By M.Brenner (Education Coordinator)

Franziska Mikus was born in 1918 in Munich, Germany to deaf parents and was herself deaf. At school, she was first placed in a class for the “hard of hearing,” where she wasn’t allowed to use sign language. She struggled there until she moved to a class for deaf children, which she preferred. After finishing school, she trained and worked at a convent.

In 1933, the Nazis passed the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring to stop people they considered “genetically unfit” from having children. More than 400,000 people were sterilized under this law. Franziska was labeled “hereditarily diseased” because she was deaf. In 1936, at just 18, she was forcibly sterilized, despite her protests.

In 1938, she became pregnant, showing the first operation hadn’t worked. Doctors refused to treat her, and she was forced to have an abortion and a second sterilization, which she described as “the cruellest thing I ever had to endure.”

During World War II, her home was destroyed by bombing and she and her husband — whom she married in 1941 — struggled to find shelter because of her deafness. After the war, Franziska worked for deaf associations, and her husband coached deaf athletes. They remained childless because of her sterilizations.

Franziska’s story shows how the Nazi regime persecuted disabled people, taking away their freedom, dignity and rights to have families. Her experience reminds us that the Holocaust also targeted people with disabilities through forced sterilization and other abuses, not only through killings.

December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, is a time not only to discuss the challenges this community faces but also to celebrate their remarkable resilience and achievements. Meaningful change — breaking down barriers in our laws and in our thinking — can only come through open dialogue and genuine understanding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jROK_RmzXiY&t=84s

https://hmd.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Franziska-Mikus-life-story.pdf

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