The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia: Segregating in the Name of the Nation 9789048544059

Citation preview

The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Heritage and Memory Studies This ground-breaking series examines the dynamics of heritage and memory from a transnational, interdisciplinary and integrated approaches. Monographs or edited volumes critically interrogate the politics of heritage and dynamics of memory, as well as the theoretical implications of landscapes and mass violence, nationalism and ethnicity, heritage preservation and conservation, archaeology and (dark) tourism, diaspora and postcolonial memory, the power of aesthetics and the art of absence and forgetting, mourning and performative re-enactments in the present. Series Editors Rob van der Laarse and Ihab Saloul, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Editorial Board Patrizia Violi, University of Bologna, Italy Britt Baillie, Cambridge University, UK Michael Rothberg, University of Illinois, USA Marianne Hirsch, Columbia University, USA Frank van Vree, NIOD and University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia Segregating in the Name of the Nation

Edited by Victoria Shmidt

Amsterdam University Press

Cover illustration: A shot from the film Jak Vašíček přišel k nohám (“How Vashik got his legs”), 1921 Source: National Film Archive, Prague Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Typesetting: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6372 001 4 e-isbn 978 90 4854 405 9 (pdf) doi 10.5117/9789463720014 nur 685 © Victoria Shmidt / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2019 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher.



Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 11 List of Archives and Used Abbreviations

13

Introduction 15 The Politics of Disability: Structure and Agency in Nation Building in Czechoslovakia Victoria Shmidt

Part 1 Building the Czechoslovak Nation and Sacralizing Peoples’ Health: The Vicissitudes of Disability Discourse during the Interwar Period 1 Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia 35 Contexts and Contests Victoria Shmidt

1.1 Sacralizing people’s health in interwar Czechoslovakia: In search of new drivers for mobilizing the nationals 1.2 Epistemic communities: The struggle for political influence 1.3 The institutionalization of health care: Between multiple challenges and limited options 1.4 The reform of public health: Great unmet expectations 1.5 Debates around inferiority and reproductive policies: The Tower of Babylon 2 The Discourse of Disability

A Noah’s Ark for the New Nation? Victoria Shmidt and Karel Pančocha

35 41 46 52 55 61

2.1 Functional health: The utilitarian discourse of disability 61 2.2 Men in focus: Functional health as a part of the genderimbalanced propaganda of public health 63 2.3 The politics of positive discrimination for legionnaires: The salt of the earth 69 2.4 Children with disabilities: The last shall be first 73

3 Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period Therapeutic Punishment vs. Benevolent Paternalism Victoria Shmidt

77

3.1 The Gypsy gangs in Bohemia: The invasion of infectious diseases 77 3.2 The politics of disease in the periphery: Moral campaigns against the Roma as part of the internal colonization of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia 83 3.3 The law on the fight against Gypsies, vagabonds and those unwilling to work: Converting moral panics into strict surveillance 93 3.4 Štampach and his survey of the “Gypsies”: An initial approximation of the eugenic framework 95 Conclusion 101

Part 2 Postwar Institutionalization of Care for the Disabled: Toward a Universalized Discourse of “Defective Gypsies” 4 Special Education in Czechoslovakia between 1939 and 1989 Toward Multilevel Hierarchy of Defectivity Frank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

109

4.1 The politics of disability during the Protectorate: Toward institutionalizing special education 109 4.2 The politics of disability in the period 1945 to 1948: Between the task of differentiation and lack of placements 118 4.3 Producing biopolitical knowledge: Defectology and special pedagogy during the socialist period 125 4.4 The discourse on defective children: Between family care and education as a tool of surveillance 132 4.5 Institutionalization, segregation and rehabilitation of the “defective” child 136 Conclusion 142

5 The Intersectionality of Disability and Racein Public and Professional Discourses about the Roma in Socialist Czechoslovakia 145 Between Propaganda and Race Science Victoria Shmidt

5.1 The political turbulence of postwar policies concerning the Roma 145 5.2 Public attitudes toward the Roma as a product of the propaganda war during the late 1950s 148 5.3 The Marxist ideology and surveillance of the Roma 152 5.4 Racial assimilationism: Theoretical grounds for the destabilization of the Roma 155 5.5 The Postwar renaissance of racial assimilationism: The Interplay of national and international academic agendas 157 5.6 Linguistic assimilation: Invalidating the Roma language 164 5.7 Bad parenting and deficient childhood: The neocolonial negation of the Roma family 166 5.8 The anthropological argument for placing the Roma children into institutions: “In the name of acceleration” 169 Conclusion 174 6 The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women between the 1970s and the 1980s The Rise of Eugenic Socialism Victoria Shmidt

177

6.1 Czech eugenics during the postwar period: Emancipation from a dirty past 178 6.2 Genetic counseling as a part of demographic reform in the 1960s: Serving the interest of the nation 182 6.3 From sterilization against “defective” births to sterilization of those who live in “defective” conditions 185 6.4 Sterilization of the socially unf it: The last battle before legalization 189 6.5 The hidden agenda of socialist authorities in the 1980s: From suppressing publicity of sterilization to its massive practice 193 Conclusion 201

Conclusions 203 Going from Knowledge about the Violent Past to Acknowledging It Victoria Shmidt

Abstracts in German and French

213

Bibliography 215 Index 251

List of Figures Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5 Figure 6

The nuns at the hospital in Trnava, Slovakia, as shown in a report on the miserable state of Slovak hospitals prepared by Slovak authorities for the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture in 1923 Source: SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 14 Kašpárek is bringing a toothbrush and toothpaste for the main character (1927) Source: Driml, Budulínka bolí zoubek Zábavně výchovný loutkový výstup pro školní mládež The child audience, mainly boys, at a puppet show in The Clown and Budulínek (Kašparek a Budulínek, by Karel Driml, 1927) Source: NFA The brotherhood of disabled men: stills from the film How Vashik Got His Legs (Jak Vašíček přišel k nohám, 1921) Source: NFA Roman Roda-Růžička as Dvořák in Fortuitous Moment (Osudná chvíle, 1935) Source: NFA Roman Roda-Růžička as Juro in The Shadow in the Light/Blind Juro/Stubborn Juro (Stín ve světle/Slepý Juro/ Tvrdohlavý Juro, 1929) Source: NFA

38

43

65

66 68

68

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11

Figure 12

Figure 13 Figure 14 Figure 15

The emblem of the legionnaires’ participation in the 1929 exhibition held in Táboř, a city directly associated with the history of Hussites, featuring the image of Jan Žižka against the background of the city walls Source: NaP A postcard showing a Gypsy circus in Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the 1920s Source: ANM, Osobní fond Vojtěcha Suka Inv. 618-673, box 22 The distribution of trachoma in Slovakia in 1921, according to official statistics Source: SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 12 The Gypsy circus in the documentary part of Stín ve světle (1929) Source: NFA Roma students in the classroom at Čolakovo near Košice, Slovakia, 1965 Source: SaK, Fond Komise Vychodoslovenského Krajského Národního Výboru pre cígánske obyvatel’stvo 1965-1969, Inv. č 16, box 21 The canteen in the school at Čolakovo near Košice, Slovakia, 1965 Source: SaK, Fond Komise Vychodoslovenského Krajského Národního Výboru pre cígánske obyvatel’stvo 1965-1969, Inv. č 16, box 21 The Model of Differentiation, Assimilation and Isolation of the Roma Source: Suchý, ‘Die Zigeuner,’ p. 202 A Roma mother who was a foster caregiver for a boy Source: Malá, ‘Problematika současného vývoje’ Roma siblings who were placed in a boarding school after the age of seven Source: Malá, ‘Problematika současného vývoje’

71

79 89 90

153

153 163 173 173

Acknowledgements Versions or portions of two chapters in this book have been published earlier as follows: Chapter 2 is expanded from “Building the Czechoslovak Nation and Sacralizing Peoples’ Health: The Vicissitudes of Disability Discourse during the 1920s,” Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 3 (2017), pp. 307-329; a slightly different version of Section 4.2 in Chapter 4 was published in the monograph Child Welfare Discourses and Practices in the Czech Lands: The Segregation of Roma and Disabled Children during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Brno: Masaryk University, 2015). Permission to publish these versions or portions is hereby gratefully acknowledged. This book is grounded in rigorous archival studies, and the staff of National Archives in Prague and Bratislava, the Archives of Comenius, Masaryk, Charles and LMU Universities, the Archives of the Academies of Science in Prague and Bratislava, the State Archives in Brno, Karlovy Vary, Košice, Nový Jičín and Kárvina, the National Film Archive in Prague and the Open Society Archive in Budapest deserve our warm thanks for in-time follow-up, a friendly approach in assisting our work at the archives and valuable suggestions concerning the search for materials. We have incurred a number of important debts, including one to Professor Marius Turda, who orchestrated the start of this study by providing rigorous revision of methodological stances and then commented thoughtfully on each of the texts in the first part of this volume. Very special thanks belong to Nancy Wingfield, who generously shared her experience and critical thinking by reading the final draft of this book, and who inspired us to revise the book’s approaches to historical continuities, as well as Andrey Ignatijev for valuable comments on individual chapters and Michael Rasell for his review of some of the texts and fortifying exchanges. For the general support of his research, Frank Henschel wishes to express his gratefulness to Professor Martina Winkler, University of Kiel. The colloquium led by Professor Claudia Bruns, Institut für Kulturwissenschaft, Humboldt-Universität (2016-2017), provided welcome opportunities to examine the most challenging aspects of the approach practiced in this book and to sharpen some of the formulations regarding the interwar politics of disability. The stay of Victoria Shmidt at the Collegium Carolinum in Munich (2017) was important for finishing the introduction and the conclusion to this book. The research for Part 1 and Chapter 5, Sections 5.1, 5.3-5.5, was sponsored by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic as part of the project “Child

12 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Welfare Discourses and Practices in the Czech Lands: The Segregation of Roma and Disabled Children during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries” (GA15-10625S). The research for Chapter 4, Sections 4.3-4.5, was part of the postdoctoral project “Engineering Dis/ability in a Modern Society: The System of Children’s Homes in Socialist Czechoslovakia, 1945/48-1989,” conducted by Frank Henschel and funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. The research for Section 5.2 in Chapter 5 was sponsored by Közép-Európai Egyetem (CEU), the International Visegrad Fund. Section 4.1 in Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 were completed with the support provided by the Herder Institute to Victoria Shmidt in spring 2018. Preparation of the manuscript benefited greatly from editing by Associate Professor B. Nadya Jaworsky and Dr. Asif Osmani. The team of Amsterdam University Press editors have provided invaluable job of supervising the entire production of the book.



List of Archives and Used Abbreviations

Archiv Akademie věd České republiky, Archive of the Czech Academy of Sciences (AAV) Archiv Masarykovy univerzity, Archive of Masaryk University (AMU) Archiv města Brna, Brno State Archives (AMB) Archiv Národního muzea, Archives of the National Museum, Prague (ANM) Archív UK (A) – Univerzita Komenského, Archive of Comenius University (UK (A)) Archiv Univerzity Karlovy, Archive of Charles University (AUK) Národní archiv, National Archives of the Czech Republic (NaP) Národní filmový archiv, National Film Archive, Prague (NFA) Slovenský národný archív, Slovak National Archives (SNA) Státní okresní archiv Karlovy Vary, State Archive of Karlovy Vary (SOkA KV) Státní okresní archiv Karviná, State Archive of Karvina (SOkA Ka) Státní okresní archiv Nový Jičín, State Archive of Nový Jičín (SOkA NJ) Štátny archív v Košiciach, State Archives in Košice (SaK) Universitätsarchiv, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, University Archive, LMU Munich (LMU A) Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archive, Central European University (OSA)

Introduction The Politics of Disability: Structure and Agency in Nation Building in Czechoslovakia Victoria Shmidt Abstract Along with a review of current approaches to the politics of disability in CEE countries, the introduction provides a methodological reflection of our archival studies. At the beginning of the volume, we reflect on its retrospectivity, perspectivity, selectiveness and particularity – the four main criteria of good historical narration introduced by Klaus Füßmann as the main frames of the communicative act with the potential listeners to our historical narration. Keywords: historical narrative, nation building, structural violence, public health, disability, Roma

Once, I asked my colleague, a young and very professional speech therapist, to review a thesis by a Roma student whom I supervised. The research for the thesis pointed to the positive role of bilingualism in the speech development of preschool Roma children. My colleague rejected my request, claiming: “I cannot be fair – I hate the Roma because they destroyed our perfect system of special education.” This echo of the institutionalized lie concerning special education and other realms of politics of disability is not an exception among scholars and practitioners, even those only in their twenties and thirties. The outcomes of recent activities targeted at disclosing structural violence against people with disabilities and ethnic minorities remain negated by Czech and Slovak professional communities, whose members directly participated in establishing, legitimizing and practicing extreme forms of surveillance over people with disabilities and the Roma. Despite their crucial role in perpetrating institutional violence,

Shmidt, Victoria (ed.), The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia. Segregating in the Name of the Nation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789463720014/intro

16 Victoria Shmidt

educators, helping professionals, anthropologists and geneticists have not performed the task of truth-seeking concerning the history of the violation of human rights. The core meaning of transitional justice, the attainment of the sense of justice lost in the past, is still unapproachable for postsocialist communities of perpetrators, the main target groups of political regret. The task of overcoming the “bad” past of Czechoslovakia where people with disabilities and the Roma were placed into institutions, sterilized and exposed to other tough forms of surveillance mainly operates as a part of the international agenda, while professionals (except the very recent attempts by a few Czech and Slovak historians) avoid undertaking activities that would lead toward possible reconciliation. Being unclear, the line between truth and lies about the impact of diverse professional communities on structural violence continues to divide the professionals in Czech and Slovak societies, blocking the possibilities for sustainable practices of reconciliation. The lack of data concerning the history of structural violence has inclined human rights activists to put forward a victim-centered model for Roma and people with disabilities, the main target groups of sustained and oppressive surveillance. Among other risks, the particular focus on individual stories precipitates revictimization of the Roma and the disabled in current campaigns aimed at promoting their rights. Thus, the lack of participation among the successors of perpetrators leads to limiting people with disabilities and the Roma in producing their own knowledge about the history of violence perpetrated against them. This volume aims to bring the shattered history of the participation of knowledge makers (scholars and helping professionals) and knowledge users in the structural violence against people with disabilities and the Roma into analytical focus. Two interrelated problems hinder the redefinition of approaches toward the historical experience of structural violence: first, the focus on particular periods, mainly from the point of view of the political regime (either the First Republic, the Protectorate or the socialist period) and, second, the narrow range of theoretical approaches regarding the driving forces leading to violence. Any act of violence “can only be understood by unraveling the (sometimes deep) layers of history it is enfolded.”1 Putting forward a particular period in order to ascribe a special role to the political regime in shaping the practices of segregation and surveillance2 makes the 1 Dwyer, ‘Violence and Its Histories.’ 2 In his survey about the role of surveillance of the Roma in the professionalization of the police in Germany, Leo Lukassen has elaborated a comparable set of obstacles preventing a

Introduction

17

idea of the role of the past in recent segregation shattering. In contrast to other CEE countries,3 the politics of disability in Czechoslovakia remains on the margins of historical reflections. The focus on a specific period only provides a fragmented understanding of the reproduction of structural violence from one period of political history to another. Apart from neglecting historical continuities, the emphasis on a particular political period prioritizes such driving forces as the peculiarities of the political regime, mainly in terms of their official ideologies, while other powerful factors that produce segregation (such as the formation of an academic elite or the institutionalization of realms such as public health, police, education) remain undeservedly ignored. The recent boom in studies aimed at exploring the vicissitudes of socialist policies concerning the Roma directly proves this stance. In their monographs, Celia Donert (2017), 4 Plamena Stoyanova (2017)5 and Matěj Spurný (2011, 2016)6 elaborate a wide range of historical continuities between socialist discourses and practices concerning the Roma in the interwar period. Eszter Varsa (2017)7 directly focuses on the coherence in reproducing the most extreme form of “anti-Gypsyism,” the call for exterminating the Roma, in Hungarian public discourse between the 1930s and the 1950s. Indicating an ambitious interrelation between interwar and socialist policies leads these authors to revise the taken-for-granted accusation of socialist regimes in establishing and rooting the practices of segregation. Recognizing the impact of historical continuity in reproducing overt and doctrinal racism updates the previous generation of historical reflections concerning the postsocialist strategies of desegregation and deinstitutionalization that directly opposed the postwar period to the interwar period8 or socialist policies to postsocial-

comprehensive historical narrative about the Roma in Germany: the lack of an extended time span in the majority of studies about the Roma; the rupture between labeling the Roma and their own self-identity; and the unmet demand to place the history of the Roma within the wider context of German history. Lukassen, ‘Harmful Tramps,’ p. 74. 3 It is reasonable to compare the number and diversity of publications aimed at exploring the history of disability in the former Yugoslavia and Hungary with the obvious lack of such texts about Czechoslovakia. 4 Donert, The Rights of the Roma. 5 Stoyanova, Tsiganite v godinite na sotsializma. 6 Spurný, Nejsou jako my; Spurný, Most do budoucnosti. 7 Varsa, ‘The (Final) Solution.’ 8 In her study of the socialist oppression against the Roma, Sokolová (Cultural Politics of Ethnicity, p. 67) also idealized the interwar period as aimed at integrating the Roma into the process of nation building.

18 Victoria Shmidt

ist strategies.9 Along with the current trend toward redefining the historical roots of segregation, recognizing the role of institutions such as education, welfare policy and public health in shaping the framework of segregation remains underestimated, especially in relation to the role of these institutions in nation building. The consistent shift from indicating ruptures in the history of policies concerning the Roma to recognizing the continuity in reproducing segregation calls for more systematic studies embedding the history of the Roma in structural violence that obliges historians to consider behaviors and actions that were once never considered violent such as special education, public health or welfare policies. This volume tells the story of the mutual interrelation of two processes: (1) nation building in Czechoslovakia and (2) practicing the analogy between disability (and other related concepts, such as defectiveness or invalidity) and ethnicity as an output of the nation-building process and a driving force behind the reproduction of its core scenario over different political regimes throughout the twentieth century. In terms of Jörn Rüsen’s typology of historical consciousness, interconnecting the politics of disability with nation building produces a genetic historical narrative. By framing the past as dynamic, altering and undergoing change, genetic narrative disrupts historical continuities concerning the interrelation between actors, the discourses they either authored or animated, and the policies developed by such actors.10 Despite its promising design for elaborating explanatory schemes, genetic narrative challenges scholars by requiring a balance between consistency and objectiveness in a chosen narrative practice. Klaus Füßmann offers four criteria aimed at framing the reflection of the historian toward achieving a better quality of narration, including both rigorous study and meaningful narration.11 We apply Füßmann’s approach to introduce our study by reflecting on its retrospectivity (Retrospektivität), perspectivity (Perspektivität), selectiveness (Selektivität) and particularity (Partikulirität) as the main frames of the communicative act (Kommunikativität) with you, the readers of this book. Retrospectivity aims at elaborating the time line of a historical study, which ensures emancipation from the influence of political stances leading 9 Zoltan Barany, in his monograph The East European Gypsies: Regime Change, Marginality, and Ethnopolitics, has clearly delineated the differences in policies during different periods – despite the fact that he made quite a disputable decision to fuse the interwar and WWII periods into one and remained extremely uncritical toward the postsocialist period, describing it as totally positive in terms of overcoming the previous experience of discrimination against the Roma. 10 Rüsen, History, p. 34. 11 Füßmann, ‘Historische Formungen.’

Introduction

19

to either great expectancy or disappointment and resulting in angry feelings against past actors. Solving the task of emancipation from political affiliation with the past relies on the revision of traditional time lines in favor of recognizing the continuity between different periods as a key trigger for changing attitudes toward the main driving forces behind such symbolic forms of history of the segregation of the Roma and people with disabilities. In order to avoid historical labeling of a particular political regime, whether the interwar period, the Protectorate or the socialist era, as the most responsible for structural violence, we construct retrospectivity as the continuity between the interwar, Protectorate and postwar periods. By leaving the pathetic ruptures in Czechoslovak history at the margins of our attention, we emancipate ourselves from the necessity to evaluate the system of education and care for people with disabilities and ethnic minorities as either a matter of pride or shame. Instead, rhetoric concerning disability is interpreted as a highly rationalized tool serving the interests of particular political groups. Currently, the pendulum swinging between sacralization and demonization of the past, which has swayed in the historiography of Czechoslovakia for a long time,12 is being replaced by the dilemma between a utilitarian view on the past as bringing either useful or pernicious consequences and reflection on the multiple outputs affecting their transformation. Marking Czechoslovak history as ambivalent, this methodological shift brings a different set of questions for historical reflection. What was the impact of the interwar policy in the periphery, namely, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, with its obvious attribution to internal colonialism? What was the role of the institutional welfare reforms enacted by Protectorate authorities in the transformation in the public expectations of the next generations of Czechoslovak people? Is it enough to disclose the continuity between a utilitarian approach to minorities and people with disabilities during the socialist period and current neoliberal stances concerning inclusion for limiting the role of the socialist legacy in contemporary policies? The attractiveness of utilitarian modes of thinking in interpreting the past calls for systematic revision of such categories as meaning, usefulness or harm concerning the history of reforms, especially in the context of nation building. Tracing the continuities in policy making operates directly in favor of recognizing the wider range of consequences and flows of influence in line with a genetic narrative.

12 Koeltzsch and Konrád, ‘From “Islands of Democracy.”‘

20 Victoria Shmidt

Historical continuity emancipates historians from traditional narratives by challenging their values and ideas concerning the “proper” mode of institutional development and the role of such agents as civil society or epistemic communities. Stressing continuity remaps the composition of actors, the ideas they bring into action and the outputs of their activities, which also operate in favor of negating the previously established traditional view on “right” and “wrong” flows in the politics of disability. For instance, in this book, we challenge the view on Czech racial science in its diverse performances (eugenics, racial anthropology, and medical genetics) as noninfluential in developing policies concerning people with disabilities and ethnic minorities, which remains a kind of taken-for-granted suggestion.13 In contrast, by tracing the reproduction of eugenic discourse during the postwar period, we demonstrate its powerful influence on the process of equating the Roma with the disabled during the socialist period that determined legalizing such extreme forms of structural violence as forced sterilization and mass placement of the Roma children into residential care institutions. Conceptualizing the past in terms of continuity contests such notions as path dependence and path departure – in favor of deconstructing the homogeneous view on a particular period of political history and recognizing the changes in the composition of driving forces during that period. Thus, this book offers lenses for deepening the view on the interwar, Protectorate and postwar periods in terms of the ongoing and internally contradictory process of nation building. Shifting the focus from the ruptures between the “grand” periods to the continuities in changes encourages a clearer understanding of the complexity of the interrelation among actors, ideas and policies. Our study is anchored by several overarching questions. What became of the disability discourses that “lost” their impact on policy making? How did actors transform their ideas for making their arguments more suitable to answer the calls by authorities? How did actors interrelate ideas and policies? By operating as a pillar of Czechoslovak identity, the politics of disability not only reflects the vicissitudes of nation building in the past but also challenges the current attempts to ensure integration for people with disabilities and ethnic minorities. By recognizing the legacy of the past as a driving force behind contemporary discourses, practices and the composition of actors, perspectivity constructs the meaning of historical narrative for the present. This volume traces the analogy between disability and ethnicity, which was shaped within Czechoslovak nation building and has remained a key driving force 13 Šimůnek, ‘Czechoslovakia,’ p. 141.

Introduction

21

informing the thinking of different political actors. The shattered response of the Czech authorities and the public to the recent pressure by the European Union concerning the rights of people with disabilities and ethnic minorities cannot be explored without taking into account the analogy between disability and ethnicity accompanying the politics of disability over the twentieth century. The historical weight of this analogy and the lack of awareness about it affect contemporary attempts aimed at creating sustainable policy that recognizes the rights of people with disabilities and the Roma. Though the analogy between disability and ethnicity may reflect an international trend,14 the specifics of the Czechoslovak case especially illuminate the role of racial assimilationism, one of the most influential flows of liberal racism, which was also practiced by Czechoslovak authorities in a consistent way, and which remains on the margins of consideration among the contemporary experts who participate in policy making concerning disability and ethnicity. The practical orientation of this book targets the policy of assimilation common for ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, who were seen as only potentially belonging to the nation – under the condition of achieving certain standards for the proper mode of life and functional health (equated with the ability to work). By tracing the reproduction of the analogy between disability and ethnicity within ongoing policy-making processes concerning assimilation, this volume engages in radical negation, which contextualizes the practices and discourses concerning assimilation in terms of historical continuities and recognizes their impact on contemporary approaches. Appearing within the interwar debates about demographic policies aimed at regulating the undesirably high birth rates of Ruthenians and Slovaks, the analogy between disability and ethnicity was transferred to the realm of policies concerning the Roma during the socialist period and started to influence comparable policies in other CEE countries, especially Hungary. This history of the analogy crossing spatial and temporal borders stresses the special role of the reflections regarding the contemporary Czech politics of disability. The main research question underlying the chapters in this volume is: Which combination of driving forces brought the analogy between disability and ethnicity into action within different realms of the politics of public health? This question establishes an interrelation between retrospectivity and perspectivity, which motivates the selection of sources and their analysis.

14 Stone and Rutledge, Race and Ethnicity.

22 Victoria Shmidt

By juxtaposing the main sources of data and suitable theoretical frameworks, selectiveness operates in favor of solving the dilemma of historicization vs. theorizing, moving toward balancing between rigorous data searches and comprehensive interpretation. We focus on the role of professional or epistemic communities as a part of the political elite who brought into action the politics of disability during the transfer from peripheral nationalism targeted at emancipation from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to state-building nationalism during the interwar and postwar periods. The state-building process orchestrated the shift of nationalism as mass movement to the ideology of political elites, especially those responsible for producing expert knowledge aimed at legitimizing state power. Our study stresses the role of epistemic communities aimed at developing public health or influential politicians who engaged in administrating public health to increase their political capital – such as Jozef Tiso or Jan Šrámek, the leaders of the Slovak and Czechoslovak People’s Parties, respectively. Comparing the various nation-building projects produced by different elites remains beyond the ambitions of this book; it is the approaches to carry out the agenda of public health and garner the resources for implementing such an agenda that represent the focus of our analysis. Mapping the elites and their stances toward public health as a means to practice political power operates as a key research tool. As such, we focus on the most remarkable debates addressing the politics of disability and their impact on elaborating particular institutional strategies to provide education and care for the disabled. Exploring these debates, both public and professional, is supplemented by visual analysis of the photos and outreach films that circulated among diverse target groups as a main tool interconnecting science and propaganda. The depictions from internal reports for professional use arranged the perception of the arguments provided by experts for the politicians who made decisions concerning the politics of disability and minorities. Their analysis concentrates our attention on a complex and fluid relationship between experts and elites rather than simply reproducing the discourses that shaped and were shaped by the debates. The outreach films constituted a major consumer market for new prescriptions concerning public health, disease and minorities, and their analysis targets a sort of social biography of the main ideas and discourses concerning disability and the nation elaborated by experts and advanced by elites. Both realms of visual analysis recognize the instrumentality of images in state control over the population and the attempts to establish efficient vehicles of legitimizing surveillance. Undoubtedly, visual tropes reflected the struggle of political elites in conquering public health as a main channel for legitimizing themselves.

Introduction

23

Even a brief overview of the continuity among the ministers of health15 in interwar and socialist Czechoslovakia provides strong evidence in favor of choosing this focus for historical interpretation. The first three ministers, also professional physicians, Vavro Šrobár,16 Ladislav Prokop Procházka,17 and Bohuslav Vrbenský,18 presented the interests of the liberal elite that relied on the international legitimation of the new state and put forward the task to “civilize” the periphery, which was seen as “backward” in terms of health care. Further, the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture was led by Jozef Tiso19 and Jan Šrámek, the most prominent leaders of Slovak and Czechoslovak People’s Parties. The influence of the pro-Catholic nationalistic lobby affiliated with the People’s Party can be seen as embedded in the administration of public health in interwar and postwar Czechoslovakia. Tellingly, three ministers between 1945 and 1972, Adolf Procházka, Josef Plojar,20 and Vladislav Vlček, were the members of this party. Even though the latter two were members of the Communist Party, in their approaches, it is possible to

15 We are referring to the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture between 1920 and 1938. 16 The first Czechoslovak minister of health, the Slovak physician and politician Vavro Šrobár (1918-1920), maintained a consistent political affiliation with the Agrarian Party. Simultaneously with the function of heading the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture, he led the Ministerstvo pro sjednocení zákonodárství a organisace správní (Ministry of Law Unification). Later, Šrobár obtained the position of the minister of education. Advocating a systematic pro-Czech vision for the development of Slovakia, Šrobár shared the main priorities of the international agenda – fighting against infectious diseases as a part of “civilizing” nonhistoric areas of the new state. Contemporary evaluation of his impact on the policy making concerning public health has varied from defining him as a knight of democracy (on this see his biography by Josette Baer, A Life Dedicated to the Republic: Vavro Šrobár’s Slovak Czeckoslovakism) to an oppressor of the interests of Slovaks (Pasner, Osudové okamžiky Československa). 17 Ladislav Prokop Procházka (1920-1921), who was a prominent lobbyist for international standards and paid attention to their institutionalization in Czechoslovakia, did not belong to any political party but led the new State Institution of Hygiene. Mášová, ‘Bojovník s byrokracií.’ 18 Bohuslav Vrbenský (1921-1922), who represented the Czech Socialist Party, actively supported the attempts to delegalize prostitution and advanced the Law on Combating Sexually Transmitted Diseases. 19 Jozef Tiso (1927-1929) was a leading politician in the Slovak People’s Party and headed the First Slovak Republic in 1939. 20 Josef Plojhar, the seemingly irreplaceable minister of health for 20 years (1948-1968), is an example of a unique politician able to combine various strategies of reinforcing his political capital. Having a “questionable” past as a priest, he was yet able to advance his career in the Communist Party and had a permanent need to reinforce his political image and symbolic capital. According to Western experts, he operated as an agent and performed special missions in Austria and Germany during his official visits, but undoubtedly, focusing on obstetric services and the health of mothers and children, Plojhar achieved amazing results in improving the image of his ministry and of himself.

24 Victoria Shmidt

recognize an affiliation with the Catholic Church.21 Moreover, among 20 ministers between 1918 and 1989 (including Ján Bečko, who performed this function within the Czechoslovak government in exile between 1939 and 1945) only five were professional physicians, while three were priests. The supersession of the ministers of health due to their political affiliation obviously reflected the history of political struggle and compromises but for the aims of our study, this fact highlights the need to explore public health as a stage for major political games and to understand the politics of disability as embedded in the political performance of state building. This volume deconstructs the history of public health along two interrelated dimensions, by recognizing the impact of nation building on the politics of disability and by tracing the infiltration of Czechoslovak nationalism by the particular concepts of health and disability. Starting with the analysis of the attempt by liberal elites to establish public health as a kind of civil religion contesting traditional Catholicism, we move to the history of the transformation of the politics of disability into strategies of segregation against ethnic minorities, especially the Roma. Emphasizing the role of the elite struggle for achieving power during the interwar and postwar periods explains our particular attention to the remarkable role of the German-Czech relationship in elaborating the care and education for people with disabilities during the Protectorate period. Undoubtedly, the Czech professionals resisted to the Nazis’ plan to select and exterminate children with mental disabilities. Along with it, the national socialist approach to differentiating people with disabilities according to their adaptability (Angepasstheit) and duration (Leistungsfähigkeit) obviously infiltrated the postwar Czech rhetoric concerning functional health and deployed the institutionalizing special education as dividing people with disabilities into the groups according to their usefulness. During the interwar and postwar periods, German experts in disability remained in the shadows of the political struggle concerning the Czechoslovak nation. In addition, the Czech experience of the direct influence of racial hygiene during the Protectorate continues to challenge historians seeking to compare and differentiate between the discourses of disability in German and Czech special education. Investigating the influence of German approaches requires different types of narratives – with a more particular focus on national identity as a tool in propaganda wars. Tellingly, the pride felt by Czechs 21 In 1972, the physician Jaroslav Prokopec became another irreplaceable minister of health until the end of the socialist period, which can be seen as the end of the era of the influence of the nationalistic lobby on public health.

Introduction

25

regarding their system of special schools for children with disabilities was reversed through arguments in favor of German predominance and influence: thus, during the Cold War, the evidence of the reproduction of the German model of special education by the interwar Czechoslovak authorities was one more argument in the never-ending propaganda wars between the socialist and Western blocs.22 Obviously, this point of view challenges the time line of our study and calls for deeper analysis of the role of the late imperial period in the formation of prerequisites for the close interrelation between nation building and special education. Undoubtedly, this task affects our plans for future studies. By summarizing the purposes of historical narrative, particularity delineates the limits of applied methodology and the options for its modification. This book concerns public health – that institution which holds a very specific position among other two-sided, structure-agency, bodies of theory about nation building. In contrast to education, welfare policy or social work, public health has not acquired the status of a coherent alternative option within critical approaches such as critical education or critical social policy aimed at emancipation from surveillance and oppression by practicing radical negation of the grounds of prostate approaches to discourses and practices. Established within the process of intensive state building and the institutionalization of an international government after World War I, public health remains quite a unique institution, which can be attacked due to its insufficient operation in favor of choosing the “proper” way of reform. Does this imply that the dilemma of a utilitarian view vs. reflexivity cannot be solved concerning the history of public health in any way other than choosing a utilitarian view? Our study offers the choice in favor of reflexivity – by linking public health with the politics of disability and tracing the interrelation between them as challenges for the reflections of contemporary actors. Tracing the historical continuity in reproducing the analogy between disability and ethnicity as a source of the arguments in the diverse campaigns initiated by various actors allows us to revise our view on particular strategies as either “bad” or “good” and turn toward a more thoughtful evaluation of the past of public health in Czechoslovakia. The structure of book serves this task. The book is divided into two parts. The first, “Building the Czechoslovak Nation and Sacralizing Peoples’ Health: The Vicissitudes of Disability Discourse during the Interwar Period,” aims at identifying and exploring the main pathways for connecting the discourse of health to the nation’s identity 22 Baier, Schulen für Behinderte.

26 Victoria Shmidt

as a substitute for traditional religion in interwar Czechoslovakia. The first chapter, “Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia: Contexts and Contests,” discusses the composition of political actors that brought into action the project of sacralizing people’s health as well as the limits of this attempt. The second chapter, “The Discourse of Disability: A Noah’s Ark for the New Nation?,” focuses on the diverse streams of practicing such sacralization regarding people with disabilities. The third chapter, “Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period: Therapeutic Punishment vs. Benevolent Paternalism,” explores the echo of this policy in the strategies around the Roma as they started to be seen as functionally unhealthy. This chapter discusses the specifics of the policy concerning the Roma in different, historical (Bohemia) and nonhistorical (Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia) parts of interwar Czechoslovakia, and then turns to the legal frames and theoretical arguments for tough surveillance over the Roma introduced by interwar authorities within the combat against infectious diseases. The second part, “Postwar Institutionalization of Care for the Disabled: Toward a Universalized Discourse of ‘Defective Gypsies,’” focuses on the three main and mutually interrelated realms of producing and practicing the violence of knowledge: special education, physical anthropology and genetics. Their interplay is seen as a main prerequisite of coalescing disability and ethnicity in the practices led to structural violence. Chapter 4, “Special Education in Czechoslovakia between 1939 and 1989: Toward Multilevel Hierarchy of Defectivity,” focuses on the interdisciplinarity of postwar applied scientific approaches to “defective” children and its direct influence on the practices of education and political rhetoric about those who were labeled as defective. Victoria Shmidt introduces the role of intensive institutionalization of special education in Nazi Germany in the vicissitudes of the Czech approach to the children with disabilities during the Protectorate and explores the fixing of some institutional and discursive German patterns in the politics of disability during the Third Republic period. Then, Frank Henschel explains the rupture between the first decade of socialist policy and the composition of driving forces made the eugenic turn possible and desirable by various groups of interests later. The next chapter, “The Intersectionality of Disability and Race in Public and Professional Discourses about the Roma in Socialist Czechoslovakia: Between Propaganda and Race Science,” stresses the interrelation between public and professional discourses presented in anthropological surveys as the grounds for producing intersectional knowledge that remains able to block any attempts to change the social order concerning the Roma since the 1960s

Introduction

27

and until today. Also, this chapter pays special attention to the international agenda of racial assimilationism worked in favor of the reproduction of nationalist rhetoric and emancipation from any affiliation of postwar race science with German racial hygiene – supplemented by universal codes for nationalist consciousness as part of a more general outlook on the world.23 The last chapter, “The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women between the 1970s and the 1980s: The Rise of Eugenic Socialism,” investigates the transfer from eugenics to medical genetics in postwar Czechoslovakia, which led to introducing sterilization, including the enforced application of it against the Roma. Retrospectivity, perspectivity, selectiveness and particularity shape the cultural discourse that ensures the communicativeness of the historical narrative and its readers. By either producing or consuming historical narratives, we accept the role of the medium in reflecting upon the selfjustification (Selbstvergewisserung) of previous generations of scholars.24 Such acceptance leads us toward solving such dilemmas as rupture vs. continuity, fact vs. interpretation, historicization vs. theorizing, by either emancipating ourselves from univocal historical evaluation or making ourselves attackable by political manipulations. This volume aims at providing options for historical reflection by those who grapple with structural violence against ethnic minorities and people with disabilities – in favor of empowering them with the ability to recognize, negate and change and, finally, to move from knowledge about institutional violence to its acknowledgement.

About the author Victoria Shmidt has a PhD in Developmental Psychology (1998, Russian Academy of Education) and a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy (2012, Masaryk University). Since 2011, Dr. Shmidt has been working on the issue of the policies concerning ethnic minorities in the Czech lands and the role of various academic communities in producing the discourses and practices of segregation.

23 Billig, Banal Nationalism. 24 Rüsen, Geschichte, p. 113.

Part 1 Building the Czechoslovak Nation and Sacralizing Peoples’ Health: The Vicissitudes of Disability Discourse during the Interwar Period

31

Part 1

Abstract Part 1 identif ies and explores the main pathways for connecting the discourse of health to the nation’s identity as a substitute for traditional religion in interwar Czechoslovakia.

Health is an essential sacred metaphor inseparable from modernity and its legacy – even the author of the most well-known contemporary theory of civil religion, Robert N. Bellah, uses the concept of “the health of a civil religion as a prime indication of the overall health of any society.”1 The prerequisites for transforming health care into a civil religion were established in the mid-tolate nineteenth century and the prewar period, when the ideologues of social hygiene, the first generation of eugenicists and anthropologists, legitimized their activities in terms of improving the health of nations – in the name of their future. For instance, Charles Benedict Davenport and Francis Galton, two of the most recognized eugenicists, defined eugenics as a sort of religion that should unite people around health as an undisputable priority of public life. By being a science and a social movement simultaneously,2 eugenics and its derivatives, social hygiene and physical anthropology, could be seen as sets of beliefs, symbols and rituals that connected nations to particular principles of health care. Commonly associated with the oppressive policies of interwar regimes,3 eugenics provided the grounds for reestablishing routine practices of social hygiene as significant to the health of nations and their future. In combination with epidemic crises, eugenic concerns about the quality of future generations penetrated deeply into the ethical and moral grounds for building the nation. During the interwar period, the concept of health, along with its sacred meaning, was refined and disseminated due to mutual efforts from both international and national stakeholders to “win the war against disease.” By being an entirely private and personal value, 4 health perfectly fit with the Rousseauian approach to solve the dilemma of intolerance vs. the unity of the state – the latter being the core of success in building the nation. According to Rousseau, civil religion should be guided by a morality in which interiorization would be able to restrain the controversial relationship

1 Bellah and Hammond, Varieties of Civil Religion. 2 Turda, Modernism and Eugenics. 3 Sharon, ‘Human Dregs.’ 4 Weindling, Healthcare in Private and Public.

32 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

between private and public concerns in favor of national unity.5 By prioritizing health care and public sanitation, international actors and national governments impacted the new nationalism that had started to combine the particular and the universal: “‘We’ cite universal principles and general laws, denying ‘our’ narrowness. This is a grandeur of a sociological imperative, to which all nations – ‘ours’ and others – must apparently conform.”6 This “we-feeling” inevitably developed into a “we-and-they-feeling,” which placed healthy nations in opposition to their dangerous unhealthy enemies, whether external or internal.7 The sacred meaning of health played a pivotal role in this transition from local nationhood to universal nationalism as a part of the civilizing process: “More and more, nations are coming to recognize their inter-dependence in health as in industry, government, science, and culture.”8 The interconnection between health, eugenics and religion remained one of the paramount topics in public debates during the interwar period, especially in CEE countries, due to the diverse role of religion in the region.9 In line with Anderson’s and Billig’s interpretations of nationalism, nations are built in the process of eroding religious certainties. The task to speed up modernization was vital for the legitimation of interwar authorities – especially for such recently established states as Czechoslovakia. By becoming a sort of civil religion, health care reinforced the replacement of premodern beliefs with a belief in science: “The spirit of modern medicine is, then, scientific; it seeks to be open-minded toward new truth, provided this can be rationally related to the great body of firmly established and organized knowledge about nature, life, and mind, about which all scientific men agree.”10 Alongside this global trend with particular universal patterns, the sacralization of health varied from country to country because of the obviously different contexts in nation building. The first chapter aims to identify and explore the composition of actors who were interested in sacralizing health, as well as the main pathways connecting the discourse of health to the nation’s identity as a substitute for traditional religion in 5 Weed, ‘Jean-Jacques Rousseau.’ 6 Billig, Banal Nationalism, p. 82. 7 Elias, The Germans, p. 144. 8 Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report (1919), p. 50. 9 While in Bulgaria, the Orthodox Church consistently supported the implications of eugenics; in Austria the Catholic Church practiced its own version of eugenic project; in Poland and Czechoslovakia, the Catholic Church resisted any attempt to legalize eugenic treatments. 10 Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report (1922), p. 20.

Part 1

33

Czechoslovakia during the 1920s, a period during which institutions were created and new discourses about health were promoted. By juxtaposing the analysis of actors, institutions and discourses, we highlight the impact of two unsuccessful attempts by Czechoslovak eugenicists to introduce regulations concerning reproductive behavior aimed at preventing an increase in inferiority, which were seen as a direct challenge to traditional religious values. In the debates around the drafts of laws about premarital examination and enforced sterilization, we recognize the struggle of middleclass elites in favor of monopolizing public health as a powerful instrument of the state’s surveillance. In the second chapter, in line with the Eliasian vision of national elites and their role in the sociogenesis of the national state, we explore how the intensive institutionalization of public health and social care was accompanied by exaggerating the role of health in public and professional discourses. The period between two “eugenic” campaigns is seen as the time of the most intensive free competition between different camps of experts who introduced sacralized concept of health in favor of advancing the interests of the nation-state. By investigating the primary policies around people with disabilities, we deconstruct the concept of functional health used by Czechoslovak ideologues in their attempts to connect health and labor. In the last chapter of this part, we explore how the concept of functional health and its reflection in the politics of diseases framed the surveillance of the Roma, which started as a systematic policy in the 1920s. According to Bellah, a civil religion is a “system of beliefs and practices relative to the sacred that unite those who adhere to them in a moral community.”11 The main method of exploring the formation of health care as civil religion is the analysis of the texts produced by those who performed the role of moral entrepreneurs: ideologues of public health reform. They were the ministerial officials and scholars leading the epistemic communities: Hynek Pelc (head of the Department of Social Hygiene at the State Institute of Hygiene and the head of the institute between 1939 and 1942), Ladislav Haškovec (the first president of the Czech Eugenic Society (Česká Eugenická Společnost), František Hamza (leader of the social hygiene movement and author of several manuals), Rudolf Jedlička (head of the most well-known institution for children and adults with physical disabilities), František Štampach (an anthropologist who initiated systematic studies of the Roma during the 1930s and remained an authority in the field until the 1960s) and other health experts. 11 Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution.

1

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia Contexts and Contests Victoria Shmidt

Abstract This chapter aims to identify and explore the main pathways connecting the discourse of health to the nation’s identity as a substitute for traditional religion in Czechoslovakia during the 1920s, a period during which institutions were created and new discourses about health were promoted. By juxtaposing the analysis of actors, institutions and discourses, we highlight the impact of two unsuccessful attempts by Czechoslovak eugenicists to introduce regulations concerning reproductive behavior aimed at preventing an increase in inferiority. In the debates around the drafts of laws about premarital examination and enforced sterilization, we recognize the struggle of middle-class elites in favor of monopolizing public health as a powerful instrument of the state’s surveillance. Keywords: civil religion, eugenic campaigns, nation building, reproductive behavior

1.1

Sacralizing people’s health in interwar Czechoslovakia: In search of new drivers for mobilizing the nationals

By ceasing to be peripheral nationalism struggling for emancipation, after the First World War, Czech nationalism started to serve the task of practicing social order in the newly established state. According to the approach for understanding the transformation of nationalism by Michael Hechter,1 this 1 Hechter, Containing Nationalism, p. 91.

Shmidt, Victoria (ed.), The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia. Segregating in the Name of the Nation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789463720014/ch01

36 Victoria Shmidt

transformation of Czech nationalism from an ideology of those who were oppressed to a source of legitimacy for the state’s power and surveillance started to call for revising the ideological grounds for solving internal issues. By paraphrasing Benedict Anderson, we could say that the dichotomy “Czech vs. German,” which worked as ideological criticism of the Habsburg Monarchy, could advance neither economic interests nor the political intentions of the new Czechoslovak authorities as they tried to shape themselves as a highly effective state. But being the by-product of endemic imperial collapse, the Czechoslovak state can be seen as a result of the multiple fragmentation of several territories rather than the output of pure secession. This nature of the state’s establishment should also have decreased popular support for the nationalist movement and prioritized the role of the contest among political elites seeking national unity.2 The main successor of the prewar nationalist movement, the ruling coalition of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers’ Party (Československá sociálně demokratická strana dělnická) and the Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants (Republikánská strana zemědělského a malorolnického lidu), remained in opposition to the Czechoslovak People’s Party (Československá strana lidová), representing other influential political elite with respect to secularization and other significant democratic ideals. In interwar Czechoslovakia, this political contest shaped many realms of public life, including several campaigns aimed at introducing eugenic measures to regulate reproduction. In the early 1920s, attempts to separate church and state failed despite the optimistic attitude of the ruling coalition, which was interested in solving the “problem” of secularization easily, smoothly and quickly. Neither secularization of matters regarding marriage nor the establishment of a secular educational system was achieved. Large-scale moral campaigns were initiated by the Czechoslovak People’s Party, especially in Slovakia and Moravia – the country’s two most Catholic regions. In these strategically important peripheries, Catholicism was the predominant religion. In particular, Catholicism indoctrinated the schools, which were one of the most powerful tools for the state-building nationalism3 lost by the Czechoslovak authorities during the campaign to secularize the state. 4 The resistance movement quickly progressed from political satire, in the 2 Ibid., p. 90. 3 Ibid., p. 92. 4 Hobza, Poměr mezi státem a církví. Issued in 1922, the Small School Law (Malý školský zákon) No. 226 put the responsibility for making the decision about religious education on the parents – they could ask the school administration to withdraw their child from the class. But all schools delivered regular religious education classes, which remained compulsory.

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

37

autumn of 1918, to direct civil disobedience in the winter of 1918/19. For instance, the rapidly established Local Union of Parents and Friends of Christian Upbringing (Zemská rada rodičů a přátel křesťanské výchovy) in Brno aimed to protect the interests of parents and children against forced secularization. The union initiated several actions, including a strike at the main boys’ school in Moravany (a small suburb near Brno, the provincial capital of Moravia) opposing the attendance of its pupils as long as one of the anticlerical teachers continued to work there.5 Also, groups of students from a girls’ school, together with a group of nuns, organized a meeting against secularization in the center of Brno at the end of 1918. These actions represented a serious threat to the building of a new state.6 Those who were on the side of secularization also attempted to bring into action moral campaigns in the media, mainly against the nuns working as nurses, who were typical in many Czechoslovak hospitals during the interwar period. There is no evidence that several attempts to unmask the nuns’ activity were a planned part of the politics of secularization; obviously, it cannot be compared with full-scale attack against the clergy in revolutionary France.7 However, the attempts to accuse the nuns reflected the general mood among those who shared the ideals of the new state and its main representatives, the legionnaires.8 Unsurprisingly, these campaigns linked political reliability toward the new regime and responsibility for people’s health as the prerequisites, both of which were ostensibly missing among the nuns. Started by the publication in newspapers, the campaigns attacked the administration of the most prestigious hospitals in the biggest cities. For instance, in 1922 the People’s Rights Evening News (Večerník pravá lidu) published an article entitled “Maltreatment of Patients by Nurses” that 5 ‘Ke stavce školních dítek v Moravanéch.’ 6 ‘Obrovská manifestace katolických žen a dívek v Brně za křesťanské školství.’ 7 Betros, ‘The French Revolution and the Catholic Church.’ 8 The Czech legionnaires were those who either from the very beginning of the First World War fought together with the Entente Powers abroad (in France, Italy and Russia) against Germany and Austria-Hungary or who came to the side of Entente after being captured by the Entente Powers. Generally, Czech soldiers were recruited into the Austro-Hungarian forces. The number of cases of Czech men refusing to join was quite large, even though the measures against refusal were tough at the beginning (some of those who refused to join were executed). When these measures did not produce satisfactory results, imperial authorities began to pay a sum to the families of enlisting soldiers, and this method of encouraging enlistments remained the primary draw for Czech men to join the Austro-Hungarian forces. Conversely, the legionnaires’ families were persecuted by the imperial authorities. After the war, the tensions between different groups of war veterans, especially in public discourse, remained one of the obstacles for uniting the nation.

38 Victoria Shmidt Figure 1 The nuns at the hospital in Trnava, Slovakia, as shown in a report on the miserable state of Slovak hospitals prepared by Slovak authorities for the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture in 1923

Source: SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 14

described the intolerant behavior of the senior nurse at General Public State Hospital (Všeobecná veřejná státní nemocnice na Královských Vinohradech) who was “a nun who registers nationality and asks if the patient is a believer or not. When she identifies the patient as a nonbeliever, the inquisition comes!”9 In the official response to the article, Vladislav Miller, the chief physician at the hospital, stressed the absence of any official complaints regarding the behavior of the nurses, and after several days, the case was dropped. The same scenario, but in more farcical manner, was brought into action by the staff of the State Hospital in Bratislava in late 1923. This case can be seen as a comprehensive example of the composition of driving forces that led to secularization and its failure in interwar Czechoslovakia. The nuns’ “political unreliability” was disclosed during the parliamentary election campaign in Bratislava. The newspaper The Workers’ News (Robotnické Noviny) published the article “Electoral Offences” about the nun Christofa from the Order of the Holy Cross who worked at the State Hospital as a pastry cook and who threatened her Czech colleagues, former 9

‘Týrání nemocných jeptiškami.’

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

39

legionnaires and their wives, saying that after the win by the Hungarians in the election, “There would be little time for them to pack their luggage and take flight.”10 Such an unpatriotic stance was presented as a big deal in the central mass media, and the Central Police Office was asked by the Ministry of the Interior to investigate the case.11 Sister Christofa was transferred to work as a cook in the prison, and the chief physician was obliged to collect the information about the case. In his report, he explained the lack of seriousness in the accusation. He mentioned that Sister Christofa was provoked by the former legionnaire, Hull, who worked at the hospital as a guard and was drunk. Hull decided to greet the sisters working in the hospital, being together in the kitchen, by wishing them to “receive a rose between their hips.” He was referencing the Nativity of Mary or the Mystic Rose (the incident occurred on 8 September, the official Catholic celebration of the Virgin Mary). According to witnesses, this joke provoked Sister Christofa to “imprecate the win of the Hungarians.” The chief physician also mentioned the issue of language – stressing that Sister Christofa, like the other nuns in the hospital, spoke only Slovak while Hull had started to joke with them in German. The chief physician added some details concerning the presence of the legionnaire’s wife (who worked at the hospital laundry) in the kitchen and the long-term tradition of debating political issues but not in a serious manner. The physician mentioned that after making the decision to transfer the legionnaire’s wife to another department in the hospital, the situation stopped being “so sharp.”12 Despite this detailed explanation, Sister Christofa was relegated to being a cook in the prison. Several months later, in spring 1924, the Association of Assistants and Interns (Spolok asistentov a klinických sekundarov) sent an official letter to the hospital administration, in which young physicians stated that they could not imagine the second grand holiday (the forthcoming Easter) without the baking by Sister Christofa.13 The chief physician appealed with an official request to the Ministry of Health in Prague to bring Sister Christofa back to the hospital “because of the expectations of the staff and due to the fact that the new pastry cook not only performs incomparably worse but also spends more provisions.”14 Finally, seven months after the incident, Sister Christofa was restored and continued her mission at the state hospital. 10 ‘Volební trestné činy.’ 11 Ministerská rada a policejní ředitel, ‘Dopis Úřadu pana ministra.’ 12 Ibid. 13 Riaditel’stvo Štátnej nemocnice v Bratislave, ‘Žádost.’ 14 Ibid.

40 Victoria Shmidt

The authorities coped with popular resistance to secularization by improving relations with the Vatican15 but this was a imposed and undesirable solution for the majority of the political and academic elites.16 Alongside the forced nature of the relationship with the Catholic Church, the authorities faced the issue of the declining role of Catholicism – increasingly few Czechs officially claimed to be Catholic, dropping from 90 percent in 1910 to less than 78 percent in 1930. From the very beginning of its existence, the Czechoslovak state needed a new form of “social glue” for connecting people in solidarity – especially under the pressure to encourage the emergence of the new nation of “Czechoslovaks.” Religion could no longer be a source for mobilizing the nation. By establishing new institutions of public health and reinforcing the role of epistemic communities in protecting the health of the nation, international bodies and national governments advanced the power of science. In Czechoslovakia, the role of epistemic communities and their cooperation with international bodies was also determined by the strong influence of the Czechoslovak People’s Party on two key institutions responsible for public health: the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture and the Ministry of Social Welfare. For a long period, both ministries were led by Šrámek,17 the most influential politician in the Czechoslovak People’s Party, who definitely did not share the ruling coalition’s intention to secularize public policy. It was not only a contest between political actors but also the unstable institutionalization of health care accompanying its sacralization. According to Bellah, three core prerequisites determine the potential of movement or an array of practices to enable the emergence of a new cult: to remain closed to traditional practices regarding sacralized objects; to root the basic values of a new religion in a nation’s identity; and to attain a special role in public life and shaping beliefs.18 The capacity of health care to operate as civil religion depended on the ability of national elites to create public discourse around health and disease aligned with these prerequisites. Did Czechoslovak health-care promoters implement these prerequisites and establish health care as a sort of new cult? 15 Tellingly, the Vatican and the Czechoslovak government achieved a compromise in the middle of the 1930s, when the relationship between the Slovak and Czech People’s Parties, the main political representatives of the Catholic Church, became conflictual. For more on this, see Halas, Fenomén Vatikán. 16 Kružiková, ‘Mezi “Pryč od Říma!”‘ 17 Monsignor Jan Šrámek led the Ministry of Health three times, in 1922-1925, 1926-1927 and in 1929, and the Ministry of Social Welfare in 1926-1929. 18 Bellah, ‘Civil Religion in America.’

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

1.2

41

Epistemic communities: The struggle for political influence

The successful propaganda of a new civil religion naturally complements established symbols and narratives. During the 1920s, symbols and historicized narratives were the core vehicles for translating the sacred meaning of health and health care to the public. Those who took responsibility for elaborating the ideology of health care applied diverse strategies aimed at historicizing the narratives around health in order to be in line with the general task to replace traditional religious practices with new rituals and cults around health care. One of the most visible symbolic actions was renaming the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture in May 1920. The ideologues stressed that Czechoslovakia was the first state in the world where the department responsible for people’s health was named in this way – in order to stress the positive tradition of a healthy way of life.19 By narrating the global history of health care, Czech ideologues opposed the authentic and natural approach of the ancient world to health to the unnatural and oppressive policies set by the Catholic Church: During the height of the medieval period, Christian teaching attained a false understanding – by leading people to oppose routine life to the afterlife, the belief in happiness as emerging from physical welfare. The motto of Middle Ages was, “The body will die but the spirit remains.” Remaining so unfair to the needs of the body, Christian teaching could retain its authority only through violence – because human nature resists such oppression with its whole soul.20

Even as leaders of public health reform prescribed an irreplaceable role to health-care professionals, they also paid attention to folk wisdom as the right way to organize one’s daily routine in a healthy way. Accordingly, Hamza invoked the Czech proverb “Cooked cereal is mom, bread is dad, and soup gets on the feet” (Kašička – matička, chlebíček – tatiček, polívečka – stavínožička) as an example of a healthy approach to feeding children. In his book,21 he analyzed various Czechoslovak proverbs in order to demonstrate the comparability of new approaches approved by professionals with the peoples’ wisdom because “each health message, through which we 19 Hamza, Úvahy o sociální péči zdravotní. 20 Ibid. 21 Hamza, Zdravotní a tělesná výchova lidu, pp. 121-123.

42 Victoria Shmidt

would like to contribute to the soul of the people, should be infiltrated by a national tenet consistently nourished and cherished.”22 This approach was also adopted by Karel Driml (1891-1929), a famous advocate of the eugenic approach to health care who had obtained the position of “chief ministerial commissioner” (vrchni ministerský komisar) and was supposed to lead the Department of Propaganda of Health Education at the State Institute of Hygiene but died suddenly in 1929. In a very short period, in close cooperation with the Czechoslovak Red Cross, and personally with Alice Masaryk, the daughter of the first Czechoslovak President Tomaš Masaryk, Driml produced more than a hundred instructional movies about health care for children and young people as well as several puppet shows about healthful nutrition, sexually transmitted diseases and other issues.23 Driml established the magazines The People’s Health (Zdraví lidu) in 1923 and Healthy Nutrition (Výživa) in 1925. Within these varied means of disseminating the new approach to public health, Driml consistently practiced a kind of civic catechism – an approach to establish civil education and provide revolutionary instruction aligned with traditional forms of catechization to contest traditional Christian values well known from the de-Christianization of public life in France during the French Revolution.24 This consistent following of the French Revolutionary policy concerning religion reverberated with the general intention of the Czechoslovak-ruled group to present the case of Czechoslovak national rebirth as dating from the French Revolution.25 According to Driml, public health could be achieved by emancipating people from the poverty and disease that were the aftermath of the “previous slavery of poverty and diseases,” seen as a direct consequence of the unnatural and violent imperial public health policy.26 By employing the main idea of de-Christianization, Driml reproduced the attitude of Baron de Montesquieu, one of the most famous political philosophers of the French Enlightenment, toward the process of civil education as directly determined by the political order, either authoritative and false or democratic and proper: “Health education should awaken the people’s conscience and responsibility. Thus, it is big mistake to leave health education to the dissemination of health-care sciences. Though 22 Ibid., p. 122. 23 Prezidium Ministerské rady, ‘Žádost.’ 24 Velicu, Civic Catechisms. 25 Masaryk, Česká otázka. 26 Driml, Úkol lékaře pří šíření zdravotnické výchovy.

