Whitewashing History

The Germans had in every block in German Cities an informer if you said anything anti-government or listened to BBC the Gestapo knew about it. Not far from Being a camp member.

 

When children are informing on their parents the nightmare has begun...

 

What if he knew there was no way to save those he sent but by taking part in the process he could save others? Where is the line then?

 

There were methods of resistance with the anti-Nazi movements. Of course, that would not have been easy (those cells were very secretive and not easily found) but a better man would have attempted something. I look at Bishop Galen and his public denouncing of T4. This is clearly in hindsight, but some people had it in themselves to see the immorality in front of them. Asperger clearly didn't along with most others. The fascination is evident today. "Banality of evil."

 

I'm not even suggesting that the example I gave was the case, indeed I suspect it's not but I don't know and it would offset things to some extent IMO. As for a better man perhaps. I'd have to know how hard he tried and what the risks were and whether he actually thought of some other options but declined them due to risk (and just what the risk was) or simply couldn't think of something else. I suspect a "better man" could have found a better course but that becomes something of a tautology doesn't it?

I should make it clear that given what I know it'd put him in the "evil" camp but how far in I don't know and I won't exclude the possibility that he might not fit in.

 

I agree with much of what you said. It is easy as historians, with evidence, to make a clear bifurcation into good and evil. I like to be able to make that distinction (as I do often if the evidence leans one way or the other) because its "clear." This thread indicates the broad range of interpretations that people have.

 

In East Germany they hade more police men and probably most undercover than nazi Germany. After the collapse the data was given to the public. You could go and see who listened to you and also go visit the person as the address followed. No movie so far?!

 

In my mental health work I got to work with quite a few people that had Asperger's. I also have a couple of friends that would fit the definition. The problem, so to speak, is that as bushmaster alluded to, one can have varying degrees of this and thus varying degrees of impairment. Personally, I found the diagnosis useful.

 

A couple of my uncles may have had mild versions of it. Both were successful engineers.

 

I think the article mentions one of his patients at the time who grew up to become a Rocket Scientist.

I think Aspergers affects a person socially combined with some OCD habits, while Autism is more of a physical and mental development issue. I don't think some one who can't communicate can be diagnosed with Aspergers, as they would be diagnosed with Autism instead. I know I have mild Aspergers - quite a few of the symptons - though I have never been diagnosed with it (I did/do have learning disabilities in school that were diagnosed).

 

I've been blessed that I never really struggled with the social aspect of Aspergers, what I mean is that I can communicate and have normal conversation with people my age and adults with no feelings of awkwardness or fear like many who have it do. I have problems with staying focused, and misreading information often times and other smaller issues similar to those. That's the thing, most of the time, you have no clue a person has Aspergers, until they tell you.........

 

I miss out on social ques a lot and have a very hard time conversing with people outside of work. I could strike up a conversation with a stranger no problem at work (it was my job) but encountering that same person outside of work, I wouldn't know what to say to them. I misread peoples intentions quite easily. Verbally, I had a lisp when I was younger (and had tongue surgery to attempt to correct it) so I still have a very hard time pronouncing words. I can get tongue-tied easily. Developmentally, I was unable to learn a foreign language because my brain has a very hard time with words that are spelled similarly or sound the same even if they are from two different languages (ironically, I majored in creative writing somehow in college)...which I guess is really like having dyslexia. I was never given a term for what I suffer from, but it gave me extended time on tests etc so I don't know if my parents were being protective or didn't want to hear that I had some 'disorder'. Because of it, specifically the foreign language part, in college I had to take cultural history courses instead of the language requirement which accidentally led me to getting a minor in History...while I quite easily failed the English Grammar course I had to take, twice.

But back on topic...I don't think most people even know where Aspergers gets its name from. I generally don't think that the majority of people even care where the name came from...and if we're going to eliminate Asperger as the name of the disease then here is a list of other things we should get rid of due to the method in which they were obtained:

-Most research in the field of Hypothermia and how to treat it was conducted on Dachau inmates (most of whom died during the experiments). The information gathered from these tests is still the most comprehensive list of its kind for late-stage Hypothermia (and is how we know that sexual intercourse warms the body up faster then some other methods). Same with high-altitude/low-pressure and its effects on the body (also conducted at Dachau) as no one would really volunteer to have their ear drums ruptured.

-Also in Dachau, the effects of drinking sea water were discovered and tested on gypsies - its how we know salt-water leads to kidney failure.

No specific names were given to this experiments as far as I know, so should we put an asterix next to the treatments for such things as they were discovered by Nazi Scientists conducting experiments on prisoners who all either died from the experiment or were executed afterwards to have an autopsy performed?