INTRODUZIONE

Non molti sono al corrente che lo sconvolgente sterminio degli ebrei da parte del regime nazista cominciò con una prova generale: sterminare le persone con disabilità. La storia di questa agghiacciante vicenda per anni è stata dimenticata o relegata in un angolo, nonostante vi fosse, soprattutto in lingua inglese, una corposa bibliografia a partire dagli anni '90 del secolo scorso. In Italia solo nell'ultimo decennio sono state edite pubblicazioni sull'argomento, generando finalmente un dibattito che ha visto nascere nella giornata della memoria (27 gennaio), dedicata a ricordare la Shoah, numerose iniziative sul progetto T4.
Il 14 luglio 1933, il governo Nazista approvò la “Legge per la prevenzione della progenie con malattie ereditarie”. Questa legge, uno dei primi passi del Nazismo verso l'obiettivo di creare “razza superiore” Ariana, individuava nella sterilizzazione di tutte le persone che soffrivano di malattie considerate ereditarie, come la malattia mentale, disabilità nell'apprendimento, deformità fisica, epilessia, cecità, sordità, e severa dipendenza da alcolismo. Con l'approvazione della legge il  Terzo Reich mise in piedi anche una campagna di propaganda contro le persone con disabilità, identificati con il marchio di “vite non degne di essere vissute” o “divoratori inutili” e sottolineando come rappresentassero un peso economico per la società.


Proprio alcuni anni dopo, la persecuzione verso le persone con disabilità crebbe di intensità, attraverso l'eutanasia di stato perpetrata in forma non ufficiale a bambini ed adulti, raggiunge la massima intensità proprio durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Nell'autunno del 1939 infatti, Adolf Hitler autorizzò segretamente un programma medico-amministrativo di “morte misericordiosa” denominato in codice “Operazione T4,” prendendo spunto dall'indirizzo della sede del programma ubicata a Berlino in Tiergartenstrasse 4. Tra il 1940 ed il 1941 approssimativamente 71,000 persone con disabilità austriache e tedesche furono uccise nell'ambito del programma T4, attraverso operazioni di sterminio su larga scala utilizzando gas letale (questa metodologia servì prova generale per i metodi di sterminio degli ebrei e di altre categorie di persone considerate razze degenerate, che venne denominata dal Nazismo “Soluzione Finale.”). Benché Hitler formalmente fu costretto dalle denunce pubbliche della Chiesa ad interrompere il programma nell'agosto del 1941, lo sterminio continuò segretamente fino alla fine della guerra, e a volte anche qualche settimana dopo, attraverso il programma dal nome in codice “Azione 14F13”. Il numero totale di persone con disabilità uccise dai programmi nazisti viene stimato in circa 275,000.

La seguente bibliografia relativa a volumi pubblicati in lingua italiana, inglese e tedesca, è stato compilato raccogliendo informazioni bibliografiche da varie fonti (bibliografie speciali contenute in alcuni dei volumi inseriti nella bibliografia, bibliografie nazionali, ricerche su internet). Naturalmente non pretendiamo di essere esaustivi. Un breve abstract dei contenuti dei volumi è stato inserito, quando disponibile, ed varie annotazioni sono state aggiunte per aiutare coloro che useranno questo strumento a focalizzare gli argomenti e le eventuali fonti di informazioni  on line. E' stato poi aggiunto il link all'eventuale sito web ed ad altre fonti on line ed una lista di film disponibili sullo stesso argomento.

Questo primo documento è pensato come un lavoro in progress, per cui ogni segnalazione che possa arricchire la nostra bibliografia è benvenuta.