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

43

Figure 2 Kašpárek is bringing a toothbrush and toothpaste for the main character (1927)

Source: Driml, Budulínka bolí zoubek Zábavně výchovný loutkový výstup pro školní mládež

the dissemination of social hygiene should stem from scientific facts and fight against antiscientific practices, it cannot be a translation of scientific language to the more simple language of the people.”27 In his puppet shows for children, Driml used the character of Kašpárek, introduced into mass culture by Matěj Kopecký (1775-1847) during the Czech National Revival. By performing the role of communicator between the stage and the spectators, Kašpárek embodied the strong image of a new leader who is able also to bring new healthy habits to children and youth. Also, in Driml’s performance, the main characters, the children who needed to be educated, mainly boys, received the name Budulínek – or young, naive and often vulnerable boy, another type of character from Kopecký’s puppet theatre. In the games with rote-learning elements typical of catechisms, Driml abandoned the frivolous tone of instruction and combined health education with a morally earnest tone regarding the sacred symbols of nations. In the playful ritual “Glory to Our Flag” (Hold Vlajce), which should initiate games 27 Driml, ‘Zdravotní výchova v rámci činnosti osvětových sborů a komisí,’ p. 2.

44 Victoria Shmidt

near water and in the water, the colors of the flag were directly compared with the symbols of the young generation, the enthusiasm of new blood and water as a source of purity: The leader: You must be hardy To carry our flag. Pure – at all times To honor the flag. The choir: We will be pure at all times, Brave and enduring.28

Driml offered to create a manual, The Health Catechism (Zdravotnický katechismus), with key eugenic principles, first for girls and, later, for young men, which would prepare them to take a responsible attitude toward marriage. Tellingly, in Driml’s obituary, Alice Masaryk named him an evangelist of public health and stressed his role in the conversion of the people to the right, healthy, mode of life.29 But this pathos did not aim to replace traditional religious practices. It is easy to recognize in Driml’s rhetoric the very strong echo of state-sponsored “cults of reason” and the “supreme being” established during the French Revolution; but the Czech approach was not as irreconcilable with Roman Catholicism as the revolutionary atheistic religion in France. The most remarkable attempt to decrease the influence of religion but maintain the folk tradition of celebrating Catholic holidays was the performance The Resurrection: The Easter Performance in One Act (Vzkříšeni: Velikonoční hra o jednom dějství, 1929). In this performance, Driml highlights the inability of earlier generations to recognize the white and red flowers children use for decorating the church – the adults had forgotten the words regarding national dignity and health. It was children who should 28 Sojka, Komenští. The original text is: Vůdce: Musí být otužilý, aby mohl vlajku nést, čistý – aby v každou chvíli dělal naší vlajce čest. Sbor: Budem čistí v každou chvili Srdnatí a otužili. 29 ‘Dr. Karel Driml Zemřel.’

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

45

remind adults about the proper definition of health and national pride. The children should help adults communicate with the earth and nature as well as bring together different social groups: peasants, proletarians and intellectuals. Although Driml belonged to the group that represented the most powerful elite with a particular interest in moderate decisions, not all of his ideas were perpetuated after his death. By attempting to align themselves with both national ideals and beliefs in progress, eugenicists who advanced the new health care brought into action the motive of responsibility toward future generations of the nation. In his speech during the commemoration of geneticist Gregor Mendel in 1925, Artur Brožek asserted: “The health of future generations depends first of all on the legacy of the current generation; thus, the care for children must consider how to bear children with beneficial qualities.”30 Connecting public health and the welfare of children strengthened the arguments in favor of sacralizing health. The motives and rhythms of the repentance ceremony could be recognized in Hamza’s speech: “We inquire into infectious diseases and social diseases that directly shake the essentials of humanity; we inquire into the destiny of future generations for whom we turn over our ideals, hopes and for whom we wish to live a better life than we live now.”31 During the first decade of the interwar period, Czech ideologues embedded health care into the national ideal of emancipation from the aftermath of imperial slavery. In the introduction to a collection of articles on social hygiene edited by Hamza, Antonin Kolinský32 defined health care as an indispensable part of the new national identity by consistently stressing “our” as a core characteristic of planned public health: “social care which would be provided by our services relevant to our living conditions and our mentality, our needs, our cultural life, our communities and economy.”33 The focus on health was seen by the most well-known and influential Czech eugenicists as “a beautiful and important sign of contemporary culture, a totally new trend in the history of humanity.”34 Vladislav Růžička stressed the mission of health care “to put in line the heredity of the Czech people and the impact of space with the new tasks.”35 30 Brožek, Nauka Mendelova. 31 Hamza, Zdravotní a tělesná výchova lidu, p. 12. 32 Antonin Kolinský was one of the key officials in the Ministry of Health who survived in the post through a succession of governments. He was the second official in the ministry until the end of the 1930s. 33 Kolinský, ‘Úvodní slovo,’ p. 2. 34 Brožek, Nauka Mendelova, p. 7. 35 Růžička, Biologické základy eugeniky, p. 10.

46 Victoria Shmidt

By focusing on the role of the future, the advocates of sacralized health highlighted the role of professionalism and the new culture of health care. Jedlička, a specialist in the care of people with disabilities, stressed: “Totally new health rights as well as health duties are born; not only the people’s hearts but also the doors of public agencies and laws are opened.”36 Also, the position toward the role of heredity and social factors remained a concern that divided professionals. Being the leader of those scholars who relied on heredity, Brožek stressed the mission of a “whole array of institutions to indicate the ways to hinder the reproduction of inferior members of society in order to promote the consistent growth of those who have good or even more, outstanding qualities.”37

1.3

The institutionalization of health care: Between multiple challenges and limited options

The sacralization of health demanded the intensive creation of institutions not only to provide the grounds for reinforcing the position of professionals but also to reproduce the whole range of procedures and practices aimed at protecting the health of the nation. The first decade of the interwar period was the era of institutionalizing health care and social protection across the world, on national and international levels. As a newly established state, Czechoslovakia cooperated with international bodies such as the League of Nations more easily because both the new state and “fresh” global initiatives needed legitimation, and the peoples’ health became one of the main vehicles for this collaboration. Like many other CEE countries, Czechoslovakia began its reform in close cooperation with the Rockefeller Foundation. The Rockefeller Foundation remained a key international stakeholder in reforming public health in the interwar world. By connecting public health and scientific knowledge, the foundation put forward the task to monitor newly established states: “The work of the Rockefeller Foundation in the field of public health, although intimately connected with control efforts in behalf of certain diseases, has throughout been directed toward the acquisition of new scientific knowledge, by which the principles of control are definitely established.”38 The foundation affected the reform of public health in two interrelated ways: via direct cooperation with national 36 Jedlička, ‘Trvalé poškození,’ p. 101. 37 Brožek, Nauka Mendelova, p. 8. 38 Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report (1929), p. 30.

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

47

governments and by encouraging the recently established international bodies aimed at improving the standards of health care as well as the responsibility of national governments toward the international community. By focusing on administration and the standards of public health, the Rockefeller Foundation promoted the American model of public health and according to historians of American public health, operated in favor of pan-Americanism much more eff iciently than any of the American epistemic communities.39 The mass media campaigns regarding the role of the United States in the progress of other countries often reproduced the idea of that these countries should become as American as possible. When commenting on the visit of well-known social reformer Julia Lathrop40 to Czechoslovakia in 1921, the New York Times titled an article “Czechoslovakia Seeks to Be Little America.”41 From outset, the Rockefeller Foundation recognized the potential role of Czechoslovakia as a positive source of good practices for other nations. Between 1919 and 1934, more than a hundred Czechoslovak professionals, physicians and nurses, were retrained at American universities and colleges. The first cohort of visiting professionals who arrived 1919 comprised Zděněk Bernard, Karel Driml, Jaroslav Hůlka42 and Hynek Pelc. Upon their return, they obtained key positions in public health authorities. One of the top administrators of the Rockefeller Foundation, the vice president of European operations and assistant director of social science programs in Europe, Selskar M. Gunn, initiated cooperation with the Czechoslovak authorities in the early 1920s within pilot projects that the foundation disseminated during the interwar period in various countries. Beginning in late 1919, the cooperation between the Czechoslovak authorities and the foundation included various dimensions and resonated with the international agenda of the foundation, which focused on the reform of public health administration and the retraining of health-care professionals. 43 However, the foundation ran into problems with the ministries, which were the key institutions chosen for elaborating the projects.

39 Sobe, American Post-Conflict. 40 Julia Lathrop, director of the United States Children’s Bureau from 1912 to 1922, was the first woman ever to head a United States federal bureau. 41 “Czechoslovakia Seeks to Be Little America”, p. 25 42 For instance, Hůlka became the head of the Division for Study and Reforms of Public Health Activities, and Pelc became the head of the Department of Social Hygiene in the State Institute of Hygiene, and later, the head of the State Institution of Hygiene. 43 Weindling, ‘American Foundations,’ pp. 72-73.

48 Victoria Shmidt

Two ministries, the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture and the Ministry of Social Welfare, established special divisions aimed at collecting data and providing comparative analysis to work toward better understanding the options for adopting and modifying the experience abroad of public health reform. By establishing in 1920 the Division for the Study and Reforms of Public Health Activities (Odbor pro studium a přípravu reformy zdravotní péče), the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture met the request of the Rockefeller Foundation to start the reform of public health management as soon as possible. The division consisted of several subdivisions responsible for organizing the retraining of professionals abroad, organizing and managing international cooperation and also comparing legal regulations. The main task of this division was “to gather and explore all legal regulations of the states both European and non-European, investigate the collected material and compare with our current legal frames in order to offer relevant changes in the law.”44 The division occupied several rooms in the Ministry of Health and was situated near the office of the Rockefeller Foundation, which occupied an office in the building of the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture. The division operated by taking account of the obvious difference in the attitudes of the ministry and the foundation regarding the planned reform. For instance, Šrámek intended to introduce health police in order to improve the surveillance of unreliable groups of the population, but the experts of the division advanced an agenda relevant to the American patterns of public health reform: higher standards of professional training, health-care services and management. The activity of the division should be seen as an element of the checksand-balances relationship between the top level of the Ministry of Health and the Rockefeller Foundation. The conflict between the division, the ministry and the foundation that occurred in early 1922 can be seen as a typical pattern of the difficult communication between them. On 9 January, Kolinský sent a very cross letter to Karel Hrdlička, a referent of the division who was a part-time expert responsible for gathering information from abroad as well as assessing its usefulness. The main concern was the delay in preparing the draft of the law. Kolinský asked for a draft to be sent in the next ten days. Also, he mentioned the obligation to complete the draft before the agreement with Hrdlička expired. 45 On 12 January, Hrdlička sent a detailed 44 Odbor pro studium a přípravu reformy zdravotní péče při Ministerstvu veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy, ‘Stanovení.’ 45 Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictvi a telesné výchovy, ‘Všeobecný zdravotní zákon přípravné práce. Dopis.’

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

49

five-page letter directly to Gunn, responding to the accusation; he also sent a copy of the letter to the Rockefeller Foundation. 46 In his letter, Hrdlička described a wide range of obligations placed upon them by the ministry as well as the incoherence of their expectations. Hrdlička received direct financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation, and the foundation made the final decision about the duration of his agreement and its content. On 24 January, the ministry received Gunn’s answer: “As you know, we expect to have the meeting of the Advisory Council at the end of February and I consider it very necessary that Dr. Hrdlička continue his services until that time, as it is to be expected that he will present the report on the training of nurses and public health nurses and he will undoubtedly need the month of February to finish this report.”47 Remarkably, Gunn’s letter was translated from English into Czech by Hrdlička so that it could be read by the top managers in the ministry. After completing the task of a comparative review of legal regulations, the role of the division became quite modest – to select those health-care workers who would be able to study abroad and share their findings and experience.48 Also, the financial support from Rockefeller Foundation significantly decreased from $39,000 in 1922 to less than $8,000 in the following years.49 Other proministerial institutions such as the Social Institute (Sociální ústav republiky Československé), encountered similar problems in elaborating their own agendas. Established in 1920, the Social Institute was led by the Minister of Social Welfare as the chair of the institute’s committee. The minister appointed half of the experts, and the other half were appointed by the institute’s committee, chaired by the minister. Remarkably, the institute’s committee involved the members of different political parties, even with the mutually exclusive attitudes toward various social issues, including reproductive policy, public health and child protection. It is reasonable to say that the main argument in favor of such a strong connection with the ministry and political parties could be explained by the strong resistance against the establishment of the institute – from the different sides, including the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture. Nevertheless, accepting the benefit of being under the direct protection of the Ministry of Social Welfare, the institute’s experts recognized the ambiguity 46 Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictví a telesné výchovy, ‘Všeobecný zdravotní zákon: přípravné práce. Uřední přípominka.’ 47 Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictvi a telesné výchovy, ‘Letter by Gunn to An. Kolinsky.’ 48 Odbor pro studium a přípravu reformy zdravotní péče při Ministerstvu veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy, ‘Stanovení.’ 49 Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report (1929), p. 146.

50 Victoria Shmidt

of their status. One of the active promoters, the director of institute’s library, Jan Žalud, stressed that “the main shortcoming of our institute is too close a connection with the [M]inistry [of Social Welfare]. If it was an independent research center addressing social issues and cooperating with advanced educational institutions and other research centers, the situation would be different.”50 In their first report after three years of existence, the scholars who worked at the institute mentioned the dependence on the ministry as a main challenge for further development: “There are no doubts that in terms of resources, such a connection made the first steps for our institute much easier. But by obtaining such official status, our institute was short of a healthy resistance to existing regulations and the interests of authorities against the interests of an authentic life.”51 By connecting the institute with diverse political forces, those who established it made the institute also limited in the capacity to lobby for particular legal regulations and policies. The twofold addiction, to the ministry and to political parties, made the institute, according to the opinion of Lev Winter, one of its founders, “celebratory and event-focused, not suitable to carry out a daily research routine.”52 Indeed, according to the annual reports for the years from 1921 to 1928, organizing public debates and participation in international events remained two main types of activities conducted by the institute. During the 1920s, the Social Institute was in the process of indicating its priorities – it tried to juxtapose the international agenda and national issues. First, the main concern was labor and its regulation, but by the end of the 1920s, health care rose to the highest position on the agenda of the institute in the context of the debates on health insurance.53 Also, former minister of health and physical culture Prokop Procházka and the leader of the State Institute of Hygiene cooperated with the Social Institute in favor of achieving a multidisciplinary approach to exploring the obstacles to introducing a system of health insurance. The institute needed to attract more donors to make its financial situation sustainable. The main trajectory for finding money was recognizing the international priorities, and it led the institute to the cooperation with Rockefeller Foundation and further participation in the projects aimed at improving public health.54 The connection between the Social Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation was mediated by Pelc and Prokop Procházka, 50 Sociální ústav, ‘Zápis schůze představenstva.’ 51 Sociální ústav, ‘Sociální ústav,’ p. 14. 52 Sociální ústav, ‘Zápis schůze představenstva,’ p. 4. 53 Sociální ústav, ‘Zpráva o schůzi představenstva.’ 54 One was implemented in Slovakia and aimed to establish public health services in the rural areas. See Shmidt, ‘Public Health.’

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

51

two leaders of the State Institute of Hygiene.55 In 1930, Winter stressed that only the financial support of the Rockefeller Foundation would make it possible “to transform the Social Institute into the comprehensive research center it was intended to become from the start.”56 Remarkably, by starting to focus on the issue of health care, the institute also drew attention to child protection. In 1930, the institute published a call for practitioners who would be ready to share their positive experience in placing children into institutes or with substitute families. The essay competition, “The Child in Substitute Care” (Dítě v cizí péči), aimed to explore options for improving substitute care in the Czech lands.57 By trying to deepen this issue, the institute ran into another obstacle – the lack of professionalism among the local authorities. By announcing the competition in more than 20 journals, magazines and newspapers, the institute intended to engage a wide range of practitioners, but in the end there were only three submissions and no prize was awarded because of the low standard of the essays and the obvious mismatch with the expectations of the experts recruited to evaluate the projects. Despite the extension of the deadline, the competition was never completed. While the institutions within the ministries were unable to support epistemic communities during the f irst decade of the interwar period and operated either as technical subdivisions or as representatives of the new state at international events, two independent institutions, the State Institute of Hygiene (Státní zdravotní ústav)58 and the Masaryk Academy of Labor (Masarykova Akademie Práce) became the core agencies regarding the reform of public health and its operation as a civil religion. After five years of preparation, the State Institute of Hygiene finally opened in 1925 under the direct financial and organizational support of the Rockefeller Foundation. In his welcome speech, with a hefty dose of irony, Minister of Health Šrámek directly expressed his appreciation to George Vincent, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, for whom “the institute remains the commemoration of his own feat, as the man who works in favor of mankind.”59 Among eight different subdivisions, the institute included the Department of Social Hygiene and the Department of Retraining Health Care Workers and Propaganda. These departments were responsible for 55 Sociální ústav, ‘Zpráva o schůzi představenstva.’ 56 Ibid., p. 7. 57 Sociální ústav, ‘Uveřejnění vypsání.’ 58 There was an obvious difference in the English and the Czech names of the institute; the Czech version was more general (literally, the State Institute of Health). 59 Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy, ‘Projev.’

52 Victoria Shmidt

planning and managing several pilot projects aimed at introducing the new model of public health, both in urban and rural areas. The formation of the institute’s agenda coincided with shifting the Rockefeller Foundation’s priorities from its previous focus on the top management of public health to improving local practices: “Every army needs well-organized central headquarters, but unless this organization extends down into the ranks there can be no effective campaign.”60 While the stakeholders of health care remained in multiple contests, the task to embed the sacralization of health in national traditions and daily routine remained to be addressed.

1.4

The reform of public health: Great unmet expectations

During the early 1920s, the authorities started to pay attention to the issue of public health in the so-called “nonhistorical” territories, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Bad transportation and the irregular employment of rural workers were seen as obstacles to disseminating health insurance, along with the insufficient number of physicians and nurses and the lack of professional competencies.61 But only by the end of the 1920s were such intentions transformed into a plan for reform. The reform relied on three pillars: professionalization, institutionalization and decentralization of public health in the “nonhistorical” areas. The professionalization of public health remained a key prerequisite for the development of peripheral regions. The directives to health-care workers reflected the expectations of authorities about physicians and nurses as agents of cultural hegemony and progress: “We could trace the concern of individuals about their health from early times because it always relied on the basic instinct, selfishness, but the public concern about health of others is a phenomenon which we recognized much later in human history.”62 Pelc’s attitude reflected that of the Rockefeller Foundation leaders who required from the countries they funded to develop those methods of public health which “will turn the disease over to the public health worker, who thinks not in terms of the single individual but in terms of the community.”63 But this call for professionalization remained unmet.

60 Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report (1929), p. 107. 61 Hamza, Zdravotní a tělesná vychova lidu, p. 34. 62 Pelc, Sociální lekařství, p. 7. 63 Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report (1936), p. 9.

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

53

The sweeping critique of the state of public health in rural areas highlighted the physicians’ lack of responsibility as a “direct legacy of the imperial past.”64 In the early 1920s, the main target of this critique was the insufficient policy against infectious diseases.65 International standards of public health, especially concerning the prevention of infectious diseases, challenged prewar practices, but the Czechoslovak authorities turned these newly established rules into a propaganda tool aimed at legitimizing the new state by negating the previous, imperial, power. Only two measures, hanging a notification on a contaminated house and closing schools during pandemics, were implemented by local physicians, and it was enough, especially regarding the new expectations on the part of international organizations. The inspectors from the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture revealed other cases of careless behavior among the physicians. For instance, a peasant woman with syphilis was discharged from hospital after a three-month stay without any medical treatment.66 Notably, the issue of the irresponsible attitude of those physicians who worked with peasants was defined as “a lack of moral power.”67 Reinforcing such power should be achieved with consistent professionalization. Disappointed in physicians, the authorities relied on nurses as a key professional group responsible for healthy maternity and child development. Such expectations corresponded with the general intention to introduce the Anglo-Saxon model of maternity and childcare or the midwife-led continuity model based upon consistent assistance to mothers throughout the prenatal, natal and postnatal stages in rural areas.68 Nurses were to resolve diverse issues such as the organizing of nutrition, the training of mothers to care for their children and the connecting of mothers with local authorities and other professionals. Several Czech nurses were trained at Simmons College in Boston, one of the first private women’s undergraduate colleges in the United States, with a particular specialization in training nurses, social workers and midwives.69 By introducing new positions and professionals, the authorities stressed networking as the grounds for the sustainable institutionalization of public health. In the early 1920s, the Czechoslovak Red Cross established two main networking organizations that provided maternal and children’s health care 64 Hamza, Úvahy o sociální péči zdravotní, p. 2. 65 Wingfield, ‘Venereal Disease.’ 66 Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictvi a telesné výchovy, ‘Zpráva.’ 67 Ibid. 68 Hamza, Zdravotní a tělesná vychova lidu, pp. 69-70. 69 Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy, ‘Dopis od vyslanectví.’

54 Victoria Shmidt

in rural areas: the consultation service For Our Children (Poradna naším dětem) and the initiative Protection of Mothers and Children (Ochrana matek a dětí).70 The authorities expected that local hospitals and medical offices should be connected with civil initiatives like the Masaryk League (Masaryková Liga), which aimed to prevent the spread of tuberculosis, and the Czechoslovak Red Cross, which focused on a wide range of issues regarding child protection. The reform’s objectives required intensive collaboration with school authorities and child protection services (péče o mládež). In the internal documents of the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture, three different types of communication were distinguished: sharing experiences (the participants in a project should organize regular meetings and present project outcomes); transferring a particular case to other services (e.g., assistance to single mothers, social care for the children with disabilities); and gathering data about extreme cases and situations.71 The decentralization of the health-care system operated in favor of solving an economic hurdle, the lack of resources. Two main challenges, the overlapping of professional duties and the predominance of hospital health care against the lack of field work with the people, were mentioned by authorities in support of decentralization of the system. According to the plans, the responsibility for various decisions should be transferred to local physicians. By planning the budget, fundraising and managing human resources, local physicians should be obliged to elaborate schemes of public health and preventive work. The planned decentralization of public health could also be seen as a part of internal colonization. By placing responsibilities on local professionals, the authorities relied on their abilities to provide efficient surveillance of the rural population. The planned design of decentralization highlighted the role of professionals as health guards (zdravotní dozorce) who participated in the daily life of the peasant, attending to their problems, monitoring the quality of their life and providing assistance. Special attention was paid to housing conditions, especially where the mortality rate was high. The physicians should participate in elaborating local plans for improving housing conditions and provide information as well as new approaches to housing hygiene. The economic crisis during the 1930s prevented systematic reform, and only several projects, targeted to either explore the issues or improve the various realms of public health, operated through the triangle of professionalizationinstitutionalization-decentralization. In conjunction with the conflict-laden 70 Státní zdravotní ústav, ‘Zpráva.’ 71 Ibid.

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

55

process of institutionalizing the top level of health care, this systematic shortcoming of the pedestrian operation of health care limited attempts to introduce radical measures in favor of the nation.

1.5

Debates around inferiority and reproductive policies: The Tower of Babylon

Czech eugenicists’ ambitious attempts to introduce such legal regulations as compulsory premarital examination (between 1919 and 1920) and forced sterilization (in the middle of the 1930s72) were accompanied by passionate discussions between the adherents of intense intervention in private life in favor of public health concerns (mainly eugenicists) and their opponents (religiously minded politicians and public figures).73 Czech eugenicists sought to include an article about legalizing premarital examination as an addition to the draft of Law No. 320, “About the Procedures Regarding the Marriage Contract” (O obřadnostech smlouvy manželské). This additional section introduced the grounds for forbidding marriage, the possible punishment for those authorities who would either provide false permission or register marriage without premarital examination or against the negative output of such a test and the common requirements for the examination procedure. In his argument in favor of obligatory premarital examination, the most consistent promoter of this treatment, Ladislav Haškovec,74 explained the main targets of eugenics: The urgent need of the postwar era, when our nation lost many men who were the healthiest and the most capable for reproduction; when sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis spread; and when war consequences have aggravated the living and health conditions of our population and future generations, persuades me as a health-care legislation expert to introduce new considerations to the marriage agreement as a measure aimed at limiting all factors harming the health of our nation.75

72 The public debates concerning enforced sterilization started in the late 1920s and continued to the end of the 1930s, when, in 1937, the Czech Eugenic Society offered the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture the “Memorandum on the Issue of Sterilization.” Zvláštní komise Čs. Eugenická společnost, ‘Memorandum.’ 73 Turda, The History of East-Central European Eugenics, p. xvi. 74 Ladislav Haškovec (1866-1944) was a physician and professor of neuropathology. 75 Haškovec, ‘Diskuse k omezování.’

56 Victoria Shmidt

The argument against obligatory premarital examination was built into the general resistance to civil marriage as a part of the secularization plans by the ruling coalition. According to Catholic experts, medical assessment could not replace the moral obligations established by religion; nor could civil marriage substitute for a marriage made in heaven.76 The power of physicians could not be a viable alternative against the moral prescriptions to women and men from Christianity.77 God’s commandments were seen as sufficient for preventing those marriages undesirable in terms of health – in the case of consistent implementation of these commandments, which would require cooperation between the state and the church. The section about legalizing premarital examination was excluded from the draft of the law by the decision of the board of the State Health Care Council, and was not even discussed during the preliminary debates around the law.78The debates between the two camps became more hard-edged in the 1930s, when eugenicists tried to advance a law concerning forced sterilization. Two main arguments were put forward in favor of forced sterilization: first, the obvious crisis in residential care for people with disabilities, and second, the rapid growth of the population in the eastern (nonhistorical) parts of Czechoslovakia as compared to the decrease in natality among Czechs. The inability of institutions to cope with the increasing number of people with disabilities who were being placed into residential care units was the focal point in the arguments developed by the lawyer Jarmila Veselá, who put forward the systematic lack of statistical data regarding the threat of an increasing number of children born to inferior parents.79 This argument resonated with the consistent attitude toward ethnic minorities as a source of inferiority. By describing the ongoing degradation of Rusyns, the rapidly growing ethnic group living in Subcarpathian Ruthenia,80 Karel Plaňanský,81 an expert from the Masaryk Academy of Labor, stressed that 76 ‘Blaho státu a náboženství,’ p. 1. 77 ‘Odluka církve od státu.’ 78 Národní shromáždění republiky Československé, ‘Zpráva právního.’ 79 Veselá, Sterilisace. 80 Rusyns are diasporic ethnic group, residents of the Carpathian Mountains, whose status as an independent ethnic group remains politically controversial. More about the history of Rusyns, including the vicissitudes of their destiny in interwar Czechoslovakia, can be found in the writings of Paul Robert Magocsi, such as Magocsi and Ivan Pop, Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002). 81 Karel Plaňanský (1904-1998) was a famous Czech-American psychiatrist who started his career under the supervision of Jindřich Matiegka and Karel Herfort by conducting a survey of children with mental disabilities whose development Plaňanský studied by reconstructing the family trees. After World War II he escaped to the United States and continued his studies

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

57

there is a big share of inferior children who have avoided the process of natural selection. In their current backward living conditions, Rusyn society does not consider the existence of these children abnormal. But along with the progressive development of better living conditions, these children would become more troublesome, mainly because they will be unable to take part in building a new life by remaining the object of public care.82

His conclusion stemmed from several surveys that eugenicists had conducted among Rusyns,83 and a special report about the demographic crisis in Subcarpathian Ruthenia that the Eugenic Society had prepared.84 Opposing the decrease of population in the historical (Bohemian) part of the country to the increase of population in nonhistorical regions brought forward the intersectionality of disability and ethnicity. The “low quality” of Ruthenian and Slovak populations started to be opposed to smaller but “healthier” Czech population.85 Tellingly, the core line of the arguments for legalizing sterilization stemmed from international experience. In the most detailed statement, “Memorandum on the Issue of Sterilization” (Memorandum k otázce eugenické sterilisace86), prepared after finishing the primary discussions, the Czech Eugenic Society directly compared the demographic crisis in Czechoslovakia with Western countries by stressing the fact of decreasing the population and increasing the share of those who were labeled as inferior. Along with adopting the arguments provided by Western scholars, the memorandum mentioned the list of the diagnoses potentially suitable for making positive decision concerning sterilization comparable with the list by Davenport: inheritance of epilepsy, a cheerful temperament and nomadism as well as the list of hundreds of anomalies from the 1931 book Human Heredity by Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer, and Fritz Lenz. Mentioning the experience of Scandinavian countries played a key role in the argument because it embedded sterilization into wide range of the contexts concerning the politics of disability. Sterilization should be supplemented by the consistently placing feeble-minded people in residential of bipolar disease and genetic factors. He also assisted Bohumil Sekla, who was interested in cooperation with American scholars during the 1950s. 82 Plaňanský, ‘O vitalitě,’ p. 15. 83 Suk, Antropologie Podkarpatské Rusi. 84 Nechamkis, ‘Co způsobilo.’ 85 Nechamkis, ‘Vliv poklesu.’ 86 Zvláštní komise Čs. Eugenická společnost, ‘Memorandum.’

58 Victoria Shmidt

care centers while rigorously and regularly recording cases of serious mental disability in order to plan in-time isolation of those selected for the process. These arguments deserved the most consistent negative follow-up on the part of those who practiced pro-Catholic values. Karel Kadlec87 was in the vanguard of those who strongly criticized sterilization. His arguments can be interpreted as a modification of the critical platform against eugenics presented in the famous book Eugenics and Other Evils by Gilbert Chesterton.88 Like Chesterton, Kadlec warned about the over-rationalization within eugenics and compared sterilization with the death penalty.89 Also following Chesterton’s conclusion, “We are already under the eugenicist state; and nothing remains to us but rebellion,” Kadlec operated according to the analogy between the state and an organism: “The individual is a part of the state organism, comparable with the family […] they obey natural law and the rights which cannot be alienated under any circumstances until the state operates in line with this law.”90 By comparing the rule of eugenics with a disease threatening the Czechoslovak state, Kadlec arrived at the conclusion that “eugenics’ implications aim to cope with the consequences of rejecting the moral grounds of Christianity and thus, only aggravate the current crisis of morality.”91 The debates around eugenics were also determined by the strong influence of the Czechoslovak People’s Party on two key institutions responsible for public health: the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture and the Ministry of Social Welfare. In this struggle between two camps of experts, it is easy to recognize the Eliasian decisive axis of tension in favor of a definite set of social power relationships.92 By consistently subordinating humanist values to the interests of the nation-state, eugenicists and their adherents represented the patterns of “we-and-they-feelings” and strongly opposed a healthy, or even only potentially healthy, “we” to a degraded “them”: unfit inferior minorities. Further, those who denied the eugenic approach reproduced the quasi-aristocratic heritage of morality that relied on the wholeness and holiness of a state directly affiliated with Christianity. Undoubtedly, the debates around the implications of eugenics were built into the general struggle for secularization – in which the new proeugenic elites were also defeated. Their struggle against the adherents of traditional 87 Karel Kadlec (1886-1961) was a professor of theology at Charles University. 88 Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils. 89 Kadlec, Racionalisace života, p. 3. 90 Ibid., pp. 45-46. 91 Ibid. 92 Elias, The Society of Individuals, p. 53.

Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia

59

religious values can be defined as free competition accompanied by the gradual transformation of private into public, the first stage of monopolizing the power by the newly established state. The plausibility of this interpretation of the debates around legalizing eugenic measures is substantiated by the fact of the presence of the “third camp” – influential experts who shared a eugenic approach but alongside indicated the necessity to circumvent eugenic implications. Thus, Josef Pelnář,93 who consistently opposed legalizing premarital examination, stressed that “the time when the permission and injunction to marriage should be regulated by the law from a eugenic point of view will come, but not right now. By limiting circumstances, we could advise, but not make, decisions.”94 In the middle 1920s, Driml, who also opposed legalizing premarital examination, exerted a great deal of effort to dismantle eugenics in cooperation with the Czechoslovak Red Cross.95 Later, by summarizing all the failed attempts by eugenicists to introduce new “progressive” measures, Pelc stressed the role of “the outweighing of external factors against heredity and the lack of knowledge about the role of heredity in diseases”96 but also emphasized the potential of public health in overcoming these obstacles in favor of establishing powerful instruments for improving the nation in the future. Such political discretion among officials regarding eugenics can be interpreted as a position in favor of strengthening the state’s authority. By balancing between two camps and avoiding affiliation with either of two extremes, the authorities exercised their power, leading to the hegemony of the state’s institutions. It is reasonable to conclude the analysis of the institutional and discursive shifts in public health by saying that there were several interrelated dimensions for implementing the task to sacralize public health and social medicine. In favor of strengthening the position of the authorities, the task to embed the sacralization of health in national traditions and daily routines remained to be addressed. One of the most rigorous strategies to implement this task was the outstandingly consistent public policy toward normalizing people with disabilities. Impelled by the weight of mutually exclusive attitudes toward disability, the state elaborated a concept of disability that monopolized practices and discourses in favor of building the nation. In line with the concept of root metaphors mapping 93 Josef Pelnář (1872-1964) was a famous physician, a member of the Czechoslovak Union of Physicians and a professor at Charles University. He introduced the concept of internal medicine into practice in Czechoslovakia and led the first internist clinic in the country. 94 Pelnář, ‘Omezování a zakazování.’ 95 Driml, ‘Lékařská prohlídka snoubenců,’ p. 11. 96 Pelc, Sociální lekařství, pp. 92-93.

60 Victoria Shmidt

the formation of civil religion, we divide these dimensions according to the core metaphors for the health of the nation: disability and intactness, child and adult. One of the most rigorous strategies to implement the task of sacralizing health was the consistent public policy of normalizing people with disabilities – in contrast to many other countries where people with disabilities were considered as undesirable for the future of the nation.

About the author Victoria Shmidt has a PhD in Developmental Psychology (1998, Russian Academy of Education) and a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy (2012, Masaryk University). Since 2011, Dr. Shmidt has been working on the issue of the policies concerning ethnic minorities in the Czech lands and the role of various academic communities in producing the discourses and practices of segregation.

2

The Discourse of Disability A Noah’s Ark for the New Nation? Victoria Shmidt and Karel Pančocha Abstract This chapter explains the core concept of the Czechoslovak politics of disability, functional health (prescribing health even to those who had disabilities but were able to work), its intersectionality with gender and race in propaganda and institutional strategies concerning two main target groups: legionnaires and children with disabilities. In line with the Eliasian vision of national elites and their role in the sociogenesis of the nation-state, we explore how the intensive institutionalization of public health and social care was accompanied by exaggerating the role of health in public and professional discourses. Keywords: disability, functional health, public health propaganda, institutionalization of health care

2.1

Functional health: The utilitarian discourse of disability

The normalization of those who had disabilities played a special role in the discourse of the Czechoslovak ideologues about the new health care during the 1920s. Having disabled people participate in building the nation highlighted a heroic past and a promising future – because the main target groups of normalization were war veterans and children with physical as well as mental disabilities. The Czechoslovak official ideology proclaimed the systematic reform of care for the disabled, providing options for its normalization: “The world war brought the care of the handicapped back to the state of the Middle Ages.”1 Remarkably, people with disabilities 1

Jedlička, ‘Trvalé poškožení,’ p. 100.

Shmidt, Victoria (ed.), The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia. Segregating in the Name of the Nation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789463720014/ch02

62 Victoria Shmidt and K arel Pančocha

gained a twofold status, as those whose lives were aggravated by the war, and as those who were unable to make a positive contribution due to the postwar hardship of the Czechoslovak people: “The permanently impaired are those who remain the most abandoned Cinderellas of our social health care. Sustainable care of these unhappiest people is not only profound for the national economy but also reconciles the life of ordinary people.”2 By summarizing the problem of disability, the ideologues of public health reform attacked the dependence of those with disabilities on others’ care as blocking the dignity of not only the individuals but of society in general: “The main risk for those who were handicapped was to remain beggarly creatures who are sentenced to the care and charity of their surroundings.”3 Thus, the ability to work was seen as “the only one way to provide, essential for the existence of individuals and society, the true gold treasure of the state, labor has become a precious outstanding and wanted value.” By directly connecting the ability to work with health, the ideologues revised the concept of disability toward emphasizing functional health: “Even that individual, either adult or child, who has a permanent or unrecoverable physical disability cannot be labeled as impaired until his or her disability remains not so difficult that the individual’s ability to work would be significantly reduced.”4 Even more, according to Hamza and Jedlička: “Those who have any, even a difficult, type of disability ceased to be handicapped from the moment they have developed the rest of their abilities due to either educational or health-care effort and have become capable people.”5 By prioritizing functional health, Hamza redefined the mission of policy toward the disabled: “The aim is not only to heal or remove corporal defect cosmetically or anatomically but in functional meaning – to ensure the capacities of the body […] productivity of the spirit and corporeality, to teach handicapped individuals to work efficiently and provide to them the ability to serve themselves, the possibilities of fruitful and joyful work.”6 Connecting the empowerment of the disabled with the mission of building the nation put forward the role of professionals, services and the state’s policies: “As one of the tasks of the national economy, care for handicapped people cannot be solved by the philanthropic activities of individuals or 2 Hamza, Zdravotní a tělesná výchova lidu, pp. 121-123. 3 Jedlička, ‘Trvalé poškožení,’ p. 101. 4 Ibid., p. 102. 5 Hamza, Zdravotní a tělesná výchova lidu, p. 100. 6 Hamza, Úvahy o sociální péči zdravotní, p. 99.

The Discourse of Disabilit y

63

private associations; it needs the efforts toward substantial development throughout the country, which requires consistent institutional and legal transformation.”7 And the increased interest in psychotechnic and vocational counseling was legitimized by the necessity to substitute the losses and damages of war. Thus, the mission of the Masaryk Academy of Labor as well as other institutions was “to trace and explore the interconnections between the issues of social policy,” which prescribed to this institution an “extremely outstanding role in planning the rational use of peoples’ mental abilities.”8 In 1924, the academy lobbied the decision to establish a new subdivision, the Psychotechnic Institute, in order to elaborate vocational counseling and retraining for two target groups: war veterans and children with disabilities.9 The policy concerning the disabled was built into the main priority of the national economy to improve the human capital of citizens. The motto “The right people for the right job” was seen as a cornerstone for the postwar national economy, suffering from the enormous degree of neglect and devastation among the people caused by the war. Undoubtedly, first and foremost, men were seen as the “right people.”

2.2

Men in focus: Functional health as a part of the genderimbalanced propaganda of public health

In the pursuit of combining the ability to work and develop a new Czechoslovak nation, functional health remained a gender-imbalanced concept in the realm of public policy. Tellingly, early measurement among disabled children in anthropological survey samples focused only on boys. For instance, one of the first systematic attempts to bring together the physical and mental specifics of feeble-minded children stemmed from anthropometric measurement of 850 boys attending the Pedological Institute (Paedologický ústav).10 Boys and men were seen as responsible for the health of the people. Indeed, men became the target group of a massive propaganda campaign on public health distinguishing the interwar period and the new approaches aimed at integrating citizens with disabilities. Combining fiction and instructional documentary, outreach films became a major instrument for disseminating 7 8 9 10

Jedlička, ‘Trvalé poškození,’ p. 100. Ministerstvo obchodu, ‘Subvencování Psychotechnického ústavu.’ Masaryková Akademie Práce, ‘Příspěvek.’ Lukášová, ‘Příspěvek k výzkumu.’

64 Victoria Shmidt and K arel Pančocha

new approaches to health where the plots directly addressed the male audience – either children or adults. In Driml‘s films for children, a boy named Budulínek was a protagonist of health instruction – he was to be taught about proper nutrition, brushing his teeth and physical activities. The child audiences often depicted in the movies consisted mostly of boys. One of the first outreach films aimed at promoting the new public health ideology for children was How Vashik Got His Legs (Jak Vašíček přišel k nohám, 1921) produced by Antonín Jiroušek, a film director who also created the plots for few patriotic films such as With Fire and Sword (Ohněm a měčem), based on the nineteenth-century novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Due to a tragic accident, Vašiček, an eight-year-old boy, loses his legs. After major surgery, the boy is placed in the Jedličkův ústav (the Jedlička Institute, the most famous interwar residential care setting for children with physical disabilities, located in Prague). During his stay, Vašiček begins to cope with the aftermath of the accident and learns to be independent.11 All child characters were played by those who were brought up in the Jedlička Institute – a choice that obviously operated in favor of promoting the concept of functional health. The entire film has been lost, but twenty stills saved by the National Film Archives provide evidence of the film’s consistent focus on boys and men with disabilities. They were obviously seen as the target group of the effort toward not only healing them, but “rooting them in the society by elaborating on their ability to cooperate.”12 The collective activities of the children with different types of physical disabilities, both labor and entertainment, are definitely male activities requiring, in particular, male physical effort. In propagandist texts concerning the institute, life there was often described as a brotherhood of those who worked together to the benefit of their institute and the nation.13 In the f ilm the counterpart to the children is a homeless beggar, a man. The most desired scenario of achieving independence is also illustrated by men who are able to perform technically complicated tasks even without hands. The fiction part of the films for adults reproduced the diverse basic plots concerning the love triangle with particular focus on two different male characters, positive or potentially educable and hopelessly negative. Escaping from the challenges, including the demands for treating the disease and subsequent return to desirable male behavior, was the dramatic turn in 11 Bartoš, ‘Jak Vašíček příšel k noham.’ 12 Bartoš, ‘Výchovná práce Jedličkova ústavu.’ 13 Bartoš, ‘Dvacet let Jedličkova ústava.’

The Discourse of Disabilit y

65

Figure 3 The child audience, mainly boys, at a puppet show in The Clown and Budulínek (Kašparek a Budulínek, by Karel Driml, 1927)

Source: NFA

the plot. The films prescribed men as being brave – and going for medical treatment. The fact that the films about different diseases targeted different social groups only reinforced the gender-based imbalance – male characters and their psychological features performed the difference of social classes. For instance, the first outreach sound film, Fortuitous Moment (Osudná chvíle, by Václav Kubásek and Josef Kokeisl, 1935), about venereal diseases was aimed directly at the middle-class men living in metropolitan cities such as Prague, where the main part of the film was shot. The main character is an ambitious young bank manager, Dvořák, who does not have any bad or unhealthy habits and plans to marry Marta (the daughter of his boss and his father’s friend). Dvořák yields to the pressure of his evil-living friend, Reich, and spends the night with a seductive dancer, Mimi. After being blackmailed by Mimi’s boyfriend, Dvořák abandons Prague and escapes to Beograd, where he realizes that he has contracted gonorrhea. After several unsuccessful attempts to by cured by taking folk remedies, he is lucky to meet a Czech physician who not only successfully treats Dvořák, but informs about the death of his mother and lends him money to return to Prague. Finally, Dvořák is forgiven by Marta, they are happily married and they have three healthy children. At the same time Dvořák’s friend, Reich, who had led him astray, is committed to a mental institution due to the untreatable consequences of syphilis. Remarkably, Mimi’s boyfriend also

66 Victoria Shmidt and K arel Pančocha Figure 4 The brotherhood of disabled men: stills from the film How Vashik Got His Legs (Jak Vašíček přišel k nohám, 1921)

Source: NFA

winds up in the institution – but as a result as a court judgment (no doubt a plot element designed to illustrate the efficiency of the new law about combating venereal diseases). The film does not provide any clues about the destiny of Mimi. In contrast to middle-class troubles with venereal diseases, the battle against trachoma directly targeted nonhistorical areas and its rural population – Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. The film The Shadow in the Light/Blind Juro/Stubborn Juro (Stín ve světle/Slepý Juro/ Tvrdohlavý Juro, 1929) tells the story of a young Slovak man, Juro, who is in love with Maryša. Her favor is the subject of the contest between Juro and another man, Janko, who is not as handsome or as musically gifted as Juro. Maryša chooses Juro, who goes away with a group of seasonal workers, including Janko, to make money. Because of the poor hygienic conditions of the work, all are infected with trachoma. While Janko decides to visit a physician and get treatment, Juro ignores the disease and hopes that his healthy condition and immunity will protect him. When the workers come back, Maryša realizes that her f iancée needs medical treatment and tries to persuade Juro to seek it, but in vain. Juro

The Discourse of Disabilit y

67

then decides to try to emigrate,14 but being visibly sick, he is unable to pass the medical examination and the migration authorities send him home. Losing his vision, Juro gets the only job open to the blind in a rural area – as a shepherd. In the end, a totally blind Juro sits near the church and Maryša, who is now Janko’s wife and the mother of his children, is giving bread and money to Juro. The actor Roman Roda-Růžička, a handsome blonde man, played the male protagonist in both films as well as in some other popular outreach films within the campaign of public health, including Cinderella (Popelka, by Driml, 1928), in which he performs a prince named Plavovlas (Blond). It seems that Roda-Růžička represented the desirable male embodiment that could be either saved or lost in the struggle to reproduce the nation. The focus on men as the key audience partially explains the specific approach to present the disease in the documentary part. This instructional part of the films aimed to involve the nonprofessional male audience in the world of professional medicine and to inform them about the consequences of contracting a disease and avoiding treatment as well as about acceptable ways of treating it successfully. The documentary part always emphasized the hideous depictions of bodily decay as the main consequence of the disease, narratives designed to persuade the audience to seek medical treatment immediately. Alongside emphatic depictions of the consequences, in-time treatment was described as facilitating continuation of normal life, including the ability to work. The focus on men in the propaganda of public health illustrates the embeddedness of functional health in the concept of the newly envisaged Czechoslovak nation. The well-known attitude to women of the nation as potentially, partially or totally ‘other’ explains the consistent division of female characters in outreach films into totally positive wives who encouraged healthy patterns of living in their husbands and the fallen women who not only seduce positive male protagonists but remain the victim and accomplice of the negative male characters. For propaganda based on functional health as part of citizenship, the rupture between these two female patterns seemed to be inapproachable. During the postwar period the obvious shift of public health campaigns on women as the target group would be accompanied by a different, “female,” approach to health as providing naturalness, autonomy and progress.15 14 Tellingly, that the undesirable behavioral pattern concerning sickness and health was directly linked with other patterns of Slovak and Rusyn population behavior that were ambiguous for the authorities – emigration to North America. 15 Shmidt, ‘Eugenics.’

68 Victoria Shmidt and K arel Pančocha Figure 5 Roman Roda-Růžička as Dvořák in Fortuitous Moment (Osudná chvíle, 1935)

Source: NFA

Figure 6 Roman Roda-Růžička as Juro in The Shadow in the Light/Blind Juro/ Stubborn Juro (Stín ve světle/Slepý Juro/Tvrdohlavý Juro, 1929)

Source: NFA

The Discourse of Disabilit y

69

During the economic crisis of the 1930s, increased unemployment and the atmosphere of the impending catastrophic war only aggravated the genderbased imbalance. By emphasizing the need to employ men as the defenders of the nation, functional health remained the male prerogative, while women continued to be seen as either reinforcing or destroying male health. The intersectionality of gender and disability in public discourse reverberated with policies concerning the two main target groups of functional health: legionnaires and children with disabilities.

2.3

The politics of positive discrimination for legionnaires: The salt of the earth

As a civil religion, the ideology of health care was not and could not be absolutely new and, vice versa, the sacralization of health orchestrated a revision of the past in order to build new symbols and prescriptions for national, or even human, history. The collective narratives about health and health care should reflect the successful fight by the Czechs for independence and their own nationhood. The accomplishments of the Czechoslovak legionnaires became an irreplaceable part of such glorious narratives.16 According to Anderson, cenotaphs and tombs of unknown soldiers are the most arresting emblems of nationalism.17 In interwar Czechoslovakia, the legionnaires were live heroes who embodied great cultural significance for the nation. In elaborating the arguments in favor of care for the disabled, Jedlička spoke about the legionnaires: “They are the rest of those giants with virile courage, who redeemed the freedom of our nation.”18 In public opinion, the legionnaires were those who rescued not only the Czechoslovak nation but also European democracy – and they worked on the new image of the Czechoslovak nation as an equal partner of other European nations. One of the most well-known legionnaires, Colonel Husák, in his speech just after arriving in the new free Czechoslovakia, mentioned the special role of the union of “the most powerful, valuable and true democratic nations” which “were rescued by us.”19 The multilevel construction of the unique role

16 Rigorous study of the political role of legionnaires is provided in Cornwall and Evans, Czechoslovakia in a Nationalist and Fascist Europe. 17 Anderson, Imagined Communities. 18 Jedlička, ‘Trvalé poškození.’ 19 Husák, ‘Naši legionáři ochránili naši republiku.’

70 Victoria Shmidt and K arel Pančocha

of legionnaires as rescuers20 was accompanied by systematic attention to the cost of their unique mission.21 From the very beginning, the legionnaires were heroes who needed assistance – among 66,000 of them, more than 10,000 were seriously injured. In their public events, the legionnaires actively used the image of Jan Žižka, a Czech general and Hussite leader who fought for the independence of the Czechs and also lost an eye (see Image 7). The dual message regarding the role of the legionnaires as heroes and those who needed support reverberated with the new concept of functional health. Established on 25 November 1918, less than one month after establishing the Czechoslovak Republic, the Office of Czechoslovak Legionnaires (Kancelář čs. Legií or KLEG) facilitated the transfer of legionnaires to a peaceful postwar life. A special college (obchodní škola) for Czechoslovak legionnaires with disabilities aimed at retraining those who could not find a job due to their disability and insufficient level of education was established. The college offered more than twenty professions and retraining could take between six and eighteen months. During the period of retraining, the students received financial support.22 Further, Law No. 50.828-IVc-1919, issued in 1920, “On the Facilitation of the Educational Process for Students Who Are War Veterans, Including Legionnaires” (Studijní úlevy pro posluchače-vojíny (inkl. legionáři)), provided opportunities to complete a postgraduate degree faster for those who were war veterans, especially in the case of disability. Those who decided to enroll would receive financial support from a special foundation. Also, public services and some private enterprises were obliged to employ ex-legionnaires.

20 Sometimes, ascribing the role of rescuers to legionnaires took an exaggerated form, as in the story about the rescue of two train cars loaded with bacon from Slovenia by the most well-known Legion regiment, the 28th, nicknamed the “Prague children” (Prazske deti). The German authorities were going to separate the cars containing the bacon “due to technical issues,” but one of the legionnaires who was a former railman helped to repair the problem. The title of the article, “How a Dozen Members of the 28th Rescued a Precious Parcel for the Czech Heartland and the Workers in Kladno” simultaneously highlighted the outstanding vigilance of the legionnaires, their ability to achieve success even when acting in small numbers, and their allegiance to the people. ‘Jak hrstka “osmadvacátníků” zachránila “Českému srdci” a kladenskému dělnictvu drahocenné zásilku.’ 21 It was typical to find in the newspapers in 1918-1921 such combinations of article titles, as in the 22 November 1918 issue of the daily newspaper Večer, which featured two titles about legionnaires, one under another: “I Was Injured Five Times” (Pětkrát raněn) and “He Is a Model for Our Youngsters” (Vzor pro naš dorost). 22 Michl, ‘Legionáři.’

The Discourse of Disabilit y

71

Figure 7 The emblem of the legionnaires’ participation in the 1929 exhibition held in Táboř, a city directly associated with the history of Hussites, featuring the image of Jan Žižka against the background of the city walls

Source: NaP

Alongside the systematic empowerment toward better retraining and employment, the direct benefits for those legionnaires who were disabled remained extremely limited. While they received diverse options for completing their professional education, only a small number of them received pensions and monetary benefits. Approximately 19,000 legionnaires asked for a confirmation of their disability status between 1921 and 1936, but only 10,345 received the official status of disabled, and less than 1,000 received special benefits. Instilling empowerment imbued a specific type of stigma upon legionnaires, based upon regaining control of their life as a continuity of their feats, especially in the context of their obvious privileges compared to the war veterans who served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. The consistent support coincided with the surveillance of those legionnaires who were “unfit,” either disabled or characterized by other medical issues. For instance, KLEG monitored each case of suicide committed by a legionnaire; not only the circumstances, but the family context as well as the mode of life were evaluated.

72 Victoria Shmidt and K arel Pančocha

The Czechoslovak legionnaires were the only group who had access to the special benefits targeted at encouraging retraining and ensuring employment. Several attempts to lobby for the same benefits for the war veterans of Austro-Hungarian troops failed.23 In 1920, the deputies to the National Assembly from the Agrarian Party proposed a draft of a law which should have solved the task to employ all war invalids either in the public sector or in private enterprises.24 Addressing the draft, the National Assembly emphasized the necessity “to be fair as other democratic countries” in solving the issue of disabled war veterans: For us, it is the issue of fairness and justice to those who suffered during the world war and, due to damaging their health, lost their capacity to care for themselves. As a result, they cannot maintain their dignity by providing the necessities of life for themselves and have been sentenced to poverty and deprivation. All other states recognize these obligations toward their veterans, and we are obliged to do the same.25

Among other arguments, the necessity to equalize the legionnaires and the Austro-Hungarian veterans was highlighted: “Until now, legal regulations focused on the legionnaires, and public services provided a particular number of places exceptionally only for them [and that] remains a huge injustice toward the Czech people.”26 Despite the very positive response from the leadership of the National Assembly, the law was not passed. One of the possible explanations could be the impossibility to employ all war veterans: while the total number of legionnaires still alive who needed a job was approximately 60,000, the number of Austro-Hungarian veterans was more than one million. Further, by assisting the legionnaires, the authorities had more options for promoting the connection between functional health and the nation. By assisting the legionnaires, the authorities met the condition of transforming health care into a civil religion – to build the new cult of health into the national mentality. This priority was also commensurate with the focus on other target group with disabilities: children.

23 This discrimination can be traced in other countries. For former subalterns of the AustroHungarian Empire, see Vynnyk, ‘Beyond the National.’ 24 Poslanecká sněmovna Národního shromáždění republiky Československé, ‘Návrh poslanců.’ 25 Poslanecká sněmovna Národního shromáždění republiky Československé, ‘Zpráva.’ 26 Ibid.

The Discourse of Disabilit y

2.4

73

Children with disabilities: The last shall be first

During the first interwar decade, the debates around the care and education of children with disabilities highlighted the task “to ensure the abilities and capacities to work and be self-sufficient, to make them true members of human society in terms of national economy and social security.”27 According to Cyryl Stejskal, a core expert on vocational training for disabled children, the main changes should be achieved in the approaches to differentiating children with disabilities. He stressed that delinquency remains the inevitable scenario for disabled children until the system of institutions for them would be focused on the particular type of disability and not the main and only possible way to educate these children – labor and vocational training: We cannot imagine what a sort of Odyssean journey the parents of a disabled child or local authorities should pass in order to place the child [into an institution]: the institutions for the mentally retarded would not accept [the child] because of a risk of amoral behavior; the correctional institutions reject [the child] due to mental retardation; the institutions for both categories close their doors because they accept only adults; the shelters for disabled will not accept [them] for obvious reasons. There is no other chance than to put [them] into prison – but only after committing something serious by the child.28

As an alternative Stejskal offered the individual approach, based on psychological tests and better understanding the child’s potential. Stejskal also encouraged the idea of labor camps (pracovní kolonie) for adolescents with disabilities in order to “minimize the internal impulses and external seductions” typical of this period when “the self-regulating ability of the brain remains at an incredibly low level.”29 Josef Zeman, one of the key leaders in reforming education for children with disabilities, became an inspector of the Ministry of Education and took responsibility for monitoring special education in the early 1920s. In 1925, he published an extremely critical report aimed at emphasizing the main shortcomings of the current system of education and care for children with disabilities. Zeman mentioned as insufficient the number of 27 Jedlička, ‘Trvalé poškožení,’ p. 102. 28 Stejskal, ‘Kam s nimi?,’ p. 154. 29 Jedlička, ‘Trvalé poškožení,’ p. 103.

74 Victoria Shmidt and K arel Pančocha

newly established schools (among seventeen special schools operating in Prague, only four were established after 1918) as an urgent call for improving vocational training for children with disabilities – especially because the newly established schools did not provide options for such training at all. Stressing the difference between the inadequate level of equipment and progressive intentions, Zeman highlighted the mission of special schools to provide comprehensive education, including various realms of life, as well as prioritizing preparation for the future: “A special school wants to not only educate the child if his capacities provide such opportunities or to correct the deviations by applying various upbringing and learning methods. Also, the school wants to make children healthier and prevent them from any obstacles to their physical and mental development.”30 The limited ability of families to educate disabled children was the main argument in favor of the institutionalization of education and improving its quality. Zeman directly linked disability and poverty when he tried to argue for the necessity to increase health care for children with disabilities: Children with disabilities “are mainly from extremely poor families, and the obvious long-term lack of normal nutrition undermined development, which cannot be underestimated.”31 Stejskal directly blamed parents for their selfish approach of placing their children into the mainstream schools instead of special schools. Stejskal recognized in such a “typical pattern” the intention “to avoid being shamed because of placing the child in a special school – even though such placement could be the only chance for such a child to get the appropriate education.”32 During the first decade of the interwar period, the debates around the education of children with disabilities established a strong discourse of normalization, which would be reproduced several times: after the Second World War, during the Prague Spring in the late 1960s and later, at the very end of the socialist period. Probably the clearest definition of this link between national pride and normalization of the disabled was achieved in a report by Plzen local educational authorities, who demonstrated the need for a budget to repair special schools in their region by saying that just after the end of the Second World War: They [people with disabilities] need solace and a meaningful existence in the name of the nation. Care for people who are disabled either by 30 Zeman, ‘Pomocní školství ve velké Praze.’ 31 Ibid., p. 161. 32 Stejskal, ‘Kam s nimi?,’ p. 154.

The Discourse of Disabilit y

75

birth by accident is thankfully accepted as a normal practice not only because of humanism but in the interest of the national economy. […] Weak hands can be manipulated when a clever and quick head manages them, and underdeveloped brains can learn manifold functions when hands are healthy and strong. […] Our aim is to train disabled people and improve their abilities. […] By engaging in work, the disabled person can get rid of inferiority. If not working, the disabled person can become an asocial entity.33

In the late 1930s and 1940s, this discourse led to a system of education for disabled people based on a consistently tough selection process, as people with disabilities started to be divided into various categories according to their ability to work. The link between the ability to work and to be accepted as a healthy citizen was also reversed: “In social terms, any individual who is unable to work efficiently is handicapped.”34 This approach framed the policy and public discourse around Roma, who were considered a great risk for the health of the nation.

