Dr. Aspergers Dirty Laundry

Welcome Back to the Audacious Aspie! This week, we will continue to look at the surprising article of the person of whom the Aspergers condition is named from, his Nazi ties, and whether or not we should change the name. Not exactly a happy-go-lucky topic it is. Last time we left this topic, we were about to find out Dr. Aspergers “progressive” belief regarding those identified with the condition.

 

Surprise surprise! It’s not that progressive at all!

 

So what was his belief? Dr. Aspergers realized that those with the condition had “special abilities” (NPR: Doctor Behind Asperger's Syndrome Subject To Name Change, Paragraph 5 ) As he called them. Will, at least he was not wrong about that, though one wonders which of our abilities he regarded as special (fun note, the article claims that he diagnosed them as Autism, rather than Aspergers). What's more, and this was probably anathema to the rest of the Nazis, he believed that such children were superior to the typical child (is this a weird form of Nazism? A radical pro-disabled belief, acting as a rock surrounded by a sea of hate, brutality and death? Dunno).

 

Before you get to excited of him being an unsung hero, you should know this: he was a bit of a eugenist, believing that some children were to autistic for their own good. Or “not able to be remediated.” ( Paragraph 5 ) And it was those children, of whom he sent to the killing centre. So, maybe just hold off on those heroic tunes and lyrics for now. It was quite a shock for the interviewee, who previously after reading parts of parents manuels (his son is Autistic) online articles (his first mistake) and Dr. Aspergers Wikipedia page (his second), all proclaiming him as a hero, only to find, as he dug deeper, that Hans was far from it.

 

About as far as this road here. See that tree in the distance there? Past it. See that other tree over the hill? PAst that one as will.

 

Politically reliable to the Nazis, 20 documents talking about his support for the “racial hygiene measures” ( Paragraph 7 ) by the regime and his support for the sterilization and racial policy. What's more, an SS officer commented in a document that Dr. Asperger “was in a position to expose activities that were happening” ( Paragraph 7 ). Doesn't sound much like the actions of a resistance member, not even a sympathetic resistance member (An Oxymoron, probably).

 

The interviewee was quite surprised that this was not yet known, at least to a large part, within the Autistic and Asperger community at least. We may never know why, but we can speculate. Anyways, this has been the post for this week, next week we will finish up the article on this troubling information. What do you think? Is this just conjecture, or slander of a man who risked all to save the lives of some disabled children? Or has the truth finally come to light? Until next time, this continues to be, the Audacious Aspie.        

Sources used:

https://www.npr.org/2018/05/12/610716324/doctor-behind-asperger-s-syndrome-subject-to-name-change.