Giampiero Griffo


Nota
Curriculum del Dott. Griffo

Laureato con lode in filosofia nel 1975 all’Università Federico II di Napoli, è attualmente direttore della Sezione sulla Diversità della  Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli.
Lavora nel campo della difesa e tutela dei diritti umani e civili dei cittadini con disabilità, con responsabilità direttiva ed in forma volontaria in varie associazioni  locali, nazionali ed internazionali. Fra gli altri incarichi, ricopre, dalla fondazione, quello di membro del direttivo nazionale della Federazione Italiana per il Superamento dell’ Handicap (FISH).
Con grande dedizione e “grinta” ha lavorato e lavora, anche per conto del governo italiano, in progetti  di scambio , di studio, di cooperazione allo sviluppo in ambito internazionale, portando il suo prezioso carico di esperienze e di idee in ogni parte del mondo (Polonia, Francia, Stati Uniti, Messico, ex Jugoslavia, Palestina, Giappone, Cina, ecc.).


NAPOLINTERNOS ringrazia il dott. Giampiero Griffo per il suo significativo contributo.



ITALIANO

Giannini, G, Vittime dimenticate, lo sterminio dei disabili, dei rom, degli omosessuali e dei testimoni di Geova, Stampa Alternativa, Viterbo 2012.

Marco Paolini, Ausmerzen. Vite indegne di essere vissute, Einaudi Torino 2012.

Horsinga Renno Mireille, Una ragionevole strage, Torino, Lindau, 2008.

La memoria degli altri, ebrei e disabili ricordano insieme. Catalogo dell'evento  - 27 gennaio 2008 giorno della memoria. Roma, Auditorium Parco della musica. Sala santa Cecilia. [Roma, s.n., 2008].

Dizionario dell’Olocausto, a cura di W. Laqueur e A. Cavaglion.Torino, Einaudi, 2004.

Barbuto Rita [et al.], Consulenza alla pari. Da vittime della storia a protagonisti della vita. Comunità edizioni, 2006.

Floridia Pietro, Tiergartenstrasse 4. Un giardino per Ofelia: dramma in due atti. Napoli, Filema, [2006].

Tregenza Michael, Purificare e distruggere I. Il programma “eutanasia”. Le prime camere a gas naziste e lo sterminio dei disabili (1939-1941). Verona, Ombre corte, 2006.

Hartmann Hinterhuber, Uccisi e dimenticati. Crimini nazisti contro malati psichici e disabili del Nordtirolo e dell'Alto Adige. Trento, Museo storico, 2003.

Ricciardi von Platen Alice,  Il nazismo e l'eutanasia dei malati di mente, Firenze, Le Lettere, [2000].

Brunner Helen, Come un pescatore di perle, Empoli, Hibiscos, 2001.

Lallo Angelo, Torresini Lorenzo, Psichiatria e nazismo, Venezia, Ediciclo, 2001.

Friedlander Henry, Le origini del genocidio nazista. Dall’eutanasia alla soluzione finale. Roma, Editori Riuniti,1997.

Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. I volenterosi carnefici di Hitler :  i tedeschi comuni e l'Olocausto.3. ed.  Milano,  Mondadori, 1997.  (Trad. di Enrico Basaglia).

Zuccotti Susan, L'olocausto in Italia, prefazione di Furio Colombo, Milano, TEA, 1995.

Picciotto-Fargion Liliana, Il libro della memoria, gli ebrei deportati d'Italia (1943/1945), Milano, Mursia, 1991.

Consoli Massimo, Omocausto , Milano, Kaos, 1971.

Medicina disumana : documenti del "Processo dei medici di Norimberga" / a cura e con commento di Alexander Mitscherlich e Fred Mielke. - Milano : Feltrinelli, 1967.



TEDESCO

Böhm  Boris, et al. Sonnenstein - Heft 3 / 2001. Pirna: Kuratorium Gedenkstätte Sonnenstein e.V., 2001.

Müller Roland et al. Krankenmord im Nationalsozialismus. Grafeneck und die "Euthanasie" in Südwestdeutschland. Stuttgart: Archiv der Stadt Stuttgart, 2001.

Schilter Thomas, Unmenschliches Ermessen. Leipzig: Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1998.

