Letter appealing the decision of the Hereditary Health Court
A letter appealing the decision of the Hereditary Health Court.
Source : M. Burleigh & W. Wippermann, The Racial State. Germany 1933-1945 , (Cambridge, 1991), pp.254-256.
I was informed in writing by the Hereditary Health Court in Offenburg of the decision of 15 May 1934 whereby I was to be rendered infertile. I reject this decision, and raise objections to it on the following grounds. For a long time my nerves were so overwrought that I had to obtain medical treatment in the psychiatric clinic at Freiburg. I was soon discharged from the clinic, because my condition had improved. I soon returned to my job in the cigar factory, and since then I have worked there without interruption up to the present day. I am almost the highest wage-earner in the factory, and my employers are always satisfied with my work. I request that the foreman X be questioned about my activity in the factory. He should also be asked whether he can say something about my mental state. My nerves have calmed down again, and for some time I have been as mentally normal as any other healthy person. Although today I am still entitled to invalidity pension, from the provincial insurance office in Baden, I have voluntarily foregone this right, since I am fully capable of working. I cannot understand why they want to sterilise me, since I have done nothing wrong morally or sexually. Every person can become mentally ill, which in my opinion is a form of illness like any other illness, and which heals itself again. It would be otherwise if I pursued sexual desires and wanted intercourse with men, or wanted under any circumstances to marry. That would be something different, but I am very reserved, and do not want to know anything about men. I do not need to be made infertile, it is not necessary in my case I have never given and will never give any opportunities for sexual intercourse whereby I could become pregnant, thereby bringing suspect hereditary progeny into the world. Every person is different from another, as is every separate case. I therefore make application to the Hereditary Health Court to abrogate the decision to sterilise me. I also petition for a re-examination of my psychological state.
