In Nazi Germany many people were forced into sterilization to ensure race purity. In the years 1933-1945 roughly 15,000 deaf people were forced into sterilization. The youngest victim being only 9 years old, nearly 5,000 children up to the age of 16 were sterilized. Deaf children were forced to sterilization for reported hereditary deafness or feeble mindedness. Some were even reported for asocial behavior and claimed defects of character.
Some deaf children learned to act as if they could hear, some even learned to speak to avoid this fate. Although pretending to hear may have saved some, thousands of children fell victim. Many deaf children who were students in Deaf Institutes were reported by their own teachers and directors. The teachers reported, forced, and even transported students to hospitals, in order to contribute to the Nazi race cultivation plan.
Students were often brought to hospitals under pretext of other treatments, and tricked into sterilization. If a student refused they were beaten and handcuffed, some cases were reported that they were forced to watch the procedure as well. Many times the parents were only informed after the procedure was done to their child. Parents often thought they were sending their kids to get cured from being deaf, when in fact they were being sterilized or even killed. By 1940 sterilization stopped and was followed by killing which was called “Mercy Killing” by the Nazis, about 16,000 deaf people were murdered. Around 1,600 children who were deaf and had special disabilities were killed by drugs or even being starved to death. Newborn babies who were thought to be deaf were registered and marked to be murdered. Women who were pregnant and deaf, would have forced abortions, even when they were nine months pregnant. Many of the parents who sent their kids to be “cured” were not informed of their death until after the bodies were cremated and they would not even send the bodies to the family. they families were led to believe that their children had died of natural causes.
The forced sterilizations were often rushed and used little anaesthetics. The sterilization process affected very intimate areas, and many victims felt maimed, violated, and degraded, especially those who were at the age of puberty. Deaf children lived their lives feeling violated and suffered physical and psychological pain.