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book review
Asperger’s Nazi past Asperger’s daughter Maria as part of his

research and wrote “there seems to be no
evidence of this [affinity with Nazism]
whatsoever – indeed, the very opposite is
Hans Asperger has been celebrated for his defence of children more likely to be the case”.
However, in more recent correspondence
with disabilities but a study has concluded he assisted in the with the reviewer, he writes: “The evidence
Nazi euthanasia programme. michael baron reviews it against Asperger is quite damning.
Asperger’s association with the genuinely
evil Erwin Jekelius is profoundly
Asperger’s Children: the Origins of Autism not so much a disability but a difference disturbing. I think we have to assume that
in Nazi Vienna that, with greater societal acceptance, Asperger was aware of Jekelius’s
Edith Sheffer could be an asset. commitment to implementing euthanasia
WW Norton & Company, 2018, 317pp, Professor Sheffer, herself a parent of an as permanent public policy in Austria.”
£20 hardback autistic child (which has led to some No reviewer to my knowledge has
suggestion of bias by some critics) is by picked up on the commonality of medical
o read Edith Sheffer’s Asperger’s profession an academic historian of and cultural links in 1920s vienna, and
Children is a chilling experience. It Germany. Her groundbreaking book is that both Viennese paediatrics and the
Tis a hugely important work. scrupulously researched and, for the most Camphill (Rudolf Steiner) movement
The book confirms rumours that Hans part, responsibly written. deployed the term “curative education” or
Asperger participated (albeit at a careful Heilpädagogik. Indeed, Sheffer finds the
distance) in the Nazi practice of killing Steiner connection but does not pursue it
disabled children during Austria’s since it is not relevant to her subject.
occupation. The paediatrician’s signature Asperger’s pioneering work with
is on orders to move learning disabled disturbed children, his 1944 paper on
children from his Viennese clinic to autism which was only translated into
Spiegelgrund, a nearby hospital where English by Uta Frith in 1980, was being
more than 400 children were murdered. used in Camphill training in the 1950s.
In addition to drawing on recently Dr Karl König, himself a paediatrician
discovered documentation, Sheffer bases who fled Nazi Austria to found the
her argument on newly translated Camphill community in Scotland, was
descriptions by Asperger of his young Children with Down’s syndrome in Schönbrunn always ready to engage in dialogue, even
patients, which are imbued with Nazi Sanatorium in Germany, 1934 with those with whom he had extreme
eugenics philosophy and demonstrate a differences of opinion.
profound disgust for the most disabled Unfortunately, this book’s subtitle, The König visited Asperger twice in Austria,
children in his care. Origins of Autism In Nazi Vienna, is and the latter was at Camphill in October
Today we use colloquialisms such as provocative and misleading. It is not the 1959. His journal reveals that he knew
“aspies” in a positive way and give people case that autism as it is known today something of Asperger’s involvement in
the label of Asperger syndrome, even originated with Asperger in Nazi Vienna the Nazi programme and it is a great pity
though it is no longer an official diagnostic rather than with Leo Kanner in Chicago. that historians of autism have overlooked
term. For how much longer can this However, that criticism is probably best his insights.
levelled at a publisher looking for an
continue after Sheffer’s revelations?
The last word on future terminology, I
“ attention-grabbing subtitle rather than leave to the chief executive of the
National Autistic Society. After members
the book’s author.
It is more than 70 years since the defeat
Asperger’s descriptions
were canvassed, Mark Lever said the NAS
should stop using the term Asperger
of Nazi Germany and here, finally, is a
are imbued with Nazi
eugenics and demonstrate biography of a controversial subject that syndrome “except as a term to describe a
also serves as a primer on the worst
former diagnosis while completely
a profound disgust for the excesses of Nazi eugenics. supporting people’s choices to use the
most disabled children ” evidence comes to light term about their own
diagnosis”.
Only in recent years has evidence
The fence may be the
best place to sit, even
emerged from the Vienna archives of
German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons originated the idea of autism as a spectrum learning disabled children to be came to be sited will
when the story of how it
Asperger’s role in sending a number of
Lorna Wing, the eminent psychiatrist who
condition, first suggested the term Asperger
always be a very
exterminated. Austrian researcher Dr
troubling episode in the
syndrome be used. In the early 1980s, she
Herwig Czech has been most diligent in
thought it would be a useful term for autistic
long history of autism.
finding evidence in Austrian archives, on
children without intellectual disability whose
which Professor Sheffer has expanded.
n
parents found the term autism, with its
However, rumours about Asperger had
Michael Baron was one
circulated for many years. These were
association with a low IQ, stigmatising.
of the group of parents of children with
Over the decades, Asperger syndrome
tackled by Adam Feinstein when he wrote
autism who founded the National Autistic
has become a badge of honour for those
the Pioneers (2010). Feinstein interviewed
who argue that their form of “autism” was
Society (as it now is) in 1962
www.cl-initiatives.co.uk A History of Autism: Conversations with Community Living Vol 32 No 2 | Winter 2018 29