Asperger’s Children: The origins of autism in Nazi Vienna, by Edith Sheffer

Author: Edith Sheffer. Review by Martin Shallcross

This is one of the most harrowing books I have ever read. Edith Sheffer is a historian in the USA. Her son Eric, aged thirteen, is among the one-in-sixty children being diagnosed on the autism spectrum there. She dedicated this book to Eric.

This is one of the most harrowing books I have ever read. Edith Sheffer is a historian in the USA. Her son Eric, aged thirteen, is among the one-in-sixty children being diagnosed on the autism spectrum there. She dedicated this book to Eric.

In the process of writing the book, Sheffer discovered terrible facts in connection with the name of Hans Asperger (1906-1980). He was the pioneer of diagnosing autism and ‘Asperger’ syndrome in Nazi Vienna. His thesis of 1944, written in German, was not published in English until after his death by the British psychiatrist Lorna Wing, in 1981. He had for many years been celebrated in her profession for his compassionate defence of children with disabilities.

But Sheffer reveals that Asperger was not only involved in the racial policies of Hitler, but was complicit in the murder of children. As the Nazi regime slaughtered millions across Europe during world war two, it sorted people according to race, religion, behaviour and physical condition. They would then be treated or eliminated.

Asperger and his psychiatrist colleagues endeavoured to mould certain ‘autistic’ children into productive citizens. Other children, deemed untreatable, were transferred to Spiegelgrund, one of the Reich’s deadliest child-killing centres.

I need not say more. The book is brilliantly researched and the story it reveals undeniable. Read it if you really want to go deeper into this horrible subject. I suggest that, rather than continuing to give respect to his name, the word ‘Aspergers’ should no longer be used in any diagnosis of people on the spectrum that we call autism.

There is still general ignorance that the name Aspergers is tarnished by its origin. Greta Thunberg refers to it when describing her own autism, as has Elon Musk in the last few weeks. I wrote a letter to the Times after the journalist David Aaronovitch used the name Asperger without comment in an article. Sadly it was not published.

We all know people who are said to be somewhere on the broad spectrum of autism. It has been suggested that we may all be included on it to some extent.

Eric Sheffer chafes against his own diagnosis in these words: ‘Autism is not real; we all have issues. However some are more noticeable than others. Autism is not a disability or a diagnosis, it is a stereotype for certain individuals. People with autism should be treated like everyone else, because if they are not, it will make them be even less sociable. When I was younger I saw autism represented as a cartoon of a child playing around with toy trains, I thought that’s kind of like me because of the symptoms I noticed, such as lack of eye contact, and lack of social interaction. It made me feel humiliated and I wanted to put an end to the label of autism.’

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