many countries decided to celebrate Asperger’s birthday, February 18, as International Asperger’s Day. But recent findings may make people want to consider another date, even another name, because the guy was a fucking Nazi. 

He didn’t actually join the Nazi party, but he did join several organizations affiliated with the Nazi party. And he kissed Nazi ass and was rewarded for it. Asperger promoted the Nazi ideas of “race hygiene” and actively participated in the regime’s child “euthanasia” program. Euthanasia is in quotation marks because the definition of euthanasia is “mercy killing,” and this was anything but merciful. It was fucking murder, and Asperger was complicit. 

Beginning in 2018, the accusations began to fly about Asperger, with the nuanced view being that he was “a well-adapted cog in the machine of a deadly regime.” He deliberately sent children to the Am Spiegelgrund clinic in Vienna during the war, knowing they would be subjected to cruel experiments and murder. 

After the war, with the depth of the horrors of the Nazi regime coming to light, Asperger was all “Oh yeah those guys sucked I wasn’t one of them I fought against them and actually saved children from the Nazis aren’t I awesome?” In short, he was lying his fucking ass off so he didn’t get a long drop with a short rope at Nuremberg. 

Instead he was celebrated, continuing to work as a pediatrician at the University Children’s Hospital in Vienna for decades after the war. He died in 1980 at the age of 74. Fucking douche. 

Get the book On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.

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NOTE: Regarding the use of “autistic person” vs. “person with autism”, a number of surveys reveal that the majority of autistic people prefer identity first language: autistic person, which is why I chose it for this piece. It was a fairly small minority who prefer “person with autism” (person first language). Also, a sizeable portion don’t have a preference. At the individual level, if you are an autistic person or a person with autism, I’ll use whichever term you prefer.