Registered, persecuted, exterminated – the sick and people with disabilities in Nazi Germany

29.08.2015 - 25.10.2015

People who were ill or had disabilities were among those persecuted in Nazi Germany. They were seen as an unnecessary strain for the ‘German national community‘. Between 1934 and the end of Nazi rule nearly 400,000 people were sterilised against their will and more than 200,000 were killed in mental hospitals. The general public was aware of what was happening, with psychiatrists, neurologists, paediatricians and other doctors as well as administrative staff and carers actively participating in the persecution. The exhibition ‘registered, persecuted, exterminated – the sick and people with disabilities in Nazi Germany’ Using a wide range of documents and pictures, this exhibition relates the stories of those affected and gives account of the isolation, forced sterilisation and mass murder they experienced in Nazi Germany. It looks at the victims, perpetrators and opponents of persecution and questions if and how Germany has tried to come to terms with these events since the end of Nazi rule in 1945. Finally, we show video interviews of family members and friends of victims, doctors and carers as well as representatives of different interest groups. The question investigated from a range of different perspectives is what the history of euthanasia in Nazi Germany has meant for them personally.

Patron of the exhibition in Aachen: Lord Mayor Marcel Philipp

Organised by the City of Aachen and the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics at the RWTH Aachen University Clinic.

Co-operation partners: Zeitungsverlag Aachen, Sparkasse Aachen, Aachener Stiftung Kathy Beys, F. Victor Rolff-Stiftung, Lebenshilfe Aachen, Theater Aachen, Musikschule Aachen, Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft Sankt Georg Aachen, RWTH Aachen University

The touring exhibition by the German Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology (DGPPN) was developed under the aegis of German Federal President Joachim Gauck in cooperation with the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Topography of Terror Documentation Centre.

A catalogue on the exhibition ‘registered, persecuted, exterminated – the sick and people with disabilities in Nazi Germany’ has been published.

There is a range of learning and teaching programmes for schools.