About the authors Victoria Shmidt has a PhD in Developmental Psychology (1998, Russian Academy of Education) and a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy (2012, Masaryk University). Since 2011, Dr. Shmidt has been working on the issue of the policies concerning ethnic minorities in the Czech lands and the role of various academic communities in producing the discourses and practices of segregation. Karel Pančocha, Associate Professor, has a PhD in Special Education (2007, Masaryk University). He established the Institute for Research in Inclusive Education at Masaryk University and has been leading it since 2010. His main field of expertise is the discursive practices of special educators and their role in the transformation of the education of people with disabilities.

33 Odbor pro ochranu duševně nebo mravně úchylných pří OPM v Plzní, ‘Zpráva o činnosti v roce 1945.’ 34 Jedlička, ‘Trvalé poškožení,’ p. 104.

3

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period Therapeutic Punishment vs. Benevolent Paternalism Victoria Shmidt

Abstract The chapter explores how the concept of functional health and its reflection in the politics of diseases framed the surveillance of the Roma, which started as a systematic policy in the 1920s. This chapter discusses the specifics of the policy concerning the Roma in different parts of interwar Czechoslovakia – historical (Bohemia) and nonhistorical (Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia) – and then turns to the legal frames and theoretical arguments for tough surveillance introduced by interwar authorities within the combat against infectious diseases. Keywords: campaigns against infectious diseases, internal colonialism, moral panics, the Roma

3.1

The Gypsy gangs in Bohemia: The invasion of infectious diseases

Established during the late imperial period, negative attitudes toward the Roma, viewing them as criminal and asocial, became caught up in the general fear of infectious diseases, especially in Bohemia, which experienced several pandemics of flu and other infectious diseases between 1919 and 1922. In the early 1920s, the Roma started to be seen as key carriers of the Spanish flu, the most dangerous pandemic at the time, as well as other infectious diseases such as smallpox, anthrax and typhus. Under the direct pressure of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Internal Affairs started

Shmidt, Victoria (ed.), The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia. Segregating in the Name of the Nation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789463720014/ch03

78 Victoria Shmidt

a campaign aimed at “exterminating the Gypsy evil”1 by limiting freedom of movement for “Gypsy bands” and reinforcing their medical surveillance in Bohemia.2 The Ministry of Internal Affairs obliged local authorities, especially in the central region near Prague, to collect as much data as possible about the “Gypsy gangs.” The discourse of functional health was applied comprehensively to constructing the “Gypsy issue.” As with other groups under the remit of Czechoslovak health policy, the Roma’s state of health was monitored, albeit for quite a different aim: not to help them, but to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases. The general tone of the proposal was extremely hostile. “Vagrant gang” (kočující tlupa) remained the only concept to describe any Roma group: “Vagrant gangs are a permanent source of insecurity for the residential population because of the spread of infectious diseases, even though we do not need to speak about the other troubles created by them (theft, fraud, etc.) which are not directly under our responsibility to prevent.”3 The pathos of the struggle against infectious diseases reflected the hopes associated with the international community but it also consisted of nations’ governments struggling with unusually difficult issues: “The combat against infectiousness is international. […] That’s why Czechoslovak health-care authorities started to be in a close relationship with the authorities of neighbor states in order to consistently solve the task of prevention against the diseases from East.” But the Roma had neither a state nor a government – they did not belong “to that universal world of nations which provided a universal morality of right.”4 In contrast, the Roma presented a “they” who “possess the qualities, which ‘we’ deny in ‘ourselves.”5 It was not the transmission of disease but mainly the complex of stereotypes that was the source of the demonization of the Roma. The prescription of the responsibility of the Roma for spreading infectious diseases was directly linked to their unhealthy way of life, physically and mentally. The threat of spreading diseases resonated with blaming the Roma for seducing rural people through unhealthy habits. Mainly, nomadic Roma lived off the offerings of the population, especially by providing peasants’ circuses, simple theatrical performances and carnival rides. It was 1 The literal definition of vyhubeni cikánského zla is “abolition of the mold of Gypsy evil.” 2 Ministerstvo vnitra, ‘Nebezpečí rozvlékání.’ 3 Ibid. 4 Billig, Banal Nationalism, p. 81. 5 Ibid., p. 82.

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

79

Figure 8 A postcard showing a Gypsy circus in Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the 1920s

Source: ANM, Osobní fond Vojtěcha Suka Inv. 618-673, box 22

precisely these Roma family groups named in documents as “the families of comedians” (komediantská rodina) who were accused in spreading infectious diseases. In official documents, experts mentioned not only particular “gangs” (the family of Berouškovs and the gang of Ružičkovs) but their trajectories and the areas contaminated by these “Gypsy gangs,” which generated the feeling that Gypsies were everywhere. Officials highlighted the additional difficulties involved in catching the Roma – the support of the local Czech population who helped the Roma to hide from police as well as sheltering the Roma who were punishable: “It is extremely difficult to catch the Gypsies because they try to avoid security services by any means, also by being sheltered by the local population.”6 By emphasizing the proclivity of the population toward Gypsy entertainment and as a result, the inability to resist such seduction, officials put forward not only the role of professional control of the Roma but also of the general population. By 6 Ministerstvo vnitra, ‘Nebezpečí rozvlékání.’

80 Victoria Shmidt

demonizing the Roma, the officials also objectified peasants, especially those from remote villages: “The residential population remains exhausted and powerless toward this threat.”7 Peasants who sheltered the Roma were defined as thoughtless. Thus, the Roma were not only a threat to the physical but also the mental health of Czechoslovaks. Achieving more and more success in eradicating infectious diseases, Czechoslovak authorities started to label the Roma as the “last bastion” in the fight for better public health. Between 1919 and 1920, Czechoslovakia attained significant progress in the eradication of smallpox – the number of cases decreased from 11,000 to 2,000 and deaths dropped from 1,000 to 200. 8 Any case of smallpox was considered a challenge to the most successful campaign against infectious diseases and a reason to attract public attention to the issue. In 1920, the escape of the “Gypsy” gang of Großovs from Morava to Bohemia, whose members were identif ied as being in touch with a transmitter of smallpox,9 attracted serious attention from the authorities – even the Central Police Office in Prague published a special release about this case: In the district of Maršíkov, near Šumperk, smallpox has appeared among the Gypsies. The transmitter was a forty-year-old Gypsy female, Maria Weinlichová, who arrived from Hrušovany [Silesia] on 9 February to attend to her relatives. She contracted smallpox, and on 11 February she became ill – being among thirteen other members of this Gypsy gang in the van located in the public garden near the local hotel. Only one week later was the physician able to pick her up and place her in the hospital. Also, her daughter, with her husband and three-year-old son, who was not vaccinated, escaped to the north of the country. After that, among the Gypsies who stayed, three other cases of smallpox were diagnosed. Due to the extreme degree of insecurity, we call for emergency measures aimed at identifying and detaining these Gypsies, placing them in hospital, vaccinating them and leaving them in isolation for a sixteen-day period.10

This report can be seen as a comprehensive example of the anti-Roma propaganda of that period – embedded in the strategy of victimizing the eastern periphery of the country (the infection moved from Moravia to 7 Ibid. 8 Pelc, Zdravotní stav. 9 Zemská politická správa v Brně, ‘Opis.’ 10 Zemská správa politická v Praze, ‘Oběžník.’

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

81

Bohemia) and creating a common enemy for both the center and the periphery as possible grounds for further unity. Further, anti-Roma propaganda aimed at legitimizing the tough measures leveled against them, as a major threat to the health of the nation. Since the early 1920s, local authorities in Bohemia debated various measures, such as a ban on the Roma leaving a permanent location without special permission from local authorities. Such permission should be issued only in exceptional circumstances, which were not described and remained an empty concept. All Roma older than fourteen years old were supposed to be fingerprinted; they had to present themselves upon the first request. Forced medical assessment for all the Roma was also discussed. Together with the confirmation of vaccination, such assessment had to be noted in the identification documents of the Roma. The state should have the right to remove horses and wheeled vehicles if the Roma did not have special permission for legal ownership. The special police division made up of police officers, epidemiologists and health-care workers should be responsible for maintaining these aims. The main measure should be a penalty big enough (5,000 crowns – while the average monthly wage for that period was less than 600 crowns for workers and 400 crowns for peasants) to make it impossible to afford even for the richest of the Roma. Alongside the discussion of legal regulations for limiting freedom of movement for the Roma, authorities introduced emergent measures for preventing the spread of infectious diseases they carried. In part, these measures reproduced the regulations against the Roma introduced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888, but the interwar authorities reinforced the role of medical assessment.11 Enforced hospitalization of those who were infected had to be accompanied by the disinfection of all members of the gang, which included cutting off all their hair, the sanitary cleaning of vehicles and the removal of animals (dogs and horses). The local authorities were obliged to do so in early 1920s, after the issuance of the “Decree on the Obligatory Vaccination of Gypsies against Cholera and Typhus” (Nařízení vlády R.Č.S. 20. dubna 1920 č. 298 sb. o pravidelném očkování Cikánů). By recruiting the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture into cooperation, the public rhetoric of these campaigns started to transform into a call for action aimed at limiting the right of the Roma to move around as a key prerequisite for minimizing the risk of infectious diseases. By the end of the 1920s, the main metaphor reflecting these efforts was that of illness applied to the Roma whose behavior started to be interpreted in terms of moral disease infecting future generations: 11 Innenministerium, ‘Erlass vom 14.9.1888.’

82 Victoria Shmidt

They “contaminate future generations with their moral corruption, that is, their own descendents.”12 The issue of the Roma started to be defined as the “Gypsy contagion” (cikánská nákaza), especially in areas where the non-Roma population was seen by the authorities as being “unreliable,” such as Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Starting in 1921, local authorities in Slovakia were obliged to prepare regular reports about the criminal activities of the Roma, including data concerning cases of infectious diseases. Remarkably, the majority of the reports from different regions stressed the obvious normality of the Roma who lived in Slovakia13 and, along with this fact, emphasized the difference in behavior of the Roma who experienced sedentarization and maintained good relations with the local population and those who moved to Bohemia “to steal, rob and kill.”14 By asking the government “to change the previous prescription in line with specific approaches to the Gypsies that differentiate our situation from the Gypsies from Bohemian regions,”15 local authorities stressed the necessity to approach those “Gypsies” who had committed crimes and practiced an asocial mode of life as unreliable foreigners.16 After five years, the general attitude of local Slovak authorities changed dramatically – moving toward consistent intolerance toward the Roma and urgent calls for action against them. At the end of November 1925, the local authorities in Košice received a complaint from the local inhabitants of Michalovce, the district situated near the border with Ukraine, prepared by the lawyer Dr. Michal Slávik. The main request, to indicate the permanent address of the Roma who lived in Michalovce “illegally,” in order to justify the possibility to remove them, mentioned “the well-known intention of Gypsies to occupy the area against the interests of the local population and to disseminate diseases.”17 In his allegation, Slávik mentioned 226 “Gypsies” who lived in Michalovce without any permanent address. In the official reply, local authorities mentioned 18,000 “Gypsies” who lived in the region without any legal address. The officials also stressed the lack of efficient legal regulations for solving the “Gypsy issue.”18 Along with admitting their inability to solve the issue immediately, the authorities in Košice decided that they would communicate with the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 12 Národní shromáždění republiky Československé, ‘Zpráva výboru.’ 13 Služnovský úrad v Moldavě, ‘Od moldavského.’ 14 Policejní ředitelství v Bratislavě, ‘Úprava stíhania cigáňov.’ 15 Služnovský úrad v Ždani, ‘Opatrenie proti cigánom.’ 16 Policejní ředitelství v Bratislavě, ‘Úprava stíhania cigáňov.’ 17 Pravotar Dr. Michal Slávik v Michalovciach, ‘Věc.’ 18 Okresný úrad v Košiciah, ‘Číslo.’

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

83

Prague. This clear shift in the attitude of Slovak authorities to the “Gypsy issue” can be explained also by several waves of moral campaigns against infectious diseases initiated by central authorities in peripheral regions, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. The persecution against the Roma became an indispensable part of this process.

3.2

The politics of disease in the periphery: Moral campaigns against the Roma as part of the internal colonization of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia

Being one of the countries that had attained independence, integrity and new territory after World War I, Czechoslovakia easily introduced into public discourse the image of the Czechs as the liberators of Slavic people from the alien yoke and the unhealthy patterns of alcohol consumption and the inability to prevent other risks to the health of the nation. In an article published in the daily newspaper Večer, “The Great Moment of History: Defend and Liberate the Slavic Brothers?,” the struggle against the unhealthy patterns imposed by Hungarians on Slovaks resonated with the role of the Czech Army.19 In the early 1920s, the accession of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia was accompanied by a massive public effort to encourage Slovaks and Rusyns to separate themselves from Hungarians with the aim of emancipating the local people in the periphery from a backward, uncivilized and unhealthy way of life. Typical headlines of the articles published during the period of establishing the new state stressed the degrading impact on these people of the late empire, e.g., “Hungarians, the First Opening Line of Darkest Asia.”20 The presence of Jews and Roma, and non-Slavic minorities in the periphery, was seen as an aggravated factor that interfered with embedding Slovaks and Rusyns in the civilizing process. Czech experts directly labeled these regions as the “most Jewish” – nejžidovčtejší – in order to stress the vulnerability of the Slavic population there.21 The task of uniting the center with the annexed regions was part of the policy aimed at reinforcing the security of the new state: “At the moment, the significance of Subcarpathian Ruthenia for our republic is better understood by the Hungarians, Poles and Germans, who send their secret agents so 19 ‘Veliký historický okamžík: Ochraníme a osvobodíme slovenské bratry?’ 20 ‘Maďarie, první etapa nejtemnější Asie.’ 21 Boháč, ‘Statistika a demografie Moravského Slovenska,’ p. 811.

84 Victoria Shmidt

much the more, spreading disturbance and disruption and feeding their meaningless hopes.”22 Such a particular focus on the external menace resonated with the consistent motive of pointing to the weakness of the people in Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia: “Subcarpathian Ruthenia is the most vulnerable and neglected region. It is here we feel the influence of prewar Hungarian absolutism and Magyarization.”23 Clearly, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia remained politically unreliable territories because of the enormous political influence of two political camps, pro-Catholic and procommunist, equally threatening the position of the Czechoslovak authorities. While the loyalty of the peripheral population was desirable, the authorities also needed to introduce efficient surveillance strategies. Advancing public health standards fit with the political interests of the Czechoslovak policy concerning the periphery. By consistently presenting Slovaks and Rusyns as victims of the past, official rhetoric not only provided the arguments for postponing the promised autonomy for these territories but also justified the call for establishing and rooting surveillance of the periphery. An official statement by Tomaš Masaryk stressed the necessity to enlighten those in the periphery and foster the ability to rule their own territories in the future: “The main prerequisite for granting autonomy is to make the people who can neither read nor write mature for autonomy.”24 The apprehension toward the inability of these regions to behave in line with the authorities’ interests was explained by the extremely low level of social development that made Slovaks and Rusyns easy targets for the enemies of Czechoslovakia and of civilization. Threats from former oppressors, pandemics from dangerous neighbors and general challenges to the state’s integrity can be seen as interchangeable topics in the moral campaigns concerning the Czechoslovak periphery. This pattern reverberated with the issue of public health, one of the three official priorities, together with education and agricultural reform, targeted at replacing the pastoral economy with an arable one. The f irst decade of the interwar period can be def ined as an era of grand politics concerning diseases across the world.25 Between the 1920s and the 1930s, in order to reinforce their political status, international organizations such as the Health Section of the League of Nations and the International Labour Organization initiated several campaigns concerning 22 Zatloukal, Podkarpatská Rus, p. 16. 23 Masaryk, ‘Novoroční,’ p. 215. 24 Masaryk, ‘Rozhovor,’ p. 330. 25 Stepan, Eradication.

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

85

various diseases, mainly infectious and sexually transmitted ones. National governments easily adopted these campaigns as tools for legitimizing newly established states. Interwar Czechoslovakia was at the vanguard of promoting the measures offered by international organizations.26 Easily fostered, the alarmist pathos of international organizations put public health at the foundation of policies concerning groups within the population that were seen as underdeveloped – not familiar with hygiene, potential transmitters and victims of diseases – in other words, the population of the peripheral regions, Slovaks and Rusyns.27 Tellingly, the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture appointed Karl Driml to establish the organizational framework for developing health education and social hygiene in Moravia and Slovakia.28 At the end of 1927, Driml was sent to Brno, 29 where he was obliged to transform the Local Department of Health Care (Zdravotní oddělení zemské správy) to bring its operation in line with the standards that had been introduced in Bohemia. Further, Driml was appointed to adopt his methods of health-care propaganda to the specifics of the region. Driml not only energized the network of health education centers within the Czechoslovak Red Cross but also prepared a set of propaganda materials. Driml made several instructional movies specifically addressing the peripheral population, directed at both child and adult audiences. Following his own novel approach, Driml used folklore themes and fairy tales to make children’s films. For the adults, a special set of films about alcoholism was created.30 The active participation of Driml in disseminating health education should be seen as part of secularization of these regions, seen as the most “Catholicized.”31 The appointment of Driml evidences the strategic importance of public health in the periphery and the difficulties the authorities faced by trying to introduce public health as a surveillance instrument in that area. In the official statement on the appointment of Driml, the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture stressed the outstanding abilities of Driml that would ensure a smooth approach to disseminating public health, even among the most intractable groups. 26 Czechoslovakia was one of the first nine countries that engaged the ILO. 27 Kolinský, ‘Dopis Exposituře.’ 28 Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy, ‘Dr. Karel Driml.’ 29 Brno remained a sort of administrative center for public health, welfare policy and education in the periphery, despite the presence of different subdivisions of the relevant ministries in Bratislava. 30 Společnosť čsl. Červeného kríža Divizia pre Slovensko, ‘Dopis na Župný úřad v Košiciach.’ 31 Boháč, ‘Statistika a demografie Moravského Slovenska,’ p. 817.

86 Victoria Shmidt

In 1921, the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture established particular requirements for Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia concerning the prevention of infectious diseases. By following the recommendations of international organizations, the ministry obliged the regional authorities across the regions to report each case of an infectious disease, along with monthly reports on the epidemiological situation. Special, stricter regulations were introduced for the peripheral areas, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. First, military base physicians were obliged to inform the ministry about the number of cases of infectious diseases every two weeks.32 The state railway authorities also reported each case of an infectious disease disclosed among passengers. Those regions situated close to the border with Hungary were required to inform the ministry about cases of infectious diseases there and, even more, the Czechoslovak authorities asked the Hungarian authorities to inform them about infectious diseases in the areas near the border. Obviously, these measures opposed the good and trustworthy Czechoslovak authorities to the irresponsible behavior of the former oppressors, which had left the periphery on the margins of progress and the proper tempo of public hygiene. The diligent reproduction of international recommendations concerning the control of various infectious diseases aimed to advance the recognition of Czechoslovak authorities on the international level and reinforce the position of the center in the periphery. Thus, the struggle against infectious diseases infiltrated the propaganda targeted at the population of the periphery. The pandemics of typhus, trachoma, anthrax and other infectious diseases were constructed in the propaganda along three interrelated dimensions: (1) as stemming from abroad, from territories that directly threatened the periphery and as such, the center; (2) as meeting no resistance or adequate response on the part of local public health authorities and calling for the intervention of a central system more experienced and closely linked with international organizations; and (3) as aggravated by the presence of the Roma and “others” (Jews, Hungarians) who transmitted diseases or impeded their prevention. The Ministry of Health and Physical Culture established a special division for monitoring mass media (Referat tlačový a zpravodajský) reporting on Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, aimed at not only tracing the publications in the local media but also preparing the relevant materials concerning the new campaigns promoting public health and social hygiene. This measure also responded to the obvious contest between the center and the periphery. 32 Zemská politická správa v Brně, ‘Zdravotní.’

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

87

Being obliged to inform the ministry about diseases and measures against infections, local physicians refused to accept the alarmist pathos of the central authorities. To the contrary, they emphasized the absence of cases or reinterpreted the symptoms of life-threatening diseases as symptoms of the usual issues typical of the lack of personal hygiene. With a particular dose of humor, the regimental doctor, Ballner, who was, as other Slovak physicians, obliged to report cases comparable with typhus and cholera, mentioned in his report: “As every year during the ripening of fruits, the number of diarrhea cases has increased, and we question ourselves ‘Why does this happen?’ […] There are insufficient toilet facilities, in quality and in quantity, in rural areas, and there are people who like to eat fruit.”33 Decreasing the pathos of concerning the “invasion” of infectious diseases, such resistance on the part of local physicians limited the intention of the center to perpetuate moral campaigns in favor of reinforcing the loyalty of periphery. Several moral campaigns against the Roma in favor of public health implemented by the authorities in Slovakia between 1922 and 1926 can be seen as an attempt to find another, more appropriate for the periphery, scenario of moral campaigns targeted at uniting the peripheral population with the center. It is reasonable to differentiate several “waves” of moral campaigns aimed at legitimizing the surveillance of unreliable areas and groups, which directly affected public discourse concerning the Roma. The most visible impacts were the campaigns against trachoma (1920-1925) and sexually transmitted diseases (1919-1927). During the campaign aimed at eradicating trachoma, the Ministry of Education and Enlightenment conducted a survey among school inspectors in Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. The survey consisted of four questions regarding: (1) the number of “Gypsy” settlements in the district; (2) the number of school-aged children there; (3) the school attendance by “Gypsy children” and the options to increase it; and (4) the health of “Gypsy” students, especially the magnitude of infectious diseases with a focus on trachoma.34 Tellingly, admitting the fact that none of the Roma students attended school regularly except “those sedentarized Gypsies who eventually stopped being Gypsies,”35 the inspectors reported the awful state of hygiene among the children and estimated the magnitude and distribution of infectious diseases as the main obstacle for placement of the Roma into mainstream schools. Shifting the focus from sedentarization to 33 Divisní nemocnice v Bratislavě: Bakteriologická pracovna, ‘Opis Rozšíření úplavice a tyfu.’ 34 Referat Ministerstva školstva a národnej osvety v Bratislave, ‘Obeznik číslo 20.’ 35 Školský inspektorát v Michalovcach, ‘Výchova cigaňov.’

88 Victoria Shmidt

an extreme form of integration (the authorities asked about the possibility of teaching the Roma children at the mainstream schools) inclined Slovak educators to reproduce the range of prejudices that in the later 1920s evolved into the grounds of the campaign aimed at establishing tough legislation against the Roma: “The general backwardness of the Gypsies would threaten the education and upbringing of the children of good parents. The idea of teaching the Gypsy children alongside other children seems to be a dangerous mistake.”36 In their answers, the inspectors emphasized the close interrelation between the unhealthiness and ineducability of the Gypsy children: Due to the liability of the Gypsy children to contract infectious diseases, it is impossible to place them together with other healthy children. Because of the lack of hygiene, Gypsy children suffer from diverse infections and skin diseases. These threats should be eliminated before the Gypsies would are placed together with our children.37

The inspectors stressed the impossibility of solving this issue through a strategy of assimilation and emphasized the obvious failure of the assimilation policy of the Habsburgs: “From olden times, the greatest states have tried to solve this issue [education for the Roma], but without any positive outcomes as even they were unable to find an effective method.”38 This provocative reminiscence led to the conclusion “to cast aside democratic values and issue a special law for Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia aimed at empowering local authorities to apply tough measures against the Gypsies.”39 Removing children from their biological families and placing them into institutions was seen as one possible solution: The education and rearing of the Gypsy children should be the task of social services, along with making decisions about establishing special residential care units for Gypsy children. […] Each healthy Gypsy child should be removed from their parents at two years old and placed into an institution until young adult age. Such institutions should have fields, gardens and diverse workshops for teaching the Gypsy children to work. 40 36 Ibid. 37 Ibid. 38 Okresný úrad v Medzilaborci, ‘Výchova cigaňov.’ 39 Ibid. 40 Školský inspektorát v Michalovcach, ‘Výchova cigaňov.’

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

89

Figure 9 The distribution of trachoma in Slovakia in 1921, according to official statistics

Source: SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 12

Further, the inspectors stressed that even intensive dissemination of residential care would be limited in achieving successful assimilation and could bring only very modest results: “In terms of their [the Roma] social development, we must move them at the minimum to the level of Rusyns. The most important task is to find jobs for all of them.”41 Contrasting the Roma to Rusyns, the Slavic minority seen as the most degenerated ethnic group besides the Roma, inclined the inspectors to define this task as self-denial or, even more, as punishment: “The cohort of those appointed to teach Gypsies should be made up of people who have outstanding pedagogical talents and also those who were educators but because of committing an offence have lost their job.”42 This campaign obviously resonated with the moral panics concerning the Gypsy gangs in Bohemia as the core transmitters of infectious diseases. Tellingly, this negative image of the Gypsy gangs was consistently reproduced in the outreach film The Shadow in the Light/Blind Juro/Stubborn Juro (Stín 41 Okresný úrad v Medzilaborci, ‘Výchova cigaňov.’ 42 Ibid.

90 Victoria Shmidt Figure 10 The Gypsy circus in the documentary part of Stín ve světle (1929)

Source: NFA

ve světle/Slepý Juro/Tvrdochlavý Juro, 1929), especially in relation to the Slovak population. The documentary part of this film started as presenting the main risk factors relating to trachoma infection, the first of which was contact with the Roma. For twenty seconds the film reproduces the whole range of the prejudices against the Roma, who were shown as aliens arriving in Europe, seeking contact with ordinary people, and totally unable to take responsibility for their own health. The campaign against trachoma brought into action the intersectionality of childhood, health and ethnicity as an efficient frame for unifying the periphery and the center in the name of the nation and against others. The Slovak public campaign for promoting a new measure, Law No. 241, “On Combating Sexually Transmitted Diseases” (O potirání pohlavních nemocí, 1922), also followed this pattern. In February 1923, the newspaper Bratislav News (Bratislavské Noviny) published statistical data concerning infant mortality – according to which, each thirteenth infant among a hundred who died had a venereal disease. The article concluded with the sentence: “Reality calls for action!”43 and the actions started to be implemented. 43 ‘Pohlavní choroby medzi det’mi na Slovensku.’

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

91

Within a campaign targeted at making prostitution illegal, 44 Czechoslovak authorities established strict regulations for conducting forced medical examinations and further, forced placement in hospitals for those seen as risk groups for transmitting venereal disease. 45 In peripheral regions, the measures against female prostitution were specif ied and the list of risk groups obliged to submit to enforced medical examination was extended. 46 Roma women were included in this list, together with the female staff of hotels and restaurants. 47 The general attitude toward prostitution included prejudices against the periphery and foreign women. In the 1927 article “The Ills of Košice,” one of the central Slovak newspapers, People’s Daily News Bratislava (Národný Denník Bratislava), explained the magnitude of professional prostitution in the eastern region of Slovakia by “the oriental nature prevailing among the local population.”48 Roma women easily were clearly associated with this pattern of prejudice. Slovak local authorities stressed that the most dangerous and uncontrolled groups of prostitutes were young Hungarian students who targeted Czechoslovak soldiers who served on the eastern border and the “Gypsy” women who were patronized by peasant, that is, poorly educated, men, which increased the risk of transmitting venereal diseases. 49 The sociological “portrait” of the plausible male who contracted venereal disease was described in another popular newspaper, Slovak Daily News (Slovenský Denník).50 The article stemmed from a survey conducted among the men treated as venereal patients in Bratislava’s hospitals in 1926. The sample included 2,745 men. The main focus was on factors such as marital status, nationality, residence and religiosity. Not surprisingly, the largest share of all patients comprised single men living in cities and towns, in contrast to married inhabitants of villages. According to the results of the survey, the largest share of venereal patients living in rural areas was from Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Among Jews, the share of those who had sexually 44 This campaign was one of the first initiatives prepared by the Division for the Study and Reforms of Public Health Activities and directly supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. For a more detailed analysis of this campaign and the historical reasons of its fall, see Wingfield, The World of Prostitution. 45 Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy, ‘Vládní nařízení.’ 46 Ministerstvo veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy: Odbor pro studium a přípravu reformy zdravotní péče, ‘Dopis Exposituři.’ 47 Tekovský župan, ‘Policajný dohl’ad.’ 48 ‘Vredy Košic.’ 49 Ibid. 50 ‘Venerické choroby ve februáre 1926: liečené.’

92 Victoria Shmidt

transmitted diseases was the greatest – 46.5 per 10,000 habitants, and even among Rusyns this share was the smallest – 19. Further, among observant and secular Jews, the share of patients was the highest – 56 and 46, respectively, while among Protestants, it was the smallest – 17. The assessment of the reliability of this survey remains beyond the scope of this analysis, but obviously, being published in the most popular daily newspaper, this review of the survey shaped a particular image of the average transmitter of venereal diseases: a single, poor Jewish man, either observant and secular, who lives in Subcarpathian Ruthenia and, with a high degree of plausibility, had been infected by a “Gypsy” prostitute. Putting together the Roma and the Jews in the campaign against venereal disease and prostitution – “the social ills of the periphery” – the authorities were starting to prepare the ground for future cleansing policies, rather than seeking to prevent the distribution of sexually transmitted diseases. Reports on the outcomes of forced medical examinations indicated both a lack of the grounds to ascribe to the Roma the role of core transmitters and the intention to find evidence in favor of that. For instance, in the report of the police station in Turciansky Sv. Martin, the fact that only 3 among 28 detained Roma women had venereal diseases was described as “only three received a positive outcome.”51 It is possible to define the practices around the Roma within the campaigns against infectious diseases as the violence of apprehension because in many cases, not the fact of disease but the probability and plausibility of such risk were put forward. For instance, there were no registered cases of trachoma in the eastern parts of Slovakia (see Figure 9).52 Nevertheless, the Roma started to be seen as those whose autonomy should be easily limited in favor of public health. The necessity to reinforce the surveillance of the Roma due to their purportedly intractable uncivilized behavior became a mainstream motive of the public rhetoric among those who initiated the new law aimed at strictly limiting the Roma and their rights in favor of public security.

51 Okresný úřad v Turčianskom Sv. Martině, ‘Vyročná zpráva.’ 52 The obviously distinguished increase of trachoma in the central region can be explained by the fact that this region was seen by Czechoslovak authorities as the most suitable for developing a pilot project aimed at establishing local public health services. Stressing the disastrous situation with infectious diseases in the region operated in favor of persuading the Rockefeller Foundation to provide financial assistance to this region.

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

3.3

93

The law on the fight against Gypsies, vagabonds and those unwilling to work: Converting moral panics into strict surveillance

The systematic victimization of Rusyns and Slovaks resonated with the campaign criminalizing the Roma that began in late 1926. Moral panic in the media as well as among influential political groups highlighted the threat of the Roma’s criminality by focusing on cannibalism and other “inhuman” practices allegedly carried out by the Roma. These authors described the defenseless local population and the bestialized “Gypsies.” For instance, deputy Matzner of the German National Party (Deutsche Nationalpartei) directly opposed the Roma and the non-Roma in terms of inhuman and human behavior: “I remember that awful anthropophagy when in the most bestial way Gypsy female termagants boiled, baked and ate good human children.”53 Though the facts of cannibalism were not confirmed, moral campaigns cleared the way for criminalizing the Roma and their mode of life. The draft of the law on the fight against Gypsies, vagabonds and those unwilling to work (O potulných cikánech a jiných podobných tulácích) aimed at legalizing tough measures against nomadic “Gypsies” was prepared by Senator Josef Lukeš, one of the experts in the Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants. In parliament, the law was presented by another member of the party, Dr. Viškovský, who in his introductory speech mentioned that this law was a sort of weapon “in the combat between two principles, civilization and indomitable nature.”54 The intention to introduce this law, as well as changes in the state policy regarding the Roma, was not, however, univocally positive. Heated debates ensued within the Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants, the Czechoslovak People’s Party, the German National Party and the Union of German Landlords (Bund der Landwirte55), which were the most visible lobbyists of the law. Both the Czech and German SocialDemocratic Parties, as well as the communists, tried to argue against the law. It is easy to recognize in the different visions on criminalizing the Roma the conflict among elites that framed the debates about enforced sterilization. Both conservative and liberal camps shared the mission to civilize the Roma – the main concern dividing the camps was the appropriateness 53 Národní shromáždění republiky Československé, ‘Zpráva výboru.’ 54 Ibid. 55 The party mostly represented the interests of the Germans from the Sudetenland and maintained an affiliation with German eugenics and racial hygiene.

94 Victoria Shmidt

of criminalization for such purposes. Communist Josef Gáti stressed the long period of oppression against the “Gypsies” and how that made them a potentially dangerous social element. Recognizing in the draft of the law the same tough approach, he stressed, “Draconian laws cannot protect us from uncivilized Gypsies.”56 Unsurprisingly, the opponents to the law also reproduced benevolent paternalism even in the moment when the draft of the law was criticized as anticonstitutional. Jaromir Nečas from the Czechoslovak Social-Democratic Party mentioned: “All evils including Gypsies’ can be overcome only by intensive work toward reeducation, economic and cultural progress of the Gypsies comparable with the growth of others who are in the same or similar social situation.”57 Opponents of the law did not provide an alternative to the tough measures and focused instead on its critique. Also, this critique targeted not discriminatory attitudes toward the Roma but general policies, considering them overexpectations of residential care in solving the task to reeducate Roma children. Irene Kirpal, who presented the position of the German Social-Democratic Workers’ Party (Deutsche sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei), noted: “According to them [those who lobbied for the law] there is only one way, to place Gypsy children into residential care units. Does it work? Currently, we are unable to provide sufficient care for non-Gypsy children, and how could we improve our resources for the planned massive placement of Gypsy children?”58 The focus of debates, not on the task to civilize the Roma, but on the ways to resolve such a lack of civilization, led to consistent reproduction of the main frames of internal colonialism toward the Roma practiced in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.59 The law was seen by its defenders as an efficient educational measure, as a remedy from the intractability of the Roma and their barbarian life. Dr. Viškovský stressed, “There were thousands and thousands of attempts made to civilize Gypsies, to lead them to a more sedentary life. But the Gypsies consistently continue to struggle against these sincere attempts. […] Also, a regular job and a settled mode of life

56 Národní shromáždění republiky Československé, ‘Zpráva výboru.’ 57 Ibid. 58 Ibid. 59 During Maria Theresa’s reign, the racialization of the citizenry touched directly the situation concerning the Roma. Several decrees established the Habsburg strategy of forcible assimilation as consisting of two interrelated parts: the f irst aimed to revise the practices of parenting, including the better monitoring of children, while the second targeted the process of integrating the “Gypsies” into the nation. See, e.g., Ren, How Systems Form and How Systems Break.

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

95

operate as the essentials for civilization, to which we move and which we expect from all groups of the population.”60 By stressing the anticivilized behavior of the Roma, Dr. Viškovský brought into action the argument regarding the future of Roma children: “Gypsy children experience suffer in the main because of moral devastation. While we introduced compulsory school attendance long ago, because of their mode of life and their general approach, the Gypsies negate this obligation, and, at any price, we are unable to implement this indispensable requirement of civilization among this group of the population.”61 Moreover, the politicians who saw the new law as a part of the fight in favor of civilization required a comprehensive platform for recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of the “enemy”: “A la guerre comme a la guerre means that we cannot play with the enemy and we cannot play hide-and-seek with the Gypsies.” The inappropriateness of too soft an approach was justified by the analogy between the Roma and young offenders: for both, release on parole did not work. The hands of justice were “tied” while society called for a “powerful hand”: “Gypsies did not recognize our humanistic approach provided by our legal system – instead, they accepted it as a manifestation of our weakness. […] We approach in a humanistic way Gypsies and robbers, but remain inhuman to our proper citizens.”62 Despite these heated debates, the law was approved. The law demanded an update of theoretical arguments regarding the social control of the Roma. By emphasizing the most sensitive topic, the civilizing process, the supporters of criminalization faced the following dilemma: to encourage tough measures against the Roma or to develop arguments in favor of their rights as human beings equal with others. Such an ambiguous position explains why the first massive survey among the Roma was conducted by František Štampach (1895-1967), who was not affiliated with any academic institution and, thus, did not risk his academic reputation.

3.4

Štampach and his survey of the “Gypsies”: An initial approximation of the eugenic framework

The son of a Plzen worker who was a disabled war veteran without a pension, Štampach passed the secondary school-level exam in 1923, and entered university immediately. He started to study at the Faculty of Medicine at 60 Národní shromáždění republiky Československé, ‘Zpráva výboru.’ 61 Ibid. 62 Ibid.

96 Victoria Shmidt

Charles University, but, after the first semester, moved to the Faculty of Natural Sciences. In 1924, Štampach met Jindřich Matiegka,63 who taught him somatology and anthropology. Matiegka also supervised Štampach’s thesis, entitled “The Growth of School Children According to the Survey in Kralupy nad Vltavou” (Vzrůst školní mládeže na základě šetření v Kralupech nad Vltavou), which was successfully defended in 1926. This thesis was not preserved, but from a review of it, it is possible to surmise that the young doctoral student conducted an anthropometric survey among young people according to the approach developed by Matiegka.64 In 1929, Štampach began to substitute for Jiří Malý,65 who, between February 1929 and April 1931, was at the US National Museum,66 directed by Aleš Hrdlička. Simultaneously, Štampach started his second round of doctoral study, dealing with the sociology of the “Gypsies” in Czechoslovakia.67 The framework of his research was comparable with the anthropological surveys conducted by other Czech anthropologists who focused on the physical development as the main source of evidence pro or con regarding the degradation of an ethnic group. By traveling around Slovakia, Štampach observed the daily life of the Roma and made some anthropometric measurements. He actively communicated with the League for the Cultural Enlightenment of the Gypsies (Liga pro kulturní povznesení Cikánů), later the Society for the Study and Solution to the Gypsy Issue (Společnost pro studium a řešení cikánské otázky), located in Košice, one of the long-term places of residence for the Slovak Roma. He also traveled to Germany and the Netherlands in order to know more about the theoretical approaches to the study of the “Gypsies.”68 At the very beginning of his study, Štampach published a book entitled Gypsies in the Czechoslovak Republic (Cikání v Československé republice) and one year after the defense of his doctoral dissertation, in 1933, he published an extended version, entitled, The Child in the Chasm: The Vagabond, Stray and Gypsy Child – The Protection, Education and Correction of This Child (Dítě nad propastí: Dítě toulavé, tulácké a cikánské, jeho záchrana, výchova a výučba). The latter text was extended with a general definition 63 Jindřich Matiegka (1862-1941) was the director of the Anthropological Institute at Charles University and rector of the University (1929-1930). He belonged to the first generation of Czech eugenicists. 64 Přírodovědecká fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, ‘Rigorosa protokol.’ 65 Jiří Malý (1899-1950), the successor of Matiegka, was an important Czech anthropologist and eugenicist. 66 Now the National Museum of Natural History, administrated by the Smithsonian Institution. 67 Ústav pro antropologii a demografii, ‘Návrh na jmenování.’ 68 Přírodovědecká fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, ‘V antropologický.’

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

97

of nomadism and its role in development and degradation, while the text about the Roma was largely the same as the early publication. Both publications offered a cascade of essentialist attitudes toward various aspects of Roma culture, language and mode of life. Both of his books, as well as the articles he published, were aimed at the general public. Being based upon quite a wide range of foreign sources, the doctoral thesis was signif icantly different and reflected the ambivalent position of Czech academia regarding the recent criminalization of the Roma. It started by aligning with those who opposed tough measures against the Roma: “The prejudices [against the Roma] were not eliminated even in academic studies and recently introduced legal regulations regarding the Gypsies.”69 Though, step by step, the author deconstructed any option for accepting the Roma as an authentic nation. In his thesis, Štampach reproduced the well-known negation of the “Gypsies” as an ethnic group developed by the German scholar Grellmann as a part of theorizing the policy of enforced assimilation mandated by Maria Theresa.70 The Czech scholar led himself to conclusions comparable with the Grellmannian approach, by starting from stressing the difference between subjective and objective characteristics for the definition of the nation: “[T]here is no other way to define the Roma sociologically than as a dispersed nation with common characteristics, such as origins, language, the past, customs, folk art and also the racial characteristics that differentiate them consistently, but missing characteristics such as national identity and options for being united within a particular area.”71 He then took the next step toward negating the Roma as an ethnic group by opposing nation to race, both seen “as two different scenarios for a particular community.”72 By differentiating nation and race, Štampach supplemented Grellmann’s argument with the Czech eugenic idea regarding the role of hybridization. He defined the nation as a “mix of different ethnic groups who became a united people due to the long-term practice of their social individuality, by becoming the active collective creator of new cultural values regarding legal and moral prescriptions shared by the majority,”73 Thus, the Czechoslovak nation was defined as a mix of all European races, while the “Gypsies” remained the odd ethnic group or race existing outside any nation and, by 69 Štampach, ‘Sociologický výzkum cikánů,’ p. 3. 70 Grellmann, Dissertation on the Gipseys, p. 122. 71 Štampach, ‘Sociologický výzkum cikánů,’ p. 5. 72 Ibid. 73 Ibid., p. 7.

98 Victoria Shmidt

extension, outside European civilization. Any attempt to see “Gypsies” as a nation was seen by Štampach as creating a “completely fictional entity internally divided and changed as amoeba – according to the desire and power of particular individuals.”74 In Štampach’s writings, mystifying the “Gypsies” resonated with their difference: The Gypsies as a nation were distinguished too much from the very beginning of their arrival in Europe and [they] spoke their obsolete language, their culture had foreign origins, another type of dress, a different mode of life, primitive housing customs and their nomadic parasitic life in general. The rural community evaluates people according to their work abilities; thus, the Gypsies were always those who were seen as avoiding labor. Even rural people always used the Gypsy’s talent as blacksmiths, their knowledge about livestock.75

But the feeling of mystification was also disclosed in prescribing to the “Gypsies” simplicity and rudeness: “[The] inferiority complex typical of the Gypsies determines their obedience and inveracity. In the moment when they are stupefied or drunk and lose self-control, their behavior, their obedience, is transformed into haughtiness.”76 By resonating with each other, these feelings provided a comprehensive notion of the immutable primitivism of the Roma. Štampach put forward the motive of “primitive” social order because of the matriarchate dominating among the “Gypsies”: “[T]here is the analogy with primitive society in which the women take responsibility for feeding the family and community while their men have fun going to hunt – we could compare the Gypsy’s obsession to steal with this archaic love to hunt.”77 By gendering the concept of primitivism in a more detailed way, he interconnected it with the absence of rationality and infantilism among Roma men, “whose meaningless criminal behavior was more typical of children than real criminals.” This point of obvious weakness of the Roma culture was reinforced by further analogies. He compared the Roma with the Jews in terms of the massive prejudices against them: “[T]he Gypsies were so comparable with the Jews in their otherness that they shared their 74 75 76 77

Ibid., p. 6. Ibid., p. 11. Ibid., p. 12. Ibid., p. 13.

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

99

destiny.”78 Further, he mixed various approaches to “primitive” cultures in favor of identifying the Roma as uncivilized: “The vagrant Gypsies are on the level of primitive foraging, on the level of a parasitic economy similar to that of nomadic tribes in the East Indies and northern Africa.”79 He posited speculative concepts regarding other non-Western cultures in order to convince his audiences of the resemblance between the Roma and “primitive peoples”: “We could compare the Gypsies in their pride in the art of stealing with the feeling of Fijians for whom a murder is a matter of ambitiousness.”80 By comparing the Roma with the “primitives,” Štampach opposed them not only to “civilized” nations but to “primitives,” too. Besides the sexually transmitted diseases, alcohol and unhealthy nutrition that determined the degeneration of the Roma, he mentioned incest: “The isolation of the Gypsies also can be determined by the practice of incest – which is solved by the Gypsies in quite different ways than by other primitives, who strongly forbid incest.” By placing the Roma behind other “primitives,” Štampach concluded: “The Gypsies in Europe are a separated group distinguished by common racial characteristics that permits us to differentiate the Gypsies from vagrant white people even among those Gypsies who are not vagrant.”81 Despite this conclusion, Štampach did not provide any anthropometric data to confirm it, much like Robert Ritter,82 who never substantiated his anthropometric findings and published them.83 Also comparable with Ritter, Štampach operated through analogies – instead of providing clear evidence in favor of the existence of specific Roma somatic traits. The Grellmannian analogies primitivizing the Roma were accompanied by a formal critique of Grellmann, who Štampach defined as the originator of the prejudices against the “Gypsies.” In contrast to Grellmann, Štampach mentioned another notorious author, Heinrich Adalbert von Wlislocki, who he described as an author with a consistent positive attitude toward the “Gypsies.” Despite misconduct in the writings by Wlislocki revealed by Slovak experts,84 and the obvious connection between Wlislocki and the 78 Ibid., p. 7. 79 Ibid., p. 13. 80 Ibid., p. 16. 81 Ibid., p. 19. 82 Robert Ritter was a German racial scientist who led the Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Unit of Nazi Germany’s Criminal Police; see Willems, In Search of the True Gypsies. 83 Willems, In Search of the True Gypsies, p. 232. 84 Patrut, ‘Wlislocki’s Transylvanian “Gypsies.”‘

100 Victoria Shmidt

concept of the Aryan origins of the “Gypsies,” Štampach accepted Wlislocki’s approach enthusiastically and uncritically. Štampach solved the internal contradiction between the consistent primitivization of the Roma and the declaration of a positive attitude toward them through a specific game of concepts regarding delinquency introduced by Břetislav Foustka,85 the assessor of Štampach’s doctoral thesis. Foustka focused on social disorganization as a main source of the various patterns of deviant behavior among “Gypsies,” including delinquency, and stressed the factor of poverty and lack of social development because of lack of wealth.86 Thus, he differentiated between asocial and antisocial behavior as well as between criminalistic and criminological causes of such behavior. In line with Foustka’s crime causation theory, Štampach defined the behavior of “Gypsies” as “asocial” and “criminological” but he did not employ not harsher categories, such as “antisocial” and “criminal.” He declared that there was a difference between “Gypsy” nomadism and the vagrant patterns typical of criminals: “[W]hen we talk about the Gypsies, we talk about cultural primitivism, the nomadism of parasites, not criminals.”87 By sharing Foustka’s view that “the criminality is mainly a symptom of an unhealthy social state, not a consequence of physical degradation,” Štampach was ready to accept degradation as a cause of inherent criminality only for some “Gypsies”: “We could say that vagrant Gypsies have some inherent criminality but we do not accept that there are inherent pathological prerequisites among Gypsies.”88 Endorsing Foustka’s assimilative eugenic view, Štampach primarily reproduced the particular presociological discourse of the child as a tabula rasa: “The Gypsy child who would was hungry, raggedly dressed, forced to beg, but, on the contrary, attended school and would grow up to become a hardworking and capable citizen.”89 This position inclined him to focus on “Gypsy” childhood – the concept of childhood was defined via social conditions that Štampach saw as unsuitable for raising proper citizens. As noted above, in his dissertation, he presented the idea of childish and “uncivilized” behavioral patterns of Roma adults, including their inability to control their behavior, their cruelty toward animals and children and their primitive customs and habits. According to his study, there was only one way 85 Břetislav Foustka (1862-1947), sociologist and eugenicist. 86 Foustka, ‘Sociologie a etika eugenismu.’ 87 Štampach, ‘Sociologický výzkum cikánů,’ p. 46. 88 Ibid., p. 48. 89 Štampach, Cikání v Československu, p. 49.

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

101

forward for the Roma – assimilation. One of the central motives of his study became social differentiation among the Roma. Štampach focused on the better assimilation of upper social groups of the Roma in contrast to those who maintained their nomadic life. In particular, he stressed the rejection of the Roma language by those who became wealthier and considered themselves Czechs, Slovaks or Hungarians – ceasing to be Roma.90 According to Štampach, such behavior provided evidence for the possibility to reeducate the “Gypsies” and make them equal to the majority of the population. Foustka and Vincenc Lesný91 welcomed Štampach’s doctoral thesis. Foustka’s review was short but extremely positive: he evaluated the thesis as valuable and methodologically relevant.92 Lesný was more critical and stressed that unfamiliarity with the Roma language was quite a serious obstacle to the gathering of data.93 Nevertheless, he also recommended the dissertation for publication. After finishing his doctoral study, Štampach continued his career at the Ministry of Education, abandoning his career as a scholar. The next systematic survey among the Roma was conducted thirty years later94 and until the middle of the 1960s, the writings by Štampach remained the main source of expert knowledge about the Roma. After the war, Štampach renounced his ambivalent approach and vocally defended racial assimilationism during debates about policies concerning the Roma. He easily adopted the Pavlovian approach in favor of substantiating the strategy of enforced assimilation in new political circumstances.95 Further, it did not save him from a sweeping critique by socialist ideologues in the early 1960s.

Conclusion Obviously, during the interwar period, public health did not obtain the status of a civil religion comparable with the cult of nation in the United States, but sacralizing health and relevant professional practices became 90 Štampach, ‘Sociologický výzkum cikánů,’ p. 52. 91 Vincenc Lesný (1882-1953), the first Czech Indianologist, was a member of the Gypsy Lore Society, which collected and translated Roma fairy tales. 92 Foustka, ‘Posudek o disertaci.’ 93 Lesný, ‘Posudek o disertaci.’ 94 Several scholars who paid attention to the issue of socializing the Roma, such as Marie Nováková, who defended her thesis “The Gypsies in Uzhgorod” (Cikáni v Užhorodě) in 1946, or Zdenka Jamnická-Šmerglová, who published the controversial historical review “The Histories of Our Gypsies” (Dějiny našich cikánů) in 1953, did not achieve such acceptance by the academic public as Štampach and his publications. 95 Svaz českých spisovatelů, ‘Zápis porady.’

102 Victoria Shmidt

the multifunctional strategy for Czechoslovak epistemic communities and politicians for solving various tasks, both symbolic and practical. Even the task to substitute the traditional religion, Catholicism, with a new cult was not achieved; public health became the stage for transforming values and routine practices around various target groups in building the nation. In contrast to Western eugenics, Czech eugenics did not obtain social power during the interwar period, but the activities by Czech eugenicists enhanced the power of the ruling coalition. On the one hand, by contesting clerics, Czech eugenicists provided the free competition of elites that was an irreplaceable condition for the Czechoslovak state to maintain the position of the only guarantor of national progress toward the civilizing process. On the other hand, by practicing their belief in hybridization as the most desirable way to build the nation, Czech eugenicists delineated the borders between health and degradation as a direct consequence of the rejection to be integrated and become functionally healthy. Such an approach placed responsibility for disabilities and limited capacities on those who had them. By conceptualizing disability as the inability to serve the nation, Czech experts launched the production of analogies between the characteristics of health and various features of reliable citizenship with regard to building the nation. In line with Nancy Leys Stepan’s concept of scientific analogies,96 we could conclude by saying that sacralizing health established the main pathway for approving the segregation of the Roma. Through an intertwined and overlapping series of analogies regarding health and labor, a variety of “differences” – physical and psychical, class and national – was brought together in the theorized concept of functional health operating in favor of constructing the Roma as biological “races apart.” According to Benedict Anderson, the intensive formation of nationalistic discourse remains both “a genuine, popular nationalist enthusiasm, and a systematic, even Machiavellian, instilling of nationalist ideology through the mass media, the educational system, administrative regulations, and so forth.”97 In the case of interwar Czechoslovakia, such an ambiguous double impact of shaping the nation affected the discourses and practices around those who were disabled and the Roma. Accusations of idleness resonated with the fear of the Roma as unhealthy, physically and mentally. The Roma became a “they” who could not have their “name” as a nation; moreover, during the interwar period, the analogy between “being Gypsy” and “being disabled” was established. This root metaphor would be developed 96 Stepan, ‘Race and Gender.’ 97 Anderson, Imagined Communities, p. 116.

Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period

103

later during the second half of interwar period, and pathologized by the scholars who collaborated with Nazi scientists and, finally, deepened by socialist reforms centered on the assimilation of the Roma. The pathway for objectifying the Roma as handicapped due to their inability to work was born within the process of transforming functional health into a civil religion.

About the author Victoria Shmidt has a PhD in Developmental Psychology (1998, Russian Academy of Education) and a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy (2012, Masaryk University). Since 2011, Dr. Shmidt has been working on the issue of the policies concerning ethnic minorities in the Czech lands and the role of various academic communities in producing the discourses and practices of segregation.

Part 2 Postwar Institutionalization of Care for the Disabled: Toward a Universalized Discourse of “Defective Gypsies”

Part 2

107

Abstract Part 2 focuses on the three main and mutually interrelated realms of producing and practicing the violence of knowledge: special education, physical anthropology, and genetics. Their interplay is explored as a main prerequisite for coalescing disability and ethnicity in the practices that led to structural violence against the Roma after 1945.

This part focuses mainly on the postwar period in terms of reproducing and deepening the practices and ideas concerning disability and ethnicity as the basis for framing the public policy of the interwar period. The Protectorate period is seen here as the transition from the interwar rhetoric concerning functional health and its potential coalescing with ethnicity to reproducing the postwar hierarchy of defectivity that absorbed the Nazi as well as the Soviet approaches in the division of people with mental disabilities, culminating in categories according to the degree of their usefulness. Additionally, the pathos of interwar rhetoric within the postwar practices operated in favor of legitimizing the hierarchy of defectivity – one of the most visible traces of Soviet influence on the Czechoslovak rhetoric concerning people with disabilities and the Roma. This section revisits the concept of the socialist legacy in the politics of segregation and surveillance by bringing into focus the main challenges faced by socialist authorities in Czechoslovakia and the options at their disposal to meet such challenges. The role of massive antisocialist propaganda that stressed the inability of the socialist state to provide public security is seen as one of the driving forces that led the authorities to reproducing the interwar rhetoric concerning the Roma. The call to be in line with official Marxism is contextualized as a source of additional arguments in favor of intractable backwardness of the Roma. And the pressure of international attention to the issue of segregation against the Roma since the late 1970s is explored as a factor of making arbitrary the practice of surveillance, including forced sterilization. Along with these topics, this part focuses on the role of demographic crisis and the obviously insufficient attempts to reverse it until the early 1970s as the main driving force that rendered the application of a nationalist narrative stemming from the interwar period essential for the socialist authorities. Between 1948 and 1989, the Czechoslovak authorities experimented with a wide range of strategies toward solving this issue that directly determined the other realms of policy making, including the politics of disability. The three-part taxonomy of nationalist policies of population control introduced

108 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

by Nira Yuval-Davis1 mapped the main changes in the priorities and strategies of population policy in postwar Czechoslovakia. Between 1950 and 1957, the Czechoslovak demographic policy can be defined as a simplistic version of “People as Power” strategy aimed at increasing the population. The ban on abortion served as the core element of putting pressure on women to bear children. During this period, the development of obstetrics services took precedence over other priorities of public health including the politics of disability. The agenda regarding disabled children directly contracted big-time politics, fostering an arena of political struggle between the socialist ministries – mainly, the Ministry of Health, and the civic movements against the authorities (1948-1953).2 After issuing the Law on Abortion (1957), special abortion boards started regulating access to abortion. The wide range of criteria for obtaining permission for an abortion indicated the intention of authorities to implement the other two strategies of population control, labeled by Yuval-Davis as eugenicist (aimed at improving the quality of the nation) and Malthusian (focused on limiting the number of children). The list of indicators for permitting abortion included such characteristics as age (over 40 years), some chronic diseases, the number of children (three or more), illegitimate pregnancy, and social vulnerability. Nevertheless, regulating abortion was not enough for revision of the demographic policy. The eugenicist strategy aimed at improving the quality of the nation became central since the second half of the 1960s after the issuing of two new laws, the Law on the Family (Zákon o rodině, 1963) and Law on the Care of the People’s Health (Zákon o péči o zdraví lidu, 1966). Along with hormonal contraception, genetic counseling, therapeutic abortion, and sterilization, the policy of population control purchased a wide range of social surveillance measures aimed at removing children from unreliable parents. Within each of these strategies, those who were labeled as defective (people with disabilities and the Roma) remained opposed to sustainability and security of the state and the nation. Three main realms of knowledge, special education, race science and genetics served the ongoing transformation of prior demographic strategies. Their interplay should be seen as the main driving force determining the extreme forms of structural violence, such as the mass practice of placing children with disabilities and the Roma into institutions, forced sterilization and a rigid surveillance over private life. 1 Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation. 2 A detailed analysis of the attempt to distribute the patients of the institution for children with disabilities into city neighborhoods and the successful resistance of the professionals and parental groups against the attempt to reassign the institution’s buildings for obstetrics services was conducted by Victoria Schmidt in Child Welfare Discourses, pp. 52-59.

4

Special Education in Czechoslovakia between 1939 and 1989 Toward Multilevel Hierarchy of Defectivity Frank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

Abstract This chapter focuses on the interdisciplinarity of postwar applied scientific approaches to “defective” children and its direct influence on the practices of education and political rhetoric about those who were labeled as defective. Victoria Shmidt introduces the role of intensive institutionalization of special education in Nazi Germany in the vicissitudes of the Czech approach to the children with disabilities during the Protectorate and explores the fixing of some institutional and discursive German patterns in the politics of disability during the Third Republic period, between 1945 and 1948. Frank Henschel then explains the rupture between the first decade of socialist policy and the composition of driving forces that later made the eugenic turn possible and desirable by various interest groups. Keywords: special education, surveillance, defectology, intersectionality of ethnicity and disability

4.1

The politics of disability during the Protectorate: Toward institutionalizing special education

The task of highlighting the impact of the national socialist policy concerning persons with disabilities, generally, and the Nazi reform of special education, particularly, on Czech politics concerning disability requires redefining the role of special education in the German public policy between 1933 and 1945. The utilitarian approach to human capacities and selectiveness as the main principles of the state’s approach to persons with disabilities

Shmidt, Victoria (ed.), The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia. Segregating in the Name of the Nation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789463720014/ch04

110 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

went to the extreme when special education was institutionalized during national socialism.1 Historians refer to three stages of institutionalizing German special education between 1933 and 1945: – 1935-1938: primary institutionalization and the obligation of special schools to segregate persons with disabilities into useful and useless; – 1938-1942: professionalization of selection and vocational training, the two main tasks of special education; – 1942-1945/1960s: centralization and unification of special education as part of surveillance of unfit groups.2 The misery of special schools finally turned for the better after two years the national socialists came to power in 1933 in the form of increased number of such institutions and allocation of further resources. According to Sengstock, Magerhans-Hurley and Sprotte, between 1935 and 1939 the number of students placed in these institutions increased as well.3 Obviously, this veering of the official attitude toward special education reflected two mutually interrelated trends – to exploit the education system by incorporating it into the mission of population surveillance and centralizing the process of data collection about unfit groups within the population.4 Two main laws, the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring or “Sterilization Law” (GzVeN – Das Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses) and the Law against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities (Gesetz gegen die Überfüllung deutscher Schulen), issued in 1933 framed the new aims and the new, prominent, status of special education in Nazi Germany. Special schools started to operate as sparring partners of psychiatric clinics by solving the task of centralizing the process of selection and treatment of those who were seen as needing extreme form of care – whether sterilization or euthanasia.5 The key ideologist of transforming special education, Karl Tornow, offered to differentiate two groups among persons with disabilities, “needless for the people” (völkisch unbrauchbar) and “belonging to people as useful” (volklich brauchbar).6 Pursuant to this mission, special education assumed the position of main actor in socializing those disabled who would be helpful for the new German state.7 The systematic institutionalized 1 Brill, Pädagogik der Abgrenzung. 2 Hänsel, Sonderschullehrerausbildung im Nationalsozialismus. 3 Sengstock, Magerhans-Hurley, and Sprotte, ‘The Role of Special Education,’ p. 232. 4 Hänsel, ‘Die Historiographie der Sonderschule.’ 5 Hänsel, ‘“Erbe und Schicksal.”‘ 6 Tornow, ‘Völkische Sonderpädagogik.’ 7 Sieglind, ‘Sonderpädagogen.’