Hoffmann Ute and Schulze Dietmar. Gedenkstätte Bernburg. Dessau: Regierungspräsidium Dessau, 1997.
Böhm  Boris et al. Nationalsozialistische Euthanasie-Verbrechen in Sachsen. Dresden, Pirna: Sächsische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung and Kuratorium Gedenkstätte Sonnenstein e.V., 1996.

Hoffmann  Ute. Todesursache: Angina. Magdeburg: Ministerium des Innern des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt, 1996.

Winter Bettina. Verlegt nach Hadamar. Exhibition Catalogue. Kassel: LWV Hessen, 1994

Neuhauser Johannes and Pfaffenwimmer Michaela, Hartheim - Wohin unbekannt. Weitra: Bibliothek der Provinz, 1992.

Ernst Klee, Was sie taten, was sie wurden : Arzte, Juristen und andere Beteiligte am Kranken- oder Judenmord .  Frankfurt am Main : Fischer, c1986.

Klee Ernst, Euthanasie im NS-Staat : die Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens . - Frankfurt am Main : Fischer Taschenbuch, 1985.

Dokumente zur "Euthanasie" ( herausgegeben von Ernst Klee). - Frankfurt am Main : Fischer, c1985. 



INGLESE

LeZotte, Ann Clare. T4 a novel. New York, Houghton Mifflin, 2008.
It is 1939. Paula Becker, thirteen years old and deaf, lives with her family in a rural German town. As rumors swirl of disabled children quietly disappearing, a priest comes to her family's door with an offer to shield Paula from an uncertain fate. When the sanctuary he offers is fleeting, Paula needs to call upon all her strength to stay one step ahead of the Nazis.


Meinecke Jr., William F. Nazi Ideology and the Holocaust. Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2007.
Details Nazi ideology as applied to a variety of victim groups including political opponents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Poles and other Slavs, as well as German citizens of African     and Roma descent or persons with physical and mental disabilities. Supplemented by excerpts of writings by perpetrators. Includes photographs, a bibliography, and an index.

Bryant, Michael S. Confronting the “Good Death”: Nazi Euthanasia on Trial, 1943-1953. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2005.
Details the development of judicial procedures and processes relating to Nazi euthanasia trials. Highlights the American role in trials (1945-1947) and justice in West Germany. Includes endnotes, a glossary, bibliography, and an index.

Stufflet, Shane Brian. “No ‘Stunde Null’: German Attitudes toward the Mentally Handicapped and their Impact on the Postwar Trials of T4 Perpetrators.” PhD diss., University of Florida, 2005.
Examines the attitudes toward people with developmental disabilities in Germany and the effects on the euthanasia trials in 1967. Highlights judges’ statements and light sentences as examples of continued prejudice towards the disabled through the postwar era. Includes footnotes and a  bibliography.

"Nazi 'Euthanasia' Programs" in Dieter Kuntz, ed. Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race by Michael Burleigh. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum/University of North Carolina Press, 2004. 

Gallagher, Hugh Gregory. Holocaust: Disabled Peoples. In Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts, edited by Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, and Israel Charny, 205-230. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Outlines the history and impact of the T4 program upon the disabled community. Features the     postwar testimony of several of the victims’ relatives who had struggled against the Nazi     bureaucracy to save their family members.

Evans, Suzanne E. Forgotten Crimes: The Holocaust and People with Disabilities. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004.
Examines the fate of the disabled during the Nazi era, both under the T4 program and in the     concentration camps. Brings to light the Swiss government’s denial of entry to those refugees     with disabilities and the prevalence of forced sterilization and other eugenic policies in     Switzerland from 1933 to 1945. Also available online at http://www.dralegal.org/publications/forgotten_crimes.php.

