This extraordinary collection consists of three crucial parts. Henry Friedlander begins Part I: Racial Hygiene by disclosing that the attack upon deaf people and people with disabilities was an integral element in the Nazi theory of racial hygiene. Robert Proctor documents the role of medical professionals in deciding who should be sterilized, forbidden to marry, or murdered. In her research, Patricia Heberer details how the Nazi's eugenics theories allowed them to extend their lethal policies to those considered socially undesirable. Part II: The German Experience leads with Jochen Muhs' discoveries from interviewing deaf Berliners, both victims and active members of the Nazi Party. "The Place of the School for the Deaf in the New Reich," written by Kurt Lietz in 1934, rues the expense of educating deaf students when they could not be soldiers or bear "healthy" children. Horst Biesold confirms the complicity of teachers who turned in their own deaf students. Part III: explores the Jewish Deaf experience. John S. Schuchman discusses the plight of deaf Jews in Hungary, which complements a transcript of six survivors who described their personal ordeals.
The reflections of Peter Black conclude this vital study of a little-known chapter of the Holocaust.