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

111

practice of vocational training for persons with disabilities also commenced during this period. After 1938, when the Law on School Attendance in the German Reich (Gesetz über die Schulpflicht im Deutschen Reich) introduced strict rules aimed at improving school attendance, German special education focused on vocational training for several target groups of persons with disabilities encompassing a wide range of measures having the intention of involving as many as possible disabled children into systematic education. Starting at the end of 1941, ideologists of special education introduced diverse tools targeted at unifying the process of training, assessing and selecting.8 The main feature of this shift was increasing the number of students and the urgent necessity to introduce a particular order to regulate operations in special education.9 Transparency and ease of control of special schools, unification of organizational approaches to the curriculum and centralization in disseminating innovative approaches to training the students were defined as the main priorities in the long-term plan of special education. This process continued after the war – despite being forced to take part in denazification, the main ideologists of special education such as Tornow or Fred Dubitscher 10 held their position as key experts of the politics of disability. Along with this continuity, critical revision of the legacy of national socialism in the education for persons with disabilities started only in the second half of the 1970s directly under the pressure of the new mission of inclusion, which continued till now. Recently, historians practiced the crossing of historical borders in order to indicate the role of earlier periods of the Austrian and German special education in its culmination as a tool of surveillance during national socialism.11 Also, this practice remained more than fragmented among those who explored the past of special education in the Czech lands. 8 Tornow, ‘Was bedeuten die “Richtlinien.”‘ 9 Reichsministeriums für Wissenschaft, ‘Volks- und Mittelschulen.’ 10 Fred Dubitscher (1905-1978) was a German child psychiatrist who was one of the promoters of the GzVeN Law and the principal physician of the Vereins Poliklinik für Erb- und Rassenpflege (Public Clinic of Herdity and Race Care) since 1941. He was also involved in administering the whole system of institutions aimed at providing care for children in the Third Reich, including the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This covered not only clinics and hospitals but also milk stations, kindergartens, and women associations. 11 Johannes Gstach revises the role of the pioneers of German and Austrian special education in the second third of the nineteenth century who claimed themselves to be anthologists (those who focused on the role of families in reproducing hereditary diseases) and echoing these ideas in the next periods of history of special education. Gstach, ‘“Der Pädagog muss Antropolog werden!”‘

112 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

Obviously, neither the number of schools nor financial support were significantly increased; nevertheless, the established institutions such as the Jedličkův ústav or the Paedologický ústav were involved in the process of adopting the German approach to assess the children and select them. Further, the Czech journal Disabled Youth (Úchylná mládež) continued its operation between 1939 and 1945, and analysis of the texts published there incline to compare the mission of this periodical with the role of the German journal German Special School (Die Deutsche Sonderschule) that became a public platform of politics of disability in Germany starting in 1934. Tellingly, between 1939 and 1945 Úchylná mládež published reviews on more than twenty most important texts written by German experts of heredity and races for special educators.12 Along with providing access to the core of national socialist special education, the journal solved the task of juxtaposing national socialist ideas and Czech nationalistic discourse of functional health. The German approach did not intrude into the Czech discursive practices concerning education and care for the disabled – on the contrary, the extremely utilitarian view on disability resonated with the interwar pathos of functional health. Two values, the core of national socialist special education, social adaptability (soziale Angepasstheit) and endurance (Leistungsfähigkeit), were easily adopted by those Czech educators who replaced previous opposition of disability to functional health with the dichotomy of social weakness vs. adaptability. In his manifest,13 Štampach, who kept his off icial position at the Ministry of Education during the Protectorate period, introduced a cascade of analogies between Czech and national socialist metaphors concerning child, disability and nation. Štampach stemmed from the classic Nazi rhetoric of evil as originally belonging to particular ineducable groups and directly linking it with the more typical Czech interwar concept of deforming healthy grounds of people’s health: “The sources and roots of degeneration of nations and races start sooner than in the cradle, beginning in the past from previous generations. The unhealthy routine stems from the frames equally deepened in the past as the drama of congenital and inherited effects and diseases.”14 12 For instance, Gerhard Friese and Hans Joachim Lemme, Die deutsche Erbpflege [German concerns about heredity] (Leipzig: Georg Thieme, 1937), deserved more than a two-page review in issue 5 (1943), pp. 235-236. 13 Štampach, ‘Jsme u kořenů zla.’ 14 Ibid., p. 7.

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

113

The analogy between evil and deformation led Štampach to def ine working with disabled children as “an open sore that needs to be treated.” Štampach consistently medicalized special education in favor of emancipating children from the past as “enslavement of children’s souls full of abuse and neglect, disfiguration of their mentality and deformation of their embodiment.”15 Prescribing to educators and physicians the role of those who are obliged to make the children free from the evil of the past, Štampach stressed the negative responsibility of families and shifted attention from punishing the children for their asocial behavior to their parents. In doing so, he mentioned the role of eugenic tools as “more than relevant for solving this task.”16 Štampach directly opposed the irrelevance of punishment and criminal investigation of children with disabilities in favor of medical treatment full of love and patience. This strong division of criminality and disability reverberated with the division of children with disabilities into suitable and unsuitable. In many meanings, the focus on economic viability and cost-saving argument replaced the previous veil of sacralized view on functional health. In his keynote text,17 August Bartoš, the principal of the Jedličkův ústav, stressed: “the opportunity to be trained to work is not the performance of altruistic feelings, but of our reason and sense.”18 According to Bartoš, empathetic argument equalized social care with charity work, “what is not honest, reasonable and suitable for the needs of the society.”19 Previous images of poverty (including those that were used by Bartoš himself in his early interwar writings20) were marked as a violent manipulation of the public’s emotions. In his program article, Josef Kettner, chief editor of Úchylná mládež, emphasized the necessity to prepare children with disabilities for “technical progress and new huge tasks to build a new Europe.”21 Kettner built a sort of hierarchy of the children with diverse types of disabilities. Children with limited mobility were placed on the top due to their viability. Then came children with visual impairment and those with audial impairment were marked as conditionally suitable. Children with mental disabilities were evaluated as the least in terms of their value for progress. The degree 15 Ibid., p. 8. 16 Ibid. 17 Bartoš, ‘Účelnost v péči o úchylné děti.’ 18 Ibid., p. 38. 19 Ibid., p. 18. 20 Bartoš, ‘Mrzák ve staré češtině a dnes.’ 21 Kettner, ‘Výchova vadného dítěte k práci,’ p. 70.

114 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

of general education as well as the range of options of vocational training should be diverse according to each of the levels. Tellingly, Kettner concluded his text by stating that complete success of special education would be in the disappearance of the necessity of special schools and classes – because of expected progress of eugenic measures. This conclusion fitted perfectly with the national socialist mission of special education as embedded in the politics of cleansing the nation from people with disabilities. Undoubtedly, the adoption of national socialist discursive practices aimed to reinforce the institutionalization of special education, which was visibly besieged by prewar economic crisis and the general lack of human resources. In 1927, Jan Chlup22 stressed the main issues seemingly as insurmountable for the Czech education: absence of the system of registering newborn children with disabilities, the lack of legal regulations aimed at prescribing education for all children with disabilities, and the major share of those who remained beyond any form of social intervention. In 1941, Melichar Bednářík acclaimed the German regulations concerning special education as providing new options for sustainable development for the education of the disabled in Bohemia and Morava. In practice, the Czech educators focused on assessment and selection.23 Along with adopting discursive practices of the national socialist agenda for special education, Czech special education was recruited to surveillance of unfit groups. Being part of the Third Reich’s politics of disability, the institutions of special education of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia had to gather data about hereditary health and diseases. The “Instruction for Assessing Hereditary Health” (Směrnice pro posuzováni dědičného zdraví or Erbgesundheitsdirektive, 1942) directly prescribed the main regulations for collecting and handling data about families in which cases of hereditary diseases appeared. Based on the approach offered by Dubitscher, the instruction divided families into four categories. The f irst category was made up of families with superiority in health and other qualities strategically important for reproduction. The second category comprised an average level with rare isolated cases of hereditary diseases or asocial behavior. The third category distinguished several cases of hereditary diseases and a generally low level of abilities. The last, fourth, category presented the most problematic combination of hereditary diseases and asocial behavior: “its members behave themselves in a way inevitably leading to conflicts with social institutions and legal norms; 22 Chlup, ‘Program a zásady péče.’ 23 Bednářík, ‘Zákon o školní povinnosti v Říši.’

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

115

they are unable to keep their household in order and raise their children properly, rely on social benefits and look on their children as a source of profit. Addicted to alcohol and drugs, prostitutes, and beggars are those who belong to this category.”24 This scale for measuring the degree of inferiority was disseminated by the regional public health authorities and was prescribed to be applied by research centers aimed at treating children with disabilities. In 1942, the scholars from the Paedologický ústav in Prague were obliged to reassess family histories and the genealogies of children placed into this institution between 1918 and 1943. The choice of the Paedologický ústav was determined by its main activity from the moment of its reestablishment in 1922, the assessment of children with disabilities in order to indicate the most suitable educational trajectory or placement for them. Operating as a division of the Anthropological Institute of Charles University, the Paedologický ústav was officially accepted as a successor of Ernestin, the first Eugenická centrála (Eugenic Center) in the Czech lands established in 1914.25 Even more, the extended survey of the families of children with disabilities made by Slovenian eugenicist Božo Škerlj26 in 1929 as part of his doctoral thesis at Charles University reproduced many features of the personal profile (Personalbogen) intensively developed by German special educators since the early 1920s.27 Comparably with his German colleagues, Škerlj focused on the marital status, religiosity, and the history of social diseases as the array of interrelated social indicators of the origin of disability. Evaluated by the Germans as the most experienced and internationally recognized institution in Prague, the Paedologický ústav demonstrated its loyalty and received organizational support from the Protectorate regime. In 1940, the institute received the new status of inclusion in the local authority network and was awarded seven seats on the Prague board responsible for the care and education of the disabled.28 Following on, the institution was relocated from its current small building to a new, better equipped and more spacious setup in a better location. This rapid growth of social capital of the institute can be easily explained by the expectations of German authorities

24 Dubitscher, Asoziale Sippen. 25 Herfort, ‘Rodokmeny slabomyslných.’ 26 Slovenian eugenicist Božo Škerlj (1908-1961) studied anthropology at Charles University in Prague. He defended his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Jindřich Matiegka. Škerlj was one of the main advocates of the Yugoslav nation. 27 Škerlj, ‘Nekatera socijalna.’ 28 Šebek, ‘Pražský paedologický.’

116 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

from participation of the Paedologický ústav in assessing children with disabilities – obviously, those who were Czechs.29 The Prague head physician, Viktor Kindermann,30 was the official who initiated and directly ordered the Paedologický ústav to measure and reassess Czech families at risk of reproducing asocial offspring. Being directly affected by his visits to the most prominent centers of researching asocial behavior, inheritance and criminality in Munich, Leipzig and Vienna during spring and summer 1942, Kindermann consistently forced the agenda of asocial families in Prague. Among such priorities as improving the natality of the German population and ensuring safety for the children by providing regular access to outdoor activities in the camps situated in rural areas, Kindermann emphasized the necessity to make efforts toward minimizing the share of unfit groups among the Czech population. In summer 1942, Kindermann started to negotiate the establishing of the Center for Preventing and Eliminating Asociality (Ústředí pro prevenci a potírání asociálností). Tellingly, he put forward a critique of the overliberal approach of the Czech physicians to persons with mental disabilities as one of the arguments in favor of introducing the institute aimed at monitoring unfit population. The head of the somatology subdivision of the Paedologický ústav, Ludmila Lukášová,31 was obliged to prepare a report targeted at indicating the share of suitable and unsuitable children. In her report, based on the reevaluation of more than 1,000 cases, Lukášová led to the conclusions that the share of those who would be identified as belonging to the last, fourth, category

29 In the Czech lands, the systematic extermination of people with mental disabilities within Action T4 mainly concerned the Germans – while the Czech population, especially those under age, was excluded from such actions. More about the role of T4 in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia can be fond in the writings of Michal Šimůnek, e.g., ‘Die NS-”Euthanasie.”‘ 30 Viktor Kindermann (1903-1945) was born into the family of the director of the training college in Aussig (Usti nad Labem) and studied medicine at the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague between 1924 and 1934. He published the results of his dissertation research in an article coauthored with the director of the Hygienishes Institute at Charles-Ferdinand University, Ernest Singer: ‘Die Totgeburten in Böhmen’ [Stillbirths in Bohemia], in the Italian journal Genus 1 (3/4) (1935), pp. 411-443. Between 1936 and 1942 Kindermann was head physician in Aussig and starting in March 1942 he led public health efforts in Prague. After war he was imprisoned and died under uncertain circumstance in early 1946 in the Pankraz prison. His wife committed suicide by taking poison after killing their child in May 1945. 31 Ludmila Lukášová (1888-unknown), a Czech pediatrician, studied at Charles University between 1906 and 1911 as a student of Karel Herfort. In her academic activities, Lukášová paid special attention to the interrelation between physical and mental indicators of mental development and mental disability. Her approach to the assessment of children with mental disabilities emphasized the role of sexual development.

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

117

is comparable or even less than in German studies – only 148 cases.32 The comparison of statistical data concerning the outcomes of Lukášová’s assessment in 1938 and 1942 provides additional evidence in favor of her attempts to decrease the number of diagnoses that would incline to apply such extreme forms of treatment as sterilization or euthanasia. Cerebral palsy, epilepsy, microcephaly and idiocy were identified only in few cases in contrast to 1938. Obviously, Lukášová’s approach was comparable with the attempts of some German special educators in terms of avoiding direct participation in inhuman practices against children with disabilities by revising their diagnoses.33 Despite this brave attempt to avoid the oppression from the authorities, the Paedologický ústav finally composed the list of 4,000 asocial families. To complete this task, the institute recruited Josef Apetaur, a psychiatrist who worked at the mental clinic in Prague.34 The details concerning the families included in Apetaur’s list as well as the destiny of the families are still unknown. However, Apetaur’s rapid advancement after 1942 inclines one to think that the German authorities were satisfied with his efforts. In late 1942 Apetaur replaced the previous principal of the Paedologický ústav and simultaneously started to lead all institutions for children with disabilities in Prague, a role he held until the end of the war.35 What remains as indisputable outputs of these activities is the adoption by Czech psychiatrists the methods used by their German colleagues, such as the Rorschach test, diverse IQ scales and revised methods of screening the role familial legacy. The elaboration of special education during national socialism remains an extreme example of institutionalizing the selective approach to persons with disabilities. Each particular instrument (psychological tests, diverse methods of observation, the family tree method) was transformed in line with the mission to divide and select individuals according to national socialist principles. In addition, the organizational design complied with the national socialist aim to indicate capable (brauchbare) and incapable (unbrauchbare) children with disabilities. While the procedures aimed to 32 Lukášová, ‘Příspěvek ke studiu.’ 33 Sieglind, ‘Sonderpädagogen.’ 34 Josef Apetaur (1898-1955) studied at Charles University between 1921 and 1922 at the Faculty of Philosophy, where he successfully defended a thesis titled “The Psychology and Pedagogy of Czech Adolescents”). He was then in the Faculty of Medicine between 1931 and 1934 under the supervision of Vladislav Růžička. Starting in 1936, Apetaur worked at the psychiatric hospital for children in Prague. After the war, he returned to his duties as a child psychiatrist at the mental health clinic in Prague. 35 Káš, ‘Apetaur Josef.’

118 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

involve children with disabilities in regular education, the approach to training and assessing them favored building a hierarchy of disability, which easily coalesced with a racial hierarchy. Being simultaneously extreme and simple compared with the interwar rhetoric, this approach etched deeply into the professional approaches of the Czech educators. As a result, the Czechoslovak postwar strategy toward elaborating special education attuned to hierarchical distinction introduced by the German experts concerning the degree of usefulness of the children.

4.2

The politics of disability in the period 1945 to 1948: Between the task of differentiation and lack of placements

The new, postwar, push for professionalization and institutionalization of the care for disabled persons stemmed from the rhetoric of deliberation and reestablishment of the Czechoslovak nation. After 1945, the Czechoslovak authorities, in line with public opinion, prescribed remedial measures leading to revival of the interwar-period traditions. Pursuant to this, caring professionals began to be viewed in the vanguard of national efforts toward coping with the trauma of war: Educational professionals know better than others what scars the years of occupation left on the physical, moral and spiritual conditions of our youth. In many classes, there are children with behavioral patterns disturbing the education process. The main sources of such behavior – parental neglect, poor moral environment, deficient care, negative patterns – could not be overcome, creating an environment where a child would not grow up to become a full-fledged citizen – unless the child can be immune from the influence of such an inappropriate environment and receive more attention and exceptional care from professionals.36

In practice, special education and care for persons with disability continued to be elaborated during the course of the period between 1939 and 1945, which aimed at dividing persons with disabilities into categories according to their ability to be trained and socialized. Typical of the ideologists of the national socialist approach to special education, the idea of differentiating children according to their degree of mental development and the risk of becoming a carrier of hereditary disease received acceptance not only among 36 Zemská ústřední péče o mládež v Čechách, ‘Výchovné ústavy.’

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

119

the professionals but also from the parents of such children. Moreover, many parents demanded access to education for those children who remained out of the care framework. Two different but interrelated requirements from parents toward the authorities determined the policy making around the education for disabled children: to differentiate schools according to the degree of mental development of students and to ensure that all children with disabilities regardless of the type and degree of retardation would get access to the services. Professionals and activists from parent associations differentiated institutions covering special education for children with different degrees of mental development from early childhood. In the beginning of 1947, a delegation of blind and visually impaired clients of the Klára residential setting submitted an urgent request to the then prime minister on dividing all educational settings for the visually impaired into three groups: schools with a curriculum relevant to mainstream education (školní), vocational training schools (remeslné) and social care settings (zaopatřovací).37 Such categorization would be relevant in addressing the different needs of the blind and visually impaired in the backdrop of varying dynamics of mental development. One of the reasons in favor of separating children with mental disabilities from the normally developed was the necessity to encourage the trust of the public toward the visually impaired who were gifted and normal: “children with mental retardation not only brake the education process – Professor Fafl stressed during the special meeting of the board of the Ministry of Education and Enlightenment – but they aggravate distrust of society toward blind people.”38 The number of institutions especially for those who had multiple disorders was insufficient. Only one institution, in Opařany, a small town in the south, was unable to accept all visually impaired children with mental disabilities. To this effect, the Ministry of Education and Enlightenment made a decision about establishing several institutions for visually impaired children with mental disabilities in March 1947. The division of education in this manner directly affected the curriculum: children without mental retardation should get education compatible with mainstream school and supplemented by music education, while children with mental disabilities would be trained according to their capacities and with the task of preparing them for any type of vocational activity.39 Care professionals initiated a very similar process for children with hearing impairment. The previous practice of accepting children with 37 Ministerstvo školství a osvěty, ‘Ústavy pro slepé.’ 38 Ibid. 39 Ministerstvo školství a osvěty, ‘Slepecké písmo.’

120 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

different degrees of hearing impairment into the same institution was described as a barrier against efficient teaching and vocational preparation. First, the combined education of children who stammered and of those who had hearing impairment began to be criticized – the main concern was to ensure intervention with speech development relevant to the abilities of children, which varied from deaf children to children with speech disorders. The uniform scale for assessing children with hearing impairment and speech disorders was published in the main professional journal Pedological Perspectives (Paedologické rozhledy), the successor of Uchylná mládež. In-time relevant diagnosis started to be viewed as indispensable for indicating the risks of deviant behavior among children with hearing impairment. Intending to cover the children by instituting special education as soon as possible, experts highlighted the negative impact of disability on mental development: “All children born with disabilities are at risk of mental retardation and that should be prevented from the very beginning.”40 Previously established preschool groups were gradually transformed into kindergartens accepting children from three years of age. 41 Early placement aimed to assess children and test their learning abilities. New educational settings for disabled children were established within largest health-care facilities. Several new services for preschool children with disabilities got the best buildings for their purposes: the central hospital in Prague accepted the offer of the city council to rebuild the Charlotte Masaryk pavilion as a special day care center for disabled children, preparing them for school education.42 The pavilion was situated in the city but surrounded by a pine forest and garden. Differentiating the children on the grounds of degree of mental development sparked debate around the services for those who suffered from epilepsy – the disease directly affiliated with inhuman practices of euthanasia during the Protectorate. At the end of 1946, the Teaching Hospital of Neurological Diseases at Charles University (Klinika neurologická Karlové univerzity) took the lead in developing services for children with epilepsy but with mental development aligned with the norms. The main argument in favor of new institutions was the “deplorable destiny of those who either stay at home or spend time together with mentally retarded children without sufficient stimulation for development.”43 Juxtaposing medical and pedagogi40 Zemský národní výbor v Brně, ‘Zemská péče o mládež.’ 41 Ibid. 42 Ministerstvo školství a osvěty, ‘Městská mateřská škola.’ 43 Ministerstvo zdravotnictví, ‘Zřízení ústavu.’

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

121

cal efforts became the grounds for assessment and remedial practices. 44 The decision on establishing the special center combining the functions of day care and boarding school was made by the Ministry of Social Protection, but the Ministry of Health took the responsibility for its implementation. The main task was to specify an appropriate building within the parameters of the university campus. In total, the government devoted 340,000 crowns for rebuilding and equipping the center. The Ministry of Finance accepted the planned budget in full. 45 Invoking the ideals of progress and humanism, special education was a source of national pride for the Czechoslovak people and state. This approach conciliated utilitarian view on humans as the main capital of the nation and sentimental rhetoric around future generations. Nevertheless, relaying on professionals and refined institutionalization, the strategy of differentiation was irrelevant for solving the issue of placing the majority of disabled children whose parents relied solely on their own resources. In 1947, several regions reported that the parents of disabled children asked local authorities to indicate the possibilities for their children either to attend school or be placed in residential care units: “Due to our employment, children remain beyond monitoring, regular nutrition and the required hygienic procedures. […] They wander in the streets and become victims of immoral treatment.”46 One of the arguments in favor of the parents’ requirements was the obligation of mothers to stay with their children against their duty to work: “mothers who need to pay all their attention to the child could not operate as full unit of labor.”47 Parents asked to establish the day care center for their children and referenced the insufficiently small number of places acceptable for them in only one center, for boys only, operating since 1926 and accepting not more than seventeen boys above fourteen years of age and teaching them simple types of work. 48 According to the parents, more than 200 disabled children needed placement, and the parents of girls required the provision of such services for their daughters since 1945. 49 But the decision about establishing centers was made only by late 1947.

44 Ministerstvo zdravotnictví, ‘Zpráva Praha-Veleslavín.’ 45 Ministerstvo financí, ‘Dopis.’ 46 Okresní péče o mládež v Plzni: Odbor pro ochranu duševně nebo mravně úchylných, ‘Dopis krajské.’ 47 Ibid. 48 Odbor pro ochranu duševně úchylných při okresní péči o mládež v Plzni, ‘Žádost o podporu.’ 49 Rodičovské sdružení při pomocné škole v Plzni. 5. května, ‘Dopis na Ministerstvo a sociálních věcí.’

122 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

In some regions, the need to place disabled children was so urgent that on 26 February 1947, at an extraordinary meeting of the key experts of the Ministry of Education and Enlightenment (including Štampach, who continued his career as an official of the Ministry of Education after the war), together with the local authorities from Plzen, the options for placing children into all operated boarding schools in the region was discussed. The decision was to be made by a special board aimed at differentiating “children into those who are able to be brought up but not educable or educable.” But the necessity of immediate placement of disabled children contested the trend to differentiate disabled children according to their mental development. While the experts and some parents put forward the task of differentiation disabled children according to the level of mental development, the rest of the parents and public required immediate placement of those who remained on the streets and thus posed a risk to public safety. In 1947, some regions offered to transform special schools (okresní pomocní školy) into boarding schools, and the Ministry of Social Protection accepted the initiation to open shelters and dormitories within operating schools.50 The schools were obliged to estimate their expenses per student, according to local prices. More than twelve schools started to operate as residential care settings and additionally accepted 50 to 60 children. This practice became typical in the Silesian region mining towns due to the extreme level of poverty there. Despite the obvious crisis in special education, the main task of mainstream schools was to identify disabled children as soon as possible and place them in special schools. The call for proper assessment dovetailed with task to differentiate the disabled students and improve their further placement. The choice of school physicians as those responsible for establishing in time assessment coincided with large-scale medicalization of special education. The Ministry of Education and Enlightenment agreed with the Ministry of Health Care to oblige physicians, introduced into the staff of the mainstream schools since 1946, to provide primary assessment and delegate children to specialists in case of indicating disability. Additionally, physicians had to train pedagogues to assess children’s sense of vision and hearing based on special tables.51 In 1947, in-service training for teachers was introduced in schools in order to equip them with the assessment toolkit. Although the tasks of differentiation and placement would be in potential conflict with each other in terms of access to sources, the solving of both 50 Česká zemská péče o mládež, ‘Internáty pří okresních.’ 51 Ministerstvo školství a osvěty, ‘Ústavy pro slepé.’

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

123

relied upon networks comprising professionals and activists, which made the tasks of differentiation and placement mutually convenient. Such unusual coincidence inspired diverse tactics of collaboration to offset the chronic lack of financial and material resources. Despite prescribing to the care specialists the role of rescuers of the nation, the education for disabled children practiced various tactics bringing together the efforts of civic activists and professionals. Obviously, the Third Republic period was exceptional in terms of cooperation between the ministries, never before and after did the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education operate in such a comprehensive manner, accompanied by a shared vision of the priorities. In fact, this outstanding collaboration can be explained by the necessity to confront the crisis of executive power and increasing influence of the Communist Party. Both ministries were led by the politicians from the liberal and center-left parties who were interested in putting together their efforts in contesting the growing popularity of the communists among the people.52 Nevertheless, good intentions fell short due to limited resources – the extent of the crisis in the education system (including education for disabled children) demanded significant cash injections. Between 1945 and 1946, more than half of the institutions for disabled children appealed to either the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health with requests for funds for urgent repairs due to damage incurred during the war. The ministries processed the following scheme for communication with the institutions: (1) the institution needed to account for the amount requested and substantiate its claim; (2) in case of accepting and registering the request, the ministry (most often the Ministry of Health) would ask the institution to provide data about its operation for the previous years (how many children were educated, types of training and other educational activities, budgets and the sources of financial support obtained during the Protectorate); (3) the ministry would ask for a guarantee that after the repairs were completed the institution would resume operations immediately and accept as many children as possible. The typical example of applying this scheme in practice was the case of the shelter for disabled children in Boleslav.53 The institution received a third of the demanded budget and used it to repair internal 52 Both being lawyers, Jaroslav Stránský, the minister of education and a representative of the National Social Party, and Adolf Procházka, minister of health and a representative of the People’s Party, were in alliance against the Communist Party generally and the procommunist Ministry of Social Protection particularly. 53 Spolek pro vybudování a vydržování sociálního ústavu pro úchylné dětí v Mladé Boleslavi, ‘Věc.’

124 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

damage, while the improvement of the exterior was not funded.54 The process of repairing the damage extended to two years due to irregular payments, which were smaller than expected and not sufficient for completing the task. The institution resumed operations only in 1948.55 Not only material but human resource also required systematic intervention. Some regions allocated funds for training the nurses – in Prague and Brno young women from vulnerable environment (orphans, poor families) got a fellowship for learning at the school of care for mothers and children (škola péče o matky a děti). Such an approach was viewed as solving two issues: supplement human resources and prevent asocial life choices among young women at risk.56 Moreover, this communication between local authorities and central departments became the driving force behind the culture of self-government typical of special education in interwar Czechoslovakia. One of the main features of this culture was very close cooperation between the staff and parents. Continuing during the Protectorate, the active participation of parents in school life flourished during the Third Republic period. Established by the special decree of the Ministry of Education (No. 54-840, May 1939), parental units especially in special education took over responsibility for social provision and keeping the process of education “in action.” In 1944, Štampach highlighted the indispensable role of parents in ensuring social well-being and health care for children.57 Parents were those who mediated the contact with churches, abbeys and charity foundations in order to transfer children to boarding schools and day care centers due to the expropriation of buildings by the Nazis; parents volunteered as nurses and teachers; they collect money and kept the system transparent and open as well. The last year of German occupation was extremely hard due to aerial bombings and the general worsening of the economic situation, but parents’ participation was “that little force for coping with disastrous circumstances.”58 During the Third Republic, parents initiated various reforms and participated in the renovation of buildings. Their activity coincided with a general increase in citizen participation, reflecting the ideal of the resilient nation.

54 55 56 57 58

Ministerstvu zdravotnictví odd. II/3, ‘Odpověď na žádost.’ Sociální ústav pro úchylné děti, ‘Dopis Ministerstvu zdravotnictví.’ Ministerstvu zdravotnictví, ‘Na uvolnění částky.’ Štampach, ‘Rodičovská.’ Melkusová, ‘“Marianum.”‘

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

125

By the time of the communist coup in February 1948, various inconsistencies between intentions and resources permeated the situation around the education for disabled children. After the communist upheaval of political elites, including the changes in the ministries responsible for the disabled children, these contradictions were significantly aggravated and transformed into conflicts of interest between the different branches of executive power as well as the struggle between authorities and civic activists.

4.3

Producing biopolitical knowledge: Defectology and special pedagogy during the socialist period

“Defectology“ was a “very special Soviet invention”59 in the history of scientific disciplines. After being introduced in Czechoslovakia in the early 1950s by Viliam Gaňo, Miloš Sovák and others, it dominated the discourse about care and education for “children with special needs” (mládež vyžadujici zvláštni péče), the common reference to children with disabilities, until the 1970s. Despite the deprecatory name, defectology represented a rather progressive branch of special pedagogy, combining Marxist philosophy with approaches of progressive pedagogy (New Education), psychology and pediatrics.60 When it was developed by scientists like Lev Vygotsky in the 1920s, it revolutionized Soviet psychology, but was marginalized as a pseudo-science under Stalin. After Stalin’s death in 1953, though, it was revitalized immediately and was connected to the revival of “Soviet biology,” a term coined by Trofim Lysenko, taking up the ideas and concepts of Michurin and Pavlov. Just as this biology was opposed to the “bourgeois science” of genetics, defectology was opposed to “bourgeois” (special) pedagogy. Furthermore, “Lysenkoism” propagated a kind of neo-Lamarckism, a belief in the hereditary effect of acquired qualities. As a consequence, population development could be influenced purposefully. The inherent eugenic implications of this concept were shared by Soviet defectology, which was quickly adapted in socialist Czechoslovakia as well as in the GDR, Hungary and Romania.61 59 McCagg, ‘The Origins of Defectology,’ p. 40. 60 For a (Western-focused) transnational history of (experimental) pedagogic concepts in the first half of the twentieth century, see Depaepe, Zum Wohl des Kindes? 61 As a contemporary source for the development of special pedagogy and defectology in the socialist countries of Central Eastern Europe, see Künne, Darstellung und vergleichende Betrachtung; Theiner, Künne, and Becker, Zur Theorie und Praxis; focusing on the GDR: Boldorf,

126 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

In Czechoslovakia, the original Soviet concept was combined with domestic academic traditions like the famous special pedagogy of Jedlička.62 It also took up the heritage of Czech “special pedagogy” and “pedopathology,” coined by František Čáda, Herfort and Zeman in the last decades of the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth century.63 Although all these academic traditions were interspersed with and contributed to eugenic thinking, they remained influential until the 1980s.64 Socialist defectology did not critically revise the eugenic implications of its intellectual sources, so that these implications still penetrated the biopolitical knowledge provided by the child-centered disciplines in postwar Czechoslovakia. The central notions and concepts of defectology were coined and propagated by its main Czechoslovak representatives, Viliam Gaňo and Miloš Sovák, comprising the basic scientific knowledge in this field of biopolitics. Gaňo and Sovák were renowned experts on special pedagogy and had worked in institutions for “sensory impaired” children since the 1920s. After 1949, they gained high positions in academia: Sovák as director of the Institute for Logopaedics in Prague and the first chair for defectology at Charles University,65 Gaňo as director of the Department of Defectology at the Pedagogical Research Institute (Výzkumný ústav pedagogický, VÚP) in Bratislava.66 In 1953, Sovák and Gaňo contributed to an edited volume entitled, Youth in Need of Special Care,67 introducing defectological approaches and concepts to Czechoslovakia. Sovák propagated the new terms “defect” and “defectivity,” to be adapted in special pedagogy in order to replace the common notions of “impairment” and “disability,” which he condemned as outdated: “Previously it was assumed, and many bourgeois scientists still do, that a defect is a permanent impairment.”68 In contrast, he declared that every impairment could be treated and that “defectivity” could be overcome through rehabilitation. Instead of concentrating on the organic “defect,” Sovák focused on the ‘Rehabilitation und Hilfen für Behinderte’; for Hungary, see: Gál and Varga, ‘Die naturwissenschaftliche Betrachtungsweise.’ 62 Černá et al., Česká psychopedie, pp. 68-69. 63 Herfort was head of the Ernestinum in Prague, an institution for “mentally deranged” children and youth, founded in 1871, where he developed his research and ideas. Herfort, ‘Die pathologische’; Herfort, ‘Jak prohlížeti’; Herfort, ‘Die Schwachsinnigenfürsorge.’ 64 Herfort, ‘Die Schwachsinnigenfürsorge’; Fischer, ‘Karel Herfort’; Spěváček, ‘Pohledy do života.’ Even later publications formulated their criticism rather carefully. See Cach, František Čáda. 65 Edelsberger, ‘Osobnost a dílo Prof. M. Sováka.’ 66 Jaurová, Viliam Gaňo. 67 Ludvík, Mládež vyžadujici zvláštni péče. 68 Sovák, ‘O novém pojetí,’ p. 12.

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

127

social context and consequences. In that sense, “defectivity” was defined as the compelled, involuntary “inability” of disabled people to build “normal” relationships with other people, with the community, with society. And more importantly for our analysis: “We understand defectivity as disturbed relations to educational processes and to work.”69 From the very beginning and as a general feature, defectology was oriented toward the rehabilitation of “defectives” in order to create “productive” individuals. The “defective” needed integration and adaptation through training, rehabilitation and reeducation in order to “function,” starting at the earliest age.70 Although Sovák claimed “socialist humanism”71 as the basic ideological source of the defectological program, the “pedagogical optimism”72 of this ableist attempt pointed to the repressive elements of defectology. The biopolitical implications of the defectological approach become even more obvious when looking at Gaňo’s contribution to the same volume. In connection to Sovák, he offered a systematization of “defects” by grouping (1) physical impairments, (2) different types and grades of sensory impairments (hearing, seeing, speech), (3) mental impairments, composed of different grades of “retardation” and a list of social-behavioral problems, (4) temporary or long-term health impairments, and (5) multiple impairments.73 First, it is notable in particular that this taxonomy of defects included also social-emotional and behavioral problems, referring to “difficult” children (obtížně vychovatelná mládež).74 The perception of “defectivity” was not exclusively focused on the “abnormal” body, but reoriented toward the “abnormal” mind and behavior. Second, the ideology of work and productivity was an inherent part of this classification, because the authors included a “pedagogical prognosis” in every subchapter, dedicated to the single “defects” and forecasting the productive potential of the future adult. For “bodily impaired” children, it reads as follows: Bodily impaired children, through aftercare, rehabilitation and procurement of orthopedic aids and after they have successfully finished the special school education and training, are regarded to be able to take up 69 Ibid., pp. 11-12. This definition was repeated in Sovák, ‘Pojetí defektologie,’ pp. 241-242. 70 Theiner, ‘Tschechoslowakische Sozialistische Republik,’ pp. 138-148. 71 Sovák, ‘O novém pojetí,’ p. 11. 72 Ibid., p. 13. 73 Gaňo and Rehuš, ‘Orientačný náčrt,’ pp. 37-38. 74 Although this chapter touches the issue of “difficult” children several times, it will not be treated in detail here, but in a contribution to the journal East European Politics and Societies, which is under review at the moment.

128 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

a position in a suitable sector of industry, eventually in a higher qualified profession.75

In contrast, “mental ‘defects’” were problematized in other respects: “Feeble-minded children, besides the deficits of their intellectual abilities, sometimes show different deficits in the emotional-behavioral or bodily sphere.”76 Gaňo also differentiates between “debile” and “imbecile” children, of which the latter “might be fostered under professional monitoring but is not educatable.”77 This differentiation had serious consequences for the system of education. Third, this classification reveals the full abstraction from individual children and individual fates, conditions, talents and wishes. “Defective” children are fully regarded through a biopolitical lens as a measurable group, classified and differentiated, but not as individuals. While this first publication might have had a limited circle of recipients in academia, Gaňo in 1960 succeeded in popularizing the approach by publishing the first systematic monograph on the care and education of “defective” children, republished in a second, expanded edition two years later.78 It addressed not only colleagues of defectology, pediatrics, psychology and pedagogy, but in the front line, teachers and educators in nurseries, kindergarten and schools as well as students of care and education. This was a successful diffusion of defectological knowledge into the broader field of academic and professional care and education. Regarding the diagnosis of “defects,” Gaňo refined the definitions in order to provide a more sophisticated instrument for the classification of children and a thereby modulated special education. His detailed information about “infantile,” “nervous,” “neurotic” and “epileptic” children consolidated a biopolitical knowledge foundation according to which small deviations from “normal” conditions and abilities like “left-handedness” or “stammering” must be considered a potential threat to the proper development of children and their educational success. The primary object of defectology was formed by schoolchildren or children ready for school, while in the beginning, younger children were not in its focus, a standpoint subjected to change. For children entering school, Gaňo pleaded for comprehensive tests that should be repeated at regular intervals. 75 Gaňo and Rehuš, ‘Orientačný náčrt,’ p. 17. 76 Ibid., p. 31. 77 Ibid., p. 33. 78 Gaňo, Defektné deti a náčtr. For the second edition, representing a more general approach and audience, see Gaňo, Defektní děti: Co má védét and the third edition Gaňo, Defektní děti. Příručka.

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

129

In doing so, “defects” could be discovered at an early stage and, in order to prevent the development of “defectivity,” every child could be sent to the educational institution that best met his or her needs. By carefully examining, classifying and selecting children, Czechoslovak defectology advocated strict segregation not only of “defective” children from “normal” children, but also of children of different groups of “defectivities” from each other. Gaňo criticized the contemporary practice and instruments of examining schoolchildren, and thus, tried to establish defectology as the primary scientific authority in this field. The instruments in use – like the IQ test – would not reveal the reasons for “mental retardation.” For example, children with sensory defects would often be considered “mentally retarded.” Due to a lack of attention and stimulation, they actually did fall behind other children, although technically their level of intelligence and their potential was equal to “normal” children.79 With these complaints and demands, Gaňo fueled the eugenic fear of losing “defective” children as functional and productive citizens, finally resulting in a gradual decline in population quality. Despite being the subject of constant renegotiation, defectological knowledge informed state policy. Although after Gaňo’s death in 1966, his colleague Miloš Sovák and others tried to revive the competing concept of “speciální pedagogika,”80 the general approaches, taxonomies and concepts of defectology were considered and adapted by state administration, nevertheless applying some important changes. One of the main administrative concepts was copublished in 1974 by the Ministries of Health Care, Education and Social Affairs. They had agreed upon “criteria of defectness” in order to provide standardized evidence of the forms and grades of mental, physical and sensory “defects” of children at the national committees (národné výbory), which were in charge of the maintenance and expansion of institutions and facilities for “defective” children. What is striking is that this typology excluded the diagnosis of behavioral difficulties, which originally were included as a particular category of “defect.”81 Such exclusion might have been due to the administrative separation, which took the responsibility for “difficult children” from the Ministry of Social Affairs and assigned it to the Ministry of Education. The split of competences was also mirrored in the strengthening of preventive 79 Gaňo, ‘Selekcia defektných detí.’ 80 Sovák, Nárys speciální pedagogiky; Kracík, ‘K některým problémům speciální pedagogiky.’ 81 Besides the abovementioned contributions of Gaňo and Sovák, this orientation is demonstrated in many other defectological writings: Jurovský, ‘Nesprávné návyky u školských dětí’; Kalibán, ‘Obtízně vychovatelná mládež’; Chytka, ‘Obtížně vychovatelní žáci na ZDŠ.’

130 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

measurements in the sector of medical care: health supervision and regular examination of pregnant women and babies or infants were considered to allow circumvention of defective developments.82 Educational bodies were concentrating on rehabilitation, which also remained a main concern for defectologists and special pedagogues. In this context, as I show in the following paragraphs, there was discussion concerning which environment would be most appropriate to realize the program of education and training: the family or residential institutions. In 1965, the pedagogue and advisor for the Slovak school ministry, Jan Sojka, gave proof of the strong eugenic implications of educational, family and social politics in postwar Czechoslovakia. In an article published in the journal Educator (Vychovávateľ), widely recognized among pedagogues, teachers and other professionals, Sojka contributed to the ongoing discussion about population development in the context of the new Law on the Family,83 arguing that the growth of the population at all costs must not be the aim of populational, social and educational politics. Rather, the aim has to be the increase of population quality, that is, the creation of healthy, productive and loyal citizens out of children: The procreation and good education of children is the reproduction of an important workforce, while the procreation and bad education of children is the reproduction of socially, economically and politically destructive elements. […] Society has the right to maintain its social health by prevention. Social diseases are to be isolated, healed and prevented. The population issue is a complex sociological, psychological, economic, philosophical, ethical and juridical issue.84

Sojka ranked population groups according to their social, cultural and educational level, their fertility, their ability to cater to their children, their working morale, their productivity and their general attitude toward communist society. In an analogy to older, biological eugenic discourses, he accused the lower classes of being fertile, but socially irresponsible, quite self-evidently subsuming the Czechoslovak “Gypsy population”: The first group [of his typology] is characterized by a high birth rate, regardless of the conditions for the education of their children or even 82 Pavlová-Zahalková, ‘Prevence ve speciální pedagogice.’ 83 For this discussion, see Rákosník and Šustrová, Rodina v zájmu státu. 84 Sojka, ‘Populácia za každú cenu?,’ p. 44.

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

131

their basic support. This group mostly contains of people who don’t care what their children become. […] The majority of this group is comprised of citizens of Gypsy origin.85

Through their lifestyle and irresponsibility regarding the care and education of their children, these families endorsed the development of physical and mental deficits and illnesses, leading to disability and lower productivity among their children: The result of such lifestyle and reproduction is that these families bear physically less capable children. Their weak bodies, often damaged by the long-term consequences of illnesses, are prone to increased neuropsychological lability, and several other problems. Such conditions, regarding the seriously disturbed social environment in which the children must live, negatively influences their whole condition and nearly inevitably turns them into psychosocially damaged personalities.86

In his clearly eugenic argumentation, Sojka connected different fields of knowledge and policy relevant for the “healthy development” of the population and the progress of communist society: children, families, education, care, health, disability and productivity. His arguments mirrored contemporary biopolitical discourses and practices strongly related to “disabled” or, to use a term of the period, “defective” children: the intertwining of biological and social issues, the ideology of work focusing on productivity as the primary value of the individual, the accusation of the family as the social and biological origin of “defectivity,” the institutional and segregationist character of state care and education and, last but not least, the strong intersection of the categories of “age,” “class,” “dis/ ability” and “race,” which, especially in the case of “Gypsy children,” led to increased discrimination and intervention by scientific experts and the state. In this context, overcoming disability or defectivity and becoming able and productive to the highest degree possible were the central aims of care and education for “children with special needs” in European socialist regimes.87 For the Soviet Union and the GDR, it was shown that rehabilitation and training for work of (adult) persons with disabilities was the first aim of social and health politics.88 In order to reach this aim, special care 85 86 87 88

Ibid., p. 41. Ibid., p. 42. Zaviršek, ‘Those Who Do Not Work.’ Phillips, ‘“There Are No Invalids in the USSR!”‘; Bunzel, ‘Rehabilitation through Work?’

132 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

and education there89 as well as in Czechoslovakia90 were predominantly organized in residential forms such as special children’s homes or special boarding schools, embodying a segregationist character from the beginning. The discursive negotiation and institutional realization of care and education of defective or disabled children involved several collective and individual actors: the state administration itself on different levels, institutions like schools, residential homes and medical centers, professionals like teachers, educators and pediatric specialists, and, last but not least, the defective children themselves and their families or caretakers. The negotiations referred to different fields connected with disability: care, development, education, support or rehabilitation. The realization varied between inclusion and segregation, institutionalization and family support, basic provisioning and complex training.91

4.4

The discourse on defective children: Between family care and education as a tool of surveillance

The socialist state claimed the authority and right to intervene into the life of families and children in order to normalize perceived deviances. Immediately after the communist coup d’état in February 1948, the National Assembly issued new laws concerning family and education. The Law on the Family of 1949 clearly demanded that parents must care for their children’s hygiene, nutrition and education not because this is part of their needs and rights, but because parents must assure that their children become valuable and hard-working citizens.92 The School Law of 1948 introduced compulsory schooling for every child,93 a demand confirmed by the subsequent School Laws of 1953 and 1960.94 In 1968, the academic recommendation of compulsory preschool education for disabled children 89 Iarskaia-Smirnova and Romanov, ‘Institutional Child Care in Soviet Russia’; SzczepaniakWiecha, Małek, and Slany, ‘The System of Care.’ 90 For a detailed information about the system of Czechoslovak children’s homes, see Henschel, ‘“All Children Are Ours.”‘ 91 Drenth and Myers, ‘Normalising Childhood’; Billington, Separating, Losing and Excluding Children. 92 Vláda Československé socialistické republiky, ‘Zákon o právu rodinném,’ p. 748. 93 Vláda Československé socialistické republiky, ‘Zákon o základní upravě jednotného školství (Školský zákon),’ p. 834. 94 Vláda Československé socialistické republiky, ‘Zákon o školské soustavě a vzdělávání učitelů (Školský zákon),’ p. 194; Vláda Československé socialistické republiky, ‘Zákon o soustavě výchovy a vzdělávání (Školský zákon),’ p. 649.

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

133

finally met with success.95 However, schooling was not provided for the so-called “imbecile” children, who, according to classifications of mental abilities, were regarded as uneducable. Rather, the Department for Social Care had to receive these children and look after them, without offering any educational stimuli. The socialist state aimed at organizing special childcare and education predominantly in form of centralized residential and separated facilities as decreed in 1952 with the law for youth protection.96 Special schools were established in the larger cities of the respective region (kraj) or were concentrated in the three centers of the country, Prague, Brno and Bratislava. The ministerial bodies regarded this setup a necessary step for providing professional special care and education in order to raise the future citizen and “architect of socialism.” Therefore, the local authorities were also allowed to ignore parents’ objections and to execute the placement of a disabled child as decided by the respective commissions.97 The educational guidelines in the home institutions followed the demands of the regime, namely, socialist virtues and education for work: “[Children’s homes] promote awareness for discipline, correctness and order, they teach a socialist attitude to work and collective property, and they explain the need for cultivated and hygienic habitudes.”98 Institutionalization and segregation were welcomed and legitimated by experts in psychology, defectology and special pedagogy. Ladislav Štejgerle from the Pedagogical Research Institute (Výzkumný ústav pedagogický, VÚP) in Brno believed that the primary interest of the state was the successful education of “his” children. Thus, he advocated the institutionalization of defective children, since their parents were overburdened with meeting their specific needs. According to Štejgerle, every special school or care facility should be transformed into or planned as a residential type. Because of their professional staff, excellent equipment and progressive programs, these institutions would even be superior to family care: The home actually to a high degree fulfills the duties of proper family care, […] the child is able take part in the intensification and success in school work. […] A second important aspect of the educational program 95 For the discussion, see Meisner, ‘Tvoření obecných’; Predmerský, ‘Predškolská výchova’; ‘Zabezpečení výchovy mládeže vyžadující zvláštní péči. Z jednání vlády.’ 96 Vláda Československé socialistické republiky, ‘Zákon o sociálně pravní ochraně mládeže.’ 97 Ministerstvo školství, věd a umění, ‘Přijímáni dětí.’ 98 Ministerstvo školství a kultury, ‘Organisační,’ p. 315.

134 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

in the home is the polytechnical schooling and education for the work of the child.99

Institutional care was regarded as at least equal if not superior compared to familial care. Even when from the early 1960s onward, psychologists like Zdeněk Matějček and Josef Langmeier or pediatricians like Antonín Mores initiated a controversially discussed “child-issue” by criticizing the serious consequences of institutional care for the mental and emotional condition of a child,100 this setup was never questioned for “children with special needs,” even not by Matějček himself.101 Again, Sojka emphasized the necessity of collective institutional education in order to avoid the educational failures of incapable families. He declared that the defective child would only be educated according to communist ideals in a residential environment and the family has to be marginalized as far as possible, because family care would stimulate individualistic and egocentric personality traits.102 One of Sojka’s colleagues, Vladimir Predmerský from the VÚP in Bratislava, underpinned the conviction that parents would fail in the adequate care and education of their disabled child due to their lack of professional knowledge.103 Accordingly, although the new Law on the Family of 1964 strengthened the position of biological parents and created alternatives like adoption and quasi-foster care for biologically or socially orphaned children,104 the state continued to prefer residential care for defective children, even when they lived in intact families.105 An advisory book for parents of disabled children, diffusing defectological knowledge further into society, urged families to trust the system of special institutions, which would have been massively improved and by no means resembled the overcrowded and inappropriate orphanages or asylums of the past. In the spirit of “socialist humanism,” special boarding schools would grant adequate accommodation, healthy nutrition and a meaningful daily schedules, in short, everything children needed in order to become useful adults.106 99 Štejgerle, ‘Mimoškolní péče,’ pp. 109-110. 100 For a detailed analysis of the academic discussion, see Henschel, ‘A Project of Social Engineering.’ 101 Koch, Langmeier, and Matějček, ‘Návrh nového systému péče.’ 102 Sojka, ‘Aj oni budú žiť v komunizme.’ 103 Predmerský, ‘Predškolská výchova.’ 104 Vláda Československé socialistické republiky, ‘Zákon o rodině.’ 105 Ministerstvo školství a kultury, ‘Pojetí škol,’ p. 237. 106 Fišer, et al., Postížené dítě v rodině a společnosti.

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

135

The place of the family was discussed ambivalently. On the one side, as demonstrated, parents of defective children were generally mistrusted and admission to centralized special boarding schools was advocated in order to offer professional education and training. On the other side, parents were accused of not being willing to provide what’s best for their disabled child, but that they would rather blindly rely on or even exploit the facilities and institutions of state childcare.107 However, in the late 1960s, the inevitable acknowledgment of deficits and insufficiencies in the system of special home facilities led to a reconsideration of familial forms of care for defective children. An official report discussed during a meeting of representatives of the Ministries of Health, Education and the Interior and the Department of Social Care in 1966 ascertained that around 7,000 children with special needs had no access to special care and education at all and that hundreds of them would need accommodation in a special children’s home due to their inappropriate familial environment and or remote place of residence.108 Foster care, which had been abandoned in 1951 in order to promote residential childcare, was presented as a solution, even though a program for training prospective foster parents and their financial support would cost millions.109 The regime obviously quarreled with this recommendation, because it would lose its influence on the education of these children and therefore power. Thus, it took several years until a new law reintroduced foster care in 1973.110 Despite controversial discussions about the appropriate place for the successful care, education and training of disabled children, which resembled the situation in other European countries like Britain,111 residential care was regarded as the preferable and most adequate way of catering for disabled children in socialist Czechoslovakia by a majority among both state authorities and academic experts. The family, in contrast, was regarded skeptically due to its attributed inability to adequately care for and educate their children. For biopolitical discourse and practice, this was a decisive point. Academia delivered the knowledge dedicated to the political demands of functional health, connecting defectivity and family environments. This approach contributed to the continuation of eugenic thinking in terms of securing the quality level of the population, in particular regarding productivity. The 107 Fürst, ‘Výchova duševně vadných dětí mimo rodinu.’ 108 Ministerstvo zdravotnictví, ‘Zpráva o zabezpečení.’ 109 Matějček, ‘Úvahy’; Mores, ‘Příležitost novelizace zákona o rodině.’ 110 Vláda Československé socialistické republiky, ‘Zákon o pěstounské péče.’ 111 Read and Walmsley, ‘Historical Perspectives’; Armstrong, ‘Disability, Education and Social Change’; Hendrick, Child Welfare.

136 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

state legitimated its direct access to defective children with its ability to provide professional and modern institutions and concepts, which would serve for the “best of the child,” but actually answered its own demand for conformist and productive citizens.

4.5

Institutionalization, segregation and rehabilitation of the “defective” child

Law 48/1947, concerning the nationalization of childcare facilities, assigned the Ministry of Social Affairs (which in 1951 was downgraded to the State Department for Social Care), the Ministry of Health Care and with increasing power and influence, the Ministry of Education to administrative bodies with different responsibilities related to the care and education of “defective” children. The national committees at the district and county level were commissioned to run the home facilities in their area.112 However, the original administrators of the homes, for example, church communities or private associations like Caritas, in many cases remained in charge even during the 1950s,113 since the national committees lacked financial and professional resources to fully take over all institutions, as occurred with the “special home for mentally retarded children” in Mladá Boleslav.114 The struggle for competences and power in this field was taking place not only between national committees and the original operators, but also at the level of ministries. There was no carefully worked out plan for how to organize special childcare and education but rather much dissent. On the one side, the Ministry of Health Care accused the Ministry of Education of wielding too much influence on childcare. The designated transfer of all institutions formerly administrated by the Ministry of Social Affairs to the Ministry of Education in 1951 would marginalize medical and hygienic expertise and overemphasize pedagogical education and training.115 On the other side, the directors of the big four institutes for the rehabilitation of bodily disabled children, including the Jedlička Institute in Prague and Liberec, complained about their subordination under the Ministry of Health Care. This step would ignore the long tradition of moral and cultural education in these institutions since 1913 as it was originally conceived by 112 Vláda Československé socialistické republiky, ‘Zákon o organizaci péče o mládež.’ 113 Ministerstvo práce a sociální péče, ‘Přehled dětských.’ 114 Ministerstvo vnitra, ‘Převzetí zvláštního.’ 115 Ministerstvo školství, věd a umění a Ministerstvo zdravotnictví, ‘Delimitace domovů.’

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

137

Rudolf Jedlička himself and internationally recognized as one of the most progressive concepts in special education.116 This process of reorganization of residential childcare facilities took several years, but in the end, the Ministry of Health Care was assigned responsibility for all institutions for the medical treatment of disabled children, including those with sensory and mental impairments, while the school ministry ran the schools in these facilities.117 Generally, the State Department for Social Care had to cater for children with severe, long-term disabilities, especially those who were regarded as uneducable.118 The Ministry of Health Care, besides operating residential nurseries for babies and homes for “normal” children from one to three years of age, had to maintain facilities for children, whose defects were regarded as curable through medical treatment as well as facilities for bodily disabled children.119 Finally, the Ministry of Education was responsible for the largest share of children: it ran homes for “normal” children of preschool or school-age (boarding) schools for “sensory disabled” children, for children considered “mentally disabled” but educable and not least, facilities for “difficult children” of school age.120 This organizational structure mirrored the aims of biopolitics and its general characteristics in the field of education of defective children. The system was considered able to allocate children into adequate forms of institutional care according to their type of defect, their grade of defectivity and their developmental prognosis. After the nationalization of the facilities and institutions for extra-familiar childcare, including those that cared for disabled children, during the last year of the Third Republic, the communist regime immediately expanded the system. It did so partly in order to absorb the distress of the consequences of war,121 and partly in order to govern social transformation and realize new family, social and educational politics. The capacity of homes for “children without family” grew from around 8,000 beds in 1948 to 10,000 in 1950 and 17,000 in 1965, remaining at this level until the late 1980s.122 The system of 116 Ministerstvo školství, věd a umění a Ministerstvo zdravotnictví, ‘Organizace a ústavy.’ 117 ‘Organisační a provozní řád ústavů nápravné a výchovné péče o mládež (1952).’ 118 Ministerstvo práce a sociální péče, ‘Zákon o sociálním zabezpečení.’ 119 Vláda Československé socialistické republiky, ‘Zákon o jednotné preventivní a léčebné péče.’ 120 Ministerstvo školství, věd a umění, ‘Pokyny pro přijímání děti.’ 121 Zahra, The Lost Children, pp. 173-197. 122 Dunovský, ‘Statistické údaje o osvojení v letech 1955 až 1964 v ČSSR’; ‘Dětské domovy v roce 1963’; ‘Zhodnocení vývoje osvojení a pěstounské péče a zvláštních zařízení pro výkon pěstounské péče.’

