Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna
Edith Sheffer
Book Autism, Human Health, Medical Ethics
New research reveals that the physician behind Asperger’s syndrome was an active participant in Nazi eugenics
On 1 July 1941, a young Austrian physician named Hans Asperger signed a document transferring a toddler named Herta Schreiber to Spiegelgrund, an asylum for mentally ill children on the outskirts of Vienna. Two-year-old Herta had suffered diphtheria and meningitis, leaving her severely disabled. She “must present an unbearable burden to her mother,” Asperger, then…
