Edith Sheffer uncovers how a diagnosis common today emerged from the atrocities of the Third Reich. As the Nazi regime slaughtered millions across Europe during World War Two, it sorted people according to race, religion, behavior, and physical condition. Nazi psychiatrists targeted children with different kinds of minds -- especially those that to lack social skills -- claiming the Reich had no place for them. Hans Asperger and his colleagues endeavored to mold certain "autistic" children into "educable" citizens, while transferring others to Spiegelgrund, one of the Reich's deadliest child killing centers. In this unflinching history, Sheffer exposes Asperger's complicity in the murderous policies of the Third Reich.

"Hans Asperger, the pioneer of autism and Asperger syndrome in Nazi Vienna, has been celebrated for his compassionate defense of children with disabilities. But in this groundbreaking book, prize-winning historian Edith Sheffer exposes that Asperger was not only involved in the racial policies of Hitler's Third Reich, he was complicit in the murder of children"--Provided by publisher.

Presents an exploration of the sobering history behind Asperger's Syndrome that reveals child psychiatrist Hans Asperger's influence by Nazi psychiatry and his use of one of the Reich's deadliest killing centers to experiment on disabled children.