138 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

special home facilities, from special nurseries to facilities for mentally, bodily or sensory defective children to closed school homes for difficult children and delinquent youth, was an integral part of extra-familiar state childcare and education, as by 1950 it offered some 4,000 beds, including around 600 places in facilities for difficult children. In addition, over 300 daily schools for the “mentally retarded,” some 50 daily schools for the “bodily disabled,” hearing, visually or speech “impaired” and 37 residential school homes for “difficult” and delinquent children and youth contributed to the education of the “abnormal” child in order to raise decent, productive citizens of the socialist society.123 Regarding the numbers, “mentally retarded” and “difficult” children took a central position in socialist biopolitics from the beginning. Mental defects and behavioral problems were also considered to endanger school success the most: These children to a considerable degree disturb the pedagogical service of the institution. They need particular educational guidance, a separate program, enhanced sanitary and health supervision as well as increased attendance.124

This statement mirrors the general attitude toward these two groups of defective children. At the end of the 1950s, the number of special schools, special homes and rehabilitation centers was doubled to some 700, catering for nearly 50,000 children, including 10,000 in long-term residential care.125 The preference for residential forms is obvious, but nevertheless the existing provisions did not meet the demands of professionals and the party, because most defective children still lived with their families, visiting daily special schools or, in the worst cases, applying mostly to rural areas, were not sent to school at all. This situation alarmed the regime and the scientific experts serving in commissions and councils at the regional and local level. Through evaluation, monitoring and reporting, the bodies involved in the field gained an image of what was achieved to date and how their project of expanding and improving care, education and rehabilitation was realized.126 A ministerial report, discussed on 9 June 1960, though, revealed and summarized the massive 123 ‘Seznam zařízení pro mládež vyžadující zvláštní péče’; Okresní národní výbor Český Těšin, ‘Seznam dětských.’ 124 Ministerstvo školství a kultury, ‘Dětské Domovy.’ 125 Ludvík, ‘Stav školství pro mládež’; ‘Seznam škol a zařízení pro děti a mládež vyžadující zvláštní péči (I-V).’ 126 Kolegium ministra školství a kultury, ‘Zpráva o zajišťování.’

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

139

deficits by elaborating four main problems.127 First, there were over 40,000 defective children who did not receive special education and care due to a lack of facilities, their remote parental home or unclear diagnoses and prognoses of the type, grade and prospective development of their defectivity. Second, over 22,000 of these children would fall under the purview of the Ministry of Education, which was requested to establish at least 225 additional special schools, or, respectively, special homes. Third, the report revealed the need for around 10,000 additional teachers, educators and caretakers. Fourth, it criticized the fact that some facilities of the Ministry of Education and the State Office of Social Care imposed extra payments on parents, even though the provision of health care was supposed to be free of charge. This practice prevented parents from sending their defective children to special institutions and thus prevented those children from receiving the benefits of administrative and professional assistance. Besides mentally retarded and difficult children, the report claimed a special concern for sensory impaired children of preschool age, who did not receive professional attention and training, and, therefore, actually did fall behind nondisabled children in their cognitive and mental capabilities: The development of sensory impaired children in the first years of their lives is up to their families at the moment, which cannot provide adequate and appropriate educational stimulation, but rather the educational guidance by the parents is failing due to their missing knowledge of pedagogical methods and instruments.128

The report put emphasis not on the individual fate and suffering of the child, but on the “sanitary, economic and social consequences of the defect.”129 Although all the participants in the meeting agreed that segregated and isolated institutionalization would not always offer an adequate and appropriate environment and pleaded for a redirection of educational politics in order to reintegrate those children into normal schools, the existing structural conditions did not allow for an adjustment to the system. Furthermore, the ministries and bodies in charge were still driven by eugenic anxieties caused by the potential increase in defectivity among the population and the loss of tens of thousands of members of the workforce for the future of the socialist society. 127 Kolegium ministra školství a kultury, ‘Zpráva o potřebách.’ 128 Ibid. 129 Ibid.

140 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

The influence of party politics and ideological demands on the field of special care and education was becoming stronger, for example, as expressed in the slogan of the 1961 summit of the Communist Party: “On the relation of schools and life and the further development of education in the CSSR.”130 Expansion and improvement of special education was directly connected to the development of the next Five-Year Plan (pyatiletka), “which means a further, extraordinary boom of our national economy and culture, and will raise the living standards of our working population.”131 Defective children were regarded as an integral, active part of this boom, because “[e]very child with mental, sensory or bodily disabilities as an active member will commit with all his or her talents and skills to building the new society.”132 Again, residential care was considered to serve best these goals: “Boarding schools must be the preferred type for the care for children and youth with different disabilities.”133 So, instead of striking a new path of individualized, deinstitutionalized, inclusive care and education, the regime aimed at a continuation and expansion of the existing structures and practices of specialized facilities, which served the goals of rehabilitating children in order to garner productive citizens who would serve society rather than providing individual care and protection. Accordingly, the number of special schools and home institutions was raised to nearly 900 in 1965, of which from 15 up to 18 percent were designed as residential facilities.134 Another two dozen facilities with some 1,700 beds were reserved for difficult children. They had to pass examinations in the “classification homes,” which were founded in every district. There, psychologists and pedagogues had to diagnose children’s mental health and social-emotional condition, resulting in a more or less binding recommendation for the appropriate type of home facility for the respective child.135 The further differentiation of special (boarding) schools and special homes into at least eleven different types, each serving a specific form and grade of defect, strengthened the tendency to segregate these children from nondisabled children and from each other,136 which was legitimated through the actually inconsistent argument of “integrating the defective youth into 130 Ministerstvo školství a kultury, ‘Pojetí škol.’ 131 Krupauer and Teplý, ‘Výhledy péče o defektní mládež,’ p. 129. 132 Ibid., p. 130. 133 Ibid. 134 Teplý, ‘Stav školství.’ 135 Kolegium ministra školství a kultury, ‘Zajištění péče.’ The report also offered all cited numbers and information about the homes for difficult children. 136 Kolegium ministra školství a kultury, ‘Návrh na pojetí.’

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

141

normal life despite their limited or deviating abilities.”137 Nevertheless, the basic credo of biopolitics was that doing what’s best for society would correspond to doing what’s best for the child. The well-known practices of biopolitics were further developed, professionalized and specialized in order to serve as useful instruments for preventing and/or rehabilitating defectivity, despite all the reported deficits and problems. Complaints by experts, local administrators, educators and caretakers regarding the infrastructure, buildings, personnel and equipment, as well as the pedagogical quality of the system of special care and education, remained pressing issues in the 1970s and 1980s.138 At the same time, there was a growing awareness and anxiety due to the perception of an increasing number of defective children. It was estimated that while in the 1960s between 2 and 4 percent of children in substitute care were diagnosed as defective, now it was from 10 up to 12 percent; moreover, around 7 percent of the whole minor population showed symptoms of defectivity.139 Eugenic thoughts received new attention and influence: genetics, living conditions, family environments – many children would nowadays grow up under supposedly bad circumstances, which were considered very likely to perpetuate over generations. While before the classic case of a child given up for adoption was the child of an unmarried mother from the countryside coming to town for work, which was healthy and had a normal hereditary background, and thus, more or less unproblematic, the situation is different today. The typical child admitted to public care is now a child from families which do not fulfill their functions, which are asocial, disorganized, alcoholic, affected by psychopathologies; therefore, the hereditary background of such a child and its educational prognosis are generally more than problematic.140

In this atmosphere of “defective panic,” increased attention was dedicated to behavioral and social-emotional problems as well as the delinquency of children and youth. It became an increasing concern for the regime 137 ‘Ministerstvo zdravotnictví, ‘Zpráva o zabezpečení.’ 138 Filas, ‘Súčasné problémy.’ 139 Brázdil, ‘Rodina a postižené dítě,’ p. 216; Kotek and Novák, ‘Psychologie a náhradní rodiná péče,’ p. 267. 140 Ibid. The authors allegedly quote Zdeněk Matějček, ‘Nové formy náhradní rodinné péče o děti’ [New forms of substitute family care for children], Psychológia a patopsychológia dieťaťa 7 (1) (1972), pp. 57-66, but the reference is erroneous; the sentences are not verif iable there. However, they summarize a general diagnosis shared by many experts.

142 Fr ank Henschel and Victoria Shmidt

during the era of “normalization” after the Prague Spring, which is why the regime and the scientific community intensified their efforts to improve the educational system and the methods of care, rehabilitation and prevention.141 While the system of substitute care for children without families was reformed toward family-like homes and provisions, and the authorities heavily promoted adoption and foster care,142 residential forms of care and education were still regarded the best practice for children perceived as defective, difficult or delinquent,143 and they were pushed toward expansion and specialization.144 Despite all the complaints, pessimistic reports and professional warnings that dominated the biopolitical discourse in the 1970s and 1980s, reviving and strengthening eugenic implications, the system was officially praised for fulfilling its duty. In 1977, Miroslav Moudrý, a representative of the Ministry of Education, proudly emphasized that the Czechoslovak socialist federation offered special education for eighteen different types of defects and disabilities, applying the most novel pedagogical concepts.

Conclusion Comparably with other countries, special education in Czechoslovakia was embedded into the strategy of the surveillance over the most unreliable groups of the population and the policy aimed at limiting their reproduction. The outstanding consistency of Czechoslovak special education in elaborating the hierarchy of defectivity and its institutionalization was orchestrated by adopting German and Soviet approaches to dividing children with disabilities into categories. While experiencing German ideas led Czech special education to establishing the strong division of those who were labeled as mentally retarded into those able and not able to be assimilated according to their heredity, the Soviet defectological lenses equipped previously elaborated approaches by a universal array of defectivity indicators potentially applicable to any case accepted by the experts as a kind of deviancy. Introduced by Czechoslovak educators, eighteen-type classification of defectivity 145 fixed those who were seen 141 Brenner, ‘Troublemakers!’; Brenner, ‘Harte Hand, schwacher Staat?’ 142 Henschel, ‘Projektování sociálního rodičovství.’ 143 ‘Vyhláška MŠ SSR o výkonu ústavnej výchovy a ochranej výchovy v školských výchovných zariadeniach.’ 144 Ministerstvo školství a kultury ČSR and Ministerstvo školstva SSR, Další rozvoj. 145 Soviet defectology operated by an eight-type classification of disability.

Special Education in Czechoslovakia be t ween 1939 and 1989

143

as defective within special education as only one possible system which purchased the knowledge and power to manage defectivity.146 It is therefore hardly surprising that the basic features of biopolitical knowledge production and practice remained unchanged during the last years of the socialist regime: the refinement of diagnostic and segregationist instruments,147 another push for residential expansion148 and the propagation of admission into the system of special education as early as possible in order to demonstrate the best possible effects.149 A conclusion to be drawn here concerns the nearly uninterrupted preference for residential care, separation and segregation of defective children in socialist Czechoslovakia, increasingly legitimated by eugenic thinking, Also, the massive practice of placing children with disabilities and the Roma into institutions started to challenge one of the new core pillars of Czechoslovak policy concerning children, giving priority of family upbringing. The obvious conflict between defectivity and familialism required a special solution – and it was produced within the frames of racial assimilationism, a way of theorizing the segregation of minorities in terms of their isolation from progress and its agents, advanced ethnic majorities.

About the authors Frank Henschel studied at Leipzig University, where he completed a doctoral thesis on multiethnicity and magyarization in Kassa/Košice/Kaschau, 1867-1918, which was published in 2017. He currently conducts research on biopolitical discourses and practices about the “deviant” child in postwar Europe, comparing liberal welfare states and socialist regimes. Victoria Shmidt has a PhD in Developmental Psychology (1998, Russian Academy of Education) and a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy (2012, Masaryk University). Since 2011, Dr. Shmidt has been working on the issue of the policies concerning ethnic minorities in the Czech lands and the role of various academic communities in producing the discourses and practices of segregation.

146 Moudrý, ‘Za socialistickou.’ 147 Motyčka and Šedivý, ‘Péče o děti.’ 148 Höllge, ‘Možnosti ústavní péče.’ 149 Kuželová and Střdová, ‘Zkušenosti s komplexní péči.’

5

The Intersectionality of Disability and Racein Public and Professional Discourses about the Roma in Socialist Czechoslovakia Between Propaganda and Race Science Victoria Shmidt Abstract The chapter revises the vicissitudes of public policy on national and international levels that turned socialist policy concerning the Roma from an attempt to secure their rights to reproducing the racial assimilationism and tough surveillance established during the interwar period. The interrogation between Western, anticommunist and socialist propaganda is seen as a main factor in this shift. Alongside exploring public discourse around the Roma, this chapter pays special attention to how the international agenda of racial science worked in favor of the reproduction of nationalist rhetoric in Czechoslovak anthropology – supplemented by universal codes of nationalist consciousness as part of a more general outlook on the world. Keywords: racial assimilationism, war of propaganda, physical anthropology, neocolonial thinking

5.1

The political turbulence of postwar policies concerning the Roma

The socialist politics concerning the Roma was not homogeneous in terms of its main pathos and practicalities. During the first decade of socialism (1948-1958), not only official discourse but also the initiatives of Roma

Shmidt, Victoria (ed.), The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia. Segregating in the Name of the Nation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789463720014/ch05

146 Victoria Shmidt

intellectuals and some activists helped with the “renaissance” of the Roma culture and language in contrast to previous policies of surveillance and extermination.1 This trend survived till the end of the socialist period – but within a narrow range of studies conducted by Emilia Horváthová 2 and Milena Hübschmannová,3 two anthropologists who remained devoted to the interests of the Roma and preserving their identity. Although Horváthová and Hübschmannová reinforced the cooperation between academia and the Roma activists, especially during the short but bright period of operating the Gypsy-Roma Association (Svaz Cikánů-Romů, 1969-1973), the impact of these scholars remained limited, particularly in the realm of emancipating the Roma from surveillance. 4 Until the second half of the 1950s, the main thrust of the policies was the struggle against previous injustices experienced by the Roma. Benevolent paternalism toward the Roma resulted in an intensive struggle against illiteracy and attempts to reestablish ethnic minority status for them. The headlines of newspaper articles called for action: “Let’s Face the Injustice of the Past: On the Elimination of the Backwardness of Gypsy citizens”5 or “Eliminating an Unfair Legacy of the Past: The Agenda of Gypsy Settlement.”6 This turn to integration of an ethnic minority was in discord with the trend toward national purification that infiltrated the postwar policy of several CEE countries, including Czechoslovakia, directed at the national “cleansing” of those who were seen as non-Slavic: first of all, Germans and Jews.7 Initiated by the Third Republic authorities, national 1 The attempt to empower the Roma between 1948 and 1958 can be explained by the following composition of driving forces: the direct influence of Roma activism from Eastern European countries, especially Bulgaria and Yugoslavia (on this, see Maruschiakova and Popov, ‘Commencement in Roma civic participation’), as well as the mobilization of the Roma by socialist authorities under the pressure of Soviet policy making concerning ethnic minorities (on this, see Gay, ‘Late Arrivals at the Nationalist Games’). 2 Emilia Horváthová (1931-1996) established systematic Roma studies in Slovakia; in her first monograph, Cigáni na Slovensku, Horváthová focused on the geopolitical factors that led the policy on the Roma to systematic segregation. Placing the case of Slovak Roma into the contexts of nation building ensured the options for critical revisions of the policies of enforced assimilation typical of the Czechoslovak authorities. 3 Milena Hübschmannová (1933-2005) was one of the most consistent defenders of the interests of the Roma in socialist Czechoslovakia and established the discipline of Romani studies at Charles University, Prague. 4 Turková, ‘Svaz Cikánů-Romů.’ 5 ‘Naprávajme krivdu minulých režimov. K otázke likvidácie zaostalosti občanov cigánskeho pôvodu.’ 6 Koloman, ‘Likvidujeme jeden.’ 7 Frommer, National Cleansing.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

147

homogenization explained partially the placement of the Roma, especially those who migrated into labor camps, but these enforced measures were hidden.8 All these particularities of public policy toward the Roma turned against socialist authorities and their reputation in the second half of the 1950s. By the end of the 1950s, the focus of politics concerning the Roma shifted again toward the backwardness of the Roma themselves. In contrast to the first decade of socialism, which was full of attempts to reposition the practices around the Roma toward accepting their ethnicity and culture, the rest of socialist period can be seen as the reproduction of interwar approaches toward increasing surveillance of the Roma via changes in education, welfare, public health and labor policies. For instance, at the end of 1957, the Czechoslovak Communist Party newspaper Pravda published an article entitled, “On the Issue of the Elimination of Gypsy Settlements.”9 In 1958, negative attitudes toward the Roma replaced the previous positive images of the Roma in socialist mass media, and those who were responsible for mass media monitoring at Radio Free Europe started to emphasize the increase of reports, even in the mainstream Czechoslovak mass media, about the criminal activity of the Roma and the fears in the population about “Gypsies.” At the end of 1958, the Czechoslovak authorities introduced the Law on the Permanent Settlement of Nomadic People. Such a turn in the policies surrounding the Roma cannot be explained by only one factor. Moreover, in order to recognize the increased role of scholars in solving the “Gypsy issue“ after 1958, it is important to redefine the composition of driving forces leading the socialist policy to the consistent reproduction of interwar approaches based upon racial assimilationism and an attitude toward the Roma that can be easily interpreted as colonial. Undoubtedly, the return to the interwar discourses characterized not only the public policies concerning the Roma.10 Antonín Novotný, who became president of Czechoslovakia in 1957 after the sudden death of President Antonín Zapotocký,11 had run into problems with political elites as well as 8 Shmidt, ‘The Violence.’ 9 Velký, ‘K otázke likvidácie zaostalosti.’ 10 The analysis of this turn in communist propaganda by Muriel Blaive introduced more details concerning the contest between different political elites: Blaive, Promarněná příležitost, pp. 244-246. 11 Antonín Zapotocký (1884-1957) was accepted by the public as “the Father of workers” (Táta dělníků) and as a person who tried to contest communist bureaucracy despite his controversial role in suppressing the protest actions of the workers in Plzen after the currency reform eradicating the long-term savings of the majority of the population.

148 Victoria Shmidt

public opinion because of his direct affiliation with Soviet authorities, who had chosen Novotný over Viliam Široký.12 Moreover, Novotný grappled with the idealized image of his predecessor, Zapotocký. Thus, the backlash against “bourgeois” interwar discourses in the public policies concerning women,13 children and ethnic minorities can be seen as a propaganda maneuver – in favor of improving the image of the new authorities, who tried to align themselves with popular national discourses. In the late 1950s, socialist propaganda was clearly losing the competition with Western propaganda, whose actors, former Czech interwar journalists, manipulated facts and discourses, including those concerning the “Gypsy issue,” in a sophisticated manner. By juxtaposing the interwar rhetoric of the liberal political elite and the motives of white supremacy adopted from American public discourse, the Czech division of the Radio Free Europe, led by Ferdinand Peroutka,14 emphasized the failure of socialist Czechoslovakia in the policy concerning the Roma as evidence of the political bankruptcy of the communist regime.

5.2

Public attitudes toward the Roma as a product of the propaganda war during the late 1950s

The “Gypsy issue“ operated as a dominant element of antisocialist propaganda in the broadcasting of Radio Free Europe during the second half of the 1950s – when the fiasco of the socialist efforts to integrate the Roma as an independent ethnic group became clear. Starting its transmission to Czechoslovakia in 1951, Radio Free Europe15 consistently reproduced interwar rhetoric, which partly explains its prodigious popularity. By putting forward stories about the crash of socialist policies, the Western propaganda 12 The choice by Nikita Khrushchev in favor of Novotný against Široký was determined by the allegiance of Novotný to the interests of the USSR. Novotný, who opposed Zapotocký’s attempts to reform the agricultural sector by limiting collectivization, was seen as a much more reliable successor than Široký, who had sided with Zapotocký several times. More about the internal struggle between the different streams of communist elites can be found in Eyal, The Origin of Post-Communist Elites, and Stolarik, The Prague Spring. 13 More about the consistent reproduction of interwar eugenic rhetoric regarding women, sexual life and motherhood can be found in Shmidt, ‘Eugenics.’ 14 Ferdinand Peroutka (1895-1978), a well-known influential political commentator, was one of the most consistent protagonists of the “Castle,” the group of close supporters of President Masaryk, criticizing both the left and right opposition to the interwar government. After the communist coup d’état, he emigrated to Great Britain and then to the United States. 15 Being a broadcast to Soviet satellite countries, RFE started to operate as anticommunist propaganda in 1949; more about its activity can be found in Mickelson, America’s Other Voice.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

149

machine shaped the image of the Czechoslovak state as one unable to protect its own citizens; this echoed the main argument behind the Law against the Roma in 1927: “The Gypsies in the Czechoslovak Republic are not only a threat to rural areas but also to the people in towns and cities – who cannot find reliable protection.”16 Translated by Western propaganda, the stories about a “Gypsy invasion” in different regions not only stressed the powerlessness of socialist authorities, but also highlighted the disastrous nature of the “Gypsy issue.” Internal reports presented the issue as an urgent matter: “In Ostrava, the local authorities disseminated warning lists with the title ‘The Greatest Horror: Gypsies!’ The Gypsies who vagabond over days and nights, looking for their chance, are responsible for the rise in thefts.”17 Another report discussed the case of Karlovy Vary, where “Gypsies” were those who ostensibly contributed to the decline of the reputation of this health resort: “The Gypsies carry on a flourishing black market with foreign visitors to the spa. The State Security [Státní bezpečnost StB] was instructed to clear them out of the town. The regime has proven unable to solve the Gypsy problem in the area – a conclusion substantiated by a number of reports.”18 Moreover, the policy of employing “Gypsies” was seen as positive discrimination against ordinary Czechs: “Factories are forced to employ Gypsies. A female guard reprimanded a Gypsy girl whom she had to instruct in her job as assistant guard with the railway. The girl did not write correctly and the guard was very annoyed. Some communists and a female teacher in Ústí nad Labem heard about this happening and demanded that the guard be reprimanded.”19 These new motives in shaping a negative image of the Roma received their elaboration later and have remained dominant to this day. The stigmatization of “Gypsies” included their supposedly outstanding ability to adapt to new circumstances on the one hand, and unmanageable wildness, on the other. A sarcastic style was applied in describing the behavior of “Gypsies” pretending to be communists: “The gypsies in Bánovcícj have their own district near the Škoda factory. Some of them are such passionate communists that they have not one but three or in some extremes four red stars on their doors! Though they attend communist meetings when they want, not when they occur.”20 Further, explained by 16 Radio Free Europe, ‘Internal Report Item No. 11545/56.’ 17 Radio Free Europe, ‘Internal Report Item No. 6583/57.’ 18 Radio Free Europe, ‘Item No. 4411/57.’ 19 Ibid. 20 Radio Free Europe, ‘Item No. 10936/55.’

150 Victoria Shmidt

mass media as the direct consequence of the Gypsy invasion, the disorder of routine life in cities operated as a central motive and was described in terms of a barbarian invasion: “The gypsies,21 who have been accommodated in requisitioned flats, have destroyed the doors and floorboards, and used them for firewood. The flats now look more like stables than dwelling places. They grumble about the hard work they must do while, however, they spend more time stealing than working.”22 It was also stressed that the Roma did not feel any fear: “It is normal for them not to close windows, and in the dwellings, they do forbidden things, like hold drunken orgies that often end in fights. But the StB prefers not to engage.” Antisocialist propaganda did not bypass Roma children and described them in terms of wild reproduction: “Here [in the Gypsy districts] are areas full of Gypsy children – it seems that the environment is good for them, and their reproduction is a sort of miracle.”23 Radio Free Europe did emphasize, however, the double standards of socialist authorities regarding the Roma: In 1948, it was decided that gypsies would be included into labor programs; they cannot be separated as it was during the First Republic. […] They should be educated and achieve the same level as other working people. All these plans would materialize if they [Gypsies] come to be among others, recognize their mode of life and daily routine, and adopt it. Thus, they could get all rights and benefits. In fact, the [socialist] regime was interested in an easy way to enlarge the labor force.”24

The Radio Free Europe reviewers did not miss the facts about enforced labor among the Roma, which was commented on as one more example of the violation of their rights: “Communist authorities cannot solve the issue of vagrant Gypsies; the last years have shown that their approach is pretty violent.”25 By reporting on the mistakes made by Czechoslovak authorities regarding their Roma policy, Western propaganda targeted the most important and most sensitive value of the socialist regime, its monopoly on progress and the civilizing process: “Simply put, the communist theory was never lost in 21 Those authors who rejected the idea of the Roma as a legitimate ethnic group used the lowercase G when writing the word “Gypsy.” In quotations from the texts by these authors, I maintain the choice of their spelling. 22 Radio Free Europe, ‘Item No. 10936/55.’ 23 Radio Free Europe, ‘Item No. 5520/57.’ 24 Ibid. 25 Radio Free Europe, ‘Item No. 1639/57.’

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

151

practice so persuasively and immediately as in the case of the Gypsies.”26 In order to counter this discourse, antisocialist propaganda responded with a comparison of the Roma with African Americans and the classical set of analogies regarding the primitivism of the Roma. The propaganda worked in two interrelated ways: sharing Soviet propaganda’s focus on the discrimination of African Americans and opposing the obvious success in implementing the rights of the African Americans against the inefficient socialist policy regarding the rights of the Roma. The familiar interwar argument of racial assimilationism was reproduced with regard to demographic issues: Blacks [černoši] are not at fault for the fact that there are so many of them in America. They comprise more than 20 percent of the total population, and even more in several Southern regions, where they are more than half of the population. Due to their high fertility they have a chance to become the majority. Also, America was used to negotiating the black issue in different ways in the South and the North. But such a big share of the black population requires huge changes in society.”27

Systematic measures against the transmission of Radio Free Europe started in the late 1960s, and the availability of broadcasts for the Czechoslovak population, especially living in peripheral regions, was high during the period of increasing negative public opinion toward the Roma.28 The pressure of Western propaganda, increasing discontent among the population and new waves of Roma migration called for significant changes in the Roma policy. Alongside the necessity to reply to such concerns, Czechoslovak authorities started to be affected by the risk of losing their reputation and the obvious lack of human resources necessary to continue the policy of recognizing the Roma as an ethnic group. By the end of the 1950s, negating Roma ethnicity monopolized the public discourse. One of the main ideologues of this turn, Jaroslav Sus, in the introduction to his book The Gypsy Issue in the CSSR (Cikánská otázka v ČSSR) stressed that “the Gypsies are neither a nation nor an ethnic group and cannot become one in any future due to the objective condition of their existence (lack of integrity, low level of culture).”29 Thus, according to Sus and other experts, there was only one way to deal with such a situation – proper socialist assimilation. In order to differentiate it 26 Radio Free Europe, ‘Internal Report Item No. 11545/56.’ 27 Peroutka, Mluví k vám Ferdinand Peroutka, p. 169. 28 Junek, Svobodně! 29 Sus, Cikánská otázka, p. 12.

152 Victoria Shmidt

from (wrong) capitalist strategies, Sus and other experts strongly criticized Štampach, whom they defined as a bourgeois author with an ambivalent attitude toward the Roma. Antisocialist propaganda and interwar practices were equated as wrong and oppressive, and the socialist ideologues were tasked with creating arguments against the previous policy of integrating the Roma. And they solved this task by applying a simplified version of Marxism to the history of the Roma. The previous strategies were not only replaced but started to be labeled as hostile to the interests of the people and the state. By evaluating the attempt to introduce into public discourse the idea of the “Gypsies’” territorial autonomy, comparable to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast established in the USSR, Sus emphasized the threat for the non-”Gypsy” population in any potential area.30 The development of ideas surrounding the Roma was shaped not by the contest between the adherents and opponents of racial assimilationism but by the idea of allowing the Roma to integrate into various realms of social life and with the majority of population.

5.3

The Marxist ideology and surveillance of the Roma

In the late 1960s, the Czech socialist ideologues easily connected the Marxist approach to understanding class relations and societal conflicts with the task to present the Roma as limited in their ability to be integrated into socialist society. In 1968, sociologist Josef Nováček published the monograph The Gypsies Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Cikání včera, dnes a zítra), which aimed to redefine the theoretical approaches toward “Gypsies” in line with Marxism. By applying a simplified Marxist approach to recognizing the history of the Roma, the author concluded that according to MarxismLeninism, “Gypsies” lacked the main traits that could permit their acceptance as a nation.31 One of the socialist ideologues, Novaček, narrated the history of the Roma in counterdistinction to the meaningful history of the rest of humanity – he consistently contrasted the “Gypsies” to those of the workers and peasants who worked and struggled for their welfare. According to this approach, the Roma remained isolated from the progressive mainstream: 30 Also, it is reasonable to assume that Czechoslovak authorities were well informed about the “troubles” concerning the claim of independence by the Roma in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, and strong arguments against independence stemmed from the necessity to prevent this concern from becoming more public. For more, see Stoyanova, Tsiganite v godinite na sotsializma. 31 Nováček, Cikání včera, dnes a zítra, p. 42.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

153

Figure 11 Roma students in the classroom at Čolakovo near Košice, Slovakia, 1965

Source: SaK, Fond Komise Vychodoslovenského Krajského Národního Výboru pre cígánske obyvatel’stvo 1965-1969, Inv. č 16, box 21

Figure 12 The canteen in the school at Čolakovo near Košice, Slovakia, 1965

Source: SaK, Fond Komise Vychodoslovenského Krajského Národního Výboru pre cígánske obyvatel’stvo 1965-1969, Inv. č 16, box 21

154 Victoria Shmidt

“The gypsies are an odd social group, extremely different in terms of the process of class relations, a different ethnic group that significantly lags behind in social development due to its specific isolation as well as the isolation of society from Gypsies. The process of class differentiation is determined by these specific traits, and their development in terms of class relations is extremely backward.”32 Nováček emphasized the suffering of working people, who fought for their freedom, and how this process shaped their identity. But he also rejected the availability of such experience for the Roma because of their childish culture – not partaking in the “mature” European culture. The shift in public discourse concerning the Roma reflected immediately in the ways to visualize the “Gypsy issue.” In her study of “the most backward part of the Gypsy population,” those who lived in the settlements in eastern Slovakia, Eva Davidová directly focused on material culture, the most visible sign of the Roma’s retardation: “there is no water and wastewater treatment facilities, no electricity, no sufficient interior environment; finally, no sufficient place for each of the habitants – the current average standards remain unknown and unavailable.”33 The main motive, the interrelation of the Roma’s backwardness with the shocking poverty of their life, was often accompanied by the images of children – those who did not have a chance for a better life (see Figures 11 and 12).34 Obviously, Nováček significantly oversimplified the Marxist approach to understanding the civilizing process by providing an analogy between the sociogenesis of class struggle and ethnic group development, but by elaborating this metaphor, he enriched the interwar benevolent paternalistic discourse regarding the social immaturity of the Roma, and the inability to fight for their own rights and interests. This, in turn, operated in favor of rejecting the policy of the first socialist decade putting forward the empowerment of the Roma. By seeing them as unable to advance their own interests, Novaček deployed the space for objectifying the Roma in favor of delegating the task to provide for their social needs by others – more advanced citizens and professionals experienced in the long-term history of fighting for their rights. In 1969, the monograph by Nováček was adopted as guidance for social workers, professionals who were introduced into the system of social protection in the late 1960s, in order to deal better with the “Gypsy” population. 32 Ibid., p. 64. 33 Davidová, Bez kolíb a šiatrov. 34 Those interested in earlier approaches to visualize the life of the Roma should see Spurný, Nejsou jako my.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

155

Nováček called for a more systematic survey of the “Gypsies” and for more knowledge about the particular social and psychological traits of those who worked with Roma reeducation. He asked what “would be possible when all obstacles for developing social psychology have been overcome, and science has become as attractive as it is socially significant?”35 His call reverberated with the international interest in Czech physical anthropology, for which the survey of the Roma became a landmark in its international acknowledgement. Bringing forward racial assimilationism, the Czech scholars easily brought together socialist rhetoric and the interwar tradition of race science.

5.4

Racial assimilationism: Theoretical grounds for the destabilization of the Roma

In contrast to overt racism, which denied any options to become whiter for nonwhites, racial assimilationism put forward the process of melting ethnic minorities with lower cultural standards and obvious risks of degradation into the progressive majority. Undoubtedly, racial assimilationism stemmed from theorizing colonial practices. While Christian missionary universalism recognized churching as the main channel of civilizing the “savage,” racial assimilationism expected multilevel assimilation, including linguistic, social and, even more, biological, assimilation. During the interwar period, this approach was attractive to Czech eugenicists not only because of their focus on hybridization, the core stream in building the new Czechoslovak nation, but also due to long-term cooperation between the Czech eugenicists and the American anthropologist of Czech origin, Aleš Hrdlička, the chief of the Smithsonian Institution and one of the world leaders in racial assimilationism.36 In line with the Lamarckian approach, Hrdlička relied on the environment – which mainly was mapped by the dichotomy of primitivism vs. civilization. In his surveys racial factors determined by heredity were seen as very few, while the main differences were posed as determined by environmental 35 Nováček, Cikání včera, dnes a zítra, p. 81. 36 In fact, the figure of Hrdlička has operated as a father figure for anthropology in the region. Vojtěch Suk and Jiří Malý, the Czech anthropologists who led the anthropological institutes in Brno and Prague, respectively, directly cooperated with Hrdlička and participated in his research on ethnic minorities in the United States. Also, the books by Hrdlička represented core reading for several generations of Czechoslovak students in biological faculties. Hrdlička and his approach remain untouchable in Czech academic discourse with regard to any critical revision.

156 Victoria Shmidt

factors.37 This turn provided many options for explaining the various issues that ethnic minorities run up against due to their ineluctable transfer to the “white” world. Nutrition, habits, patterns of marriage, parenthood and sexual life were primarily seen as either relevant or irrelevant to the civilized environment. By elaborating the idea of progressive, Western-pattern development as a universal source of standardizing health and normality, racial assimilationism tended to blur the differences between different ethnic groups – in favor of indicating one universal way of assimilation. According to racial assimilationism, not all Eskimo, Rusyns or Roma were inferior but only those who remained totally isolated from the civilized or “white” majority. Ignoring the differences between ethnic minorities in favor of defining them all as not civilized enough, racial assimilationism divided people belonging to the same ethnic groups into subgroups indicating the degree of their isolation. Either intentional or determined by the specific historical and social circumstances, isolation created the main framework for studying minorities within the mainstream of interwar anthropology in the Czech lands. The degradation of the Rusyns in Subcarpathian Ruthenia, who had become one of the first target groups for racial assimilationism, was explained by the fact that they lived far from any options to be integrated with Slovaks and Czechs, which prevented them from acquiring progressive patterns as well as provoked degradation because of consanguineous marriages.38 Suk recognized the enormous difference in the anthropometric types of the Rusyns who were isolated and, vice versa, assimilated. The isolated group was defined as Laplanoid, different from Dinaric, typical for Slavs including those Rusyns who lived among Slovaks. Despite the absence of statistical confirmation, this division directly linked isolated Rusyns with a racial type often described as nonwhite and dirty because of their mode of life.39 The interconnection between dirtiness and immorality and isolation was also established regarding the Roma. Interwar scholars fixed a wide range of practices leading the Roma to isolation: from unfair historical circumstances to unacceptable sexual practices. In his thesis, Štampach emphasized, “Isolation of the Gypsies also can be determined by the practice of incest – which is solved by the Gypsies in quite different ways than by other primitives who strongly forbid incest.”40 By focusing on the lack of basic hygiene, racial assimilationism on the one hand equated the Roma with the animal and the subhuman, but 37 Hrdlička, Physical Anthropology. 38 Suk, Antropologie Podkarpatské Rusi. 39 Shmidt, ‘Public Health.’ 40 Štampach, ‘Sociologický výzkum cikánů,’ p. 43.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

157

on the other hand, emphasized the possibility of socialization – through teaching the Roma to be human. During the socialist period, the definition of the Roma as a self-contained isolated group (samostatný izolát) directly attributed the main responsibility for their lack of integration. The main problem of the Roma remained their lack of obedience to hygienic standards.41 Being core to the civilizing process, educability was seen by racial assimilationism as dependent on a healthy mode of life. By investigating 1,000 children in conflict with the law, Hrdlička emphasized the fact that the inferiorities of the children who are becoming inmates of the Juvenile Asylum, are in the majority of cases, “only the result of neglect, or of malnutrition, or of both these causes combined.”42 This way of interrelating physical and mental development directly reflected in contrasting white and nonwhite children in conflict with the law: “The white children of both sexes possess on average a decidedly larger proportion of inborn abnormalities. On the other hand, Negro children acquire in early life a larger percentage of irregularities than white children.”43 In this opposition, it is easy to recognize the echo of a humoral approach to construct blackness as the outcome of a long-term lack of hygiene and healthy mode of life. Humorality established a direct intersection between blackness and mental retardation by social origin – the mainstream explanation of Czech experts for the obstacles to assimilating the Roma. Racial assimilationism did not strongly influence policy making during the interwar period; rather, it was fixed in the theoretical grounds reproduced by Czech anthropologists after the decade-long ban on genetics and physical anthropology, which was automatically disseminated in Czechoslovak science after the communist coup d’état.

5.5

The Postwar renaissance of racial assimilationism: The Interplay of national and international academic agendas

Beginning in the early 1950s, racial assimilationism attained an unprecedented transfer of power around the world, including CEE countries. This process was determined by two interrelated streams of emancipation of postwar anthropology in Germany and the USSR, two extreme examples of the impact of a political regime on racial science. While German scholars 41 More about the interrelation between the prescriptions and surveillance can be found in Shmidt, ‘The Violence.’ 42 Hrdlička, Anthropological Investigations, p. 14. 43 Ibid.

158 Victoria Shmidt

(as well as their American colleagues who were involved in cooperation with German racial scientists) were obliged to negate the close affiliation of anthropology with the Nazi policy of extermination, Soviet anthropologists passed through their own emancipation – from a period of prohibition and even persecution to flourishing as an equal partner within the international movement for revising anthropological approaches to ethnicities. Under pressure from official ideology, which stressed the class origin of races, 44 leading Soviet anthropologists Viktor Bunak, Yakov Roginsky and Natalyia Miklashevskaya elaborated an approach easily co-opted by racial assimilationism and focused on the historical vicissitudes of the development of races. Being between these two streams, Czechoslovak anthropology played a special role in renovating and disseminating racial assimilationism in the socialist bloc – especially concerning the Roma. Primarily, the agenda of renovating racial assimilationism was developed by Malý, Škerlj and Franjo Ivaniček 45 between 1945 and 1948. 46 In CEE countries, these plans were postponed until the middle of the 1950s, when adherents of racial assimilationism obtained influential positions in Czechoslovak academic institutions. Vojtěch Fetter reestablished the Anthropological Society, initially in 1955, within the National Museum, closely linked with the history of eugenics in Czechoslovakia, and after 1960, under the direct support of the Ministry of Education, within the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Charles University. In 1962, the Czechoslovak journal Antropologie (Anthropology), established in 1923 and operating until 1941 as an international forum for sharing the outcomes of studies by eugenicists and anthropologists from CEE countries, reflected the same mission for socialist anthropology. Further, the journal interlinked the community of CEE anthropologists with their colleagues from Western countries by producing dual-language publications, mainly in Czech and German. It is reasonable to view the activities of anthropologists as a well-organized community with a particular agenda, a high level of institutionalization and the ability to affect policy making by producing a complex expert platform. 44 Zakharov, Race and Racism, p. 73. 45 Franjo Ivaniček was a prominent Croatian anthropologist, one of the ideologues espousing the racial supremacy of Croatians; for more details, see Bartulin, The Racial Idea in the Independent State of Croatia, pp. 179-180. 46 Between 1945 and 1948, Jíři Malý met several times with both Yugoslavian colleagues in order to continue the interwar studies regarding the morphological specifics of the racial types of Slavs in the two countries. Malý conducted field research in Slovenia and published several papers in Yugoslavian collections, e.g., in 1948: Malý, ‘Paleolitický člověk.’ His research was financially supported by Charles University, see, e.g., Malý, ‘Žádost.’

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

159

Like other continental scientific institutions, Czechoslovak scholars needed to be extremely careful about the potential threat of being affiliated with the Nazi’s inhuman racial science. 47 Czech racial scholars faced accusations of cooperation with the Nazis. In 1946, among the texts about Swedish, Austrian or Norwegian science, the journal Man of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland published a short article entitled, “Anthropology under Nazi Rule in Czechoslovakia.”48 The article was a summary of the communication with Jindřich Valšík, famous anthropologist and nephew of Vojtěch Suk, submitted by an unknown British interviewer in Prague in April 1946. Among such widely distributed memories as the devastation of Czech anthropological institutions and the cruel destiny of many Czech anthropologists, Valšík mentioned the practice of examining Jews who intended to confirm their Aryan origin. This practice of racial diagnosis was labeled “a double-edged sword” – not only because of the life risks for both Czech experts and Jewish applicants, but also because of the gross misuse of scientific knowledge. The article included the list of the most famous Czech scholars who were in touch with German scholars: Malý, Matiegka, Bohumil Sekla, Suk and Karel Raška. 49 Czech scholars needed to protect themselves, which helped orchestrate their intensive involvement in the transfer of physical anthropology to population studies and eugenics to medical genetics. The plans of the Czech anthropologists resonated with the international trend to give anthropology a new chance as a science directly advancing human diversity after UNESCO issued its first Statement on Race in 1950.50 Historians of racial science have emphasized the very limited impact of this statement on the radical negation of racist thinking. By confirming the rise of environmentalism and synthetic evolutionary theory,51 the statement is seen as “equally contingent, opportunistic, political, and grounded in the

47 At the end of World War II, Jiří Malý was the successor to the famous Nazi eugenicist Karl Thums and headed the Institute for Racial Biology (Institut für Rassenbiologie) in Prague. During the same period, Bruno K. Schultz, who led the Institute for Racial Studies (Institut für Rassenkunde), another eugenic institution in Prague, collected materials about the Roma, which were transferred after the war to the Museum of Man at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Charles University, Prague. Also, the particular traces of communication between Czech and German eugenicists are still unknown.’ 48 Valšik, ‘Anthropology under Nazi Rule in Czechoslovakia.’ 49 Karel Raška (1909-1987), the Czech founder of contemporary epidemiology, was the author of the concept of epidemiological surveillance. 50 Lipphardt, ‘From “Races” to “Isolates.”‘ 51 Hazard, ‘A Racialized Deconstruction?’

160 Victoria Shmidt

same social formations as racism itself.”52 Moreover, the process of preparing and discussing the first and next UNESCO statements concerning race had involved a wide range of scholars from different countries, which directly facilitated the transnational transfer of various streams of thought within racial assimilationism. Being appointed the director of the Anthropological Institute in Munich, one of the most influential scientific centers of physical anthropology in Europe, Karl Saller53 was also involved in the activities of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) and its meeting in Paris in 1951 aimed at preparing the international conference of Anthropology and Ethnology in Vienna in 1952.54 One of the most prominent students of Rudolf Martin,55 Saller easily adopted the new rhetoric of studying not “races” but “populations,” including different scenarios of population formation, such as isolation and mixing.56 The successor of the notorious Nazi anthropologist Theodor Mollison,57 Saller was obliged by the administration of Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) to rehabilitate anthropological studies and cleanse the reputation of the university.58 Like many other postwar anthropologists, Saller took on the task of emancipating German anthropology from the legacy of Nazi eugenics. He published several books directly aimed at disclosing the wrongness of Nazi ideology by promoting hybridization as the main alternative to the relentless “purity” of Nazi anthropology. Also, the uniqueness of Saller’s approach to make this mission possible was his close and long-term affiliation with socialist academics – especially Soviet and Czechoslovak anthropologists working within several initiatives targeted at unifying scholars from different political camps – Western capitalist, and Eastern socialist. 52 Brattain, ‘Race, Racism, and Antiracism.’ 53 Karl Saller (1902-1969), a German anthropologist and physician, and consistent adherent of natural medicine, was seen mainly as an administrator of science, rather than an influential scholar. 54 Ludwig Maximilian University, ‘Karl Saller.’ 55 Rudolf Martin (1864-1925), professor at Zurich and Munich, rejected this genetic connection and concentrated instead only on the inheritance and anthropometry of somatic features. 56 Lipphardt, ‘Isolates and Crosses.’ 57 Theodor Mollison (1874-1952) was one of those anthropologists who directly elaborated, promoted and disseminated racial hygiene and was a member of the Nazi Party, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). He was also among those who participated in theorizing the arguments for the extermination of the Roma. See Zimmermann, Rassenutopie and Genozide, p. 113. 58 The consistent exploration of Saller’s activity during this period and its interconnection to previous stages of his academic career are presented in a rigorous analysis by Lüddecke: Der “Fall Saller” und die Rassenhygiene.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

161

Saller started to shape his image as an activist within the peace movement from the very beginning of his activity as the director of the Anthropological Institute at LMU. Among diverse activities aimed at presenting himself as a civil activist, Saller initiated regular meetings of academics from West and East Germany in the name of peaceful progress. This initiative operated between 1949 and 1960, until the construction of the Berlin Wall. Participation in international events brought Saller and socialist anthropologists together59 and beginning in the late 1950s, Saller started to elaborate plans for a grand publication project aimed at unifying anthropologists from different countries to present the history of human races. After Saller’s sudden death in 1969, this project was continued by Ilse Schwidetzki.60 Tellingly, within a month of his death, Saller was awarded the Aleš Hrdlička Medal61 for his outstanding contribution to anthropology. The final version of History of the Human Races (Rassengeschichte der Menschheit) consisted of fourteen volumes, with the last volume published in 1993. Saller had assigned 34 contributors, physical anthropologists renowned in their regions, to prepare chapters about particular populations. Published in 1968, the first volume included four texts aimed at presenting: (1) the population of Australia, by Andrew Arthur Abbie62; (2) ethnic groups in Indochina, by Georges Olivier63; (3) the Indian subcontinent, by Ernst Büchi; and (4) the “Gypsies,” by Jaroslav Suchý.64 The question of how 59 Being a part of the international agenda, both academic and civil, Saller was welcomed by Soviet anthropology and was one of the first Western anthropologists who visited the USSR and other countries in the socialist bloc between 1956 and 1962. 60 Ilse Schwidetzki (1907-1997) was a student of Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt, one of the leading theorists of race in Nazi Germany, who apparently classified humanity into races. Schwidetzki carried out research on the racial belonging of the Slavs. In the 1970s, she initiated a project aimed at publishing an analytical description of each of the CEE countries and implemented it in cooperation with anthropologists from Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. 61 Hrdlička is a father figure for anthropology in Europe. From 1956 onward, Czechoslovak anthropologists organized annual conferences and international congresses shielded by the mission of Hrdlička’s commemoration. In 1959, the first Aleš Hrdlička Medal was presented for an outstanding contribution to anthropology. This tradition is still alive today – even more so after the Velvet Revolution. The citizens of Humpolec, the town where Hrdlička was born, have also been awarded the medal for their contribution to building civil society. 62 Andrew Arthur Abbie (1905-1976) was a famous Australian anthropologist. 63 Georges Olivier (1912-1996) was a famous French anthropologist. 64 Jaroslav Suchý (1926-1975) started his academic career as a doctoral student of Jiří Malý, whose encounters with socialist authorities led to his early death. Immediately after the sudden death of Malý, Suchý transferred from the Faculty of Natural Sciences to the Faculty of Education. He defended his doctoral thesis in early 1954. Suchý’s primary field was the anthropological measurement of children and youth. Beginning in the late 1950s, Suchý started to apply the approach to measuring the physical development of children developed by Martin and Saller.

162 Victoria Shmidt

a young assistant professor from socialist Czechoslovakia with a modest list of publications concerning the “Gypsy issue” received the invitation to prepare the chapter about the Roma in the first and very important volume of such a prestigious project remains beyond the scope of this study,65 but, undoubtedly, Suchý’s approach fit with the general focus on isolation as opposed to assimilation. Putting the “Gypsy case” into the volume with a particular colonial view on the indigenous population as isolated laid bare the main framework of racial assimilationism. In his review, only Kenneth Kennedy mentioned the obvious gaps in the formal requirements for the framework of the first volume: No format of topical subject and arrangement appears to have been prescribed by the editor, and there is consequently a certain unevenness in the coverage of data. Abstracts of the articles are not present nor are bibliographical data concerning the authors, although the names are familiar to European anthropologists.66

But for the rest of anthropologists the first volume consistently reproduced the key pillars of the postwar flourishing of physical anthropology. Each of four papers traced the history of populations that were seen as isolated from the mainstream of hybridization. The fact of their isolation operated as a main explanation of their specifics. In his review of the volume, Mario Cappieri, a famous Italian anthropologist, introduced various definitions to this model concerning each of four populations. Sharing the main point of Suchý’s approach, Cappieri explored the Roma as a pooled complex of tribes without the unity of culture.67 For Suchý, this “disqualification” of the Roma as a potential nation was an initial step toward theorizing the policy concerning the Roma that developed after the introduction of the Law on the Permanent Settlement of Nomadic People in 1958. Along with reproducing a whole range of prejudices against the Roma well-known from the very early attempts of theorizing their segregation, Suchý introduced the “Model of Differentiation, Assimilation and Isolation” Measuring physical development of Roma children was one of the main contributions of Suchý’s work. 65 Undoubtedly, the history of the relationship between German and Czech racial scholars concerning the Roma calls for a more in-depth survey in terms of the continuity between different periods of political history, mainly, the Protectorate and the socialist periods. 66 Kennedy, ‘Reviewed Work(s).’ 67 Cappieri, Review of Rassengeschichte der Menschheit.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

163

Figure 13 The Model of Differentiation, Assimilation and Isolation of the Roma

Source: Suchý, ‘Die Zigeuner,’ p. 202

as a complex approach to solving the “Gypsy issue” (Figure 13). Suchý centered his model around genetic factors marked as “G,” which would be either proassimilation or proisolation. He also constructed three possible scenarios of the “Gypsies’” assimilation: predominance of assimilation, predominance of isolation or ambivalence. Tellingly, these three options reproduced the threefold division of Roma families according to the degree

164 Victoria Shmidt

of their socialization that socialist authorities had introduced in the early 1960s.68 The text by Suchý can be seen as one that launched the reproduction of racial assimilationism concerning the Roma. In order to approve multiple forms of surveillance over the Roma, socialist scholars attacked the realms of the Roma mode of life that were the most sensitive regarding the core of the Czech nation: language and family life.

5.6

Linguistic assimilation: Invalidating the Roma language

In 1931 Štampach defined the formation of the Roma language as a “contact metamorphosis” (kontaktní metamorfosa): “The Gypsy language is cultural phenomena transformed by the pressure of various social factors, communication with the most diverse languages, cultures and nations resonating with social and ethnic isolation.”69 He introduced the prerequisites for an offensive attitude toward the Roma language by socialist experts. During the socialist period, notwithstanding a few studies of Roma culture and language aimed at advancing the right of the Roma to their language,70 among those who made educational policy, the Roma language started to be seen as a main source of the child’s retardation. Their choice in favor of linguistic assimilation stemmed from their belief in the linguistic superiority of the dominant, Czech, language over the primitive and incapable Roma language. The command of language was seen as a challenge in education for the Roma in many other CEE countries – but Czech socialist experts elaborated the most consistent arguments in favor of replacing the Roma language with languages ensuring proper mental development. Starting in the 1960s, the Roma were expected to master the Czech language so that, ultimately, this language would become their mother tongue – not just a 68 In the 1960s the socialist authorities introduced three categories for dividing the Roma according to the level of family’s integration. Attendance at school operated as a key criterion in such division. “Gypsies” who did not live in a “Gypsy” neighborhood, acquired basic hygienic skills, worked, and sent their children to school belonged to the first category, that is, they were considered to be fully integrated families. Those with “unsteady social skills and competencies” and still living among other “Gypsies” belonged to the second category. The third category was made up of Gypsies exhibiting various deviations from the “normal standards of ordinary life”: poor school attendance by children, unstable employment, and low standards of hygiene. For more, see Shmidt, ‘The Violence.’ 69 Štampach, ‘Sociologický výzkum cikánů,’ p. 56. 70 The most well-known person who devoted her academic career to the Roma language and culture was Milena Hübschmannová, who not only studied and taught the Roma language, but also initiated several campaigns in favor of Roma rights during the socialist period.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

165

second language but really the first. Intolerance for the Roma language and those Roma who spoke Czech poorly was embedded in national aspirations prescribing to language the core role in building the Czech nation. As a nexus with religion, the Czech language was fixed in this role by Jan Hus, who contrasted sharply folk-based proto-nationalism with German elites.71 The principal of one of the f irst “special” schools for Roma children in Dětenice and an influential expert, Josef Štěpán, attacked the Roma language. In 1975, he published the article “On the Language Situation of Mentally Retarded Roma Students,” aimed at exploring the role of Roma language in mental retardation.72 His main standpoint, about the dependence of learning a foreign language on the possibility of interconnecting it with the mother tongue, led him to a conclusion about the deficiency of the Roma language, which remained different “in phonetics, vocabulary and orthography, the absence of literary language and huge lack of unification.”73 While the Roma language was seen as a “disabled” language limiting the development of logical thinking, the well-established bilingualism of Roma children was seen as a direct risk for learning the Czech language and either determining or aggravating the mental retardation of Roma children: “The oligophrenic Roma child who speaks the Roma [language] and encounters other languages during later periods of his ontogenesis is in a disadvantaged situation […] [and] needs more time to understand a foreign language.”74 Štěpán intertwined Roma thinking, the Roma language and Roma childhood into a tangle of problems: “Thinking and logic operate within the mother tongue, and the point at which an individual will be able to think in a learned language is postponed for quite a long period. The structure of the mother tongue directly influences learned language, and the Roma child makes mistakes.”75 He accused the Roma language of being unable to “implement the function of being the grounds for studying other languages” and also derided those Roma parents unable to advance the language competencies of their children (one among many arguments against the Roma’s parenting skills, which were starting to be labeled as deficient). Defining Roma parents and the environment of the Roma neighborhood as the main source of oligophrenia directly justified the prioritization of residential care and special education. 71 Safran, ‘Language, Ethnicity and Religion.’ 72 Štěpán, ‘K jazykové.’ 73 Ibid., p. 146. 74 Ibid. 75 Ibid., p. 147.

166 Victoria Shmidt

5.7

Bad parenting and deficient childhood: The neocolonial negation of the Roma family

Socialist experts focused on various aspects of the “deficient” environment in which Roma children lived. Anthropologists described the “Gypsy” neighborhood as “poor for the stimuli ensuring development”: “The process of mental development depends on the operation of the senses and stems from the diversity of positive stimuli ensured by the environment in which the child lives. The Gypsy child lives in an environment limited in producing such impulses. Due to these limits, the development does not meet the expectations regarding the age.”76 The deficient environment could not prepare the “Gypsy” children for the main task – to be educated: “We need to take into account that the Gypsy child must overcome more obstacles than other children upon starting school.”77 Particular demonization of the Roma families resonated with the consistent sacralization of “normal” family life as the unique source for the proper development of children because of its irreplaceable role in forming emotional bonds. Socialist psychologists intensively developed their own theory of attachment in favor of providing clear criteria for dividing children into capable or incapable for family placement.78 Obviously, with regard to Roma families, the professionals continued to maintain their apprehensions about their parenting skills. A specific trend of the socialist period was also starting to see Roma parenting in terms of neocolonialism. For instance, Štěpán, supplemented his argument about the significant decrease in educability among Roma students because of their primitive mother tongue with an analysis of their left-handedness as an inherited trait, which persisted due to lack of attention on the part of parents. In his lecture for educators who worked with the Roma, “On the Laterality of Mentally Retarded Students of Gypsy Origin,” he focused not on left-handedness as a factor of mental retardation, but on the environment supporting this performance of primitivism among Roma children: “Living on the outskirts of towns and cities supports the unlimited development of left-handedness among mentally retarded Roma children. Small dwellings, normally consisting of one room in Gypsy settlements, do not operate for daily life; thus, the Roma child spends his life mainly outside or on the outskirts of the old parts of cities. There, within his quasi-wild 76 Malá, ‘Problematika současného vývoje.’ 77 Janišová, ‘K problematice úspěšného’. 78 Henschel, ‘A Project of Social Engineering,’ p. 148.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

167

military games, when he is either scattering stones or gathering sticks, the oligophrenic Roma child prefers that hand which is relevant to genotype laterality. Tellingly, he is not forced to relearn to use the right hand.”79 Along with labeling Roma childhood as provoking the fixation on the left hand, Štěpán interconnected the deficient Roma childhood with the mode of life typical of primitive tribes: In the case of laterality, it would be interesting to think about the analogy between the ethnic group of Gypsies and the ethnic groups living at a low level of social development. Miloš Sovák (1962) reported that during the Stone Age, right and left hands were equally used. Moreover, the customary stone tools in Patagonia were made both for left and right hands. Among the Papuans and Malaysian tribes living on the island of Celebes [now Sulawesi] there are many with left-handedness. W. Johnson has indicated that more than 70 percent of the population in the Punjab is left-handed. This fact directly sends us to the origins of our Gypsies who are from India, also the region of Punjab is seen as the secondary place of the Gypsy diaspora.80

In the very next paragraph he introduced the analogy between the Roma and non-Roma but “socially deficient” families: “It is reasonable to conclude that in Gypsy families and the families from which the rest of mentally retarded students come (it is more than possible to compare these families with Gypsy families in terms of their extremely low social and cultural status) there is no such consistent pressure on the children with genotypic left-handedness.” In this two-sided analogy, Roma (as cultural primitives) and Roma (as socially primitive families), it is easy to recognize motives very comparable to the attitude of Nazi eugenicists, who also stressed the resemblance between “Gypsies” and the asocial poorest. Negating the normality of the “original” Roma childhood and parenting led practitioners to the conclusion that those factors which “normally” reduce the risk of delinquent behavior and retardation for “white” children, e.g., the two-parent family or the permanent employment of parents and older siblings, did not work regarding Roma children. 81 Since the late 1980s, Czechoslovak education has used the concept of “disadvantaged sociocultural backgrounds” (socio-kulturně znevýhodněné prostředí) to 79 Štěpán, ‘K lateralitě.’ 80 Ibid., p. 318. 81 Štipek, ‘K charakteristice cikánské.’

