Pioneering Austrian paediatrician Hans Asperger was a Nazi collaborator who “sent children to their deaths”, according to previously unseen documents.
Herwig Czech, a historian at Vienna’s Medical University, spent eight years researching Asperger - after whom the syndrome was named - using previously untouched documents from state archives. The files include Asperger’s personnel files and patient case records, The Guardian reports.
Czech claims that the much-lauded medical researcher actively recommended children should be sent to the Am Spiegelgrund clinic in Vienna, where hundreds of disabled and sick youngsters were murdered as part of a wider eugenics programme perpetrated by the Nazi regime. In a paper published in academic journal Molecular Autism, Czech also asserts that Asperger was aware of the activities at the clinic.
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During the War, Asperger was appointed director of a Viennese children’s clinic, and in later years was made chair of paediatrics at the University of Vienna.
In his inauguration speech at the university, he “boasted of being hunted by the Gestapo for supposedly refusing to hand over children”, says The Daily Telegraph. Czech claims that there was no evidence to suggest Asperger protected children from the Nazis.
The historian writes: “Asperger managed to accommodate himself to the Nazi regime and was rewarded for his affirmations of loyalty with career opportunities.
“He joined several organisations affiliated with the NSDAP [Nazi Party], publicly legitimised race hygiene policies including forced sterilisations and, on several occasions, actively cooperated with the child ‘euthanasia’ programme.
“Asperger was a well-functioning cog in a deadly machine... The episode shows that the authorities trusted Asperger to lend his expertise to the selection of children for elimination.”
The claims have led experts to stress the importance of ensuring that people with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, do not feel tainted by the discovery, says The Independent.
“We expect these findings to spark a big conversation among the 700,000 autistic people in the UK and their family members, particularly those who identify with the term ‘Asperger’,” said Carol Povey, director at the Centre of Autism for the National Autistic Society.
Povey told the news site: “We will be listening closely to the response to this news so we can continue to make sure the language we use to describe autism reflects the preferences of autistic people and their families.
“Obviously no one with a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome should feel in any way tainted by this very troubling history.”
