10 research outputs found
Child Murder in Nazi Germany: The Memory of Nazi Medical Crimes and Commemoration of âChildrenâs Euthanasiaâ Victims at Two Facilities (Eichberg, Kalmenhof)
Nazi Germanyâs âchildrenâs euthanasiaâ was a unique program in the history of mankind, seeking to realize a social Darwinist vision of a society by means of the systematic murder of disabled children and youths. Perpetrators extinguished âunworthy lifeâ during childhood and adolescence by establishing killing stations, misleadingly labeled Kinderfachabteilungen (âspecial childrenâs wardsâ), in existing medical or other care facilities. Part of a research project on Nazi âeuthanasiaâ crimes and their victims, this paper uses a comparative historical perspective to trace memories of the crimes and the memorialization of their victims at the sites of two of these wards (Eichberg and Kalmenhof in Hesse, Germany). It also discusses the implications of the findings for theorizing mnemonic practices and analyzing ways in which memorials and other sites of memory deal with past trauma and atrocity