168 Victoria Shmidt

define the situation of the Roma, which remains an official concept in use today. In professional literature, as well as in public debates, this concept has replaced the previous focus on mental retardation. The coherent negation of the Roma capacity for parenting has led to a conclusion familiar to those familiar with the surveys carried out by Hrdlička: residential care as the only possible option for resocializing the child who has trouble with socialization. His comprehensively assimilative def inition of the most desirable outcome of residential care (“All of the individuals of the same sex and age become more alike, and show less of their former diversity”82) was supplemented by the particular task of surveillance of the Roma during the socialist period. Officially, such an approach was legalized by the Ministry of Education in “The Long-term Conception of Education and Training for Educationally Neglected Children and Retarded Children of Gypsy Origins” (Dlouhodobá koncepce MŠ ČSR O výchově a vzdělávání výchovně zanedbaných a prospěchově opožděných cikánských dětí, 1969). The conception introduced the two types of mental retardation or oligophrenia attributed to Roma children, either because of social neglect or inheritance.83 The main aims of the new approach to educate “Gypsy” children were formulated in terms of the lateness of the civilizing process of the Roma. Some of the elements included “the slowed-down growth of the socialized level of the Gypsy population, the insufficient readiness of Gypsy children for school attendance, cultural retardation, backwardness, gaps on organizing housing culture, insufficient hygiene, illiteracy and unfamiliarity with the Czech language.”84 In the introduction to the conception, its authors stressed the lack of organized development as a main obstacle to socializing the “Gypsies”: “The majority of parents are not able to lead the education of their own children consistently, and the majority of Gypsy children are sentenced to spontaneous development.” 85 The Conception differentiated two problematic profiles of the development of “Gypsy” children, as either educationally neglected or retarded. In practice, this division was transformed into two types of oligophrenia, of social or biological origins. 82 Ibid., p. 262. 83 The same division was applied in the regulations regarding sterilization. In January 1973, the Ministry of Health issued a resolution about sterilization that established the following key criteria: high risk of giving birth to a “defective” child or high risk that the child would live in “defective” conditions (e.g., bad housing conditions, an overly large family, parents with a history of criminal activity). 84 Ministerstvo školství Československé socialistické republiky, ‘Dlouhodobá koncepce,’ p. 103. 85 Ibid., p. 104.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

169

Such an approach prioritized the placement of “Gypsy” children into special schools for children with mental disabilities. The conception provided the grounds to prioritize not the child’s ability or intellectual capability but its living conditions as either shaping (or not) Roma obedience to rules: “It is impossible to indicate the frontiers of intellectual abilities as the grounds for indicating the Gypsy child as either suitable for mainstream school or not. The main reasons for placing Gypsy children were factors beyond the measurement of IQ but reflecting the general level of the child’s family.”86 The emphasis on the inappropriateness of living conditions had its very practical reason – making educators free from responsibility for Roma students’ failures in the case of teaching those Roma who remained within their families and communities. By explaining the significant decline of school achievement among the Roma students at her school, one school principal claimed, “The teachers have not performed poorly. New Gypsy families who were not assimilated at all arrived and the number of children exceeded the capacity of their teachers.”87 The anthropological measurement of those Roma children who were placed into institutions and those who stayed within their communities directly aimed to prove the mass practice of the Roma into institutions.

5.8

The anthropological argument for placing the Roma children into institutions: “In the name of acceleration”

In line with racial assimilationism, Helena Malá88 focused on residential care as the only reliable way to make the development of “Gypsy” children as close to the development of their Czech peers as possible. This framework easily dovetailed with the new Marxist version of racial assimilationism. Malá focused on scholarization (školarizace) as the only possible strategy “for interaction of genetic grounds with the social factors of the external environment.”89 Along with stressing the unique role of education, she admitted that “the attempt to scholarize all Gypsy children has failed.”90 The echo of the all-or-nothing strategy typical of the socialist approach was used by Malá for exploring the failure of such attempts: “Overcoming 86 Janišová, ‘K problematice úspěšného,’ p. 251. 87 Žáková, ‘Zařazování cikánských.’ 88 Helena Malá (1935-2013) was a Czech socialist anthropologist. She was the daughter of Jiří Malý and a student of Jaroslav Suchý. 89 Malá, ‘Problematika současného vývoje,’ p. 23. 90 Ibid.

170 Victoria Shmidt

all differences that appeared during the long historical development of this ethnic group puts forward children and youth as a main target group whose living conditions should be improved with a particular focus on the children of a tender age.”91 An additional factor was the increasing pressure on acceleration, which increased the difference between Roma children and their non-Roma peers. Malá reproduced the arguments of those socialist ideologues who focused on the increasing rupture between the Roma remaining “backward” and the progressively developed majority of socialist Czechoslovak society. Malá was well equipped for providing such an argument. Before she began her anthropological measurement of the Roma children, in cooperation with Fetter and Suchý, she studied the changes in the anthropometric profiles of Czechoslovak children since the interwar period. The extensive measurement of children aimed to compare the profile of the average Czech child with the outcomes of the surveys among Czech children carried out by Matiegka between 1895 and 1896 and, again, in 1927. The focus on anthropometric criteria was explained by the idea that “if contemporary children are different from previous generations in terms of their physicality, they would respond to diverse educational treatment in other ways than the children in the past.”92 Socialist anthropologists significantly developed the tool of measurement, including more indicators – in line with the scheme offered by Martin and Saller. In total, more than 20 indicators were measured, including head and face anthropometry, laterality and some serological tests. The study aimed to elaborate such norms that would be “helpful to indicate the deviations from the proper average development because of any type of diseases or bad hygienic and social conditions.”93 Thus, the survey targeted groups of children whose living conditions were seen as a risk factor for their physical development. The same approach was applied to measuring the physical development of 358 Roma children from mainstream schools and 54 children from residential care units, between six and fifteen years old. Malá compared the physical development of the Roma children with their Czech peers as well as with children from Slovakia, whose population was compared with ethnic minorities, including Wallachian children. Also, the differences between Roma children from different regions, and between boys and girls, were widely applied for constructing the specific characteristics of the young 91 Ibid., p. 24. 92 Suchý, Význam celostátního. 93 Ibid., p. 3.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

171

Roma generation. In her conclusion, Malá reiterated both the difference between Czech and Roma children, and also between Wallachian and Roma children; the latter were smaller, thinner and had narrower faces. Further, Malá stressed that Wallachian children, by being ethnically isolated, were significantly different from Czech children as well as Slovak children. By emphasizing the difference of the Roma children even from Wallachian children, Malá defined the Roma as the most isolated group among other isolated groups. In order to explain the isolation of “Gypsies,” Malá provided an answer to the question “Who are the Gypsies?” comparable with the answer of those German anthropologists who explored Euripean Jews: she described them as a self-contained, isolated group (samostatný izolát). Malá’s definition opposed the majority population to the Roma: “They [Gypsies] practiced reproduction within their own groups; the pattern of the self-contained isolated group operated as a dominant scenario in their development. This practice fixed controversial anthropological features, which remain an inseparable part of their [the Roma’s] social development.”94 This attitude helped to focus on physical features because, “In terms of a complex anthropological approach, the Gypsies as a part of the Europoid race, remain obviously different.” According to Malá, the main source of remaining a self-contained, isolated group was the “wrong” hybridization typical of the Roma: “Particular biological markers were rooted genetically by endogamous hybridization of various degrees [endogamní křížení různého stupně].”95 Malá univocally defined the desirable result of the Roma’s assimilation – to become, as much as possible, non-Roma or white: “The gradual dissolution of the Roma among the major Czechoslovak ethnic groups” should be “achieved by mutual social and gradually elaborated biological contact.”96 By mixing ethnic and social traits as the grounds for differentiating the Roma into three categories, Malá mapped the readiness of the Roma to this plan. Including in the first group “Gypsies” to whom she attributed a consistent nomadic life, Malá opposed them to other Roma “in anthropological, linguistic, ethnographic, sociological and cultural meaning.”97 The main difference, according to her, was the trend of large, multigenerational families with an enormous number of children. Then she described the second group, 94 Malá, ‘Problematika současného vývoje,’ p. 32. 95 Ibid., p. 47. 96 Malá, Výchova, vzdělávání, p. 73. 97 Malá, ‘Problematika současného vývoje,’ p. 35.

172 Victoria Shmidt

Slovak Roma, as those who mixed sedentary and nomadic modes of life by often changing their place of residence and employment. And the last “major” group consisted of those who practiced a sedentary mode of life. Malá did not include in this group those who live in self-contained “Gypsy” communities; she did not mention into which group these Roma should be put. The third group was made up of only those who are totally integrated together with the other population. Mainly, this third group consists of the Gypsies from the Czech and Moravian regions whose families were settled since Maria Theresa and Josef the Habsburg. Gypsy intellectuals were created within this part of population.98 Taking into account the fact that the majority of sedentary Roma in this region was exterminated during WWII, we could say that it operated in the writings by Malá in the same way as the metaphor of the child of exotic nature and the Aryan Roma in the writings of Ritter99 – in favor of encouraging the nonexistence of such ideal “Gypsies.” By stressing the fact that majority of “Gypsies” remained at an insufficient level of social development, Malá made the same turn from elusive concept to cruel reality as her Nazi colleagues. The desirable ideal “Gypsies” did not exist already – in terms of analogies, for Ritter and Eva Justin, Roma children lost their privilege as children, for the socialist ideologues, including Malá, they remained in their primitive childhood – and lost their options for childhood in the family. Malá include several images of the Roma children in her habilitation thesis100 in order to reinforce the main argument in favor of placing the Roma children into residential care units. Besides the classical three-dimensional images of the proper and improper trajectories of physical development of those Roma children placed in time or too late, Malá focused on the depictions of Roma family life (Figure 14) and the collective image of the Roma’s backwardness (Figure 15). Comparable with the visualization of public discourse (Figures 11 and 12), the approach of Malá aimed to stress the interconnection between the backwardness of people and their mode of life. Moreover, professional discourse brought into action the opposition of Roma adults as a part of the previous improper mode of life and its impact on their children. In her subsequent surveys, Malá continued to reproduce the same theoretical and methodological framework, and the mainstream trajectory was the dissemination of the scheme to other age groups, other regions, 98 Ibid., pp. 35-36. 99 Ritter, ‘Mitteleuropaische Zigeuner.’ 100 Malá, ‘Problematika současného vývoje.’

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

Figure 14 A Roma mother who was a foster caregiver for a boy

Source: Malá, ‘Problematika současného vývoje’

Figure 15 Roma siblings who were placed in a boarding school after the age of seven

Source: Malá, ‘Problematika současného vývoje’

173

174 Victoria Shmidt

even other countries – in favor of substantiating the analogy between the childish Roma and primitive childhood. In 1976-1977, in cooperation with Yugoslavian colleagues she conducted a survey in Titograd (now Podgorice) that afforded her the same conclusion about the unique role of residential care in optimizing the development of Roma children.101 Later, in the 1980s, she focused on young Roma and infants, as well as on Roma mothers’ inappropriate care for themselves and their children.102 In this survey, Malá stressed that “even though the social and cultural level of Gypsy men is low, the Gypsy women have a much lower level.”103 In the hierarchy of “Gypsies’” asociality, the children were placed at the bottom of this scale because “alongside sociocultural backwardness, many of them are difficult to educate, are occasionally handicapped and can be qualified as disabled children with mental, physical, health or sensitivity problems.”104

Conclusion The equalization of the Roma with the savage and underdeveloped was transformed into a priority of special education since the middle of the 1970s, when the practice of placing Roma children into schools for children with mental disabilities became not only regular practice but also the primary option. Comparably with the interwar period, in socialist Czechoslovakia, the mainstream policy surrounding the Roma operated in line with the mission of assimilation, but the arguments in favor of this policy and against the acceptance of the Roma as an independent ethnic group effectively progressed. One of the main driving forces ensuring the reproduction of racial assimilationism was its reverberation among public and academic discourses. As in the interwar period, socialist academic discourse concerning the Roma served the outcomes of moral campaigns initiated by the authorities in favor of legitimizing their politics and practices. Academic discourse surrounding the Roma remains to be theorized as a version of the public anxiety toward the Roma, and the options to cope with this anxiety in favor of sustainable recognition of the Roma remain to be addressed.

101 Malá and Ivanovič, ‘Tělesný vývoj.’ 102 Malá and Hajnišová, ‘Příspěvek ke sledování.’ 103 Malá, ‘Problematika současného vývoje,’ p. 41. 104 Ibid., p. 62.

The Intersectionalit y of Disabilit y and R ace

175

This dual continuity, between the interwar and the socialist periods, as well as between public and academic discourses, equipped the concept of the Roma through extended intersectionality, presenting the Roma as vulnerable and limited in their capacities. The continuity of comparing the Roma with savage, not-totally-human beings, and the disabled and poor, reverberated with the reproducing of eugenic thinking and bringing it into particular set of policies aimed at improving the population – with the tools of genetics.

About the author Victoria Shmidt has a PhD in Developmental Psychology (1998, Russian Academy of Education) and a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy (2012, Masaryk University). Since 2011, Dr. Shmidt has been working on the issue of the policies concerning ethnic minorities in the Czech lands and the role of various academic communities in producing the discourses and practices of segregation.

6

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women between the 1970s and the 1980s The Rise of Eugenic Socialism Victoria Shmidt

Abstract This chapter investigates the transfer from eugenics to medical genetics in postwar Czechoslovakia, which led to introducing the sterilization, including its enforced application against the Roma. In contrast to other CEE countries, Czech eugenics easily moved to genetics due to its closely kept relationship with Western colleagues and institutions. While geneticists consistently neglected to include the Roma on the list of groups targeted for sterilization, they introduced an organizational approach to sterilization, which increased the risk of applying sterilization as an enforced measure. The administrative order of decision-making in combination with an increasing critique from the side of dissidents led the Czechoslovak authorities to apply sterilization as a latent practice beyond any option for the Roma to contest the decision and resist. Keywords: eugenics, genetics, genetic counseling, enforced sterilization, gender-based structural violence

The historical continuity of the transfer from eugenics to medical genetics in postwar Czechoslovakia, which also led to introducing enforced sterilization among the Roma, can be divided into several stages reverberating with postwar reproduction of eugenic thinking at the international level. While between 1945 and 1969, Czech eugenics aligned with the mainstream movement toward the “victory” of new genetic knowledge and science

Shmidt, Victoria (ed.), The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia. Segregating in the Name of the Nation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789463720014/ch06

178 Victoria Shmidt

about populations,1 after 1970, the new Western trend toward revisiting the implications of medical genetics in terms of a more profeminist view on women’s autonomy and postcolonial lenses of anthropology remained on the margins of attention among socialist scholars. In fact, after 1979, while Czech genetics continued to suffer from impaired autonomization typical of academic spheres in socialist modernity, Czechoslovak practices targeted at controlling the Roma population crossed the ethical borders of science and its application. As a result sterilization exhibited all the features of an arbitrary practice. Exploring the role of sterilization and its corollary, therapeutic abortion, in the professional discourses of Czech experts between 1945 and 1985 recognizes the intersectionality of different epistemic communities, geneticists, anthropologists and helping professionals in shaping the institutional construction making forced sterilization and accompanying methods (abortion and forced contraception) not only possible but desirable measures for surveillance over the Roma.

6.1

Czech eugenics during the postwar period: Emancipation from a dirty past

Despite being short, the Third Republic period (1945-1948) was crucial for the postwar reproduction of eugenic thinking in Czechoslovakia and in particular for the legalization of sterilization in 1966. Czech scholars were able to engage with international trends seeking to redefine the role of eugenics, rooting themselves in international movements aimed at emancipating eugenics from Nazi racial hygiene. Further, the postwar prerequisites of Czech biology for such a shift were comparable with the mainstream of postwar eugenics in the Western world. The ideological platform aimed at emancipating postwar eugenics from the affiliation with Nazi racial hygiene started to be considered by Western scholars immediately after the war. In the article “Modern Tendencies in Eugenics,” published in the Journal of Health Education in 1945 and widely read (including by Czech scholars2) as the manifesto for a new brand of eugenics, one of the most influential lobbyists of postwar eugenics, Eliot 1 The period of Lysenkoism’s impact on Czech science was relatively brief – the five years between 1949 and 1954 – and it had a limited effect on the development of Czech genetics. See the thoughtful works by Simona Valová: ‘Jaroslav Kříženecký a lysenkismus’ and ‘Jaroslav Kříženecký: vědec.’ New discoveries in genetics at the time (such as the discovery of the helical structure of DNA in 1953) operated in favor of a renaissance in its reputation all over the world. 2 The texts by Slater were referenced in the texts by Czech psychiatrists as well as geneticists.

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

179

Slater,3 laid out the main framework for relegitimizing eugenics. First, he focused on the historically healthy roots of the eugenics movement as the ancestor of the science of human genetics. He recognized in the accusation of eugenics as “incompatible with the dignity of humanity or with man’s sonship to God” the motives for negating Darwin’s theory and predicted the victory of progress in elaborating eugenic thinking in the near future. According to Slater, the success of the eugenic approach would be ensured by the sustainable progress of the research, and the main problem with Nazi eugenicists was that they “were too much in a hurry” in applying eugenic knowledge in practice.4 The main target of Slater’s critique was the rigidness of the Nazi approach in selecting the unfit. According to the British scholar, neglecting the role of the environment as a factor that changes reasonable expectations from humans overwhelmed German eugenics. Being “too stereotyped,” Nazi eugenics was unable to face environmental changes and the inevitable extinction of the previous composition of conditions. Despite systematic negation of the scientific grounds for Nazi eugenics, Slater accepted the Third Reich as a civilized society with social agencies led by the mission to protect children, which inclined the state to elaborate a strategy for decreasing the number of the “feeble-minded,” whose increase was seen as a negative spin-off of the progress of medicine. In a one-paragraph sketch of the Nazi approach to demographic policy, Slater emphasized the double-sided approach of combining negative and positive eugenic tools. While Slater avoided any moral suggestions (the extermination of Jews is mentioned in terms of excluding Jewish families from the politics of welfare), he focused on the long-term success of this policy in terms of the sustainable growth of the German population. Slater finished his text by opposing the previous focus of eugenics on the progeny of extreme variants to the “new notion of the eugenic welfare of the race as affected by the lives of every one of us.”5 This very rational approach to medical genetics was deepened by international actors interested in the renaissance of eugenic control over populations – at the national level as well.6

3 Eliot Slater (1904-1983) was a famous British psychiatrist. He attended several centers, including the German Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie (Psychiatric Research Institute) and the Danish Institute of Genetics and Eugenics during the 1930s as a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation. After the war, Slater established the British Journal of Psychiatry and continued to promote a eugenic agenda. 4 Slater, ‘Modern Tendencies in Eugenics,’ p. 183. 5 Ibid., p. 185. 6 Stepan, Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever?

180 Victoria Shmidt

One of the central factors in reproducing eugenics in Western countries was the unprecedented attractiveness of medical genetics for new generations of scholars who engaged in the field after the war.7 The three-year period between 1945 and 1948 was decisive for energizing Czech eugenics by new generations of scholars. In contrast to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, where many racial scholars became the victims of political purges between 1945 and 1946,8 maintaining its academic reputation, Czech genetics (as well as anthropology) was able to attract young scientists interested in engaging with the European-level research that Czech genetics was able to offer. For instance, during the f irst decade after the war, Bohumil Sekla, who remained the executive director of the Czechoslovak Eugenic Society, assembled a team of young scholars such as Ema Holečková9 and Miloš Černý.10 Among other strategic trajectories, Czech eugenicists (including the new generation) started to elaborate the issue of legalizing sterilization. This initiative resonated with the postwar call for professional treatment of the disabled and replacement of family care by special institutions. In order to minimize any chance to recognize the echo of Nazi practices in the intention to advance sterilization, Czech scholars started to cooperate with the Danish Institute for Human Genetics and Eugenics in Copenhagen, which had a reputation untarnished by cooperation with Nazi racial science.11 Being one of three Danish research institutions supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Institute of Human Genetics and Eugenics became a sort of new face for postwar genetics, in contrast to German institutions (also supported by the Rockefeller Foundation). Tellingly, the Danish institute organized the first postwar Congress of Genetics in 1956. Sekla was invited to the congress but was unable to attend due to political reason.12 The congress materials included information about the planned report by Sekla and were disseminated among the participants.13 7 Paul, ‘From Eugenics to Medical Genetics.’ 8 Due to their affiliation with profascist regimes, Croatian and Bulgarian eugenicists were persecuted by the new pro-Soviet authorities. Additionally, in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, the Soviet pressure of Lysenkoism was directly affiliated with the struggle against profascist science. 9 Ema Holečková (1922-2009) received a university degree in medicine in 1949, specialized in cytophysiology, and was a popular author of outreach plays and texts targeted at young people. 10 Miloš Černý (1931-2001) engaged Sekla’s research team during the early 1950s and remained his closest colleague and successor in leading Czech genetics during the 1970s. 11 Hansen, ‘Something Rotten in the State of Denmark,’ p. 58. 12 Sekla, ‘Dopis Karlu Plaňanskému.’ 13 Sekla, Letter to Professor Tage Kemp.

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

181

The important argument in favor of adopting the Danish model of sterilization was its embeddedness in “thoughtful population policy aimed at ensuring the health of next generations free from any traces of genetic diseases.”14 Czech experts explored the Danish approach through the lenses of the institutional changes that would be most desirable for improving the status of Czech eugenics. They stressed certain features of the Danish politics of sterilization, such as a centralized approach to collecting data about those who were seen as potentially suitable for sterilization: people with serious mental disabilities, children placed into special schools and people who had committed serious crimes. The core role of the institute consisted of making decisions concerning a wide range of eugenic tools, including therapeutic abortion and other forms of contraception, and ongoing research on genetic diseases aimed at providing reasonable arguments for the implications of negative eugenics. This list of the Danish advantages specif ically important for Czech eugenicists included delegating the core organizational role to the research institute, which resonated with the desirable institutional framework of the Czech eugenic agenda fixed by the lobbyists for sterilization and by Sekla personally in the “Memorandum on the Issue of Sterilization” (Memorandum k otázce eugenické sterilisace) in 1937.15 Along with organizational issues, Czech experts paid attention to the legal regulations on sterilization and emphasized the administrative order of decision-making applied in many cases, when a special board should analyze the social and medical anamnesis and issue a resolution either for or against sterilization or therapeutic abortion. Though the plans to introduce sterilization were postponed for two decades, this expertise from the Danish experience obviously influenced the approach to sterilization that Czech experts elaborated in the second half of the 1960s. In 1946, the Faculty of Medicine purchased materials from the Danish institute, including instructional films and manuals. The exchange of the information about research concerning the eugenic tools of population control was maintained until the end of the 1960s; Czech experts directly compared the efficiency of genetic counseling with statistical data from Denmark.16

14 Holečková, ‘O eugenice v Dánsku.’ 15 Zvláštní komise Čs. Eugenická společnost, ‘Memorandum.’ 16 Brunecký, Genetická Prognosa.

182 Victoria Shmidt

6.2

Genetic counseling as a part of demographic reform in the 1960s: Serving the interest of the nation

In contrast to the demographic policy of the first socialist decade aimed at increasing population, in the second half of the 1960s, the issue of “protective measures for the people’s health”17 started to be seen as indispensable for fundamental policy changes, addressing the challenge of bringing together the quality and the quantity of the population. The Law on the Care of the People’s Health (Zákon o péči o zdraví lidu, 1966) aimed at introducing regulations for a wide range of measures that would encourage the quality of the population, including both positive and negative eugenic tools. Article 27 legalized sterilization, and the special directive by the Ministry of Health introduced the indications for making decisions about therapeutic abortions and further sterilization.18 The law fixed the options for distributing diverse forms of birth control, which was the most decisive for the renaissance of eugenic thinking and its implications. For instance, during the same period in the United States, the prohibition of abortion led to particular trends in the implications of medical genetics (the successor of eugenics) named by contemporary historians as “schizophrenic.”19 And legal barriers against abortion definitely slowed down the distribution of medical genetics. The unique political solution concerning the regulation of abortions in socialist Czechoslovakia, establishing potratová komise (special boards for making the decision concerning the eligibility of abortion), introduced an organizational approach that was reproduced for other eugenic measures, such as therapeutic abortion and sterilization. Administrative order can be seen as one of the prerequisites for transforming population policy into a set of arbitrary practices and the abuse of Roma women by those who were obliged to make the decisions. Such an organizational solution concerning radical methods of population control orchestrated the institutionalization of genetic counseling (genetické poradny). The expression “genetic counseling” came from postwar American academic circles, even though they were not the first to offer medical advice 17 Ovseiko, ‘The Politics of Health Care Reform.’ 18 In Genetická Prognosa, Brunecký notes that the document ‘Směrnice pro sterilizace z důvodu genetických’ (Guidelines for genetic sterilization) was published in Věstník Ministerstva zdravotnictví [Ministry of Health bulletin] (1966). 19 The availability of simple blood tests and the massive campaigns aimed at presenting genetics as a sort of new essential knowledge about humanity opened the door for those who reproduced eugenic ideas in the United States, but the range of regulations remained limited. See Norrgard, ‘Human Testing.’

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

183

for those individuals and families interested in assessing the risk of being the carrier of inherited diseases. German and Danish medical centers had started to offer such services in the early 1930s. Americans introduced genetic counseling as a kind of genetic social work, the very meaning of the official rhetoric of the new demographic policy of the Czechoslovak authorities since the second half of the 1960s.20 The Conception of Medical Genetics (Koncepce lékařské genetiky) issued by the Ministry of Health in 1969 emphasized the social mission of medical genetics by dividing the role of counseling into passive and active, from the point of who would be the initiator of genetic testing, whether the family, the couple, the individual or institutional structures aimed at monitoring families with the systematic appearance of genetic diseases.21 Both active and passive types of counseling was targeted at capturing two groups: those who would be interested in premarital counseling concerning the health of their offspring and those who would need some possible preventive genetic interventions (preventivní genetické zákroky), such as prenatal testing, therapeutic abortion or sterilization. During his visit to Prague in 1968, one of the most famous American geneticists, Victor Almon McKusick, shared his vision for organizing genetic counseling, which was adopted for summarizing the requirements for the human resources of genetic counseling and the mode of its operation.22 His famous criterion of 10 percent of population who would need extreme forms of preventing inherited diseases (either therapeutic abortion or sterilization) was accepted by the Czechoslovak authorities for planning the potential number of clients of the genetic counseling. Genetic counseling should be developed as a network of regional centers for medical genetics affiliated with public health institutions. The team of each of the centers should include the following professionals: three physicians with a specialization in medical genetics and five higher-educated professionals, including two geneticists, one anthropologist, one biochemist and one specialist in medical statistics. This team would be obliged to provide the whole range of genetic tests: the medical history of the family as an indispensable part of making decisions concerning therapeutic abortion or sterilization; anthropometric measurement; testing specific genetic or chromosomal conditions; and primary assessment of disorders of the reproductive organ systems. The first center for medical genetics was established in 1969 in Prague and covered central Bohemia. The target groups were families with the 20 Sekla, ‘Přednáška.’ 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid.

184 Victoria Shmidt

systematic reproduction of inherited diseases. In 1970, the number of cases evaluated by the center reached 2,000. Tellingly, Sekla started to work at the center as one of the physicians. In southern Moravia, genetic counseling started to operate within the Pediatric Institute led by Zdeněk Brunecký since 1967. Networks of centers in other regions started to be established in the first half of the 1980s.23 The institutionalization of medical genetics was accompanied by diverse outreach activities mainly targeted at professionals and an audience that could be compared with the middle class in the United States: people with higher education employed in large cities. Broadcasting and popular journals, especially those targeted at women, disseminated information about intime testing of the quality of a pregnancy, together with articles aimed at improving the competencies of women concerning hormonal contraception, good sexual relationships and the negative consequences of abortion.24 The target groups of this campaign and its aims are easily compared with the neoeugenics movement in the USA that was “less about preventing the ‘unfit’ from reproducing and more about helping the ‘unfit’ poor to limit their family size,” a subtle, but crucial, distinction.25 Sekla personally promoted eugenic approaches and gave public lectures for wide audiences. For instance, Sekla prepared the presentation “Genetics: Its Relationship with Marriage and Human Progress,” which was disseminated among the academic staff of Czechoslovak institutions in the early 1970s.26 Simultaneously, Sekla and other geneticists approached a wide range of public health staff by sharing the outcomes of genetic research around the world.27 In the practice of Czechoslovak genetic counseling, in line with international trends,28 the main criterion of its efficiency was the decision of the couple not to give birth to the child after negative recommendations (when the risk of giving birth to a child with a disability was higher than 10 percent). 23 Šimůnek, ‘Remarks.’ 24 Popular magazines such as Půvab, zdraví a krása (Glamour, health and beauty), published by the publishing house Avicenum of the Ministry of Health, or Zrcadlo zdraví, krásy, čistoty (Reflection of health, beauty and purity), published several articles targeted at informing women about the role of genetic counseling and prenatal screenings available to them. Židovský, ‘Doktore, není mé těchotenství ohroženo?’ 25 Kluchin, Fit to Be Tied. 26 Český svaz věděckých pracovníků, ‘Dopis Bonumilu Seklovi Praha.’ 27 Okresní ústav národního zdraví na Mělníce, ‘Nové poznatky v genetice.’ 28 Czech professionals followed the approach introduced by the British pediatrician Richard Worthington Smithells (1924-2002), who elaborated a sort of algorithm for making the decision about the consequences of having only a therapeutic abortion, an abortion and subsequent sterilization or an abortion and long-term contraception.

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

185

Tellingly, among the clients of the Czech centers, the share of those who did not have a child after having had a first child with a disability (even if the risk was evaluated as less than 10 percent) was larger than in Denmark or England, two countries that served as benchmarks in elaborating medical genetics in Czechoslovakia: 49 percent among Czech parents, and 30 and 25 in Denmark and England, respectively.29 These data reflect the pressure of physicians’ opinions on those seen by the experts as unsuitable parents. In his public reports, Sekla tried to limit the application of sterilization and therapeutic abortion based on the narrow knowledge of genetic diseases. However, in his practice, it is possible to recognize the readiness to recommend negative eugenic tools even in the case of his uncertainty about the origin of disease. For instance, in the report of the case of Mrs. T-vá, who had eleven miscarriages at between four and seven months of pregnancy, gave birth to one “malformed” child who was placed into an infant home and died in three months, and at the moment of medical testing was pregnant again, Sekla recommended extreme measures. Even though the causes of spontaneous abortions remained unclear (there was a suggestion about hemolytic disease of the fetus but there was no evidence), along with the origin of the disability of the newborn child who was rhesus negative like the mother, Sekla concluded his report by saying that “the probability of giving birth to a further malformed child is 1:1, and therapeutic abortion is strongly recommended as well as further sterilization.”30 An additional reason mentioned by Sekla at the end of the report was the attitude of the mother, “who understandably fears to give birth to another malformed child.” The general optimistic view on genetics remained a dominant motive among Czech scholars, which played an ambitious role in their involvement in the debates concerning the sterilization of the Roma.

6.3

From sterilization against “defective” births to sterilization of those who live in “defective” conditions

The postwar history of Western genetic counseling reflected the comparability of its public message to eugenic motifs: the division between the nonproductive classes of society and productive members was the main reason behind tough regulations concerning the reproduction of those

29 Brunecký, Genetická Prognosa, p. 227. 30 Sekla, ‘Lékařská zpráva 25.03.1970.’

186 Victoria Shmidt

deemed nonproductive.31 This division immediately manifested in the different methods of working with clients from different social groups. Mainly, counselors differentiated between those middle-class parents whose behavior was seen as rational and those from the underclasses who started to be labeled as irrational. The latter group received a high degree of objectification, which legitimized tough pressure on those who needed to be persuaded to abstain from giving birth. The experts who discussed the risks of sterilization for women consistently reproduced the intersectionality between ethnicity, class and gender. For instance, David Enoch and Keith Jones brought forward an argument about the comparison of the outputs of sterilization with either ongoing childbearing by those socially unfit or using alternative contraceptive measures by middle-class female patients.32 The turn from therapeutic to selective abortion of nonwhites, the less wealthy and uneducated women in the practice of genetic counseling is often seen as the main prerequisite for relegalizing forced sterilization in Western countries.33 The further recruitment of this organizational framework for justifying the control of the Roma population can be easily compared with these stratifying practices of genetic counseling in Western countries. In late 1966, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, in cooperation with the Board for Reeducating the Gypsy Population in Eastern Region of Slovakia, organized an event defined as a “symposium aimed at discussing the natality of the Roma.”34 This event was the result of long-term communication between central authorities and regional boards obliged to reeducate the “Gypsy” population. In the reports between 1961 and 1966 prepared by the local authorities, it is easy to recognize the increased frustration of the social workers concerning the patterns of reproductive behavior among the Roma population: [T]he majority of Gypsy girls start their sexual lives at twelve to thirteen years old and they do not accept it as immoral behavior – even their parents do not. How many children would they have by the time they 31 Some extreme examples from the early stages of genetic counseling are mentioned in Paul, ‘From Eugenics to Medical Genetics.’ For instance, the American scholar Linus Pauling proposed in 1968 that all young people be tested for the presence of the sickle cell and other deleterious genes and a symbol be tattooed on the foreheads of those found to be carriers. 32 David and Jones, ‘Sterilization.’ 33 Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics; Kline, Building a Better Race. 34 Komisia pre cigánské obyvatel’stvo Východoslovenský krajský národný výbor v Košiciach, ‘Dopis Vladnému Výboru.’

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

187

are 30? What will these children bring to our socialist society? We call for advice: should we accept it? Could we place these girls into a special setting in order to limit the negative influence of their family environment?35

The regional commissions prepared statistical data about the dynamics among the Roma population, and these materials were forwarded to different ministries. The main outcomes of the meeting were fixed in a remarkable document entitled, “Grounds for the Debates about Natality within the Gypsy Population in the Eastern Slovak Region and Recommendations for the Regulation of Its Natality” (Podklady k rokovaniu o populácii cigánskeho obyvatl’stva vo Východoslovenskom kraji a návrhy na reguláciu pôrodnosti). The document focused on the necessity to approach the quality of the “Gypsy” population with a high degree of inferiority because increased birth rates remained typical of the families of the second and third categories, the most asocial ones. The growth of the “Gypsy” population was defined as limited by neither legal nor moral-social reasons. This combination of an increasingly problematic state and the absence of any efficient measures brought the Roma population in opposition to the main mission of demographic policy, to achieve a balance between increasing the quantity and improving the quality of the population. The main statistical argument for tough measures stemmed from the rapid growth of birth rates among the Roma, from 11 percent in 1961 to 12 percent in 1963. Along with this general trend, the growth of newborn Roma children in the “Gypsy” settlements in Slovakia was seen as a much more serious issue: the population whose share did not exceed 6 percent of the total local population “produced” approximately quarter of all newborn children between 1963 and 1965. The “critically bad quality of the Gypsy population” was described in one paragraph as the intersectionality of the criminal mode of life (“they are beggars, habitual offenders, frauds”) and multigenerational mental disability. Tellingly, the disability of the Roma was defined as a set of incurable diseases of different kinds. Infant mortality was put forward as the key argument aimed at illustrating the quality of a population unable to achieve any minimal social success. The document introduced concepts such as “undesirable for reproducing” (populácia nežiadúca), which included three groups: those who had inherited diseases, habitual criminal offenders and those addicted to alcohol. The document echoed the popular notion among Czech geneticists about the issue of

35 Základní devítiletá škola v Nejdku, ‘Dopis školské.’

188 Victoria Shmidt

consanguineous marriage,36 described as “mainstream” among other asocial patterns of “Gypsy” reproduction and one of the main explanations for their inferiority. The most remarkable was interlinking the hypersexuality ascribed to the Roma with mental degradation and diverse asocial patterns of sexual behavior such as sexual relationships at an early age, transmission of venereal diseases and prostitution. The asocial patterns of reproduction resonated in the document with a colorful picture of insufficient parenthood of the third-category families. The document emphasized the diverse types of abusive behavior among Roma parents, depicted as using their children for profit, whether from social services or ordinary non-Roma citizens, by forcing their children to become beggars and thieves. This part of the document, addressed to the Law on the Consequences Resulting from Neglectful Parental Care (Zákon o některých důsledcích zanedbání péče o děti č. 177/1966), directly aimed at regulating the access of Roma parents to social allowances according to the level of their socialization. The measures introduced by the law were assessed as insufficient. Two main trajectories for the Roma children from the third-category families, either placement into institutions due to the absence of parental responsibility or living and growing up in poor living conditions, exhausted the range of options and led to the conclusion about the necessity to introduce tough measures targeted at stopping undesirable reproduction among this category. In the recommendations that concluded the document, it is easy to recognize the echo of the policies introduced by the Law on the Care of the People’s Health. The recommendations focused entirely on surveillance over the reproductive behavior of Roma women. The main message, addressed to the youngest Roma women, between thirteen and eighteen years old, for whom the experts offered to establish regular gynecological examinations, aimed at introducing intrauterine contraception before they gave birth and until they finished school. The documents stressed that methods of contraception requiring the goodwill of the women, like hormonal contraception, did not work among the Roma due to their resistance and inability to use them properly because of their limited ability to regulate their behavior. Thus, abortion after three children for all women and special benefits for the physicians who would perform this task were seen as the primary and suitable solutions for a long-term strategy. The document offered to provide social benefits for families with one or two children and stop paying any kind 36 For instance, within the debates about the options for eugenics published in Biologické listy in 1975, this topic was mentioned by all participants who were physicians.

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

189

of allowances to families with more children. “Feeble-minded” and “degenerate” children and adults should be isolated; the document also stressed that isolation should apply for all “mentally retarded,” and not only the Roma. For the women who had inherited venereal diseases or tuberculosis, forced abortion should be introduced. Habitual Roma offenders should be subject to lifelong detention. The local authorities should increase payments for placing children into residential care settings and introduce supplementary legal regulations for its enforcement. Even though this document did not mention sterilization, the tough measures for limiting the reproductive rights of the Roma were legitimized by a cost-saving argument, central to introducing sterilization among those labeled by eugenic thinking as unfit. Further, this argument was embedded in the unconditional socialist ideology concerning the congruency of individual and prostate interests. Undoubtedly, the idea to introduce sterilization among the Roma started to be discussed by authorities during the debates concerning this document.37

6.4

Sterilization of the socially unfit: The last battle before legalization

In the United States, those who patronized and supported medical genetics and its implications had a clear eugenic motivation: to provide more options for potentially good parents and limit the reproduction of the unfit. While forced sterilization remained the option for lower-class target groups, voluntary sterilization slightly started to supplant the overt coercive approach.38 Further, attempts to critically revise such a call addressed both patrons and research centers, which accepted the call for eugenic action. In socialist Czechoslovakia, the state was the only potential patron able to provide the resources for such a turn in demographic policy, and those scholars interested in advancing medical genetics faced the risk of meeting the expectations of the state to apply eugenic measures to diverse groups, including the Roma. The state demanded scholars answer the question concerning the legitimacy of sterilization for the Roma. In 1971, the influential prostate journal Biologické listy asked the most respected scholars to answer the question, “What are the options for current eugenics?” Sekla, who was one of the first scholars to whom the editorial board appealed,39 declined to reply 37 Srb, ‘Cikáni v Československu.’ 38 Largent, Breeding Contempt. 39 Redakce Biologických Listů, ‘Dopis Bohumilu Seklovi.’

190 Victoria Shmidt

by saying: “I do not think that it is suitable for me now to share my attitude toward the options for our eugenics despite the urgent call for discussing this issue.”40 In this rejection, it is possible to recognize the intention to avoid commenting on the options for eugenics during the intensive preparation of the regulations for introducing sterilization among the Roma. 41 Additionally, the closest colleague of Sekla, Miloš Černý, who participated in the discussion initiated by Biologické listy, directly attacked the intention to add the number of children to the conditions for sterilization: “The number of children in a family cannot be interpreted only in terms of economic conditions, but based on the right of the parents to have as many children as they would like. […] The mode of family life as a factor of the quality of the population should be solved in a complex way, not through eugenic tools.”42 While Černý argued for sterilization based on social indications and put forward the role of voluntary sterilization, another scholar, Josef Charvát, who led the Laboratory of Endocrinology and Metabolism in Prague, obliged by the Ministry of Health to legalize decisions about sterilization in cases of inherited diseases, mentioned the lack of political will and financial aid for developing genetic counseling comparable with Western progress in the field. He directly linked the necessity to improve the support of genetics with the focus on negative eugenics as efficient for preventing diseases and their distribution. Tellingly, the only nonphysician participant in the debates in Biologické listy was Suchý, an anthropologist directly linked with surveys concerning the Roma. He welcomed a eugenic approach that integrated “two ways to improve mankind by supporting the reproduction of those who demonstrate the best performance of humanity and by educating people how to behave with regard to reproducing healthy next generations.”43 Published at the end of 1971, the “Directive of the Ministry of Health of the Czechoslovak Republic about Sterilization” (Směrnice ministerstva zdravotnictví ČSR o Provádění sterilizace Sbírka LP-252.3-19-11.1971) was issued in February 1972. Article 2 directly introduced sterilization as a eugenic tool by defining the range of target groups as follows: those men or women 40 Sekla, ‘Odpověd Redakci Biologických listů.’ 41 The other possible explanation may be the forced retirement of Sekla in early 1970, but even after that, Sekla accepted an offer from another journal issued by the Institute of Physiology to write an article about the impact of the biological realm of eugenics on the governance of society (Martinek, ‘Dopis od redakce’) and promised to prepare the article in 20 pages (Sekla, ‘Dopis Martinkovi 20.3.1970’). 42 ‘Jaké jsou reální perspektivy dnešní eugeniky?’ 43 Ibid.

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

191

diagnosed as having some medical indications; healthy women or men whose spouses have some disorders or diseases indicated as medical indications for sterilization. Also, women could be sterilized in cases indicating the necessity for therapeutic abortions. Those who faced cases concerning genetic diseases were obliged to communicate the case with the Endocrinological Department of the Czechoslovak Medical Association of J. E. Purkyně (Endokrinologické sekci Čs. lékařské společnosti J. E. Purkyně), whose leader, Charvát, was one of the prominent propagandists of negative eugenics. The directive did not establish any age limits for sterilization – but in the case of sterilizing underage patients, the agreement of a legal representative should be asked. Immediately after issuing the directive, social workers of the Boards for Reeducating the Gypsy Population were obliged to persuade Roma men and women to use hormonal contraception and consider sterilization: “In early 1973, we were trained and had a manual with pictures translated from Swedish.44 The trainers told us that there are not any consequences for the […] you know […] relationship. We were taught to persuade men, too, but when I tried to use it with one Cikán (Gypsy man), his wife came the next day, and she threatened to beat me.”45 Persuading the Roma, as well as the disabled, to embrace sterilization was not a simple task. For instance, a survey among the parents of adult children with mental disabilities conducted among 1,480 families at the end of the 1970s evidenced the high degree of the resistance among parents to sterilization and therapeutic abortion. Only two respondents approved of such types of treatment, while the majority preferred less extreme forms of contraception.46 As for the Roma, for the first two years after issuing the directive, the official reports did not indicate any increased interest in contraception. The decision to introduce a special benefit for those whose sterilization would be “done in the public interest as a measure preventing the birth of children with nasty defects or children who would be raised in nasty defective conditions”47 aimed at motivating the target groups to accept sterilization. The ongoing changes in the regulations concerning the benef it for sterilization aggravated the intersectionality between ethnicity, gender and disability. For instance, in the middle of the 1970s, the amount of the 44 The original manual targeted people with mental disabilities, but was adapted to treating the Roma. 45 Interview with M. C., female, 73, social worker, who worked with the Roma population in the northern region in 1971-1990, Czech. 46 Veselá, ‘Poznatky z průzkumu rodin.’ 47 Ministerstvo zdravotnictví, ‘Zásady pro poskytování.’

192 Victoria Shmidt

benefit was increased for those who had various nervous system disorders, mental disabilities, genetic diseases and complications of pregnancy that would be reproduced with high probability. Primarily, the amount of the allowance officially depended on the social circumstances, but later the amount of 10,000 crowns was fixed for the Czech regions and 25,000 for Slovakia. 48 Introducing benefits fixed the number of sterilizations as one of the indicators of success in reeducating the Roma. Since 1975, the annual reports of the local and regional boards for reeducating the “Gypsy” population were obliged to report on the number of women who started to use diverse types of contraception, including sterilization. The practices of involving Roma women in new patterns of planned motherhood also varied from region to region depending on the share of the Roma population and the general strategy for their assimilation – either dispersion or ghettoization. For instance, in Karlovy Vary, the increasing number of women who started to use hormonal and intrauterine contraception was described as sufficient for decreasing the number of expected sterilizations. In 1979, 94 infants were born (14 less than in 1976), 19 infants were premature, and nobody died during the first week after birth. Twenty abortions were officially registered, four more than in 1976, and six sterilizations as well. Sixty-eight women received intrauterine contraception (there were 31 in 1976). Free contraception as well as consistent efforts in health-care education are main positive factors in improving the outcomes of the planned family. 49 In the most problematic region, northern Moravia, where the share of Roma population was one of the largest and the process of ghettoization had begun, the situation with natality, infant mortality and contraception was constructed in different way. The lack of health care for children was seen as a specific trait of Roma motherhood (the share of prematurely born infants was more than two times larger than among the non-Roma population and the level of infant mortality was slightly higher than average among the Roma).50 Further, more Roma women appealed to the abortion boards – the share of abortions among Roma women increased from 5 percent in 1978 to 6 percent of the total number of all abortions in the region. Along with the increasing number of those who chose abortion (67 in 1979 against 20 in 1973), the number of those who decided to be sterilized did not increase – among 29 sterilizations performed in the region in 1979, only 8 were among Roma 48 Ministerstvo zdravotnictví a sociálních věcí ČSR, ‘Vyhláška Ministerstva.’ 49 Okresní národní výbor v Karlových Varech, ‘Zpráva okresního.’ 50 Městský národní výbor v Mostě, ‘Péče o občany.’

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

193

women.51 In another region with a large share of the Roma population, the northern Czech region, the number of sterilizations also remained between two and five cases annually while the share of those who decided to have an abortion increased comparably to northern Moravia.52 These reports stressed the resistance of Roma women against being sterilized, but also until the end of the 1970s, the issue of sterilization operated as quite open for public concern over social policy targeted at the Roma. The situation changed dramatically after 1979.

6.5

The hidden agenda of socialist authorities in the 1980s: From suppressing publicity of sterilization to its massive practice

The data concerning the number of sterilizations among Roma women disappeared from the official reports of the Boards for Reeducating the Gypsy Population starting in 1980. In this process of concealment, it is reasonable to recognize the role of dissident attempts to attract the attention of the Western public to another side of the state’s arbitrariness, systematic injustice against the Roma. In December, 1978, Charter 7753 published a document, “On the Social Status of Gypsies (Roma) in Czechoslovakia” (O postavení Cikánů (Romů) v Československu), which included information about the practice of sterilization, among other activities, such as placing Roma children into residential care, dispersion and ghettoization, labeled as genocide. This document informed international organizations; in turn, the Czechoslovak state needed to change its performativity regarding the politics of the Roma – by combining a regime of strict secrecy and along with it, more sophisticated discursive practices targeted at proving Roma degeneracy. Hidden sterilization aggravated the coherent administrative order of decision making concerning all related matters, including the allowance for those who decided to be sterilized. While the establishment of genetic counseling centers in many regions was postponed, the administrative order of decision making about sterilization was redistributed considerably. Either the principal 51 Severomoravský krajský národní výbor v Ostravě: Komise rady KNV pro otázky cikánského obyvatelstva, ‘Zpráva o současném.’ 52 Komise vlády ČSR pro otázky cikánského obyvatelstva, ‘Zápis z jednání.’ 53 Charter 77 was an informal civil initiative organized by Vacláv Havel and supported by other prominent public figures in order to provide monitoring of Czechoslovak state policies as not aligned with human rights. Charter 77 directly applied to the Helsinki Declaration of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (1973).

194 Victoria Shmidt

physician or the specially established sterilization board, also headed by the principal physician, could make decisions about sterilization. The decision about the eligibility to receive an allowance and the particular amount was made by the administrative order as well – the local Department of Public Health fixed the terms under the recommendation of the social worker from the Board for the Reeducation of the Gypsy Population. The administrative order reduced the necessity to record the consequences of decision-making. Later, any attempts to establish the practice of redress for those who had been exposed to sterilization remained extremely limited due to the impossibility to indicate those who were personally responsible for making the decision.54 The institutional elusiveness of the administrative order should be compensated by intricate ideology aimed at legitimizing those who participated in the practices led to sterilization and along with it, relieving them of the potential pressure on the part of civil activists. This double-sided task can be easily compared with the massive professionalization and theorization of propaganda messages concerning asocial groups in special education and child psychology in the Third Reich. Those German educators who underwent the secret training aimed at equipping them with tools to select children with mental disabilities for sterilization, or even euthanasia, also stressed the pressure of discursive practices that made them feel like accomplices in the training stage.55 Werner Brill recognized the range of driving forces that transformed special education into an instrument of racial hygiene,56 and among tools such as personal profiles of people with disabilities as a tool of surveillance, involving as much as possible professionals into decision-making, directly led to extreme transgressions against humanity, the systematic infiltration of special education by propaganda, and the necessity to translate the propaganda message into professional language played a substantial role.57 During the 1980s, the professional discourse of helping professionals about the Roma, especially Roma women, exaggerated the main frames of public opinion framed by prejudices against this population.58 54 In terms of the limited options for redressing Roma women who were sterilized, it is reasonable to compare the history of sterilization in socialist Czechoslovakia with the Austrian case, in which the decision concerning sterilization was made in a legal order that provided a full range of options for the process of appellations. 55 Sieglind, ‘Sonderpädagogen.’ 56 Brill, Pädagogik der Abgrenzung, p. 286. 57 Ibid., p. 287. 58 The rigorous study of the attitude toward the Roma among the non-Roma population conducted in the 1970s indicated the gender-based imbalance. Ústav pro výzkum veřejného míněni, Mínění o Cikánech, p. 87.

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

195

One of the most notable and influential documents was the “Report on the Current State of Solving the Issue of the Gypsy Population” (Zpráva o současném stavu řešení otázek cikánského obyvatelstva).59 The report started to operate as the key policy paper for different levels of authority. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs disseminated the report among other ministries with accompanying letters aimed at summarizing the role of other departments in the implementation of the main recommendations based upon survey outputs. Until the end of the socialist period, this document remained a kind of benchmark mentioned at the beginning of annual reports and plans for the next years.60 The role of this document can be compared with the notorious report by a Swedish expert on public health, John Takman, who conducted the survey among the Stockholm Roma people in the 1960s in order to indicate the magnitude of abuse of the welfare system by the Roma population.61 In his conclusion to the comparative analysis of access to the benefits between the Roma and disabled people, Takman directly defined the Roma as “socially disabled.” The Czech experts, obviously familiar with the Swedish research,62 exaggerated the concept of disability concerning the Roma as mentally retarded due to vulnerable social origin. Such invalidization of the Roma called for a solid theorized argument concerning the intractability of the Gypsies’ inferiority as the reason for applying negative eugenic measures, including forced sterilization. The report stemmed from the output of the survey conducted by the Research Institute of Social Development and Social Work (Výzkumný ústav sociálního rozvoje a práce). In the introduction, the experts stressed that the main motivations for conducting the survey were the outcomes of the population census of 1980 and the urgent call to revise approaches to reeducation of the “Gypsy” population. Despite the attempt to present the survey as based upon a reliable sample, which included 1.5 percent of the total number of all Roma families living in Czechoslovakia (350 in total), the authors failed to describe the approach to recruit Roma families for the survey. Along with the unclear way of choosing the respondents, by including into the sample an equal number of the families registered as the first, second and third categories, the authors artificially increased the number 59 Komise vlády ČSR pro otázku cikánského obyvatelstva, ‘Zpráva o současném stavu.’ 60 Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí České socialistické vlády, ‘Plán hlavních.’ 61 Takman, The Gypsies in Sweden. 62 Along with the references on this text, a detailed and generally positive review by Antonin Dušek was published in one of the most prestigious sociological journals in 1980: Dušek, ‘Review: The Gypsies in Sweden.’

196 Victoria Shmidt

of families labeled as having social problems, leading to an exaggeration of the labels. Further, the description of the methodology mentioned that not only Roma families but social workers who were involved into the process of resocialization were asked about participation in the survey. But the report did not provide any details concerning the division of the sources of information. These manipulations with the data are comparable with the fabrication of the samples of families in the manual by Dubitscher.63 Like Dubitscher’ writings, full of depictions and graphs, the report consisted of more than 20 tables aimed at demonstrating the reproduction of “backwardness” among third-category Roma families as well as the consistent risk of asocial behavior among the young Roma from the second- or even more the first-category families. The emphasis on visualizing the evidence combined the effect of propaganda and the feeling of solid scientific argument. The survey attacked the family life of the Roma, indicating that their mode of life was not aligned with social expectations. It is easy to recognize the motives for labeling the families as asocial as similar to those espoused by national socialist scholars (the absence of marital status and “illegal” children), more typical of the second demographic postwar expectations – the predominance of extended multigenerational families against the desirable nuclear family. The first table illustrated the correlation between the degree of socialization and the legal status of the spousal relationship in Roma households. While the most socialized families of the first category mainly were “full” and legal (91 percent), only half of the third-category families practiced the same desirable pattern. Moreover, the share of single-parent families headed by a mother or two generations of women (grandmother, mother and children) was the largest among the most problematic category of Roma families – 27 percent. Due to the largest share of nonregistered partnerships among those who belonged to the third category (58 percent from the total number of nonregistered partnerships among the Roma), the survey stressed the lack of morality that led to the single “vulnerable” parenting by Roma women. The quality of the marital relationship directly translated into an evaluation of the quality of reproduction – the second table represented the distribution of the number of children according to the degree of the family’s socialization. While the families of the first category not only had less children (more than 55 percent had no more than three children) but also had no children at all (approximately 10 percent), more than 60 percent of the families of the third category had four or more children. 63 Dubitscher, Asoziale Sippen.

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

197

The quality of parenting and care for children was fixed by Table No. 3. Parental care or care by grandparents was rare: 9 percent and 5 percent, respectively, while the children from 80 percent of the families were raised in institutions of different types: infant homes, children’s homes or boarding schools. Also, the majority of those children placed into residential care settings (79 percent of the total number) were from third-category families. The next table specified the reason for removing the children and their further placement into institutions: the most cited reason was the neglect of hygienic standards of the care (71.4 percent among all families of the third category); irregular school attendance (59.3 percent); insufficient nutrition (57.1 percent); and lack of parental monitoring (47.2 percent). Among the first- and second-category families, this range of reasons remained atypical, and mainly children with disabilities were placed into institutions. Attention to the educational trajectories of the Roma children was at the center of expert interest over the different periods of political history, and during the late socialist period, it started to operate as evidence of the nonproductivity of the Roma. Table 5 introduced the data concerning the degree of vocational training among the young Roma. The predominant form of education remained vocational training, but even this degree, labeled as the most available, was achieved by only 38.8 percent of the total number of children over fifteen years old. The share of those from the first-category families was highest, 40 percent of the total amount of those who had obtained the degree; the share of the children from the second- and the third-category families was comparably less. Furthermore, only the children from the first- and second-category families finished postsecondary education successfully but this share did not exceed even 5 percent of the total number of the children in this age group. The mode of family life was seen as a key criterion for transforming the Roma approach to social life, and the survey stressed the direct correlation between the degree of socialization with the share of nuclear families, seen as the only normal mode for organizing a household. The number of such families decreased from the first category to the third by 10 percent: while 92.1 percent of first-category families were nuclear, only 70.8 percent of the third category were nuclear. Among the second- and third-category families, the share of those who lived together with parents and adult children was the largest – 88.8 percent of the total number of large extended families. The multigenerational families were seen as families at risk because they received a wide range of social allowances and smaller amounts than nuclear families. Roma women exhibited less human capital than Roma men. The share of those defined as illiterate was much larger among women than among

198 Victoria Shmidt

men: 6 and 3 percent, respectively, among first-category families; 18 and 13 percent among the second category; and 44 percent and 15 percent in the third category. But the most remarkable was the difference in the share of those who had achieved vocational training: 16 percent of the men and only 2 percent among the women. Gender-based inequality in the attitudes concerning Roma women was more delineated in the different approach to evaluating the attitude toward work or pracovní morálka (literally “work morality”). It was measured along four levels by asking the assessments of employers of “Gypsy” workers: good worker, average level of work discipline, below-average discipline, undisciplined. The level of labor discipline among Roma males directly correlated with the general family category: 90 percent of the males from the first category were defined as good laborers; among those relegated to the second category this share was smaller, 58.6 percent; and in the third category, only 17.5 percent were evaluated as good workers. Overall, the share of those males evaluated as undisciplined was 5 percent. Labor motivation was defined as a much bigger problem among Roma women than men – one-third of working women were characterized as having a disrespectful attitude toward work and its relevant obligations. Also, only 21 percent among all working women were evaluated as moderately good. The survey indicated that belonging to a particular category did not correlate with the responsibility level among the “Gypsy” women. Thus, the survey represented Roma women from one side as irresponsible mothers and from the other as bad workers. In terms of productivity, Roma women were those seen as the most problematic target group. Tellingly, this outcome reverberated with the survey conducted among Czech and Slovak respondents in order to measure their attitudes toward the Roma. The attitude of non-Roma men toward Roma men was much more positive than the attitude of non-Roma women to Roma women. This fact was directly explained by the respondents’ experiences; while non-Roma men had experienced positive labor relationships with their Roma colleagues, non-Roma women either avoided any communication with Roma women or had met Roma women who left a bad impression. The focus on the Roma women in the arguments for forced sterilization reverberated with the discursive practice of national socialist politics of sterilization that emphasized the threat of “alien” ( fremdvölkische) women.64 In the arguments targeted at limiting the reproduction of the Roma, it is possible to recognize the logic of national socialist psychologists and 64 Bock, Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsocialismus, p. 19.

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

199

psychiatrists, who framed the battle against asocial families through a system of indicators that evidenced in favor of inheriting asocial patterns. The socialist report focused on the intractability of asocial behavior among the third-category families and the reproduction of varied undesirable social patterns from one generation to another, from the mothers to children. The colorful portrait of the “insufficient” Roma woman was accompanied by an urgent call for treating Roma children and youth. The social status of the young “Gypsies” (between fifteen and eighteen years old) was described through the definition “productive” (činní). This definition reproduced the division of people with disabilities into brauchbaren and unbrauchbaren introduced by Tornow and Herbert Weinert for selecting the children with disabilities for sterilization and euthanasia.65 Also, the socialist lenses added more social indicators to that hereditary factors which obtained the central position for racial hygiene.66 Being productive meant to work and earn money, to study at school or college or to receive vocational training within potential job placement. In contrast stood the group of “nonproductive” (nečinni). Approximately half of those who belonged to the families of the third category were defined as nonproductive as compared to the young “Gypsies” from families of the first and second categories. Tellingly, the youth from the first category families mainly studied either in colleges (5 percent) or within vocational training programs (36.4 percent) while 62 percent of the young people from the second-category families worked. The range of reasons the “Gypsy” youth remained nonproductive was not wide and included the case of disability, either mental or physical, the impossibility of working due to parental obligations or the necessity to help their parents. Approximately one-third of all nonproductive young people were nonproductive because of disability or long-term illness, and the difference between the young people from the families of different categories was not significant. This fact illustrated the mainstream approach to present the Roma as disabled in order to explain their nonproductivity, even among those seen as coming from more or less socialized families. The plausibility of such an interpretation is reinforced by another indicator, the absence of socially acceptable reasons for nonproductivity; for the young people from the first-category families, this definition was applied more often than among second- and third-category families. The motives for nonproductivity resonated with the critical evaluation of the ability of Roma households to be economically independent. The 65 Tornow and Weinert, Erbe und Schicksal. 66 Bock, Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsocialismus, p. 311.

