During the Holocaust the Deaf or as they were refer to by the Nazis “Feeble minded”. Deaf Suffered many Physical abuses, the Deaf were reported by people who were closest to them. Even at the young age of fourteen, men and women were improperly sterilized; Men were sterilized by sperm sever and was performed without anaesthesia. Women were sterilized by making abdominal incision without anesthesia, the abdominal cavity was breached. The fallopian tubes were crushed and removed from the uterus as well. This caused incisions not to heal in adequate time, patients were hospitalized for months, some for years. Men and women were starved and locked away as one of many strategies for patients to agree to sterilization “After three day without food I was sterilized”. According to the Crying Hands: Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet UP, 1999. Print pg. 150. Some patients could not deal with the long term physical pain. In some cases men and women committed suicide “After sterilization in 1934, so that she took her own life” during the procedures humans were used as subjects to test new operational procedures. “”The doctor bored around in the sensitive part of my vagina with his fingers “Biesold, Horst. According to the Crying Hands: Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet UP, 1999. Print.. After brutal sterilization women experienced continuance bleeding and pain during intercourse. Incisions were continuing to open, therefore patients experienced lack of physical activities and inability to eat causing death “As a result of the medical treatment, NN died." .” Biesold, Horst. Crying Hands: Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet UP, 1999. Print pg. 157. .
There were many emotional effects for deaf people during the Holocaust. One of them was pressure put on deaf people to keep their sterilizations a secret. A letter from the Nazi regime shows an example, “ no one may speak about sterilization and urged those who were ordered to be sterilized to obey the authorities.” Another emotional effect deaf people had during the Holocaust were fear of being reported by school staff. For example the director of Provincial Institution for Deaf stated, “to arrange that the operation be performed there during the summer holidays.” Not being able to stand for their right is another emotion most of the suffered. As stated in a letter from the director of Provincial Institution for the Deaf, “ he warned that the parents appeal of the sterilization order would not be successful that the operation would be performed.” Anxiety is effect deaf had during the Holocaust the anxiety of being taken by force. As stated by a male survivor, “ I was hauled away by force by the Gestapo from the workshop and delivered to the hospital. Depression was an emotion most of deaf people that were sterilized felt because they were not able to have children. As a male that been sterilized stated, “ she was sterilized and suffered her whole life that she couldn’t have any children. She so badly wanted to be a mother… now I her husband stand here alone.”. Relationship problems are an effect deaf people had during the holocaust. As a female survivor stated, “ about three months after the operation my fiancé said to me that we had to break up he couldn’t be expected to keep a wife with a Hitler cut!” Emotional effects affect all deaf people during the holocaust.
Because of the sterilization laws many men and women would suffer from long-term psychological effect; 76% of respondents stated that they suffer from psychological pain from being forced to go through the sterilization surgery. Many men and women were tricked into getting sterilized. According to a woman, she stated that she was lying in the hospital thinking she was going to be examined. She woke up the next day to realize that she had been sterilized. Unfortunately the reported victims by teenagers were extremely high; for males 12% between the ages of thirteen and eighteen suffered from mental pain. Only 9% females suffered from mental pain. As a result of this suffering, many of these victims grew up or lived the rest of their lives viewing the world with bitterness and despair. Many of them admitted to neurological clinics and similar institutions because of depression.
Herry Friedlander "Crying Hands"Eugenics & Deaf people in Nazi Germany Horst Biosold (1999). LInder R. "Marriage Counseling for the Deaf" "Commemorative Vol. of the Leipzig Institution for the Deaf (1928).