Dunai, Eleanor C. Surviving in Silence: A Deaf Boy in the Holocaust: The Harry I. Dunai Story. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2002.
The personal story of a deaf Jewish boy living in war-torn Hungary. Describes his experiences in     a Jewish school for deaf children, the dramatic changes brought about by the Nazi occupation,     and his struggles to survive under the fascist Arrow Cross Party in Budapest. Also describes his     post-war life up until the birth of his first child in 1963. Includes numerous black and white photographs and some endnotes.

Kühl, Stefan. The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Outlines the connections between the American and German eugenics movements. Examines the     influence of American eugenicists upon the Nazi approach to racial hygiene that lead to the practice of forced sterilization in Germany. Includes endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.

Ryan, Donna F., . Schuchman,  John S . Deaf People in Hitler’s Europe. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2002.
Collection of essays and supporting materials drawn from the 1998 conference held at Gallaudet University. Explores the Nazi theories of racial hygiene and describes the experiences of the deaf under the Third Reich. Also includes excerpts from the testimonies of six deaf Hungarian Jews     who survived the Holocaust. Provides end notes for each entry, numerous photographs, and an index.

Heberer, Patricia. Exitus Heute in Hadamar’: The Hadamar Facility and ‘Euthanasia’ in Nazi Germany.. PhD diss., University of Maryland, 2001.
Institutional history of the Hadamar facility for the mentally and physically handicapped. Studies     the administration of the T4 program at Hadamar, focusing at local and regional levels rather  than on central authorities, and examines the roles and motivations of the perpetrators. Explores     the fates of a variety of victims and the ideological and biomedical forces that led to their destruction. Includes footnotes, a glossary, and a bibliography.

Finkelstein Norman,  The Holocaust Industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish     Suffering, New York-London, Verso Books, 2000

O’Neill, Sandy. First They Killed the ‘Crazies’ and ‘Cripples’: The Ableist Persecution and  Murders of People with Disabilities by Nazi Germany 1933-45: An Anthropological Perspective.  PhD diss., California Institute of Integral Studies, 2000.
Studies the history of Nazi eugenics and euthanasia from the standpoint of “ableism” or discrimination against people with disabilities. Discusses the relative lack of attention paid to  disabled victims within the literature of Holocaust studies and the continuing problem of ableist  discrimination.

Biesold, Horst. Crying Hands: Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany.

Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1999.
Uses archival research, institutional studies, and interviews with survivors to describe the  persecution of deaf people under the Third Reich. Explores the collaborative system behind the  forced sterilization and euthanasia program focused on the deaf and other handicapped people.  Includes a chapter on the history and fate of Jewish deaf people in Germany.

Friedlander, Henry. “Registering the Handicapped in Nazi Germany: A Case Study.” Jewish History 11, no. 2 (1997): 89-98.
Discusses the creation of a registry of persons with disabilities which was then used to target individuals for extermination. Includes endnotes.

Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah,  Hitler’s Willing Executioners. Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust.  New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
Traces the mass exterminations of the Holocaust back to the first secretive murder of a handicapped child in a Nazi-run medical clinic. Details the development and expansion of the T4 program and examines how the killing methods of euthanasia later evolved into the “Final Solution.”

Gallagher, Hugh Gregory. By Trust Betrayed: Patients, Physicians, and the License to Kill in the Third Reich. Arlington, VA: Vandamere Press, 1995.
Focuses on the T4 program of medical killing, examining its origins, implementation, and changes in light of public protest. Reviews the response of the legal community and the     Christian churches to the program, and analyzes the doctors’ motives for participating in medical killing.

Aly, Götz, Peter Chroust, and Christian Pross. Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Provides an introduction to the history of medicine under the Nazis and background information on the practice of euthanasia at the hospitals and psychiatric clinics of Nazi Germany. Includes  information from primary sources, such as diary entries and letters from doctors involved in euthanasia and medical experiments.

