Women in biomedical experiments during National Socialism

A hybrid seminar by Dr Aisling Shalvey on the topic 'I didn't think I could survive it... The bleeding was stopped completely: The Role of Sinti and Roma Women in Biomedical Experiments during National Socialism' as part of the Medical and Health Humanities Seminar Series.

Abstract:

This paper examines the database of the victims of biomedical research under National Socialism and how Sinti and Roma women are represented in this database. Collectively, this database represents 30,000 victims and 376 experiments. Some consistent themes have emerged throughout the span of this project, one of which being the centrality of women, gender and sexuality to these experiments. This paper will explain how central women and reproduction were to National Socialist ideology, and how a compulsion to control their reproduction (by either forcing abortions for those deemed not ‘worthy’ and forcing births for those considered to be ‘racially valuable’) has certain resonance today with the erosion of reproductive healthcare provision and reproductive rights. This paper will also examine how this did not end with the war, and will examine some of the compensation records submitted by women. How this specifically impacted marginalised groups, such as Sinti, Roma and Jewish women will be examined, with a view to how they perceived their own gender and reproductive capacity as a result of these experiments. This is integral as it illustrates that even after the war, the severity of the experiment, and thus the amount of compensation that was dispensed, was often dependent on a man's capacity to work, but on a woman's capacity to reproduce. In these records, proof of recurrent miscarriage was often the central indicator for providing compensation, thus centralising in the postwar era, that a woman's reintegration into postwar society was based on building a family. As a result of this, the severity of experiments was often seen through the lens of impact on reproductive capacity, rather than emotional and mental impact.

Biography:

Dr Aisling Shalvey finished her PhD at the University of Strasbourg in 2020, which was funded by the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah in Paris (Foundation for Holocaust Research). Her thesis focused on paediatrics and pathology under National Socialism in the Reichsuniversität Straßburg (1941-1944). She currently works as a postdoctoral researcher with the German National Academy of Science and Medicine at the Leopoldina, on a project concerning brain research during National Socialism, which is funded by the Max Planck Society. She is also co-chairperson of the COST Action funded project concerning identity documentation, international mobility and access to healthcare in the postwar era. Her book entitled ‘Paediatrics In The Reichsuniversität Straßburg Children's Medicine at a Bastion of Nazi Ideology’ was published in 2023 with Exeter University Press.

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