In Friday, June 25, 2021 the “Museum of Jewish Hertitage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust” reported “People with mental and physical disabilities were among the first targets of the Nazi regime. Several years before the Nazis devised a “final solution” for Europe’s Jews, they had already begun sorting their citizens by ability and claiming the Reich had no place for people who were different. Nazi doctors and psychiatrists led the charge, endeavoring to mold certain “autistic” children into productive citizens while sending others to be murdered at Special Children’s Wards throughout the Reich!
Yet here’s the thing many leaders of this sad chapter in World History are not aware many leaders in the Nazi Third Reich were also disabled! And their objective was to make 100% human and no people with disabilities!
Here are some of the leaders:
Joseph Goebbels
As Reich Minister of Propaganda, Goebbels was the most publicly visible Nazi leader with a physical disability.
Physical disability: He was born with a deformed right foot, often described as a clubfoot (talipes equinovarus). It was likely congenital or caused by a bone infection, and left him with a shorter, inward-turning foot, a metal brace/special shoe, and a noticeable limp.
Military rejection: His condition led to his rejection from World War I military service, which reportedly devastated him.
Psychological impact: Biographers and historians have speculated that the shame surrounding his disability contributed to his bitterness, inferiority complex, and contempt for humanity.
Adolf Hitler
Tremors and shuffling: In his final years, newsreels and eyewitness accounts reported a left-hand tremor and a shuffling gait—symptoms consistent with Parkinson’s disease.
Potential Parkinson's disease: Some historians have suggested post-encephalitic Parkinsonism, while others argue for idiopathic Parkinson’s disease; retrospective medical reviews generally support Parkinsonism based on film and written accounts.
Syphilis theory: Claims that Hitler had syphilis have been largely rejected by later medical and historical reviews.
Alleged monorchism: Claims that Hitler had only one testicle are disputed; some sources cite a 1923 prison intake note of right-sided cryptorchidism, while other doctors later stated he was anatomically normal.
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler of the SS and one of the chief architects of the Holocaust had chronic health problems.
Lifelong ailments: Biographical accounts describe him as sickly in youth and prone to stomach and other ailments.
Social awkwardness: He was remembered by some as studious and socially awkward. This is a personal characteristic, not a medically diagnosed disability.
Herman Goring had a history of opioid addiction, and when he surrendered in 1945 he was found with thousands of paracodeine pills.
Rudolf Hess-Several examining psychiatrists reported that he showed symptoms consistent with a paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis, though the exact diagnosis has been debated.
Having a disability didn’t hold these men back from gaining power. It does make it more shocking that they could still do such horrible things; especially to people with mental health and physical disabilities. And it hurts that there are still groups today who worship them.