Anonymous #2 17w

hi, so this is incorrect! im a female aspie (yes we exist!) and i did my thesis on this. while the term was coined by dr asperger, he himself was not a nazi! he was an austrian pediatric doctor who was forcibly kidnapped and hired by the SS to diagnose children. he saved many children from being killed in the holocaust who would otherwise not have been deemed "mentally fit". this rumor has been circulating online for a little bit but its not correct! please don't spread misinformation.

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Anonymous #1 17w

this is half true. the term was diagnosed in nazi germany but the guy who diagnosed him was not a nazi and was never confirmed to have any nazi associations. volkswagen cars and fanta soda were also born of nazi germany. dr hans asperger saved many children from being killed. and while it's no longer diagnosed in the US many countries still use it as a diagnosis so it's still valid, as many people still have it on their medical records.

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Anonymous #6 17w

Hey babe! Sorry to have to tell you this but your thesis is Nazi apologia. Asperger referred disabled children of his own free will to Am Spiegelgru, a facility known for participating in the euthanasia program that put disabled kids and adults to death. At best, the children he saved were ones who he thought could still be useful to society—he had no problem sending those he deemed too far gone to their deaths. There’s almost no evidence he was coerced, that’s historical revisionism.

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Anonymous #6 17w

The “kidnapped by the SS” myth is now considered to be discredited. It appears in older biographical accounts based on secondhand accounts, especially those that wanted to cast him in a more heroic or victimized light, but there is no documented evidence for it. An exhaustive 2018 analysis meant to examine his legacy found that this story is almost entirely false. Asperger wanted to continue his work, and was willing to collaborate with the Nazis and send kids to their deaths to do it.

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Anonymous #1 17w

His military draft was deferred multiple times, and when he was finally sent to the front in 1944, it was late in the war—well after his key involvements with child referrals had already occurred. The “SS kidnapping” story was likely part of a broader postwar effort to rehabilitate or sanitize Asperger’s image, portraying him as a man of science caught in an evil system. Modern historians now see this as an attempt to deflect responsibility for his collaboration.

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Anonymous #1 17w

There is no direct evidence of coercion; rather, he appears to have navigated the regime in a way that allowed him to continue his work and possibly protect some children he believed could be “useful” to society. See Czech (2018) for more info! 😊

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Anonymous #1 17w

So OP and #6 are downvoting me, got it. They won’t even try for a rebuttal and hope to continue their Nazi apologia through suppression of actual fact, not 1980s revisionism.

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Anonymous #6 17w

See my rebuttal of this above. It’s rich of you to call historical consensus misinformation when your thesis is apparently entirely based on discredited secondhand accounts with a vested interest in whitewashing Dr. Asperger. The myth of him being coerced has no historical evidence, and even if it did Dr. Asperger was an active collaborator with the Nazis who willingly sent children to their deaths (Czech, 2018). He may not have joined the Party, but he public espoused “racial hygiene”.

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Anonymous #6 17w

He signed documents “Heil Hitler” and willingly stayed in Vienna to continue his work (Sheffer, 2018). Regardless of whether he was coerced, it’s bad to use a name that honors the legacy of someone who was at BEST complacent, and at worst a bureaucratic ally of the Nazis who gladly sent “unproductive” children to be exterminated. I’m sorry you’re attached to the term, but at this point people have full rights to call people using that word Nazis.

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Anonymous #5 17w

The sliding scale of autism is definitely not sheldon cooper to elon musk. I think it’s kind of odd to wanna separate yourself from autistic ppl w/ higher support needs. Its a rly similar mindset to Asperger, who was (as covered) a eugenicist. Aspergers is not the "line" between "normal" and "actually mentally ill" people. I'd encourage everyone here to rethink their position on why they want this distinction, since it probably comes from a place of personal benefit over collective well-being

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