200 Victoria Shmidt

focus on household incomes stemmed from the intention to demonstrate the inefficiency of the system of social allowances – the third-category families received the widest range of benefits; yet, they remained the most unqualified, problematic in parenting and less-paid. The study negated the traditional welfare approach to the Roma as not only inefficient but a hindrance to the task of integrating them: [I]t is an indispensable condition [for achieving the success of the mission of integration] to abandon the criterion of social need as the grounds for paying social allowances, to stop providing any financial support and any type of social services charitable in their nature. One of the main priorities for the future world was seen as the improvement of assessment procedures and better instruments for indicating the needs and abilities of the Gypsy population.67

The magnitude of forced sterilization among Roma women during the 1980s remains an open question – while scholars have approached some of the victims who bravely shared their experiences of structural violence,68 the question of numbers remains unanswered. Further, the 1984 document implies that the plan of the authorities was to limit the reproduction of third-category families as much as possible, and the number of sterilizations should directly depend on assessing Roma families as belonging to this most “nonproductive” group. According to the annual reports of the governmental board responsible for solving the issue of the “Gypsy” population between 1981 and 1986, the number of the third-category families did not decrease and was approximately 20,000. Also, among the share of women of productive age, 60 percent came from third-category households – 40,000. Applying to this number the criterion introduced by geneticists that 10 percent of population needed eugenic treatment indicates that not less than 4,000 women might have become the subjects of oppression, representing the most modest estimate of forced sterilization. Undoubtedly, in the Roma ghettos situated in the north of Bohemia and Morava, the proportion of sterilization could be much higher due to a larger share of families labeled as asocial. Along with this moderate estimation, it is reasonable to take into account the general attitude toward the Roma as potentially unhealthy and 67 Ministerstvo práce a sociálních vecí, ‘Zpráva o současném stavu řešení otázek cikánského obyvatelstva 1984.’ 68 Those who wish to access the most emotive memories should see Sokolová, Cultural Politics of Ethnicity.

The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women be t ween the 1970s and the 1980s

201

disabled that could motivate the extension of the practice of sterilization to women from second-category families.

Conclusion The uncertainty of the numbers remains a strong argument for those who aim to neglect or even ignore the institutional violence to which the Roma women were exposed.69 Recognizing the interplay of discursive practices and institutional changes that brought forced sterilization to the core of the politics concerning the Roma between the 1970s and 1980s shifts the attention from the plausibility of Roma testimony to the hermeneutical practices of those who participated in legalizing and legitimizing sterilization, those who not only accepted but participated in generating the main message of late-socialist policy toward the Roma: “The cultural level of Czechoslovak society and its social homogeneity is one of the highest in the world. Thus, the cultural backwardness of its part, the Gypsy population, stands out more significantly despite impressed efforts to change the situation.”70 It is reasonable to compare the case of institutional violence against the Roma during the postwar period with Pandora’s box. Geneticists constructed the institutional framework for making decisions aimed at applying negative eugenics. Aiming to prove the hierarchy of defectivity, anthropologists and special educators filled the construction through relevant clichés for providing the intersectionality of disability, childhood, ethnicity and gender. The experts from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs brought the program into action. This metaphor calls for systematic revision of current practices concerning the attempts to establish redress for Roma women as well as oblige epistemic communities to accept historical responsibility for allowing injustice. Undoubtedly, forced sterilization in Czechoslovakia should be seen within a more systematic intercountry comparison due to the second wind of practicing such combination as sterilization and removal of children in the policies directed against the minorities in many countries around the world between the 1960s and 1980s: the Native population in the United States,71 people with disabilities in Austria, socially unfit women in Soviet 69 The history of public resistance to accept the case of sterilization as serious part of the socialist period is discussed by many scholars. See, for example, Marks, ‘The Romani Minority.’ 70 Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí, ‘Návrh zprávy.’ 71 O’Sullivan, ‘Informing Red Power.’

202 Victoria Shmidt

Central Asia, and the Roma – in Scandinavian countries. This intercountry focus reverberates with the very palpable role of global neocolonialism that started to emerge since the mid-1960s as a kind of international setting aimed at disseminating theoretical arguments and practicalities of such extreme forms of transgression as sterilization.

About the author Victoria Shmidt has a PhD in Developmental Psychology (1998, Russian Academy of Education) and a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy (2012, Masaryk University). Since 2011, Dr. Shmidt has been working on the issue of the policies concerning ethnic minorities in the Czech lands and the role of various academic communities in producing the discourses and practices of segregation.

Conclusions Going from Knowledge about the Violent Past to Acknowledging It Victoria Shmidt Abstract This conclusions provide an overview of the methodological framework of the volume and discuss the contemporary obstacles for recognizing the role of politics of disability in segregation of the Roma and the limits of recent attempts to advance transitional justice. Keywords: historical justice, strategic litigation, transitional justice in postsocialism, Human rights

Exploring the politics of disability in twentieth-century Czechoslovakia alludes to the broader circumstances of intersecting discourses around health and ethnicity, and the institutions of public health, education and social care; it combines political propaganda with science, reproducing the reciprocity of national and international agents creating the politics of health, disease and disability. By bringing together these mutually interrelated lines of historical analysis, this book recognized as specific the mainstream traits of the nation-building process during the interwar and socialist periods – that particular time of intensive building of the Czechoslovak state and the practice of nationalism. During these periods, the politics of disability attainted the position of one of the most influential realms for shaping national ideology and advancing diverse political interests. Undoubtedly, its ongoing influence is embedded in the specific interrelation between health and ethnicity produced by political and academic elites within the nation-building process. Experiencing two authoritarian regimes, national socialism and communism, brought into action specific strategies aimed at minimizing the

Shmidt, Victoria (ed.), The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia. Segregating in the Name of the Nation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789463720014/concl

204 Victoria Shmidt

responsibility of academic and professional communities for participating in systematic injustice including violence of knowledge against the minorities. On the one hand, the Czech scholars systematically opposed their own approach to both Nazi and Soviet science. On the other hand, they avoided the majority of the options to take part in the process of critical revision targeted at recognizing the legacy of authoritarian regimes in producing the knowledge, which was recruited for legitimizing segregation. The lack of historical continuities between the interwar, Protectorate and socialist periods vitiates the options for ensuring epistemic justice that calls for recognizing the role of professionals in practicing segregation. The public discourse on disability during the interwar and socialist periods dovetailed with one of the main components of the Czechoslovak national ideology – the concept of “functional health,” or linking health with the ability to work and to be a useful citizen. One of the consequences of using this concept throughout the twentieth century to this day is the hierarchy of disability regarding the degree of sociability. This in turn echoes racial assimilationism, the core of the Czechoslovak approach to ethnicity, and its description of the binary opposition between the healthy majority and the victimized minority. While during the interwar period, ascribing invalidity to those unable to work and make a positive contribution to society remained a public rhetoric concerning ethnic groups living at the periphery such as the Rusyns, Slovaks and Roma, the socialist policy targeted these groups thereby intersecting disability and ethnicity in diverse forms of social policy. Generally, the elaboration of Czechoslovak discourse concerning the Roma can be seen as a layered definition prescribing the Roma to the naturalness of disability. During the 1920s, the issue of the Roma was defined as the “Gypsy contagion” (cikánská nákaza). Later on, interwar and socialist experts explained the precarious living conditions of the Roma by invoking the previous, unfair social order and the inability of the Roma to resist injustice and develop as an independent nation – in contrast to the Czechs, who were united by their history, especially the struggle for emancipation. Along with victimization, Czech scholars theorized the process of transforming the Roma into a “mainstream” scapegoat minority that was seen as preventing the desirable progress of national development. This general framework explained why the common concept regarding reeducation of the “Gypsies” was often described as “therapeutic punishment.” In line with the mechanism of negation, starting with a focus on minorities as self-isolated groups, racial assimilationism left its primary mission to develop a theory of evolution and concentrated on exploring degeneration as

Conclusions

205

launched by an artificial mechanism – isolation, caused particularly by the alleged unhealthy and immoral practices of the minorities.1 From the very beginning, in line with the nation-building rhetoric, the politics concerning the Roma placed at its center the risk for the future: The Roma “contaminate future generations with their moral corruption, that is, their own descendents.”2 The coalescing of disability and ethnicity with childhood made this discursive practice central to the political propaganda and intractable for critical revision for contemporary scholars and public figures. A vivid example is the recent presidential campaign by the Czech writer and actor Michal Horáček (2018), who has built an image of himself as a responsible citizen, one who “listens to people, not politicians” (the slogan of Horáček’s campaign) by reproducing the intersectionality of ethnicity and disability. Horáček’s election spots included six stories. The first tells about a young girl who lost her leg, but with financial support from Horáček started a new life as a Paralympic champion.3 The second presents a young woman with mental disabilities and her mother, which stresses their ability to seek a better life because of Horáček. 4 The next tells the story of a Roma girl who attended a special school until she entered residential care, but after being fostered she was able to attend a mainstream school and become “normal.”5 The third spot finishes with the statement of a female leader of a charity foundation for educating the Roma, who describes Horáček as “ethnically friendly.” The rest of the spots (the last three) tell about those who share his mission to support others: stories about one person’s initiative in relation to respite care, about a priest who was able to reconstruct a hill camp for people with disabilities, and about an association of people using wheelchairs. Tellingly, this sequence of spots is titled Příběhy neznámých bojovníků (Stories of unknown fighters). The obvious gender asymmetry of this campaign turns the interwar focus on men inside out and along with it modifies the postwar focus on women as the “treasure of the nation.” The campaign of Horáček was quite successful – he got more then 10 percent of the vote. It is one example of the contemporary interpellation of intersectionality between ethnicity and disability as it is used for propagandistic purposes. The sustainable performance of racial assimilationism in the Czechoslovak public discourse ensured and was determined by a mutual affinity between 1 Smith, Nature, p. 53. 2 Národní shromáždění republiky Československé, ‘Zpráva výboru.’ 3 Horáček, Tereza Diepoldová. 4 Horáček, Maruška Harcubová. 5 Horáček, Anastázie a Tereza.

206 Victoria Shmidt

propaganda and racial science in the institutions that framed the politics of health and disease/disability. In Czechoslovakia, the complementary dependency of propaganda and racial science resonated with reproducing the contest among political elites who also held public health as resourceful platform for advancing their interests and securing political capital. During the interwar period, starting from the sacralization of people’s health as a strategy to replace traditional religion, official propaganda not only involved racial scholars and eugenics advocates but also directly shaped their public status as the key actors responsible for people’s health. Standing in opposition to the conservative wing affiliated with the Catholic Church, this political camp established a long-term reciprocal relationship between propaganda and racial science that framed the development of public health over the twentieth century. Reproducing the claims of the elites regarding the politics of health and disability called for redefining the theoretical grounds aimed at legitimizing various political flows of public policy. During the socialist period, the politics of disability underwent dramatic changes, from existing at the margins of public priorities in the early 1950s to revolving around the task of assimilating the Roma beginning in the early 1960s and persisting until today. This transformation reflected the big political game aimed at redistributing resources and access to them. Obviously, during the socialist period, the previous composition of elites changed due to the rearrangement of their political affiliation – some of those who represented the liberal camp during the interwar period, like Ferdinand Peroutka or Otto Rádl,6 emigrated to the West and became anticommunist propaganda leaders. Furthermore, the new generation of communist propagandists introduced into the debates concerning the Roma and disability new Soviet ideas. Despite belonging to opposite political camps, the anticommunist and socialist propagandists recruited comparable (or even used the same set of) attitudes interlinking racial assimilationism and pan-Slavism in favor of improving the persuasiveness of their public message.

6 Otto Rádl (1902-1965), a journalist, lawyer and film critic, represented Paramount Pictures in interwar Czechoslovakia. In 1937, he produced the documentary The Image of Contemporary Czechoslovakia (Obraz moderního Československa), which was targeted at producing a positive image of Czechoslovak policies in the eastern parts of the country, Slovakia, and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Rádl left Czechoslovakia in 1939. In exile, Rádl wrote several prominent texts about Czechoslovakism (e.g., “The Development of Czechoslovak Nationalism,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 232 (1) (1944,) pp. 61-70), which later influenced socialist propaganda and its particular focus on the historical roots of Czechoslovakism.

Conclusions

207

For both camps, racial assimilationism was suitable not only because of its roots in the interwar Czechoslovak public discourse, but also because of the ease with which racial assimilationism was juxtaposed to postwar ideas either stemming from the policies of assimilating African Americans in the United States or from Soviet ideology mixing racial grounds for hierarchizing with the progress in the class struggle. In this way, racial assimilationism obtained the position of a universal approach for interpreting and solving a wide range of tasks, including the “Gypsy issue.” The great magnitude of racial assimilationism partially explains the visible lack of current historical reflection critical for revising the discourses that legitimized segregation in the first place. The other driving force connecting racial assimilationism to the core of segregation was the long-term reciprocity of national and international agendas concerning health, disability and race. Since the period of interwar uncertainty, the resonance of national and international interests concerning public health particularly and social welfare generally expanded through new connections and deepened the mutual dependence of national and supranational institutions. The communication between national governments and international organizations clearly operated in favor of legitimizing their power. The priorities of international cooperation changed, but collaborating with state-level institutions remained at the core of recognizing the importance of international networks in building the Czechoslovak nation. Therefore, international actors were inevitably involved in the contest among national political elites. For the political groups in cooperation with international bodies, the affiliation with international bodies served to promote ideas of progress. Those who argued that international influence was alien and irrelevant to authentic national values also derived symbolic capital by attacking international bodies. The legacy of the Czechoslovak politics of disability remains an issue of the tension between international and Czech actors in the field of policy concerning minorities, mainly the Roma. The supranational concept of integration, representing the current EU policies, can be seen as an attempt to eliminate segregation by minimizing the differences between Roma and non-Roma. The core of current EU policy directly attacks the lack of inclusion of the Roma, claiming it is due to the “absence of Roma in early childhood education; the low educational attainment; high drop-out rates at young age; as well as irregular participation in education, with the consequence of illiteracy and lacking skills and qualifications for the labor market.”7 One of the main tactics to persuade 7

Bogaert, ‘Roma Segregation in Education.’

208 Victoria Shmidt

European Union states to end discrimination against the Roma and ensure their integration in mainstream schools is strategic litigation aimed at revising legal regulations and relevant practices within one particular case and moving them toward sustainable reform of the driving forces leading to the violation of Roma rights. In the early 2000s, the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) initiated the adoption of US civil rights law as well as the process of its lobbying. By putting forward integration as the primary indicator of equality, this strategy aimed at eliminating discrimination that ignored its intersectionality and the necessity to deconstruct the interrelation between ethnicity and disability. Four European Court of Human Rights cases regarding segregation against the Roma in the educational system reproduce the rhetoric of one of the most well-known legal campaigns against segregation of African Americans – the case of Brown v. Board of Education, which obliged schools previously open only to whites to accept African Americans.8 D. H. and Others v. the Czech Republic (2007) was the first in this cohort.9 The choice in favor of the Czech Republic as a defendant was made due to its consistent and long-term practice of placing Roma children in institutions for children with mental disabilities. The decision handed down by the Great Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in D. H. and Others, as well as in the next three cases, recognized the practice of placing “normal” or healthy Roma children in special schools or classes for children with mental disabilities as segregation. The immediate aftermath of this judgment was the pressure on national authorities to provide access to mainstream Czech schools to all Roma children as a primary vehicle for their integration. The range of attitudes toward these ambitious judgments has varied from enthusiasm to rejection. Those who welcome the judgment in the D. H. case as a landmark step toward the Roma equality prescribe to education and other institutions of welfare the role of agency – as institutions capable of fostering integration and preventing segregation. To them, the power of the judgment is based upon the interconnection between studies documenting indirect discrimination against the Roma and its equalizing with direct discrimination.10 By defining the decision of the court as political speculation, its critics note the lack of an intersectional response to the 8 Hepple, ‘The European Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education.’ 9 Following the D. H. case, three other cases, Sampanis and Others v. Greece (2008), Oršuš and Others v. Croatia (2010) and Horvath and Kiss v. Hungary (2013), recognized segregation against the Roma in the various practices of special education established in these countries. 10 Möschel, ‘Is the European Court of Human Rights.’

Conclusions

209

intersectional nature of segregation.11 The obvious difference between the historical contexts of segregation against African Americans in the United States and the Roma in Europe did not really catch the human rights activists’ attention but were put forward by some critics. According to these critics, the strategic litigation produced a utopian experience, which always goes beyond actual experience in the representation of social issues and produces a “complete rupture with existing conditions and a radically different form of life […] without reality-testing.”12 Judge Borrego Borrego, who was among the four judges expressing a dissenting opinion concerning the D. H. case, accused the Great Chamber of being an “ivory tower, divorced from life and problems of the minor applicants and their parents.”13 Aimed at normalizing the Roma children, the D. H. case and the subsequent cases insisted on the previously established equivalence between disability and ethnicity as a nondenoting term. The argumentation focused on psychological assessment procedures such as leading the children to special schools instead of providing the chance to become integrated. From such a position, there is no room for rethinking the interrelation between disability and ethnicity in order to recognize the role of diverse development trajectories as a precondition for ensuring social rights to education. Clearly, applying the frames of the Brown case to the issue of education for the Roma stemmed from the uncritical acceptance of a universal discourse of individual human rights as a system of beliefs and regulations that should replace racism, as well as other forms of discrimination, in regulating the social order.14 Judge Borrego Borrego indicated that such an approach was “an example of the sad human tradition of fighting racism through racism.”15 The D. H. case legitimized positive discrimination of the Roma as a “disadvantaged and vulnerable minority who require special protection.” Ignoring the intersectionality of disability and ethnicity, such a view is unable to produce the transformative negation of segregation and, even more, continues to generate the prerequisites for recharging previously established prejudices by a new measurement, poverty.16 The immediate result of introducing poverty as the core source of the Roma’s issues was the construction of a new hierarchy, reverberating with previously developed classifications of the Roma regarding their health, degree of socialization and 11 López and Burciaga, ‘The Troublesome Legacy.’ 12 LaCapra, History in Transit, p. 47. 13 European Court of Human Rights, ‘The Judgment by the Great Chamber.’ 14 Mallon, ‘Race.’ 15 European Court of Human Rights, ‘The Judgment by the Great Chamber,’ p. 55. 16 Maruschiakova and Popov, ‘Between Exoticization.’

210 Victoria Shmidt

other attributes of whiteness. Inevitably, this newly established hierarchy has reshaped the status of the Roma – prioritizing those who already achieved the position of wealthy, self-determined individuals as an example for the rest of the Roma. Like violence, segregation is a “symbolic form of history” that requires a genealogical approach based on “historical reach, and this reach ought to encompass periods longer than the lifetime of an individual.”17 Established during the interwar period and reinforced during the socialist period, the border between a healthy, wealthy Czech majority and a disabled poor Roma minority remains observable but unapproachable for critical revision until it operates as a part of constructing nation authenticity and the hierarchies that is racial in its core – the ability to be assimilated. Decisive for establishing and achieving the realizable goals of desegregation, objective historical possibilities concerning the interrelation between discourses, institutions and actors contest the commodified experience of national pride and revolutionary romanticism that amount to wishful thinking, either on the side of “authentic” national values or within progressive international expectations regarding the elimination of discrimination. Among other prerequisites, historical recontextualization not only exposes these two sides of nation-building as mutually reinforcing, but provides the grounds for viable alternatives to the politics of disability. Historical reflections are not enough to achieve the desegregation of the Roma or integration of people with disabilities; however, antidiscriminative practices can be launched only within systematic revisions of the way of thinking and acting as the legacy of the past. This book focuses on public health and its multiple meaning in the formation of the politics of disability. By timing the past of public health in terms of “dynamic, altering, undergoing change,”18 we create the genetic narrative that revises historical continuities between two periods of building the Czechoslovak nation, interwar and socialist. The genetic narrative moves beyond the distinction between “my own time” and the “time of the others” and practices the temporalization of time itself. It inclines us not to blame history for contemporary limits of desegregation but to practice revision of our own attitudes as directly determined by still not-thought-through seduction by the past. The politics of disability is that “other” memory-bearing unit of Czechoslovak history that creates new, democratic, legitimacy for the Czech state and nation.

17 Smith, The Continuities, p. 35. 18 Rüsen, History, p. 34.

Conclusions

211

About the author Victoria Shmidt has a PhD in Developmental Psychology (1998, Russian Academy of Education) and a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy (2012, Masaryk University). Since 2011, Dr. Shmidt has been working on the issue of the policies concerning ethnic minorities in the Czech lands and the role of various academic communities in producing the discourses and practices of segregation.

Abstracts German Mit der Fokussierung auf die Politik der Behinderung als eine Säule der tschechoslowakischen Identität reflektiert dieser Band die Wechselfälle des Aufbaus von Nationen durch den Lauf des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, die zu extremen Formen institutioneller Gewalt gegen Minderheiten, wie Zwangssterilisation, geführt haben, vor allem gegen die Roma. Die Beantwortung der Frage, welche Triebkräfte die öffentliche Gesundheit dazu geführt haben, als Agenten und Struktur der Segregation zu fungieren, ist eine der wichtigsten Voraussetzungen für eine nachhaltige Desegregation und historische Gerechtigkeit. In diesem Buch wird die Politik der Behinderung in der Zwischenkriegszeit und in der sozialistischen Tschechoslowakei erneut überprüft, wie sie in den Aufbau von Nationen eingebettet wird, die für die Legitimierung verschiedener Formen struktureller Gewalt gegen Menschen mit Behinderungen und ethnische Minderheiten herangezogen wird. Die Autoren verfolgen die Intersektionalität ethnischer Zugehörigkeit und Behinderung, die sich in verschiedenen Bereichen des öffentlichen Lebens ausbreitete und die Kontinuitäten und Brüche der Befragung von Propaganda und Rassenwissenschaft während der Zwischenkriegs- und Nachkriegszeit hinstellte, wie sie eine Grenzlinie zwischen einer gesunden tschechischen Mehrheit und einer behinderten Roma-Minderheit etablierte. Durch das Schreiben aus ihrer Erfahrung heraus revidieren die Autoren diese Grenze kritisch, die beobachtbar aber unnahbar bleibt, bis sie als Teil des Aufbaus der Authentizität einer Nation fungiert.

French En se concentrant sur la politique en matière d’invalidité comme l’un des piliers de l’identité tchécoslovaque, le présent ouvrage s’intéresse aux vicissitudes de l’édification de la nation au cours du XXe siècle, qui ont conduit à des formes extrêmes de violence institutionnelle contre les minorités, principalement les Roms, telles que la stérilisation forcée. Répondre à la question de savoir quelles forces vives ont amené les institutions de santé publique à agir en tant qu’agent et structure de ségrégation est l’une des conditions préalables essentielles à la déségrégation durable et à la justice historique. Ce livre réexamine la politique en matière d’invalidité dans la

214 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Tchécoslovaquie socialiste et de l’entre-deux-guerres comme faisant partie intégrante de la construction de la nation, adoptée pour légitimer diverses formes de violence structurelle à l’encontre des personnes handicapées et des minorités ethniques. Les auteurs retracent l’intersectionnalité de l’ethnicité et de l’invalidité, qui se sont multipliés dans divers domaines de la vie publique, développant davantage la propagande interrogative et la science raciale durant l’entre-deux-guerres et établissant et renforçant la frontière entre une majorité tchèque en bonne santé et une minorité rom handicapée. S’inspirant de leur expérience, les auteurs révisent de manière critique cette frontière qui reste visible mais inaccessible jusqu’à ce qu’elle joue un rôle dans la construction de l’authenticité d’une nation.

Bibliography Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991). Armstrong, Felicity. ‘Disability, Education and Social Change in England since 1960,’ History of Education 36 (4-5) (2007), pp. 551-568. Baer, Josette. A Life Dedicated to the Republic: Vavro Šrobár’s Slovak Czechoslovakism (Stuttgart: Ibidem, 2014). Baier, Herwig. Schulen für Behinderte im Sudetenland [Schools for the disabled in the Sudetenland] (München: Verlagshaus Sudetenland, 1988). Barany, Zoltan. The East European Gypsies: Regime Change, Marginality, and Ethnopolitics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Bartoš, Augustin. ‘Dvacet let Jedličkova ústava’ [Twenty years at the Jedlička Institute], Úchylná mládež 1 (1934), pp. 31-33. Bartoš, Augustin. ‘Jak Vašíček příšel k noham’ [How Vashik got his legs], Filmový svět 5 (1) (1922), pp. 14-15. Bartoš, Augustin. ‘Mrzák ve staré češtině a dnes’ [The disabled in the old and new Czech language], Úchylná mládež 1 (2) (1930), pp. 151-154. Bartoš, Augustin. ‘Účelnost v péči o úchylné děti’ [Expediency in the care for disabled children], Úchylná mládež 17 (2) (1941), pp. 37-47. Bartoš, Augustin. ‘Výchovná práce Jedličkova ústavu’ [Education at the Jedlička Institute], Úchylná mládež 1-2 (1927), pp. 36-39. Bartulin, Nevenko. The Racial Idea in the Independent State of Croatia: Origins and Theory (Netherlands: Brill, 2014). Baur, Erwin, Eugen Fischer, and Fritz Lenz. Human Heredity (New York: Macmillan, 1931). Bednářík, Melichar. ‘Zákon o školní povinnosti v Říši’ [Law on School Attendance in the Third Reich], Úchylná mládež 17 (3) (1941), pp. 114-117. Bellah, Robert N. ‘Civil Religion in America,’ Dædalus 96 (1) (1967), pp. 1-21. Bellah, Robert N. Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011). Bellah, Robert N., and Hammond, Phillip. Varieties of Civil Religion (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2013). Betros, Gemma. ‘The French Revolution and the Catholic Church,’ History Review 68 (12) (2010), pp. 16-21. Billig, Michael. Banal Nationalism (London: Sage, 1995). Billington, Tom. Separating, Losing and Excluding Children: Narratives of Difference (London: Routledge, 2000).

216 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

‘Blaho státu a náboženství’ [The welfare of the state and religion], Občanské noviny, 24 December 1919, p. 1. Blaive, Muriel. Promarněná příležitost: Československo a rok 1956 [Missed opportunity: Czechoslovakia and 1956] (Prague: Prostor, 2001). Bock, Gisela. Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsocialismus: Studien zur Rassenpolitik und Geschlechterpolitik [Forced sterilization during national socialism: Studies of race politics and public politics] (Münster: Verlag-Haus Monsenstein und Vannerdat, 2010). Bogaert, Sina. ‘Roma Segregation in Education: Direct or Indirect Discrimination? An Analysis of the Parallels and Differences between Council Directive 2000/43/ EC and Recent ECtHR Case Law on Roma Educational Matters,’ Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 71 (2011), pp. 721-753. Boháč, Antonin. ‘Statistika a demografie Moravského Slovenska’ [Statistics and demography of Moravian Slovakia], in Moravské Slovensko [Moravian Slovakia], ed. by Lubor Niederle (Prague: Národopisné museum Československé, 1922), pp. 800-822. Boldorf, Marcel. ‘Rehabilitation und Hilfen für Behinderte’ [Rehabilitation and assistance to people with disabilities], in Deutsche Demokratische Republik 1961-1971: Politische Stabilisierung und wirtschaftliche Mobilisierung [The German Democratic Republic, 1961-1971: Political sustainability and economic mobilization], ed. by Christoph Kleßmann (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2006), pp. 449-469. Brattain, Michelle. ‘Race, Racism, and Antiracism: UNESCO and the Politics of Presenting Science to the Postwar Public,’ American Historical Review 112 (5) (2007), pp. 1386-1413. Brázdil, Jan. ‘Rodina a postižené dítě’ [The family and the disabled child], Otázky defektologie 26 (6) (1982-1983), pp. 216-219. Brenner, Christiane. ‘Harte Hand, schwacher Staat? Der Umgang mit Jugendkriminalität in der sozialistischen Tschechoslowakei (1970-1989)’ [Tough hand, weak state? The treatment of delinquent youth in socialist Czechoslovakia (1970-1989)], in Ordnung und Sicherheit, Devianz und Kriminalität im Staatssozialismus: Tschechoslowakei und DDR 1948/49-1989 [Order and security, deviance and criminality during state socialism: Czechoslovakia and the GDR, 1948/49-1989], ed. by Volker Zimmermann and Michal Pullmann (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), pp. 253-277. Brenner, Christiane. ‘Troublemakers! Dealing with Juvenile Deviance and Delinquency in Socialist Czechoslovakia,’ Acta Historica Universitatis Silesianae Opaviensis 6 (2013), pp. 123-137. Brill, Werner. Pädagogik der Abgrenzung: Die Implementierung der Rassenhygiene im Nationaksozialismus durch die Sonderpädagogik [Pedagogy of limiting:

Bibliogr aphy

217

Implementation of racial hygiene during national socialism through special education] (Bad Heilbrunn: Verlag Julius Klinkhardt Forschung, 2011). Brožek, Artur. Nauka Mendelova v teorii a praxi [The science of Mendel in theory and practice] (Brno: Poligrafie, 1925). Brunecký, Zdeněk. Genetická Prognosa v lékařství (Genetická poradna) [Genetic prediction: Genetic counseling] (Prague: Avicenum Zdravotnické Nakladatelství, 1972). Bunzel, Dirk. ‘Rehabilitation through Work? Disability and the Productivist Road to Participation in the East of Germany,’ Journal of Historical Sociology 20 (3) (2007), pp. 362-383. Cach, Josef. František Čáda a mezioborové vztahy i experimenty: Filozof, psycholog, pedopsycholog, pedopatolog, péče o děti a mládež [František Čáda and international relations and experiments: philosopher, psychologist, pedopsychologist, pedopathologist, carer of children and youth] (Prague: Karolinum, 2000). Cappieri, Mario. Review of Rassengeschichte der Menschheit. Lieferung I: Australien, Indochina, Indopaksitan, die Zigeuner, Man 4 (3) (1969), p. 464. Charter 77. O postavení Cikánů (Romů) v Českoslvensku [On the Social Status of Gypsies (Roma) in Czechoslovakia] 1978: http://www.romea.cz/cz/zpravy/ historicke-okenko-dokument-charty-77-o-postaveni-cikanu-romu-v-ceskoslovensku-z-prosince-1978. Černá, Marie, Jan Šiška, Iva Strnadová, Boris Titzl, and Tamara Kainová. Česká psychopedie [Czech psychopedia] (Prague: Karolinum, 2015). Česká zemská péče o mládež [Czech District Care for Youth]. ‘Internáty pří okresních pomocných školách Ministerstvo sociální péče v Praze’ [Boarding schools of the Ministry of Social Protection in Prague], 5 March 1947, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 3. Český svaz věděckých pracovníků [The Czech Union of Academics]. ‘Dopis Bonumilu Seklovi Praha’ [personal letter to Bohumil Sekla], 12 November 1970, AAV, Osobní fond Bohumila Sekly, box 1. Chesterton, Gilbert. Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument against the Scientifically Organized State (London: Cassell and Company, 1922). Chlup, Jan. ‘Program a zásady péče o zmrzačelé v Československé republice’ [The agenda and principles of care of the disabled in Czechoslovakia], Úchylná mládež 3 (5-6) (1927), pp. 138-148. Chytka, Josef. ‘Obtížně vychovatelní žáci na ZDŠ’ [Difficult children in school], Vychovávateľ 13 (3) (1968-1969), pp. 96-98. Cornwall, Mark, and R. J. W. Evans, Czechoslovakia in a Nationalist and Fascist Europe, 1918-1948 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). “Czechoslovakia seeks to be little America: Returned Y.W.C.A. Workers Say Our Ways and Methods Are Being Adopted” New York Times 19 June 1921, p.25.

218 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

David, Enoch M., and Keith Jones. ‘Sterilization: A Review of 98 Sterilized Women,’ British Journal of Psychiatry 127 (1975), pp. 583-587. Davidová, Eva. Bez kolíb a šiatrov [Without shepherds’ huts and tents] (Bratislava: Východoslovenské vydavatelstvo, 1965). Depaepe, Marc. Zum Wohl des Kindes? Pädologie, pädagogische Psychologie und experimentelle Pädagogik in Europa und den USA, 1890-1940 [In the name of the children? Pedology, educational psychology and experimental pedagogy in Europe and the USA, 1890-1940] (Weinheim: Deutsch Studien-Verlag, 1993). ‘Dětské domovy v roce 1963’ [Children’s homes in 1963]. Vychovávateľ 9 (2) (19641965), pp. 50-52. Divisní nemocnice v Bratislavě: Bakteriologická pracovna [The Military Hospital in Bratislava: Bacterilogic Department]. ‘Opis Rozšíření úplavice a tyfu’ [Report on the spread of dysentery and typhus], 26 August 1922, SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 79. Donnert, Celia. The Rights of the Roma: The Struggle for Citizenship in Postwar Czechoslovakia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017). Drenth, Annemieke, and Kevin Myers. ‘Normalising Childhood: Policies and Interventions Concerning Special Children in the United States and Europe (1900-1960),’ Paedagogica Historica 47 (6) (2011), pp. 719-727. Driml, Karel. Budulínka bolí zoubek Zábavně výchovný loutkový výstup pro školní mládež [The Painful Tooth of Budulínek: Educational puppet entertainment for school youth] (Prague: Spolek čsl. Zubních lékařů [The Union of Czechoslovak Stomatologists], 1927). Driml, Karel. ‘Lékařská prohlídka snoubenců’ [Premarital examination], Národní listy 66 (73) (1926), pp. 11-12. Driml, Karel. Úkol lékaře pří šíření zdravotnické výchovy [The mission of the physician in disseminating health-care education] (Prague: Edvard Gregot a syn, 1927). Driml, Karel. Vzkříšeni: Velikonoční hra o jednom dějství [The Resurrection: The Easter performance in one act] (Prague: Československý červený kříž, 1929). Driml, Karel. ‘Zdravotní výchova v rámci činnosti osvětových sborů a komisí’ [Health education in the activities of educational unions and boards], Osvětový věstník Brněnska, Jihlavska a Uherského Hradištska 5 (9) (1929), pp. 1-4. ‘Dr. Karel Driml Zemřel’ [Karel Driml died]. Zdraví lidu: Zdravotnický měsíčník čsl. Červeného křiže [People’s health: Monthly edition of the Czechoslovak Red Cross] 8 (1929), p. 4. Dubitscher, Fred. Asoziale Sippen: Erb- u. sozialbiologische Untersuchungen [Asocial Families: Sociobiological assessment of heredity] (Leipzig: G. Thieme, 1942). Dunovský, Jiří. ‘Statistické údaje o osvojení v letech 1955 až 1964 v ČSSR’ [Statistical data on adoption between 1955 and 1964 in the CSSR], Československá pediatrie 21 (1966), pp. 170-176.

Bibliogr aphy

219

Dušek, Antonin. ‘Review: The Gypsies in Sweden: A Socio-Medical Study (Cikáni ve Švédsku. Sociálně lékařská Studie) by J. Takman,’ Sociologický Časopis 16 (6) (1980), pp. 661-665. Dwyer, Philip. ‘Violence and Its Histories: Meanings, Methods, Problems,’ History and Theory 55 (2017), pp. 7-22. Edelsberger, Ludvík. ‘Osobnost a dilo Karla Herforta v dějinách české speciální pedagogiky’ [Life and work of Karel Herfort in the history of Czech special pedagogy], Otázky defektologie 14 (6) (1971-1972), pp. 202-216. Edelsberger, Ludvík. ‘Osobnost a dílo Prof. M. Sováka’ [Life and work of Prof. Sovák], in Z teorie i praxe defektologie v Československé Socialistické Republice a v některých socialistickych zemích [Theory and practice of defectology in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and some other socialist countries], ed. by Ludvík Edelsberger and Miloš Sovák (Prague: Univerzita Karlova, 1967), pp. 7-13. Elias, Norbert. The Germans: Power Struggles and the Development of Habitus in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997). Elias, Norbert. The Society of individuals (New York: Continuum 2001). European Court of Human Rights. ‘The Judgment by the Great Chamber of the European Court of the Human Rights on the Case of D. H. and Others vs. the Czech Republic,’ (Strasbourg, 2007), http://www.errc.org/uploads/upload_en/ file/02/D1/m000002D1.pdf. Eyal, Gil. The Origins of Post-Communist Elites: From Prague Spring to the Breakup of Czechoslovakia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003). Filas, Jozef. ‘Súčasné problémy a úlohy osobitných výchovných a diagnostických ústavov v rokoch 1975-1980’ [Contemporary problems and tasks of special educational and diagnostic institutions, 1975-1980], Vychovávateľ 20 (5) (1975-1976), pp. 134-138. Fischer, Jan. ‘Karel Herfort – první český habilitováný psychopatalog dětského věku’ [Karel Herfort – The first Czech professional patopsychologist for children], Otázky defektologie 14 (1971-1972), pp. 217-220. Fišer, Jiří, et al. Postížené dítě v rodině a společnosti [Disabled children in the family and society] (Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelstvi, 1968). Foustka, Břetislav. ‘Posudek o disertaci p. R.N.V. Františka Štampacha “Sociologický výzkum cikánu v ČSR”’ [Review of the dissertation ‘Sociological studies of the Gypsies in the Czechoslovak Republic’ by František Štampach], 1932, AUK, Osobní spis Františka Štampacha. Foustka, Břetislav. ‘Sociologie a etika eugenismu’ [Sociology and the ethics of eugenics], Česká mysl 19 (1932), pp. 1-12.

220 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Frommer, Benjamin. National Cleansing: Retribution against Nazi Collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). Fürst, Radúz. ‘Výchova duševně vadných dětí mimo rodinu’ [Out-of-family education of mentally disabled children], Otázky defektologie 11 (1968-1969) pp. 176-179, 199-202, 220-222. Füßmann, Klaus. ‘Historische Formungen. Dimensionen der Geschichtsdarstellung’ [Historical formation: The dimensions of historical interpretation], in Historische Faszination: Geschichtskultur heute [Historical fascination: The history of culture today], ed. by Klaus Füßmann, Heinrich Theodor Grütter, and Jörn Rüsen (Köln: Böhlau, 1994), pp. 27-44. Gál, Anikó, and Imre Varga. ‘Die naturwissenschaftliche Betrachtungsweise der Heilpädagogik in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts’ [Natural science approaches to remedial pedagogy during the second half of the twentieth century], in Normalität, Abnormalität und Devianz: Gesellschaftliche Konstruktionsprozesse und ihre Umwälzungen in der Moderne [Normality, abnormality and deviance: Social construction process and its vicissitudes in modernity], ed. by Attila Nóbik (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2010), pp. 117-124. Gaňo, Viliam. Defektné deti a náčtr základných problémov ich výchovy [Defective children and an outline of their basic educational problems] (Bratislava: Slovenské pedagogické nakladateľstvo 1960). Gaňo, Viliam. Defektní děti: Co má vědět učitel ZDS o mládeži vyžadující zvláštní péče? [What does the schoolteacher need to know about youth in need of special care?] (Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1962). Gaňo, Viliam. Výchova defektných detí [Upbringign of defective children]. (Bratislava” Slovenské pedagogické nakladateľstvo 1962) Gaňo, Viliam. Defektní děti. Příručka pro střední školy sociální právní péče (denní i dálkové studium) [Defective children. The manual for the secondary schools of social and legal care (for full- and part-time students of pedagogical colledges)] . (Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1964) Gaňo, Viliam. ‘Selekcia defektných detí’ [Selection of defective children], Otázky defektologie 2 (4) (1960), pp. 107-111. Gaňo, Viliam, and Gabriel Rehuš. ‘Orientačný náčrt defektov pre výber žiakov do škol pre mládež vyžadujúcu osobitnú starostlivosť’ [Indicative sketch of defects for the selection of pupils in special schools], in Mládež vyžadujici zvláštni péče [Youth in need of special care], ed. by František Ludvík (Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1953), pp. 15-41. Gay, Will. ‘Late Arrivals at the Nationalist Games: Romani Mobilization in the Czech Lands and Slovakia,’ in Ethnonational Identities, ed. by Steve Fenton and Stephen May (New York: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 43-83.

Bibliogr aphy

221

Grellmann, Heinrich Moritz Gottlieb. Dissertation on the Gipseys: Representing Their Manner of Life, Occupations and Trades, Marriages and Education, Sickness, Death and Burials, Religion, Sciences and Art (London: William Ballintine, 1807). Gstach, Johannes. ‘“Der Pädagog muss Antropolog werden!” Psychologisch-heilpädagogische Aspekte der Falldarstellungen in den Werken von Georgens-Deinhardt und anderer Autoren ihrer Zeit’ [“The educator must become an anthropologist!” Psychological and educational aspects in case studies by Georgens-Deinhardt and another authors of that period], Vierteljahresschrift für Heilpädagogik und ihre Nachbargebiete 79 (2010), pp. 10-26. Halas, František. Fenomén Vatikán [The phenomenon of the Vatican] (Brno: Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury, 2004). Hamza, František. Úvahy o sociální péči zdravotní [The main issues of social care in public health] (Prague: Ministerstvo veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy, 1921). Hamza, František. Zdravotní a tělesná výchova lidu [The health and physical upbringing of the people], 1926, NaP, MZD 1, box 11. Hänsel, Dagmar. ‘Die Historiographie der Sonderschule. Eine kritische Analyse’ [Historiography of special education: Critical analysis], Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 51 (1) (2005), pp. 101-115. Hänsel, Dagmar. ‘“Erbe und Schicksal”: Rezeption eines Sonderschulbuchs’ [Heredity and destiny: Analysis of manuals for special schools], Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 55 (5) (2009), pp. 781-795. Hänsel, Dagmar. Sonderschullehrerausbildung im Nationalsozialismus [Special education during national socialism] (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2014). Hansen, Bent Sigurd. ‘Something Rotten in the State of Denmark: Eugenics and the Ascent of the Welfare State,’ in: Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, ed. by Gunnar Broberg and Nils Roll-Hansen (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2005), pp. 9-76. Haškovec, Ladislav. ‘Diskuse k omezování a zakazování sňatků z důvodů eugenických’ [The discussion about limiting and banning marriage due to eugenic reasons], Časopis lékařů českých 48 (12) (1919), pp. 963-965. Hazard, Anthony Q., Jr. ‘A Racialized Deconstruction? Ashley Montagu and the 1950s UNESCO Statement on Race,’ Transforming Anthropology 19 (2) (2011), pp. 174-186. Hechter, Michael. Containing Nationalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001). Hendrick, Harry. Child Welfare: Historical Dimensions, Contemporary Debate (Bristol: Policy, 2003). Henschel, Frank. ‘“All Children Are Ours”: Children’s Homes in Socialist Czechoslovakia as Laboratories of Social Engineering,’ Bohemia 56 (1) (2016), pp. 122-144.

222 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Henschel, Frank. ‘A Project of Social Engineering: Scientif ic Experts and the “Child-Issue” in Socialist Czechoslovakia,’ Acta Historica Universitatis Silesianae Opaviensis 9 (2016), pp. 143-158. Henschel, Frank. ‘Projektování sociálního rodičovství. Osvojení, pěstounská péče a SOS dětské vesničky v socialistickém Československu’ [Engineering social parenthood: Adoption and foster care in socialist Czechoslovakia], Soudobě Dějiny 24 (4) (2017), pp. 582-610. Hepple, Bob. ‘The European Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education’ University of Illinois Law Review 4 (5) (2006), pp. 605-625. Herfort, Karel. ‘Die pathologische Anatomie der Idiotie’ [Pathological anatomy of idiots], Vierteljahrsschrift für die Erkenntnis und Behandlung jugendlicher Abnormer 4 (1908), pp. 233-242. Herfort, Karel. ‘Die Schwachsinnigenfürsorge der österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie: Mit einem Spezialbericht über Böhmen’ [The care for the mentally retarded in the Austro-Hungarian Empire with special concern to Bohemia], Jahrbuch der deutschen Jugendfürsorge in Böhmen (1909), pp. 1-19. Herfort, Karel. ‘Jak prohlížeti na dítě slabomyselné se stanoviska biologického?’ [How do you examine the feeble-minded child from a biological perspective?], Revue v Neurologii, Psychiatrii, Fysikální a Diaetetické Therapii 6 (8-9) (1909), pp. 1-4. Herfort, Karel. ‘Rodokmeny slabomyslných I.díl Incest – Familiární Slabomyslnost Alkoholismus, syndaktylie, dvojčata jako hromadný faenotyp’ [Pedigrees of the feeble-minded, part I: Incest – familial weakness, alcoholism, syndactyly, twins as a collective phenotype], Antropologie 2 (3-4) (1924), pp. 165-182. Hobza, Antonín. Poměr mezi státem a církví. Jeho vývoj a přítomný stav [The relationship between the state and the church: Its dynamic and current state] (Prague: Vlastním nákladem, 1931). Holečková, Ema. ‘O eugenice v Dánsku’ [On eugenics in Denmark], Biologické listy 2 (1946), pp. 5-9. Höllge, Jaroslav. ‘Možnosti ústavní péče mentálně postižených dětí’ [Possibilities of institutional care for mentally disabled children], Československá pediatrie 42 (12) (1987), pp. 740-741. Horáček, Michal. Anastázie a Tereza [video f ile], 3 October 2017, https://www. youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=56i4aeWhUiU. Horáček, Michal. Maruška Harcubová [video file], 29 December 2017, https://www. youtube.com/watch?time_continue=33&v=948EuVBI-bU. Horáček, Michal. Tereza Diepoldová [video file], 19 December 2017, https://www. youtube.com/watch?time_continue=50&v=lYG5OtyO-dQ.

Bibliogr aphy

223

Horváthová, Emilia. Cigáni na Slovensku: Historicko-ethnografický náčrt [The Gypsies in Slovakia: Historico-ethnographic studies] (Bratislava: Vydavatelstvo Slovenskej Akadémie Vied, 1964). Hrdlička, Aleš. Anthropological Investigations on One Thousand White and Colored Children of Both Sexes, the Inmates of the New York Juvenile Asylum, with Additional Notes on One Hundred Colored Children of the New York Colored Asylum (New York: Wynkoop, Hallenbeck, Crawford, 1899). Hrdlička, Aleš. Physical Anthropology of the Lenape or Delawares, and of the Eastern Indians in General (Washington, DC: GPO, 1916). Husák, Otakar. ‘Naši legionáři ochránili naši republiku’ [Our legionnaires defended our republic], Lidový dennik Večer, 12 April 1918, p. 1. Iarskaia-Smirnova, Elena, and Pavel Romanov. Institutional Child Care in Soviet Russia: Everyday Life in the Children’s Home ‘Krasnyi Gorodok’ in Saratov,’ in Need and Care: Glimpses into the Beginnings of Eastern Europe’s Professional Welfare, ed. by Kurt Schilde and Dagmar Schulte (Opladen: Barbara Budrich Publishers, 2005), pp. 91-121. Innenministerium [Ministry of Internal Affairs]. ‘Erlass vom 14.9.1888, Z. 14015 ex 1887’ [The decree of 14 September 1888, Z. 14015 ex 1887], in Handbuch für den politischen Verwaltungsdienst in den im Reichsrathe vertretenen Königreichen und Ländern mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der diesen Ländern gemeinsamen Gesetze und Verordnungen [Guidance for political administration in the civil councils of the kingdoms and countries, with particular regard to the common laws and regulations] (Wien, 1897), pp. 665-667. ‘Jak hrstka “osmadvacátníků” zachránila “Českému srdci” a kladenskému dělnictvu drahocenné zásilku’ [How a dozen members of the 28th rescued a precious parcel for the Czech heartland and the workers in Kladno], Lidový dennik Večer, 6 November 1918. ‘Jaké jsou reální perspektivy dnešní eugeniky?’ [What are the options for current eugenics?], Biologické listy 40 (1975), pp. 279-284. Janišová, Denisa. ‘K problematice úspěšného zaškoleni cikánských děti’ [The problem of successful training of Gypsy children], Otázky defektologie 7 (1985), pp. 249-254. Jaurová, Ester. Viliam Gaňo: 1893-1966. Personálna bibliografia [Personal bibliography of Viliam Gaňo, 1893-1966] (Bratislava: Pedagogická Fakulta Univerzity Komenského, 1993). Jedlička, Rudolf. ‘Trvalé poškození ‘[The permanently disabled], in Úvahy o sociální péči zdravotní, ed. by Hamza František (Prague: Ministerstvo veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy, 1921), pp. 100-105.

224 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Jiroušek, Antonín, dir. Jak Vašíček přišel k nohám [How Vashik got his legs] [film] (1921). Czechoslovakia. Jiroušek, Antonín, dir. Ohněm i měčem [With f ire and sword] [f ilm] (1919). Czechoslovakia. Junek, Marek. Svobodně! Radio Svobodná Evropa 1951-2011 [Free! Radio Free Europe between 1951 and 2011] (Prague: Kosmas, 2011). Jurovský, Anton. ‘Nesprávné návyky u školských dětí’ [Incorrect habits of schoolchildren], in Mládež vyžadující zvláštní péče [Youth in need of special care], ed. by František Ludvík (Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1953), pp. 41-72. Kadlec, Karel. Racionalisace života. Snahy o řízení vzniku lidského života i jeho konce z hlediska mravouky [The rationalization of human life: Efforts to control the origin of human life and its end in terms of morality] (Prague: Dědictví Sv. Prokopa, 1936). Kalibán, Václav. ‘Obtízně vychovatelná mládež v pojetí československé defektologie’ [Difficult youth in the concept of Czechoslovak defectology], Otázky defektologie 12 (3) (1969-1970), pp. 66-69. Káš, Svatopluk. ‘Apetaur Josef, jeden ze zakladatelů české dětské psychiatrie’ [Josef Apetaur, one of the pioneers of Czech child psychiatry], Praktický lékař 92 (2) (2012), p. 181. Kennedy, Kenneth. ‘Reviewed Work(s): Rassengeschichte der Menschheit. 1. Lieferung: Australien-Indochina-Indopakistan – Die Zigeuner by Karl Saller,’ American Anthropologist 73 (2) (1971), pp. 439-440. Kettner, Josef. ‘Výchova vadného dítěte k práci’ [Training handicapped children for work], Úchylná mládež 18 (2) (1942), pp. 69-73. ‘Ke stavce školních dítek v Moravanéch’ [About the schoolchildren’s strike in Moravany], Občanské noviny, 10 December 1919, p. 2. Kevles, Daniel J. In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1985). Kline, Wendy. Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). Kluchin, Rebecca M. Fit to Be Tied: Sterilization and Reproductive Rights in America, 1950-1980 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2009). Koch, Jaroslav, Josef Langmeier, and Zdeněk Matějček. ‘Návrh nového systému péče o dětí vychovávané mimo vlastní rodinu’ [Proposal for a new system of care for children without families], Pedagogika 15 (3) (1965), pp. 316-326. Koeltzsch, Ines, and Ota Konrád. ‘From “Islands of Democracy” to “Transnational Border Spaces”: State of the Art and Perspectives of the Historiography on the First Czechoslovak Republic since 1989,’ Bohemia 56 (2) (2016), pp. 285-327. Kokeisl, Josef, dir. Popelka [Cinderella] [film] (1929). Kavalirka, Czechoslovakia.

Bibliogr aphy

225

Kokeisl, Josef, dir. Stín ve světle [The shadow in the light/Blind Juro/Stubborn Juro] [film] (1929). Czechoslovakia. Kolegium ministra školství a kultury [Council of the Ministry of Education and Culture]. ‘Návrh na pojetí škol II. cyklu pro mládež vyžadující zvláštní péče. Opatření ke zlepšení péče o duševně a smylově vadnou mládež’ [Proposal for secondary schools for youth in need of special care: Measures for the improvement of care for mentally and sensory disabled youth], 1963, NaP, Fond MŠK, box 49. Kolegium ministra školství a kultury [Council of the Ministry of Education and Culture]. ‘Zajištění péče o obtížně vychovatelnou mládež ve vychovných zařízeních’ [Evidence of care for difficult children in educational institutions], 1962, NaP, Fond MŠK, box 45. Kolegium ministra školství a kultury [Council of the Ministry of Education and Culture]. ‘Zpráva o potřebách k zajíštění péče o defektná děti a mládež’ [Report on the lack of provision of care for defective children and youth], 1960, NaP, Fond MŠK – kolegium ministra, box 29. Kolegium ministra školství a kultury [Council of the Ministry of Education and Culture]. ‘Zpráva o zajišťování vládního usnesení č. 925 z 4.11.1959 o komplexním výhledovém řešeni péče o tělesně, smyslově a duševně vadnou mládež’ [Report on the implementation of the government resolution on a comprehensive outlook on the treatment of physical, sensory and mentally defective youth], 1961, NaP, Fond MZD, box 44. Kolinský, Antonin. ‘Dopis Exposituře ministerstva veř. Zdravotnictví a télesné výchovy v Užhorodě. O potirání pohlavních nemocí’ [Letter to the expositor of the Ministry of Commerce about health and physical education in Uzhgorod. On the struggle against sexually transmitted diseases], 8 February 1921, SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 83. Kolinský, Antonin. ‘Úvodní slovo’ [Introduction], in Úvahy o sociální péči zdravotní, ed. by Hamza František (Prague: Ministerstvo veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy, 1921), NaP, MZD 1, box 11, pp. 1-5. Koloman, Mášik. ‘Likvidujeme jeden z neblahých pozostatkov minulosti. Na programe pro-blém cigánskych osád’ [Eliminating an unfair legacy of the past: The agenda of Gypsy settlement], Pravda, 20 December 1956, p. 2. Komise vlády ČSR pro otázky cikánského obyvatelstva [Czechoslovak Government Committee on the Gypsy Population Question]. ‘Zápis z jednání Komise vlády ČSR pro otázky cikánského obyvatelstva konaného dne 22.XI.1979 Příloha k č.j.: 413-1201-2-XI.79’ [Transcript of the meeting of the Czechoslovak Government Committee on the Gypsy Population Question on 22 November 1979], NaP, Fond komise vlády ČSR pro otázku cikánského obyvatelstva [Fund of the Czechoslovak Government Committee on the Gypsy Population Question].

226 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Komise vlády ČSR pro otázku cikánského obyvatelstva [Czechoslovak Government Committee on the Gypsy Population Question]. ‘Zpráva o současném stavu řešení otázek cikánského obyvatelstva’ [Report on the current state of solving the issue of the Gypsy population], 9 February 1984, NaP, Fond komise vlády ČSR pro otázku cikánského obyvatelstva [Fund of the Czechoslovak Government Committee on the Gypsy Population Question]. Komisia pre cigánské obyvatel’stvo Východoslovenský krajský národný výbor v Košiciach [Commission on the Gypsy Population in Eastern Slovakia of the National Regional Council in Košice]. ‘Dopis Vladnému Výboru pre otázky cig. Obyvatel’stva do rúk s. Müllera’ [Letter to the chair of the Gypsy Committee on the issue of the Gypsy population under Müller], 19 April 1967, SaK, Fond Komisia Vsl. KNV pre cigánské obyvatel’stvo [Fund of the Commission for Solving the Issue of the Gypsy Population in Eastern Slovakia in Košice], box 15. Kotek, Miloslav, and Tomáš Novák. ‘Psychologie a náhradní rodiná péče’ [Psychology and substitute family care], Psychológia a patopsychológia dieťaťa 20 (3) (1985), pp. 265-274. Kracík, Jiří. ‘K některým problémům speciální pedagogiky’ [Some problems of special pedagogy], Otázky defektologie 10 (1) (1967-1968), pp. 6-8. Krupauer, Josef, and Jiří Teplý. ‘Výhledy péče o defektní mládež’ [Prospects of care for defective youth], Otázky defektologie 3 (5) (1960-1961), pp. 129-131. Kružiková, Jana. ‘Mezi “Pryč od Říma!” a “Modem vivendi”: z osudů katolické církve v Československu za první republiky a za německé okupace’ [Between “Off Rome!” and “Modern Vivendi”: The destiny of the Catholic Church during the First Republic and the Protectorate], Lidé města 7 (3) (2005), pp. 1-7. Kubásek, Václav, dir. Osudná chvile: Hra náhody [Fortuitous moment] [film] (1935). Produced by Josef Kokeisl. I. V. Musil PDC Film, Czechoslovakia. Künne, Eva. ‘Darstellung und vergleichende Betrachtung theoretischer Konzeptionen der Pädagogik Geschädigter, bezogen auf die UdSSR, die VR Polen, die ČSSR, die VR Ungarn und die DDR’ [Presentation and comparative consideration of theoretical concepts of pedagogy of injured persons, referring to the USSR, the People’s Republic of Poland, the CSSR, the People’s Republic of Hungary and the GDR] (PhD dissertation, Humboldt-Universität, 1974). Kuželová, Miluše, and Ludmila Střdová. ‘Zkušenosti s komplexní péči o mentálně postižené děti ve vyčleněném dětském domově v Praze (soubor 30 dětí)’ [Experiences in complex care for mentally disabled children in the special children’s home in Prague (sample of 30 children)], Československá pediatrie 44 (8) (1989), pp. 482-486. LaCapra, Dominick. History in Transit: Experience, Identity, Critical Theory (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004).

