Compulsory sterilisation

According to the ‘Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring’ already adopted on 14 July 1933, people could be forced to undergo sterilisation, i.e. they were made infertile against their will. Applications for compulsory sterilisation were submitted by doctors and clinical directors. Physicians of the Information Centre for Hereditary and Racial Preservation of the health authorities compiled expert opinions. The Local Hereditary Health Court and the Higher Hereditary Health Court as the second instance ruled on the applications. The surgeries were performed in hospitals such as the university hospital in Lindenburg and the Evangelisches Krankenhaus Weyertal. There was also a group of children and youths who were forced to undergo sterilisation that were defamed as ‘Rhineland bastards’ because they were children from unions between coloured soldiers and German women from the time of the British and French occupation of the Rhineland after World War I. Already in the twenties, they had been disparaged as a ‘black shame’ or ‘black disgrace on the Rhine’. About 4,070 people were forced to undergo sterilisation in Cologne.

‘Euthanasia’

‘Euthanasia’ was a euphemistic term used by the National Socialists for killing people they considered ‘unworthy of life’, particularly the mentally and physically handicapped. The killing campaigns were to remain absolutely secret, unofficially, they were called ‘Action T4’ after the address of the headquarters on Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin. One Cologne citizen was directly involved in the organisation of ‘euthanasia’: Besides his activities in Cologne, Friedrich Tillmann, the director of the Cologne orphanages worked as the office manager at the ‘Euthanasia Office’ in Berlin between summer 1940 and autumn 1941. Despite the confidentiality restrictions, protest was mounted, especially by Catholic and Protestant priests and namely by the Bishop of Münster, Clemens August von Galen. Also Archbishop of Cologne, Frings, who took office in 1942, spoke very clearly against ‘euthanasia’ in one of his sermons. In response to the protests, Hitler suspended the executions in 1941, but they continued on a smaller scale. Across the Reich, more than 100,000 adults and 20,000 children fell victim to the killing campaigns, several hundreds of them came from Cologne.

Homosexuals

According to the National Socialist racial ideology, homo - sexuality was a ‘pest’, which led to a ‘weakening of national strength’ because homosexuals withdrew themselves from the ‘natural process of procreation’. The lively gay scene with its pubs and clubs, its newspapers and brochures that had developed in Cologne during the Weimar Republic was shattered by the National Socialists immediately after the seizure of power. In 1935, section 175 of the Criminal Code punishing ‘sodomy’ with imprisonment was significantly tightened. Locally, the Criminal Police Department conducted investigations and cracked down on homosexuals in the scope of ‘regular police surveillance’ and ‘crime prevention’. The arrest of a high-ranking Cologne National Socialist named Kurt Bartels in June 1938 for suspected homosexual activities triggered the largest raid against homosexuals during the NS regime in Cologne during which over 200 men were arrested. Most legal proceedings ended in prison sentences. Some of the worst consequences of persecution were enforced castrations and imprisonment in concentration camps where homosexuals were marked with a pink triangle. Lesbian women were not covered by section 175, but they were persecuted as ‘antisocial elements’ and locked up in concentration camps. Hundreds of homosexuals were sentenced to spend time in prison or jail, some died in concentration camps and some were executed in the Klingelpütz prison.

‘Antisocial element s ’

The National Socialists referred to persons as ‘antisocial elements’, who ‘refused to fit into the order of the national community’ and considered them ‘alien to the community’. This included beggars, homeless people, the ‘work shy’, prostitutes, non-conforming youths but also ‘gypsies and vagabond itinerant people’. ‘Antisocial’ also became a general term for people from lower social strata that were considered inferior, who did not work or did not work sufficiently or lived a lifestyle deemed incompatible with the regime. Several large-scale raids were performed across the Reich, e.g. the beggar raids in September 1933 and the ‘National Action against the Workshy’ in April 1938. People who were considered ‘antisocial’ were frequently sterilised against their will, based on the explanation that they suffered from ‘hereditary feeble-mindedness’, as it was a general presumption that ‘antisocial’ characteristics were passed on among ‘antisocial ethnic groups’. The Criminal Police compiled files on these individuals and labelled them as ‘anti – social elements’, these people could be systematically observed by the police and even taken in ‘preventive custody’ and interned in concentration camps. People considered ‘antisocial elements’ had low chances of survival in the concentration camps. They were marked with a black triangle and kept mostly isolated from the other prisoners.

‘Listening room’

As part of the permanent exhibition ‘Cologne during National Socialism’ there is the oppor - tunity to listen to interviews with members of the following groups that were persecuted because of their race in a small room equipped with headphones behind the room with the display on the ‘forgotten victims’:

Victims of compulsory sterilisation

The first report is by a woman who was born in Cologne in 1922 and underwent compulsory sterilisation at the age of 18. It is followed by excerpts from a discussion between participants of the ‘discussion circle of the ‘euthanasia’ victims and victims of compulsory sterilisation’. (Interviews from 1997 and 1991, excerpt length about 14 minutes.)

Victims of ‘euthanasia’

The daughter of a victim of ‘euthanasia describes the suffering of her father. (Interview from 1997, excerpt length about 1 minute.)

Homosexuals

Three homosexuals, born between 1909 and 1911 report about the life of homosexuals during the Weimar Republic and National Socialism. (Interviews from 1985, 1987and 1995, excerpt length about 33 minutes.)

Antisocial elements’

A former employee of the welfare centre at the Rheinland Regional Authority speaks about her activities during the NS era. Unfortunately, no interview with a person persecuted as an ‘antisocial element’ is available. (Interview from 1991, excerpt length about 6 minutes.)

Sinti and Roma – Gypsies

hilip Reinhardt, a Sinto born in 1928 speaks about his own fate and that of his family, which is also subject of the display about 16 family members in the following room. (Interview from 1992, excerpt length about 23 minutes.)