Not what I expected

Made my hair stand on end, emotions choked, haunting images that will endure forever more.

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History

I have heard loads of different opinions of Hans Asperger in the autistic community, some think he was a saint who saved some autistic children from death and others think he was a murderer who chose which children lived and died.

This book puts Asperger's work into a historical context from pre-war Vienna to Nazi occupied Vienna to post-war Vienna. I contains loads of details, not just about autistic children but also other disabled and wayward children.

The book was shocking and chilling with insights into Nazi era psychiatry where children's worth was measured by their ability to be part of society, children could either be sent for remediation or sent to death.

I learmed a lot from reading this book.

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Unless you know information previously..

I’m sure this will shock you to great lengths however being aware of the history of asd as a ND person I find information important and when listening to this it was just going over information I already knew however if you want to shock yourself to the core you should look at images of the testing they did on children with shock therapies as behavioural therapies and how that is still done today.

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Riveting story

Heartbreaking but insigthful view of how medicine and science under the nazi era was used to determine human worth… or lack there of

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beautifully written and excellent account

excellent account and it is clear that the author did an immense amount of research to support the notion that Hans asperger was more complicit in the Nazi regime that it first seemed. would strongly recommend.

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incredible!

I cannot praise this book enough! it's a MUST READ especially if you or someone you know has a diagnosis of Autism.

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Skilfully written and researched, horrific subject matter

The most traumatising thing I’ve ever listened to / read, but very important. Approach with caution / lots of breaks. Every sentence is more upsetting than the one that came before and slightly less so than the one after. It’s genuinely horrific, but again, a book that I as an autistic historian of neurology found deeply necessary.

On another note, I was pleased by the narrator’s perfect pronunciation of German words as I get very annoyed when foreign languages are butchered just because they are interspersed with text that’s primarily in English.

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Very informative

An excellent book.
My only reservation… Nazism was never Right Wing.
The Left as a collective have lobbied very hard in Academia, Hollywood and the Media to divorce itself from Nazism.
Nazism is a Leftist movement, and remains so.

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Harrowing History

Certainly worth listening to but be aware that the content is disturbing. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

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Outstanding

This book as been really eyeopening for me as a historian and an autistic person, and has really helped me developed my thoughts on the history of psychiatry. Invaluable read.

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