Third Reich Racial Purity Real Photo Postcard of Women with Disabilities

Authors

Object ID

2019.2.194

Object Name

Postcard, Picture

Date

1935

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Photo of three women standing outside in dresses, back marked with “Schwachsinn Rasse Krankes Volk 14” and 2 Nazi party stamps in blue ink.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

These cards were sent from the German Leadership Office for Officials (police, etc.) perhaps for educational purposes. Handstamps of the organization - Hauptamt fuer Beamte, Reichsleitung - are verso, along with a title “Race-Sick People.” Schwachsinn refers to their mental disability. In the Third Reich, these women would be considered Lebensunwertes Leben (“life unworthy of life”), a blight on the Reich notion of racial purity and an economic burden on the state. Consequently, they would be subject to “mercy killing.” Patients selected for death would be transported to euthanasia centers - six in all - in Germany or Austria.

Dimensions

6 x 4"

Keywords

Euthanasia, T-4 Program, Karl Brandt, Philipp Bouhler, Viktor Brack

Subcollection

Euthanasia, Propaganda, Trial

Recommended Citation

"Third Reich Racial Purity Real Photo Postcard of Women with Disabilities" (1935). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.194.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1522