Unheard Unseen Unspoken: Unknown Sufferage of Women During Holocaust

Forced Sterilization

Nazi Germany was not the only country to sterilize people they deemed to be "unfit". "Before Hitler, the United States led the world in forced sterilizations. Between 1907 and 1939, more than 30,000 people in twenty-nine states were sterilized, many of them unknowingly or against their will, while they were incarcerated in prisons or institutions for the mentally ill. Nearly half the operations were carried out in California. Advocates of sterilization policies in both Germany and the United States were influenced by eugenics. This sociobiological theory took Charles Darwin's principle of natural selection and applied it to society. Eugenicists believed the human race could be improved by controlled breeding." Although they weren't the first country to sterilize their mentally and physically handicapped, Hitler's Germany took it to a whole new level. The Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseased Offspring was passed on July 14, 1933, and went into effect on January 1, 1934. "Section 1 of the law defined it's parameters. First, it stated that "a person who is hereditarily diseased may be sterilized by a surgical operation, when the experience of medical science indicates a strong likelihood that the offspring will suffer from sever hereditary physical or mental defects" The law was amended to add Section 10a. The amendment authorized forced abortions in women who were otherwise subject to sterilization. According to official statistics collected by the Reich Ministry of Interior, during the first year the law was in force, 32,268 men and women were sterilized against their will.

Sterilization Procedures and Experiments

Men were sterilized by way of a vasectomy, the severing of the sperm duct. The procedure was considered relatively inconsequential, and was carried out with local anesthesia. However, for women, the procedure was considered a "serious bodily intrusion", even by those responsible for the sterilization laws. There were more than 100 female sterilization procedures known by the 1930's. The main way used to sterilize women was a surgical incision through the abdomen. This was called a laparotomy. During this procedure the fallopian tubes are either crushed, severed, or completely removed. Occasionally, some surgeons would opt for the "surest" procedure, which was the complete removal of the uterus.

"The usual operation for sterilizing women had a relatively long recovery period - usually between a week and fourteen days. The Nazis wanted a faster and perhaps unnoticeable way to sterilize millions. New ideas emerged and camp prisoners at Auschwitz and at Ravensbrück were used to test the various new methods of sterilization. Drugs were given. Carbon dioxide was injected. Radiation and X-rays were administered." In 1936 it became legal to use X rays to sterilize individuals. This method was used infrequently before 1939, but after it was used on women who opposed the operation or women who were in concentration camps. The sterilization law gave physicians the ultimate choice of how they would carry out the procedure. The law gave "surgeons and gynecologists a broad field for experimentation on human subjects in order to test new operational procedures."

Aftermath of Forced Sterilization and Forced Abortion

Klara Nowak, who was forcibly sterilized in 1941, described what effects the operation still had on her life. "Well, I still have many complaints as a result of it. There were complications with every operation I have had since. I had to take early retirement at the age of fifty-two - and the psychological pressure has always remained. When nowadays my neighbors, older ladies, tell me about their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, this hurts bitterly, because I do not have any children or grandchildren, because I am on my own, and I have to cope without anyone's help." A woman born in 1920 was fifteen when she was brought to be sterilized. Not only did this woman suffer physical pain in her abdomen for years to come, but she also suffered heartbreak when her fiancé backed out of their marriage due to her being unable to have children. "This happened to me three times, so that I withdrew more and more from life." Another female born in 1920 responded, "I am writing you now that I am so lonesome without children. My husband died in 1981. I am very unhappy. Why were the Nazis so cruel as to sterilize me? I wanted to have at most two children. I was scarcely 17 years old when I was forced to go to the hospital in Konigsberg in East Prussia to be sterilized" Frau Fanny Mikus was sterilized against her will in 1936. Her story is the most detailed in Biesold's book, Crying Hands, Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany. In 1935 Mikus, received a letter from the authorities that stated she was to be sterilized. She was able to evade the sterilization for a year but in 1936 she was locked in a room by a nurse where she received four shots to control her. After her operation her husband asked to marry her and after going to the registry office, Mikus was told she was to be sterilized for a second time. In 1938 she became pregnant and was forced to have an abortion of a well developed and otherwise healthy boy. After this her fiancé still wanted to get married. Upon going to the registry again, they told her she was to be sterilized again. After her third operation they finally married, unfortunately Mikus stated that her marriage was "unhappy", without children, and that their love making was really bad and painful.

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