title: [How did youths deal with their forced sterilisation during the Third Reich? Report of a physician involved].
abstract: In 1933, one of the first laws passed by the Nazis in Germany was that to prevent the birth of children with hereditary diseases, which legalised forced sterilisation in Germany and also applied to minors. On Social Welfare Education Day in 1934, the leading physician at the "Anstalt Bethel" (Bethel Institution), Werner Villinger, gave a speech on the experience of sterilisation. A main part of his speech was the description of the reaction, fears, and resistance of the boys involved, and the accuracy of his observations stands in sharp contrast to the ruthlessness of the performance of the sterilisation, which was rooted in unshakeable faith in the necessity of this measure.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie der Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wilkes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005053:Eugenics / Q000266:history*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000266:history; D008297:Male; D028683:National Socialism / Q000266:history*; D013245:Sterilization, Reproductive / Q000266:history*