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Asperger's Syndrome and Fascism
Dr. Hans Asperger (1906-1980) is the namesake of “Asperger’s Syndrome”, a form of high-functioning autism. What is little known to the general public is that he served in the German Army during WW2, and knowingly sent dozens of kids that he had observed in his research that related to autism to the Am Spiegelgrund Children’s Clinic in Vienna, Austria, during a time in which hundreds of mentally and physically disabled kids were euthanized under the Nazi’s “Aktion T4” program.
Despite his actions in complying with the Nazi’s eugenics policies, Dr. Asperger himself was never a member of the Nazi Party, but maintained close ties with officials and affiliated organizations. He is best known posthumously for his research paper, “Autistic Psychopathy in Childhood”, published in 1944, but re-discovered and re-published in 1981, which has revolutionized the understanding of the autistic spectrum, even causing the American Psychological Association to mirror the language within his study in their own “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual”, one of the most comprehensive and thorough journals on mental illnesses in the world.
A sense of irony is appreciated when learning that one of the most important advances in understanding a neurodivergent condition occurred under a regime motivated to exterminate the mentally unfit. In light of such a recent historical understanding, many have pushed to rename “Asperger’s Syndrome” in favor of other, more general and clinical titles. However, this could hardly rectify the history behind these advances or the suffering many such kids had experienced in Am Spiegelgrund because of Dr. Asperger.
Sources:
Baron-Cohen, Simon. “The Truth about Hans Asperger’s Nazi Collusion.” Nature, vol. 557, May 2018, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05112-1.
Connolly, Kate. “Unquiet Grave for Nazi Child Victims.” The Guardian, 29 Apr. 2002, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/29/internationaleducationnews.humanities.
Herman, Ellen. The Autism History Project. University of Oregon, 2019, https://blogs.uoregon.edu/autismhistoryproject/people/hans-asperger/.
Purvis, Andrew. “Suffer the Children.” Time, 3 Apr. 2000, https://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2050469,00.html.
Sheffer, Edith. Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna. W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.
Slagstad, Ketil. “Asperger, the Nazis and the Children – the History of the Birth of a Diagnosis.” Tidsskriftet, 16 May 2019, https://tidsskriftet.no/en/2019/05/essay/asperger-nazis-and-children-history-birth-diagnosis.
Steve Silberman. “Was Dr. Asperger A Nazi? The Question Still Haunts Autism.” NPR, 20 Jan. 2016, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/01/20/463603652/was-dr-asperger-a-nazi-the-question-still-haunts-autism.