Burleigh, Michael. Death and Deliverance: "Euthanasia" in Germany c. 1900-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Provides background information on the historical development of euthanasia and eugenics in Germany with an emphasis on the Weimar and the pre-war Nazi eras. Explores the Nazi perception of an economic benefit to killing disabled people and shows how the Nazis used propaganda to sway public opinion against those with disabilities.

Kogon, Eugen, Hermann Langbein, and Adalbert Rückerl, editors. Nazi Mass Murder: A documentary History of the Use of Poison Gas. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993.
Examines the use of poison gas as a method of murder during the Holocaust. Includes a chapter     focusing on the six main euthanasia clinics of Operation T4, reviewing their selection process, killing methods and efforts to maintain secrecy.

Caplan, Arthur L. When Medicine Went Mad: Bioethics and the Holocaust. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 1992.
A collection of eighteen essays from a 1989 conference on medical ethics and the Holocaust. Focuses particularly on the implications of Nazi medical practices for contemporary controversies regarding eugenics, euthanasia and medical experimentation. See especially the     section titled, “Medical Killing and Euthanasia: Then and Now.”

Burleigh, Michael, Wippermann Wolfang. The Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Discusses the history of Nazi racial policies, with a particular emphasis on the Nazi goal of creating a “racial utopia.” Describes the regime’s murderous activities from euthanasia to the mass murder of Jews and Gypsies in the context of its racial policies.

Pross, Christian, Götz, Aly. The Value of the Human Being: Medicine in Germany 1918-1945. Berlin: Arztekammer Berlin, 1991.
Exhibition catalogue providing an overview of the history of medicine in Weimar and Nazi     Germany. Looks particularly at racial science, the treatment of the disabled, and medical     experimentation. Copiously illustrated and accompanied by a useful chronology.

Thornton, Larry Patrick. Weeding the Garden: Euthanasia, National Socialism, and Germany  1939 - 1945. PhD diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1991.
Focuses on the history of Nazi euthanasia from the start of Operation T4 until the end of the war. Reviews the theories of racial hygiene that served as the basis of the program, the policies and  procedures established to carry out the killings, the steps taken to maintain secrecy, the  opposition  that developed, and the ways in which the killings continued even after Hitler  rescinded the order authorizing Operation T4. Includes an extensive set of appendices consisting  of English translations of primary documents.

Wilhelm, Hans-Heinrich.Euthanasia Program In Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, edited by Israel Gutman, 451-454. New York: Macmillan, 1990. (Reference D 804.25 .E527 1990).
Provides an overview of the policies, procedures and impact of Operation T4. Briefly examines the response of the public and program participants to the killings, and offers estimates of the numbers of those put to death under the program.

Heberer, Patricia. If I Transgress My Oath’: The Story of the Hadamar Trial.  MA Thesis. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 1989.
Provides background information on the history of the Hadamar clinic and the practice of euthanasia there. Critically examines the subsequent United States Army war crimes trial against some of the employees of the clinic in light of the relatively low level of most of the defendants.

Amir, Amnon. Euthanasia in Nazi Germany. PhD diss., State University of New York at Albany, 1977.
One of the first in-depth studies in English about the victims and practice of medical killing  under Hitler’s regime. Describes the operation of the secret “14f13” program that arose after the cessation of Operation T4 with the aim of killing those concentration camp inmates deemed  mentally ill by camp doctors.

Wertham,  Fredric. A Sign for Cain. An exploration of human violence. New York, MacMillan Company, 1967.

Kintner, Earl W. Trial of Alfons Klein, Adolf Wahlmann, Heinrich Ruoff, Karl Willig, Adolf Merkle, Irmgard Huber, and Phillip Blum: The Hadamar Trial. London: W. Hodge, 1949.
Uses trial transcripts to document the proceedings of the 1945 murder trial conducted by the United States Army against seven of the workers at the Hadamar clinic. Part of a series of war crimes trials transcripts published by Hodge in the early postwar period.

Per una breve storia sull'olocausto di persone con disabilità, fai clic qui.