Bibliogr aphy

227

Largent, Mark A. Breeding Contempt: The History of Coerced Sterilizations in the United States (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2008). Lesný, Vincenc. ‘Posudek o disertaci p. D. Fran. Štampacha’ [Review of the dissertation by Fran. Štampach], 1932, AUK, Osobní spis Františka Štampacha [Personal profile of František Štampach]. Lipphardt, Veronika. ‘From “Races” to “Isolates” and “Endogamous Communities”: Human Genetics and the Notion of Human Diversity in the 1950s,’ in Human Heredity in the Twentieth Century, ed. by Bernd Gausemeier, Staffan Müller-Wille, and Edmund Ramsden (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2013), pp. 55-68. Lipphardt, Veronika. ‘Isolates and Crosses in Human Population Genetics; or, A Contextualization of German Race Science,’ Current Anthropology 53 (5) (2012), pp. 69-82. López, Gerardo R., and Rebeca Burciaga. ‘The Troublesome Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education,’ Educational Administration Quarterly 50 (5) (2014), pp. 796-811. Lüddecke, Andreas. Der “Fall Saller” und die Rassenhygiene. Eine Göttinger Fallstudie zu den Widersprüchen sozialbiologistischer Ideologiebildung [The Saller case and racial hygiene: A Göttingen case study concerning the contradictions in elaborating social-biological ideology] (Marburg: Tectum Verlag, 1995). Ludvík, František, ed. Mládež vyžadujici zvláštni péče [Youth in need of special care] (Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1953). Ludvík, František. ‘Stav školství pro mládež vyžadující zvláštní péče’ [The status of education for youth in need of special care], Otázky defektologie 1 (4) (1959), pp. 101-104. Ludwig Maximilian University. ‘Karl Saller: Personenakten IX58’ [Karl Saller: Personal file], 1948-1969: LMU A Fakultät für Biologie [Faculty of Biology]. Lukášová, Ludmila. ‘Příspěvek ke studiu příčin rodové méněcennosti’ [Report on a survey of the causes of familial inferiority], Úchylná mládež 19 (4) (1943), pp. 152-158. Lukášová, Ludmila. ‘Příspěvek k výzkumu vzrůstu slabomyslných’ [Report on a study of increasingly feeble-minded youth], Úchylná mládež 1 (1934), pp. 8-13. Lukassen, Leo. ‘Harmful Tramps: Police Professionalization and Gypsies in Germany, 1700-1945,’ in Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups: A Socio-Historical Approach, ed. by Leo Lukassen, Wim Willems, and Anne-Marie Cottaar (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1998), pp. 74-93. ‘Maďarie, první etapa nejtemnější Asie’ [Hungarians, the first opening line of darkest Asia]. Večer, 28 November 1918, p. 1. Malá, Helena. ‘Problematika současného vývoje a výchovy cikánů a antropologická studie cikánských školních dětí Východočeského kraje’ [Problems in the contemporary development and education of Gypsies and the anthropological

228 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

study of Gypsy schoolchildren in eastern Bohemia] (Habilitation thesis, Charles University, 1974). Malá, Helena. Výchova, vzdělávání a biologický vývoj cikánských dětí a mládeže v ČSR [The rearing, education and biological development of Gypsy children and youth in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic] (Prague: Univerzita Karlova, 1984). Malá, Helena, and Barbara Ivanovič. ‘Tělesný vývoj cikánských školních dětí z Titogradu’ [The physical development of Gypsy children in Titograd], in Sborník pedagogické fakulty Univerzity Karlovy, Biologie [Proceedings of the Faculty of Education, Charles University, Biology] 5 (1977), pp. 85-91. Malá, Helena, and Milena Hajnišová. ‘Příspěvek ke sledování tělesného vývoje cikánských novorozenců okresu Kladno a Chomutov’ [Report on the monitoring of the physical development of Gypsy infants born in Kladno and Chomutiv], Otázky defektologie 26 (8) (1984), pp. 297-300. Mallon, Ron. ‘Race: Normative, not Metaphysical or Semantic,’ Ethics 116 (3) (2006), pp. 525-551. Malý, Jíři. ‘Paleolitický člověk v Československu a jeho vztahy k nálezům fosilního člověka v Yugoslavii’ [Paleolithic man in Czechoslovakia and his relation to the discovery of fossilized man in Yugoslavia], in Spisy Akademie věd a umění v Lublani (Lublana: Akademie věd a umění, 1949), 1950, AUK, Osobní spis Jířiho Malého [Personal file of Jiři Malý]. Malý, Jíři. ‘Žádost o finanční podporu na zájezd do Yugoslavie 28.02.1948’ [Request for financial support for a trip to Yugoslavia, 28 February 1948], 1948, AUK, Osobní spis Jířiho Malého [Personal file of Jiři Malý]. Marks, Sarah. ‘The Romani Minority, Coercive Sterilization, and Languages of Denial in the Czech Lands,’ History Workshop Journal 84 (2017), pp. 128-148. Martinek, Josef. ‘Dopis od redakce Fysiologický ústav, Československá akademie věd 12.2.1970’ [Letter from the Physiological Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 12 February 1970], AAV, Osobní fond Bohumila Sekla, box 1, SIG. II B5 Inv.číslo 53. Maruschiakova, Elena, and Veselin Popov. ‘Between Exoticization and Marginalization: Current Problems of Gypsy Studies,’ Behemoth: A Journal on Civilisation 4 (1) (2011), pp. 86-105. Maruschiakova, Elena, and Veselin Popov. ‘Commencement in Roma Civic Participation,’ Studies in Arts and Humanities 3 (2) (2017), pp. 33-55. Masaryk, Tomáš. Česká otázka [The Czech question] (Prague: Melantrich, 1895). Masaryk, Tomáš. ‘Novoroční projev 1.I.1922’ [New Year’s Congratulations, 1 January 1922], in Cesta demokracie [The ways of democracy], 3 vols. (Prague: Čin, 1933-1935), vol. 2, pp. 205-223.

Bibliogr aphy

229

Masaryk, Tomáš. ‘Rozhovor pro Prágai Magyar Hirlap 30.IX.1922’ [Interview with the Prague Hungarian News, 30 October 1922], in Cesta demokracie [The ways of democracy], 3 vols. (Prague: Čin, 1933-1935), vol. 2, pp. 329-332. Masarykova Akademie Práce [Masaryk Academy of Labor]. ‘Příspěvek na vybudování Psychotechnického ústavu’ [Financial support for establishing the Psychotechnic Institute], 5 August 1922, NaP, SIG. MZD 1, box 79. Mášová, Hana. ‘Bojovník s byrokracií – lékař a úředník Ladislav Prokop Procházka’ [Fighter with bureaucracy: Doctor and clerk Ladislav Prokop Procházka], in Historia – medicina – cultura: Sborník k dějinám medicíny [History – medicine – culture: Proceedings on the history of medicine], ed. By Karel Černý and Petr Svobodný (Prague: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, 2006), pp. 189-203. Matějček, Zdeněk. ‘Úvahy o pěstounské péči u nás’ [Remarks on foster care], Československá pediatrie 24 (7) (1969), pp. 654-656. McCagg, William O. ‘The Origins of Defectology,’ in The Disabled in the Soviet Union: Past and Present, Theory and Practice, ed. by William O. McCagg and Lewis H. Siegelbaum (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989), pp. 39-61. Meisner, Josef. ‘Tvoření obecných představ a pojmů u dětí normálních, oligofrenních a hluchoněmých’ [The development of general ideas and notions by normal, feeble-minded and deaf children], in K psychologii dětí vyžadujících zvláštní péče: Sborník statí [The psychology of children requiring special care: Proceedings of the state], ed. by Josef Meisner (Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1958), pp. 7-119. Melkusová, Helena. ‘“Marianum” v Opavě: Reportáž s návštěvy léčebního a ošetřovacího ústavu’ [“Marianum” in Opava: Report of a visit to a medical and nursing institution], Paedologické rozhledy 4 (1948), pp. 13-15. Městský národní výbor v Mostě [Municipal National Committee in Most]. ‘Péče o občany cikánského původu na území města Mostu’ [Care for citizens of Gypsy origin in the Most region], 1979, NaP. Michl, Jan. ‘Legionáři a fenomén legionářství v moderní československé státnosti’ [The phenomenon of legionnaires in the statehood of Czechoslovakia] (PhD dissertation, Charles University, 2009). Mickelson, Sig. America’s Other Voice: The Story of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (New York: Praeger, 1983). Ministerská rada a policejní ředitel [The Ministerial Council and the Police Department]. ‘Dopis Úřadu pana ministra s plnou mocí pro správu Slovenska: předmět Volební trestné činy’ [Letter to the office of the minister with power of attorney for the administration of Slovakia: Subject: Electoral crime], 26 October 1923, SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 2. Ministerstvo financí [Ministry of Finance]. ‘Dopis č.j. 744/47-I/2’ [Letter no. 744/47I/2], 1947, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 9.

230 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Ministerstvo obchodu [Ministry of Trade]. ‘Subvencování Psychotechnického ústavu’ [Financial support for the Psychotechnic Institute], 24 May 1924, NaP, SIG. MZD 1, box 79. Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí České socialistické vlády [Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Czech Socialist Government]. ‘Plán hlavních úkolů Komise vlády české socialistické republiky pro otázku cikánského obyvatelstva na rok 1988’ [Plan of the main tasks of the commission of the Czech socialist government on the issue of the Gypsy population in 1988], 1988, NaP. Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí [Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs]. ‘Návrh zprávy o aktuálních otázkách zaostale žijících cikánských občanů’ [Draft of a report on Gypsy citizens living in backwardness], 24 October 1985, NaP. Ministerstvo práce a sociální péče [Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare]. ‘Přehled dětských domovů v zemích českých ke dni 31.7.1950’ [Overview of children’s homes in the Czech lands, 31 July 1950], 1950, NaP, Fond Ministerstvo práce a sociální péče (MPSP), box 610. Ministerstvo práce a sociální péče [Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare]. ‘Zákon o sociálním zabezpečení’ [Law on Social Security], 1956, https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/1956-55. Ministerstvo práce a sociální péče [Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare]. ‘‘Zákon o některých důsledcích zanedbání péče o děti č. 177/1966’’ [Law on the Consequences Resulting from Neglectful Parental Care], 1966, https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/ cs/1966-117. Ministerstvo školství a kultury [Ministry of Education and Culture]. ‘Dětské Domovy, 36368/54, box 984: Návrh na zřízení zvláštních oddělení v domovech pro předškolního děti’ [Proposal for the establishment of special departments in the homes of preschool children], 13 May 1954, NaP, Fond Ministerstvo školství a kultury (MŠK), box 12a. Ministerstvo školstvi a kultury [Ministry of Education and Culture]. ‘Organisační a provozní řády pro dětské domovy pro děti předškolního věku, dětské domovy pro děti školního věku, dětské domovy se zvýšenou výchovnou péčí, záchytné dětské domovy a domovy pro mládež vyžadující zvláštní péče’ [Organizational and operational instructions for different types of children’s homes], Vestník Ministerstva Školstvi a Kultury 12 (30) (1956), pp. 309-323. Ministerstvo školství a kultury [Ministry of Education and Culture]. ‘Pojetí škol pro mládež vyžadující zvláštní péče a učební plány těchto škol’ [The concept of special schools], Vestník Ministerstva Školstvi a Kultury 17 (20) (1961), pp. 237-247. Ministerstvo školství a kultury ČSR and Ministerstvo školstva SSR [Ministry of Education and Culture of the CSR and the Ministry of Education of the SSR]. Další rozvoj československé výchovně vzdělávací soustavy [Further development of the

Bibliogr aphy

231

Czechoslovak schooling and educational system] (Prague: Statni Pedagogické nakladatelství, 1976). Ministerstvo školství a osvěty [Ministry of Education and Enlightenment]. ‘Městská mateřská škola: Žádost o další užívání propůjčené budovy čp.92 v Krči pro mateřskou školu 18.9.1945 k č.17024-VI-45 ze dne 22.8.1945’ [The local kindergarten: Request about the possibility of continuing to use the building in Krch], 1945, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13 box 8. Ministerstvo školství a osvěty [Ministry of Education and Enlightenment]. ‘Slepecké písmo a některé údaje o slepeckých školách v ČSR Č. 83 544’ [System of raised dots and other data about the schools for the blind in Czechoslovakia], 1954: NaP, MŠK SIG. 13 box 9. Ministerstvo školství a osvěty [Ministry of Education and Enlightenment]. ‘Ústavy pro slepé: požadavky slepců číslo 39.061/47’ [Institutions for the blind: The requirements of blind users], 1947, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 9. Ministerstvo školství Československé socialistické republiky [Ministry of Education of the Czech Socialist Republic]. ‘Dlouhodobá koncepce MŠ ČSR O výchově a vzdělávání výchovně zanedbaných a prospěchově opožděných cikánských dětí’ [The long-term conception of education and training for educationally neglected children and retarded children of Gypsy origins], Věstník Ministerstva školství a Ministerstva kultury České socialistické republiky 25 (1969), pp. 103-104. Ministerstvo školství, věd a umění [Ministry of Education, Science and the Arts]. ‘Pokyny pro přijímání děti a mládež do ZDD, DD a DMVZP (č. j. II-1067/188-1952)’ [Instructions for admitting children and youth into different types of children’s homes], Sbírka oběžníků pro KNV [Collection for instructions for Regional People’s Boards] 4 (1952). Ministerstvo školství, věd a umění [Ministry of Education, Science and the Arts]. ‘Přijímáni dětí a mladistvych do dětských domovů, záchytných domovů a domovů pro mládež vyžadujicí zvláštní péče a jejích propouštění z těchto domovů: Č.j. 30 622/56-A I/3 od 26. června 1956’ [Admitting children into different types of children’s homes], Vestník Ministerstva Školstvi a Kultury 12 (1956), pp. 209-213. Ministerstvo školství, věd a umění a Ministerstvo zdravotnictví [Ministry of Education, Science and the Arts and the Ministry of Public Health]. ‘Delimitace domovů pro mládež vyžadující zvláš[t]ní péče mezi školskou a zdravotní spravu’ [Delimitation of homes for youth in need of special care between the school and the health administration], 1952, NaP, Fond MPSP, box 617. Ministerstvo školství, věd a umění a Ministerstvo zdravotnictví [Ministry of Education, Science and the Arts and the Ministry of Public Health]. ‘Organizace a ústavy pro péči o osoby těl. Vadné – organizace, subvence, diferenciace, 1946-50’

232 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

[Organizations and institutions of the care for physically impaired persons], 25 April 1950, NaP, Fond MSPS, box 616. Ministerstvo veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy: Odbor pro studium a přípravu reformy zdravotní péče [Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture: The Department of the Study and Preparation of the Reform of Public Health]. ‘Dopis Exposituři veřejného zdravotnictví v Bratislavě: Tištená instrukce provádění policejního dohledu’ [Letter to the subdivision of the ministry in Bratislava: Printed instructions for medical surveillance provided by the police], 16 December 1921, SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 97. Ministerstvo vnitra [Ministry of Internal Affairs]. ‘Nebezpečí rozvlékání nakažlivých chorob kočujícími tlupami čís. 25275/1920’ [The danger of translocation of contagious diseases by vagabonds], 6 May 1920, NaP, SIG. MZD 1, box 13. Ministerstvo vnitra [Ministry of Internal Affairs]. ‘Převzetí zvláštního dětského domova v Ml. Boleslavi 1949-1953’ [The takeover of the home for special children in Mladá Boleslav], 1951, NaP, Fond MSPS, box 617. Ministerstvu zdravotnictví [Ministry of Public Health]. ‘Na uvolnění částky 1500000 Kč. na individuální péči o děti v r. 1945’ [On the release of the sum of 150,000 crowns for the individual care of children in 1945], 1945, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 3. Ministerstvo zdravotnictví [Ministry of Public Health]. ‘Zásady pro poskytování příspěvku pří sterilizaci (zneplodnění): Příloha k dopisu MPSV ČSR ze dne 30.09.1973 čj. IV/1 – 8750 13.9.1973 (7) upraveno podle dopisu MPSV ČSR čj. IV/1-8750-14.10.74 (15) ze 7.1.1975’ [The prerequisites and rules for providing benef its after sterilization (infertilization): Attachment to the letter of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of 30 September 1973, along with the letter of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of 7 January 1975], 1975, NaP, MZD 1 IV/1-8750. Ministerstvo zdravotnictví [Ministry of Public Health]. ‘Zpráva o zabezpečení výchovy mládeže vyžadující zvláštní péče a návrh opatření včetně úpravy sítě zařízení pro tuto mládež’ [Report on the provision of education to youth in need of special care], 1966, NaP, MZD, box 5. Ministerstvo zdravotnictví [Ministry of Public Health]. ‘Zpráva Praha-Veleslavín ústav pro epileptické dětí’ [Report on the Institute for the Children with Epilepsy in Prague-Velveslavin], 30 December 1946: NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 9. Ministerstvo zdravotnictví [Ministry of Public Health]. ‘Zřízení ústavu pro epileptické dětí Praha Veleslavín’ [The establishment of the institution for children with epilepsy], 15 October 1946, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 2. Ministerstvo zdravotnictví a sociálních věcí ČSR [Ministry of Health and Social Affairs]. ‘Vyhláška Ministerstva zdravotnictví a sociálních věcí ČSR č. 152/1988’ [Directive of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs], 1988, NaP.

Bibliogr aphy

233

Ministerstvu zdravotnictví odd. II/3 [Ministry of Public Health, Department II/3]. ‘Odpověď na žádost o podporu na znovuzřízení budovy a zařízení budovy a zařízení sociálního ústavu pro děti úchylné v Ml.Boleslavi, poškozené bombardováním německými letci 9.V.1945’ [Response to the request for financial support to repair a building destroyed by Nazi bombing and to reestablish the Institute for Disabled Children]. V Mladé Boleslaví dne 31.V.1946, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 3. Mores, Antonín. ‘Příležitost novelizace zákona o rodině’ [The occasion for a novelization of the Law of the Family], Vychovávateľ 14 (7) (1969-1970), pp. 202-204. Möschel, Mathias. ‘Is the European Court of Human Rights Case Law on Anti-Roma Violence? Beyond Reasonable Doubt,’ Human Rights Law Review 12 (3) (2012), pp. 479-507. Motyčka, Miloslav, and Michal Šedivý. ‘Péče o děti a mládež s tělesnými, smyslovými a duševnými vadami v Severočeském kraji’ [Care for children and youth with physical, sensory and mental disabilities in northern Bohemia], Československá pediatrie 41 (6) (1986), pp. 340-343. Moudrý, Miroslav. ‘Za socialistickou výchovu postižených dětí’ [For the socialist education of disabled children], Vychovávateľ 22 (8) (1977-1978), pp. 245-247. ‘Naprávajme krivdu minulých režimov. K otázke likvidácie zaostalosti občanov cigánskeho pôvodu’ [Let’s face the injustice of the past: On the elimination of the backwardness of Gypsy citizens], Pravda, 1 October 1957, p. 2. Národní shromáždění republiky Československé [National Parliament of the Czechoslovak Republic]. ‘Zpráva právního výboru o vládním návrhu zákona tisk č. 1398, jímž se doplňuje zákon ze dne 22. května 1919, kterým se mění ustanovení občanského práva o obřadnostech smlouvy manželské, o rozluce a o překážkách manželství’ [Report of the Legal Committee on government Bill no. 1398, which supplements the Act of 22 May 1919 amending the civil law provisions on ceremonial matrimony, marriage, and marriage obstacles], 1919, http://www.psp.cz/eknih/1918ns/ps/tisky/t2672_00.htm. Národní shromáždění republiky Československé [National Parliament of the Czechoslovak Republic]. ‘Zpráva výboru ústavně-právního o usnesení senátu (tisk 1135) k vládnímu návrhu (tisk sen. 415 a 459) zákona o potulných cikánech a podobných tulácích (tisk 1167)’ [National Czechoslovak Assembly Chamber of Deputies Constitutional and Legal Affairs Legislation Committee. Debates on the draft of the law on the fight against Gypsies, vagabonds and those unwilling to work], 1927, http://www.psp.cz/eknih/1925ns/ps/stenprot/101schuz/s101005.htm. Nechamkis, Josef. ‘Co způsobilo vzestup kojenecké úmrtnosti v roce 1932 na Slovensku a Podkarpatské Rusi?’ [What factors determined the increase of infant mortality in 1932 in Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia?], Praktický lékař 6 (1934), pp. 175-181.

234 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Nechamkis, Josef. ‘Vliv poklesu porodnosti v Čechách na povahu obyvatelstva’ [The influence of the decline of the birth rate in the Czech lands on its population], Sborník Masarykovy Akademie Práce 30 (4) (1931), pp. 100-107. Norrgard, Karen. ‘Human Testing, the Eugenics Movement, and IRBs,’ Nature Education 1 (1) (2008), pp. 82-93. Nováček, Josef. Cikání včera, dnes a zítra [The Gypsies yesterday, today and tomorrow] (Prague: Socialistická akademie v Praze, 1968). ‘Obrovská manifestace katolických žen a dívek v Brně za křesťanské školství’ [Enormous demonstration of Catholic women and girls in Brno for Christian education], Občanské noviny, 3 August 1921, p. 1. Odbor pro ochranu duševně nebo mravně úchylných pří OPM v Plzní [Department for the Protection of the Mentally and Morally Disabled, Local Department of Youth Care, Plsen]. ‘Zpráva o činnosti v roce 1945’ [Annual report about activities in 1945], 1945, NaP, SIG. MŠK 13, box 3. Odbor pro ochranu duševně úchylných při okresní péči o mládež v Plzni [Local Board for the Care of Youth in Plsen, Department for the Protection of Delinquent or Mentally Retarded Youth]. ‘Žádost o podporu na zdravotní zařízení a léčebnou péči. Ministerstvu zdravotnictví J.M 146 Pl/ 1-11-VI.1947’ [Request to the Ministry of Health for support for health-care facilities and medical care], 21 June 1947: NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 3. Odbor pro studium a přípravu reformy zdravotní péče při Ministerstvu veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy [Division for the Study and Reforms of Public Health Activities within the Ministry of Health and Physical Culture]. ‘Stanovení’ [The statute], 1925, NaP, SIG. MZD 1, box 31 ‘Odluka církve od státu’ [Separation of church and state], Občanské noviny, 31 December 1919, p. 1. Okresní národní výbor Český Těšin [District National Committee of Český Těšin]. ‘Seznam dětských domovů pro děti školního věku’ [List of schoolchildren’s homes], 1955, SOkA Ka. Okresní národní výbor v Karlových Varech [District National Committee of Karlovy Vary]. ‘Zpráva okresního národního výboru v Karlových Varech pro jednání komise vlády České socialistické republiky pro otázky cikánského obyvatelstva o plnění úkolů v pěči o cikánské obyvatelstvo, uložených usnesením vlády ČSR č. 279/70 a usnesením vlády ČSSR č. 231/72’ [Report of the local authorities in Karlovy Vary about the discussion of the commission of the CSSR government for solving the issue of the Gypsy population in line with Directive 279/70 and Recommendation 231/72], 1972, NaP. Okresní péče o mládež v Plzni: Odbor pro ochranu duševně nebo mravně úchylných [Local Board for the Care of Youth in Plsen, Department for the Protection of

Bibliogr aphy

235

Delinquent or Mentally Retarded Youth]. ‘Dopis krajské odborové radě v Plzní. Věc: Zřízení záchranného útulku’ [Letter to regional authorities in Plzen about the establishment of a protecting care center], 5 March 1947, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 3. Okresný úrad v Košiciah [Local Municipality of Koshce]. ‘Číslo 17820/925 Odpoved na číslo 64485 924’ [Reply to letter no. 64485 924], 1924, SaK, Fond Košicka župa 1923-1928 II.ZV, box 410. Okresný úrad v Medzilaborci [Local Municipality of Medzilaborci]. ‘Výchova cigaňov’ [Education of the Gypsies], 1923, SaK, Fond Košicka župa 1923-1928 II.ZV, box 315. Okresný úřad v Turčianskom Sv. Martině [Local Municipality of Turchiansky Svaty Martin]. ‘Vyročná zpráva o prevádzaní zákona o potieráni pohlavných nemocí’ [Annual report on implementing the Law on Combatting Sexually Transmitted Diseases], 10 January 1928, SNA, SIG. EMVZ box 97. Okresní ústav národního zdraví na Mělníce [The regional institute of public health in Mělníce]. ‘Nové poznatky v genetice’ [New discoveries in genetics for physicians in regional centers for retraining physicians], 16 September 1971, AAV, Osobn fond Bohumila Sekly Inv. Čís 120 SIG. II B5 1971, box 1. ‘Organisační a provozní řád ústavů nápravné a výchovné péče o mládež (1952)’ [Organizational and operational instructions for institutions of correctional and educational care for youth], 1952, SOkA NJ, ONV Nový Jičín, box 633, sig. 482.4. O’Sullivan, Meg Devlin. ‘Informing Red Power and Transforming the Second Wave: Native American Women and the Struggle against Coerced Sterilization in the 1970s,’ Women’s History Review 25 (6) (2016), pp. 965-982. Ovseiko, Pavel. ‘The Politics of Health Care Reform in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of the Czech Republic’ (PhD dissertation, University of Oxford, 2008). Pasner, Karel. Osudové okamžiky Československa [Czechoslovakia’s moments of destiny] (Prague: Themis, 1997). Patrut, Julia-Karin. ‘Wlislocki’s Transylvanian “Gypsies” and the Discourses on Aryanism around 1900,’ Romani studies 17 (2) (2007), pp. 181-204. Paul, Diane. ‘From Eugenics to Medical Genetics,’ Journal of Policy History 9 (1) (1997), pp. 96-116. Pavlová-Zahalková, Anna. ‘Prevence ve speciální pedagogice’ [Prevention in special pedagogy]. In Z teorie i praxe defektologie v Československé Socialistické Republice a v některých socialistických zemích [Theory and practice of defectology in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and some other socialist countries], ed. by Ludvík Edelsberger and Miloš Sovák (Prague: Univerzita Karlova, 1967), pp. 21-28. Pelc, Hynek. Sociální lekařství [Social medicine] (Prague: Melantrich, 1937).

236 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Pelc, Hynek. Zdravotní stav obyvatelstva Československé republiky v jejím prvním desítiletí [The state of health of the population of the Czechoslovak Republic for the first decade] (Prague: Zdravotní rada Státního zdravotního ústavu, 1929). Pelnář, Josef. ‘Omezování a zakazování sňatků z důvodů eugenických’ [Limits and bans on marriage because of eugenic reasons], Časopis lékařův českých 48 (12) (1919), pp. 925-927. Peroutka, Ferdinand. Mluví k vám Ferdinand Peroutka/2 Rozhlasové komentáře Rádio Svododná Evropa (1960-1969) [Ferdinand Peroutka speaks, vol. 2: Commentaries broadcast on Radio Free Europe, 1960-1969] (Prague: ARGO, 2005). Phillips, Sarah D. ‘“There Are No Invalids in the USSR!”: A Missing Soviet Chapter in the New Disability History,’ Disability Studies Quarterly 29 (3) (2009), pp. 1-26. Plaňanský, Karel. ‘O vitalitě obyvatelstva Československé republiky’ [On the vitality of the Czechoslovak population], Sborník Masarykovy Akademie Práce 40 (8) (1934), pp. 1-49. ‘Pohlavní choroby medzi det’mi na Slovensku’ [Venereal diseases among the children in Slovakia], Bratislavské Noviny, 14 February 1923, p. 3. Policejní ředitelství v Bratislavě [Police Department of Bratislava]. ‘Úprava stíhania cigáňov’ [Surveillance of the Gypsies, corrections], 22 September 1921, SaK, Fond Košicka župa 1923-1928 II.ZV, box 430. Poslanecká sněmovna Národního shromáždění republiky Československé [Chamber of Deputies of the National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic]. ‘Návrh poslanců J. Dubického, Molika, Dra Kubíčka, Mašaty a soudruhů na vydání zákona kterým by byla upravena otázka umístňování válečných poškozenců ve službách veřejných a soukromých’ [Draft of the law which would solve the issue of placing disabled war veterans into public services by Dybicky, Molik, Kubicek, Masatý and others], 1920, http://www.psp.cz/eknih/1920ns/ps/tisky/ t0937_00.htm. Poslanecká sněmovna Národního shromáždění republiky Československé [Chamber of Deputies of the National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic]. ‘Zpráva I. státně-zřízeneckého výboru, II. sociálně-politického výboru k návrhu poslanců J. Dubického a soudruhů (tisk 937) na vydání zákona, kterým by byla upravena otázka umísťování válečných poškozenců ve službách veřejných i soukromých’ [Report of the state executive board on the draft of the law by Dubicky and others about issuing the law correcting the issue of employment for war veterans in public and private enterprises], 1920, NaP, SIG. MZD 1, box 10. Pravotar Dr. Michal Slávik v Michalovciach [Lawyer Michal Slávik in Michalovci]. ‘Věc: Zistenie domovskej príslušnosti cigánov č. 64485’ [Subject: Identification of permanent addresses of Gypsies, no. 64485], 1924, SaK, Fond Košicka župa 1923-1928 II.ZV, box 410.

Bibliogr aphy

237

Predmerský, Vladimir. ‘Predškolská výchova detí vyžadujúcich osobitnú starostlivosť’ [Preschool education for children in need of special care], Otázky defektologie 5 (1962-1963), pp. 161-163. Prezidium Ministerské rady [Executive Committee of the Ministerial Council]. ‘Žádost Společnosti čsl. Červeného kříže v Praze o věnování nevyčerpaných položek rozpočtu 1923 pro soc.-zdrav. péči na Slovensku a Podkarpatské Rusi. Č.j. 21463/L’ [Request by the Czechoslovak Red Cross to transfer the rest of the 1923 budget to develop social care and public health in Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, no. 21463/L], 1923, NaP, MZD 1, box 14. Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy [Executive Committee of the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture]. ‘Dopis od vyslanectví čsl. republiky ve Washingtoně’ [Letter from the ambassador of the Czechoslovak Republic in Washington, DC], 19 December 1922, NaP, SIG. MZD 1, box 11. Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy [Executive Committee of the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture]. ‘Dr. Karel Driml ministerský mistotajemník: zdravotnická výchova na Moravě’ [Dr. Karel Driml: Adviser to the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture: Health education in Moravia and Slovakia], 1927, NaP, SIG. MZD 1, box 325. Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictvi a telesné výchovy [Executive Committee of the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture]. Letter by Gunn to An. Kolinsky, 1922, NaP, MZD 1, box 14. Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy [Executive Committee of the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture]. ‘Projev pana ministra Jana Šrámeka 18. 11 1925’ [Speech of Minister Jan Šrámek], 1925, NaP, SIG. MZD 1, box 9. Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy [Executive Committee of the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture]. ‘Vládní nařízení k Zákonu o potírání pohlavních nemocí Průvodní výnos k němu’ [Government prescriptions to the Law on Combating Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Primary implications], 21 January 1924, SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 97. Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictvi a telesné výchovy [Executive Committee of the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture]. ‘Všeobecný zdravotní zákon: přípravné práce. Dopis městskému okresnímu lékaři přidělanému Ministerstvu veřejného zdravotnictví a tělesné výchovy Hrdličkovi’ [Letter to the city district physician Hrdlička, on secondment to the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture], 1922, NaP, MZD 1, box 14. Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictví a telesné výchovy [Executive Committee of the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture]. ‘Všeobecný

238 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

zdravotní zákon: přípravné práce. Uřední přípominka’ [The General Health Care Law: Preparation. Official note], 12 January 1922, NaP, MZD 1, box 14. Presidium Ministerstva veřejného zdravotnictvi a telesné výchovy [Executive Committee of the Ministry of Public Health and Physical Culture]. ‘Zpráva o veřejném zdravotnictví v Podkarpatské Ruse’ [Report on public health in Subcarpathian Ruthenia], 1922, NaP, SIG. MZD 1, box 6. Přírodovědecká fakulta Univerzity Karlovy [Faculty of Natural Sciences of Charles University]. ‘Rigorosa protokol o přísných zkouškách k dosazení hodnosti doktorské na přírodovědecké fakultě Karlovy university v Praze Přírodovědecká fakulta UK sv. I. 1-802 1920-1935’ [Minutes of doctoral students’ exams at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Charles University], 1932, AUK, Osobní opis Dr. Františka Štampacha [Personal profile of František Štampach]. Přírodovědecká fakulta Univerzity Karlovy [Faculty of Natural Sciences of Charles University]. ‘V antropologický ustav asist. Dr. Frant. Štampach: Žádost za podporu na cestu do Německa a Holandska’ [Request for financial support for traveling to Germany and the Netherlands], 20 January 1930, AUK, Osobní opis Dr. Františka Štampacha [Personal profile of František Štampach]. Radio Free Europe. ‘Internal Report Item No. 6583/57: Ostrava Shops Lit Up at Night to Stop Rising Wave of Burglaries,’ 1957, OSA, RFE founds 300-30-3, box 37. Radio Free Europe. ‘Internal Report Item No. 11545/56: Gypsies Remain a Problem in CSR,’ 1956, OSA, RFE founds 300-30-3, box 37. Radio Free Europe. ‘Item No. 1639/57: Gypsies Arrested and “Reeducated,’ 1957, OSA, RFE founds 300-30-3, box 37. Radio Free Europe. ‘Item No. 4411/57: SNB to Clear Gypsies Out of Karlovy Vary,’ 1957, OSA, RFE founds 300-30-3, box 37. Radio Free Europe. ‘Item No. 5520/57: Gypsies in Děčin: Trouble Expected over Rehousing Plans. Date of Observation to Mid-September 1957. Confidential source,’ 1957, OSA, RFE founds 300-30-3, box 37. Radio Free Europe. ‘Item No. 10936/55: Increase in Thefts by Gypsies,’ 1955, OSA, RFE founds 300-30-3, box 37. Rákosník, Jakub, and Radka Šustrová. Rodina v zájmu státu: Populační růst a instituce manželství v českých zemích 1918-1989 [The family in the state’s interest: Population growth and the institution of marriage in the Czech lands, 1918-1989] (Prague: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2016). Read, Jane, and Jan Walmsley. ‘Historical Perspectives on Special Education, 18901970,’ Disability and Society 21 (5) (2006), pp. 455-469. Redakce Biologických Listů [Editorial Board of Biologické listy]. ‘Dopis Bohumilu Seklovi’ [Letter to Bohumil Sekla], 26 February 1971, AAV, SIG. II B5 INv.číslo 34, box 1.

Bibliogr aphy

239

Referat Ministerstva školstva a národnej osvety v Bratislave [Department of the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment in Bratislava]. ‘Obeznik číslo 20. Výchova cigaňov 4. VIII 1923’ [Regulation no. 20. The education of the Gypsies, 4 August 1923], 1923, SaK, Fond Košicka župa 1923-1928 II.ZV, box 315. Reichsministeriums für Wissenschaft. ‘Volks- und Mittelschulen’ [People’s and secondary schools], Deutsche Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung 8 (6) (1942), 92-99, http://goobiweb.bbf.dipf.de/viewer/image/991084217_0008/104/ LOG_0153/. Ren, Chiang H. How Systems Form and How Systems Break: A Beginner’s Guide for Studying the World (Cham: Springer, 2016). Riaditel’stvo Štátnej nemocnice v Bratislave [Administration of the State Hospital in Bratislava]. ‘Žádost o znovu ustanovení sestry Christofy kuchařkou pro moučníky’ [Request to restore Sister Christofa, a pastry cook], 20 May 1924, SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 2. Ritter, Robert. ‘Mitteleuropaische Zigeuner ein Volkstamm oder eine Mischlingspopulation?’ [Gypsies in Central Europe: Nation or mixed population group?], in Congrès international de la population: Contributions in English, French, German, and Italian, vol. 8: Problemes Qualitatifs de la Population (Paris: Actualités scientifiques et industrielles, 1938), pp. 51-57, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/ bpt6k386632/f55.item.r=Ritter.texteImage. Rockefeller Foundation. Annual Report (1919), https://assets.rockefellerfoundation. org/app/uploads/20150530122049/Annual-Report-1919.pdf. Rockefeller foundation. Annual Report (1922), https://assets.rockefellerfoundation. org/app/uploads/20150530122055/Annual-Report-1922.pdf. Rockefeller Foundation. Annual Report (1929), https://www.rockefellerfoundation. org/app/uploads/Annual-Report-1929.pdf. Rockefeller Foundation. Annual Report (1936), https://www.rockefellerfoundation. org/app/uploads/Annual-Report-1936. Rodičovské sdružení při pomocné škole v Plzni. 5. května [Parent’s Association of the Auxiliary School in Plzen]. ‘Dopis na Ministerstvo a sociálních věcí’ [Letter to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs], 10 November 1945, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 3. Rüsen, Jörn. Geschichte im Kulturprozes [History in cultural process] (Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2002). Rüsen, Jörn. History: Narration, Interpretation, Orientation (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2005). Růžička, Vladislav. Biologické základy eugeniky [The biological grounds of eugenics] (Prague: Fr. Borový, 1923).

240 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Safran, William. ‘Language, Ethnicity and Religion: A Complex and Persistent Linkage,’ Nations and Nationalism 1 (14) (2008), 171-190. Šebek, Jan. ‘Pražský paedologický ústav v r. 1942 Zpráva činností ústavu’ [Annual report of the Prague Pedological Institute for 1942], Úchylná mládež 19 (3) (1943), pp. 102-110. Sekla, Bohumil. ‘Dopis Karlu Plaňanskému’ [Letter to Karel Plaňanský], 7 March 1957, AAV, Osobní fond Bohumil Sekla, box 1. Sekla, Bohumil. ‘Dopis Martinkovi 20.3.1970’ [Letter to Martinkovi, 20 March 1970]. AAV, Osobní fond Bohumil Sekla, box 1, SIG II B5. Sekla, Bohumil. ‘Lékařská zpráva 25.03.1970’ [Medical report about indications for therapeutic abortion, 25 March 1970], 1970, AAV, Fond 413 Osobní fond Bohumila Sekly, box 2. Sekla, Bohumil. Letter to Professor Tage Kemp, 4 February 1958, AAV, Osobní fond Bohumila Sekly, box 1. Sekla, Bohumil. ‘Odpověd Redakci Biologických listů’ [Answer to a request to share views about the options for current eugenics in Czechoslovakia], 1972, AAV, Osobní fond Bohumila Sekla, box 1. Sekla, Bohumil. ‘Přednáška. Situace v naší lékařské genetice’ [Lecture: The situation in our medical genetics], 1968, AAV, Osobní fond Bohumila Sekly, box 2. Sengstock, Wayne L., Hannelore Magerhans-Hurley, and Angela Sprotte. ‘The Role of Special Education in the Third Reich,’ Education and Training in Mental Retardation 25 (3) (1990), pp. 225-236. Severomoravský krajský národní výbor v Ostravě: Komise rady KNV pro otázky cikánského obyvatelstva [Commission for Solving the Issue of the Gypsy Population: Local Authority of Northern Moravia]. ‘Zpráva o současném stavu péče o cikánské obyvatelstvo v Severomoravském kraji: Pro schůzi komise vlády ČSR pro otázky cikánského obyvatelstva’ [Report on the current state of care for the Gypsy population in northern Moravia: Meeting of the Czech government commission for solving the issue of the Gypsy population], 1978, NaP. ‘Seznam škol a zařízení pro děti a mládež vyžadující zvláštní péči (I-V)’ [List of schools and institutions for children and youth in need of special care]. Otázky defektologie Príloha 9 (5-10) (1966-1967), pp. 1-40. ‘Seznam zařízení pro mládež vyžadující zvláštní péče’ [List of institutions for youth in need of special care], in Mládež vyžadujici zvláštni péče [Youth in need of special care], ed. by František Ludvík (Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1953), pp. 142-151. Sharon, Morri. ‘Human Dregs at the Bottom of Our National Vats: The Interwar Debate on Sterilization of the Mentally Deficient,’ in Social Histories of Disability and Deformity: Bodies, Images and Experiences, ed. by David M. Turner and Kevin Stagg (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 142-160.

Bibliogr aphy

241

Shmidt, Victoria. Child Welfare Discourses and Practices in the Czech Lands: The Segregation of Roma and Disabled Children during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Brno: Masaryk University, 2015). Shmidt, Victoria. ‘Eugenics and Female Embodiment in Czechoslovak Public Campaigns during the 1960s and 1970s,’ Bohemia 58 (1) (2018), pp. 109-127. Shmidt, Victoria. ‘Public Health as an Agent of Internal Colonialism in Interwar Czechoslovakia: Shaping the Discourse about the Nation’s Children,’ Patterns of Prejudice 52 (4) (2018), pp. 355-387. Shmidt, Victoria. ‘The Violence of Knowledge in Practices towards Roma in the Czech Republic: The Historical Echo of Surveillance during Socialism,’ Global Humanities 4 (2016), pp. 117-138. Sieglind, Ellger-Rüttgardt. ‘Sonderpädagogen im Dritten Reich: Der Versuch einer Annäherung’ [Special education in the Third Reich: An attempt at an approach], Vierteljahresschrift für Heilpädagogik und ihre Nachbargebiete 73 (2004), pp. 350-364. Šimůnek, Michal. ‘Czechoslovakia (Bohemia and Moravia): Overview,’ in The History of East-Central European Eugenics, 1900-1945: Sources and Commentaries, ed. by Marius Turda (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), pp. 127-190. Šimůnek, Michal. ‘Die NS-”Euthanasie” in Böhmen und Mähren 1939-1942. Stand der Forschung’ [Nazi “euthanasia” in Bohemia and Moravia, 1939-1942: Current research], in Die nationalsozialistische “Euthanasie”-Aktion “T4” und ihre Opfer. Geschichte ethische Konsequenzen für die Gegenwart, ed. by Maike Rotzoll, Ulrich Müller, Paul Richter, and Gerrit Hohendorf (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2010), pp. 156-169. Šimůnek, Michal. ‘Remarks of the History of Genetic Counseling in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1990,’ in History of Human Genetics: Aspects of Its Development and Global Perspectives, ed. by Heike I. Petermann, Peter S. Harper, and Susanne Doetz (Cham: Springer, 2017), pp. 421-432. Škerlj, Božo. ‘Nekatera socijalna spoynanja iz rodovnikov Praškega pedološkega zavoda’ [Some comparisons of family trees from the Pedological Institute], Úchylná mládež 3 (4) (1929), pp. 57-69. Školský inspektorát v Michalovcach [School Inspector in Michalovici]. ‘Výchova cigaňov’ [The education of the Gypsies], 13 September 1923, SaK, Fond Košicka župa 1923-1928 II.ZV, box 315. Slater, Eliot. ‘Modern Tendencies in Eugenics,’ Journal of Health Education 3 (4) (1945), 182-187. Služnovský úrad v Moldavě [Off ice of the Local Authority in Moldava]. ‘Od moldavského hlavního služného číslo 5878/921 odd. adm. Předmět: Stihania cigánov, úprava’ [From the Moldavian main police station, No. 5878/921. Subject:

242 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Surveillance of the Gypsies, corrections], 1921, SaK, Fond Košicka župa 1923-1928 II.ZV box 430. Služnovský úrad v Ždani [Office of the Local Authority in Ždan]. ‘Opatrenie proti cigánom 15.7.1921’ [Measures against the Gypsies, 15 July 1921], 1921, SaK, Fond Košicka župa 1923-1928 II.ZV číslo, box 430. Smith, Justin. Nature, Human Nature and Human Difference Race in Early Modern Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015). Smith, Helmut Walser. The Continuities of German History Nation, Religion, and Race across the Long Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Sobe, Noah. American Post-Conflict Educational Reform: From the Spanish-American War to Iraq (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Sociální ústav [Social Institute]. ‘Sociální ústav republiky Československé jeho založení a činnost v prvém třiletí 1920-1922’ [The Social Institute of the Czechoslovak Republic and its activity in the first three-year period between 1920 and 1922] (Prague: Lidová knihtiskarnay Ant. Němec a spol, 1923). Sociální ústav [Social Institute]. ‘Uveřejnění vypsání soutěže Sociálním ústavem v denním tisku’ [Public call for the publication competition], 1930, NaP, SIG. SÚ, box 3. Sociální ústav [Social Institute]. ‘Zápis schůze představenstva Sociálního ústavu, konaní dne 10.02.1922’ [Minutes of the meeting of the board of the Social Institute], 1922, NaP, SIG. SÚ, box 2. Sociální ústav [Social Institute]. ‘Zpráva o schůzi představenstva Sociálního ústavu Československé republiky konané dne 3.04.1930’ [Minutes of the meeting of the board of the Social Institute of the Czechoslovak Republic on 3 April 1930], 1930, NaP, SIG. SÚ, box 2. Sociální ústav [Social Institute]. ‘Zpráva o schůzi představenstva Sociálního ústavu Českoslovanské republiky konané dne 17.10.1929’ [Minutes of the meeting of the board of the Social Institute of the Czechoslovak Republic on 17 October 1929], 1929, NaP, SIG. SÚ, box 2. Sociální ústav pro úchylné děti [Social Institute for Disabled Children]. ‘Dopis Ministerstvu zdravotnictví č.j. 45/4/46 V Mladé Boleslaví dne 1.III.1947’ Věc Ml. Boleslav, sociální ústav pro úchylné děti podpora v r.1946 vyúčtování’ [Letter to the Ministry of Health […] about the Social Institute for Disabled Children in Mlady Boleslav: Budget for 1946], 1946, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 3. Sojka, Ján. ‘Aj oni budú žiť v komunizme’ [They too will live under communism], Otázky defektologie 4 (6) (1961-1962), pp. 161-165. Sojka, Ján. ‘Populácia za každú cenu?’ [Population at any cost?], Vychovávateľ 10 (2) (1965-1966), pp. 41-44. Sojka, Jaroslav. Komenští [Comenius’s successors] (Brno, 1996).

Bibliogr aphy

243

Sokolová, Věra. Cultural Politics of Ethnicity: Discourses on the Roma in Communist Czechoslovakia (Stuttgart: Ibidem, 2008). Sovák, Miloš. Nárys speciální pedagogiky [Outline of special pedagogy] (Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1972). Sovák, Miloš. ‘O novém pojetí defektologie’ [The new concept of defectology], in Mládež vyžadujici zvláštni péče [Youth in need of special care], ed. by František Ludvík (Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1953), pp. 5-15. Sovák, Miloš. ‘Pojetí defektologie podle učení I. P. Pavlova’ [Conception of defectology according to the teaching of I. P. Pawlow], Pedagogika 3 (4) (1953), pp. 239-253. Spěváček, Václav. ‘Pohledy do života a díla Josefa Zemana’ [Life and work of Josef Zeman], Otázky defektologie 27 (2) (1984), pp. 58-60. Společnosť čsl. Červeného kríža Divizia pre Slovensko [Czechoslovak Red Cross – Slovakian Subdivision]. ‘Dopis na Župný úřad v Košiciach’ [Letter to the local authorities in Košice], 17 April 1926, SaK, SIG. Košická župa 1923-1928 II. YV, box 522. Spolek pro vybudování a vydržování sociálního ústavu pro úchylné dětí v Mladé Boleslavi [Association for the Construction and Maintenance of the Institute for Disabled Children in Mlady Boleslav]. ‘Věc: žádost o podporu na znovuzřízení budovy a zařízení sociálního ústavu pro děti úchylné v Ml. Boleslavi poškozené bombardováním německými letci 9.V.1945’ [Request for financial support to repair a building destroyed by Nazi bombing and to reestablish the Institute for Disabled Children], 1945, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 3. Spolok asistentov a klinických sekundarov [Association of Assistants and Interns]. ‘Žádost o znovu ustanovení sestry Christofy kuchařkou pro moučníky’ [Request to restore Sister Christofa, a pastry cook], 24 April 1924, SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 2. Spurný, Matěj. Most do budoucnosti. Laboratoř socialistické modernity na severu Čech [Bridge to the future: Laboratory of socialist modernity in northern Bohemia] (Prague: Karolinum, 2016). Spurný, Matěj. Nejsou jako my: Česká společnost a menšiny v pohraničí (1945-1960) [Not like us: Czech society and minorities in the border zone] (Prague: Antikomplex, 2011). Srb, Vladimir. ‘Cikáni v Československu’ [Gypsies in Czechoslovakia], Demografie 11 (3) (1969), pp. 193-195. Státní zdravotní ústav [State Institute of Hygiene]. ‘Zpráva č.3 o činnosti vzorové práce zdravotní a sociální v XIII.okresu Velké Prahy za rok 1927’ [Report on public health activities in the thirteenth district of Prague in 1927], 1927, NaP, SIG. MZD 1, box 10. Štejgerle, Ladislav. ‘Mimoškolní péče a výchova mládeže vyžadující zvláštní péče’ [Out-of-school care and education for youth in need of special care], in Mládež

244 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

vyžadujici zvláštni péče [Youth in need of special care], ed. by František Ludvík (Prague: Státní Pedagogické nakladatelství 1953), pp. 106-112. Štampach, František. Cikání v Československu [The Gypsies in Czechoslovakia] (Prague: Akademie věd a umění, 1929). Štampach, František. ‘Jsme u kořenů zla’ [We are at the root of evil], Úchylná mládež 17 (1) (1941), pp. 6-10. Štampach, František. ‘Rodičovská sdružení jako nástroj sociálně zdravotní péče o mládež’ [Parents as a tool for social and health care of youth], Úchylná mládež 14 (20) (1944), pp. 181-186. Štampach, František. ‘Sociologický výzkum cikánů v ČSR’ [Sociological research on Gypsies in Czechoslovakia] (PhD dissertation, Charles University, 1932), AUK. Stejskal, Cyril. ‘Kam s nimi?’ [Where to go with them?], Úchylná mládež 4 (1) (1925), 153-159. Štěpán, Josef. ‘K jazykové situaci mentálně retardovaných Rómů’ [On the language situation of mentally retarded Roma students], Otázky defektologie 4 (1975-1976), pp. 145-154. Štěpán, Josef. ‘K lateralitě mentální retardovaných žáků cikánského původu’ [On the laterality of mentally retarded students of Gypsy origin], Otázky defektologie 8 (1976), pp. 316-320. Stepan, Nancy Leys. Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever? (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011). Stepan, Nancy Leys. ‘Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science,’ Isis 77 (2) (1986), pp. 261-277. Štipek, Josef. ‘K charakteristice cikánské částí části obtížně vychovatelné mládeži’ [Characteristics of the Gypsy share of poorly educated youth], Otázky defektologie 6 (1988), pp. 260-263. Stolarik, Mark. The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: Forty Years Later (Mundelein: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2010). Stone, John, and Dennis Rutledge. Race and Ethnicity: Comparative and Theoretical Approaches (Malden: Blackwell, 2003). Stoyanova, Plamena. Tsiganite v godinite na sotsializma. Politikata na b’lgarskata d’rzhava k’m tsiganskogo malitsinstva (1944-1989) [The Gypsies during socialism: State policy concerning the Gypsy minority in Bulgaria (1944-1989)] (Sofia: Paradigma, 2017). Suchý, Jaroslav. ‘Die Zigeuner’ [The Gypsies], in Rassengeschichte der Menschheit: Australien, Indochina, Indopakistan, Die Zigeuner [History of the human races: Australia, Indochina, Indo-Pakistan, the Gypsies], ed. by Karl Saller et al., 14 vols. (München und Wien: Oldenbourg Verlag, 1968-1993), vol. 1, pp. 184-223.

Bibliogr aphy

245

Suchý, Jaroslav. Význam celostátního výzkumu mládeže v roce 1961 [The meaning of countrywide monitoring of youth in 1961] (Prague: Československá společnost pro šíření politických a vědeckých znalostí, 1961). Suk, Vojtěch. Antropologie Podkarpatské Rusi s některými poznámkami o lidských plemenech vůbec a o metodách antropologických předběžná zpráva [Anthropological notes on the peoples of Carpathian Ruthenia with remarks on races in general and on some new methods in anthropology. Preliminary report] (Brno: Přírodovědecká fakulta Masarykova univerzita, 1932). Sus, Jaroslav. Cikánská otázka v ČSSR [The Gypsy issue in the CSSR] (Prague: Státní nakladatelství politické literatury, 1961). Svaz českých spisovatelů [Union of Czech Writers]. ‘Zápis porady o cikánské otázce a o prvních úkolech v jejich řešení’ [The Gypsy issue and primary tasks toward its solution: Minutes of a meeting], 29 August 1953, NaP, SIG. 31, box 2. Szczepaniak-Wiecha, Izabela, Agnieszka Małek, and Krystyna Slany. ‘The System of Care for Abandoned Children in Poland 1900-1960: The Development of Family-Forms of Care,’ in Need and Care: Glimpses into the Beginnings of Eastern Europe’s Professional Welfare, ed. by Kurt Schilde and Dagmar Schulte (Opladen: Barbara Budrich Publishers, 2005), pp. 179-196. Takman, John. The Gypsies in Sweden: A Socio-Medical Study (Stockholm: Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, 1976). Tekovský župan [Tekovsky District]. ‘Policajný dohl’ad nad prostitucí na Slovensku: Pravidlené ošetřování cikánok’ [Police surveillance of prostitution in Slovakia: Regular medical examination of Gypsy women], 10 June 1922, SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 97. Teplý, Jiří. ‘Stav školství pro mládež vyžadující zvláštní péči’ [The status of education for youth in need of special care], Otázky defektologie 8 (9) (1965-1966), pp. 345-347. Theiner, Christa, Eva Künne, and Klaus-Peter Becker. Zur Theorie und Praxis der Erziehung und Bildung Geschädigter in sozialistischen Ländern [On the theory and practice of the education and training of the disabled in socialist countries] (Berlin: Verlag Volk und Gesundheit, 1981) Theiner, Christa. ‘Tschechoslowakische Sozialistische Republik’ [The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic], in Zur Theorie und Praxis der Erziehung und Bildung Geschädigter in sozialistischen Ländern [On the theory and practice of the education and training of the disabled in socialist countries], ed. by Christa Theiner, Eva Künne, and Klaus-Peter Becker (Berlin: Verlag Volk und Gesundheit, 1981), pp. 128-158. ‘Týrání nemocných jeptiškami’ [Maltreatment of patients by nurses], Večerník pravá lidu, 27 May 1922, p. 5. Tornow, Karl. ‘Völkische Sonderpädagogik und Kinderpsychiatrie: Bericht über die 1. Tagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Kinderpsychiatrie und Heilpädagogik

246 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

(Wien)’ [Special education and child psychiatry: Report on the first conference of the German Society for Child Psychiatry and Special Education (Vienna)], Zeitschrift für Kinderforschung: Organ der Gesellschaft für Heilpädagogik und des Deutschen Vereins zur Fürsorge für Jugendliche Psychopathen 49 (1) (1943), pp. 76-86. Tornow, Karl. ‘Was bedeuten die “Richtlinien für Erziehung und Unterricht in der Hilfsschule” für die Entwicklung des deutschen Hilfsschulwesens’ [What “Instructions for educating and teaching in special schools” means for the development of German special education], Die Deutsche Sonderschule 2 (1943), pp. 3-6. Tornow, Karl, and Herbert Weinert. Erbe und Schicksal von geschädigten Menschen, Erbkrankheiten und deren Bekämpfung [Heredity and destiny of people with mental retardation: Inherited diseases and the struggle against them] (Berlin: A. Metzner, 1942). Turda, Marius. The History of East-Central European Eugenics, 1900-1945: Sources and Commentaries (London: Bloomsbury, 2015). Turda, Marius. Modernism and Eugenics (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Turková, Kateřina. ‘Svaz Cikánů-Romů (1969-1973): Možnosti přístupu ke studiu historie Svazu Cikánů-Romů na příkladu analýzy činností krajského výboru Svazu v Západočeském kraji’ [The Gypsy-Roma Association (1969-1973): Opportunities for studying the history of the Gypsy-Roma Association by analyzing the activities of the regional committee of the association in western Bohemia] (MA thesis, Charles University, 2011). Ústav pro antropologii a demografii [Institute of Anthropology and Demography]. ‘Návrh na jmenování zástupce asistenta žádost Ministerstvu školství a národní osvěty’ [Proposal to appoint an assistant representative to the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment], 18 February 1929, AUK, Osobní opis Dr. Františka Štampacha [Personal profile of František Štampach]. Ústav pro výzkum veřejného míněni [Institute for Public Research]. Mínění o Cikánech a o řešení cikánské otázky [Public opinion about Gypsies and the measures for solving the “Gypsy issue”] (Prague: Ústav pro výzkum veřejného míněni, 1971). Valová, Simona. ‘Jaroslav Kříţenecký a lysenkismus v Československu v letech 1948-1965’ [Jaroslav Kříženecký and Lysenkoism in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1965] (BA thesis, Masaryk University, 2014). Valová, Simona. ‘Jaroslav Kříženecký: vědec a šiřitel Mendelova odkazu’ [Jaroslav Kříženecký: A scientist and the propagator of Mendel’s legacy] (MA thesis, Masaryk University, 2017).

Bibliogr aphy

247

Valšik, J. A. ‘Anthropology under Nazi Rule in Czechoslovakia,’ Man 46 (1946), pp. 142-143. Varsa, Eszter. ‘The (Final) Solution of the Gypsy-question: Continuities in Discourses about Roma in Hungary, 1940s-1950s,’ Nationalities Papers 45 (1) (2017), pp. 114-130. Velicu, Adrian. Civic Catechisms and Reason in the French Revolution (London: Ashgate, 2010). ‘Veliký historický okamžík: Ochraníme a osvobodíme slovenské bratry?’ [The great moment of history: Defend and liberate the Slavic brothers?], Večer, 16 November 1918, p. 3. Velký, Josef. ‘K otázke likvidácie zaostalosti občanov cigánského pôvodu’ [On the issue of the elimination of Gypsy settlements], Pravda, 1 October 1957, p. 7. ‘Venerické choroby ve februáre 1926: liečené’ [Venereal diseases in February 1926: Treatments], Slovenský Denník, 5 May 1923, p. 3. Veselá, Jarmila. Sterilisace: problém populační, sociální a kriminální politiky [Sterlization: The issue of population, criminal and social policy] (Prague: L. Mazáč, 1938). Veselá, Jitka. ‘Poznatky z průzkumu rodin, jež mají mentálně postižené dítě ve své péči’ [Remarks on a survey of the parents of mentally handicapped children], Otázky defektologie 4 (1983-1984), pp. 130-138. Vláda Československé socialistické republiky [Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]. ‘Zákon o jednotné preventivní a léčebné péče’ [Law on Uniform Preventive and Therapeutic Care] Sbírka zákonů republiky Československé, 50 (1951), pp. 265-268. Vláda Československé socialistické republiky [Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]. ‘Zákon o organizaci péče o mládež’ [Law on the Organization of Youth Care], Sbírka zákonů republiky Československé 25 (1947): pp. 859-861. Vláda Československé socialistické republiky [Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]. ‘Zákon o pěstounské péče’ [Law on Foster Care], Sbírka zákonů republiky Československé 15 (1973), pp. 145-148. Vláda Československé socialistické republiky [Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]. ‘Zákon o právu rodinném’ [Law on Parental Rights]’ Sbírka zákonů republiky Československé 86 (1949), pp. 745-753. Vláda Československé socialistické republiky [Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]. ‘Zákon o rodině’ [Law on the Family], Sbírka zákonů republiky Československé 53 (1963), pp. 339-349. Vláda Československé socialistické republiky [Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]. ‘Zákon o školské soustavě a vzdělávání učitelů (Školský zákon)’ [Law on the School System and Teacher Education (Education Act)]. Sbírka zákonů republiky Československé 18 (1953), pp. 193-196. Vláda Československé socialistické republiky [Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]. ‘Zákon o sociálně pravní ochraně mládeže’ [Law on the

248 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Social and Legal Protection of Youth], Sbírka zákonů republiky Československé 35 (1952), pp. 317-320. Vláda Československé socialistické republiky [Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]. ‘Zákon o soustavě výchovy a vzdělávání (Školský zákon)’ [Law on the System of Education and Training (Education Act)], Sbírka zákonů Československé socialistické republiky 82 (1960), pp. 645-652. Vláda Československé socialistické republiky [Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]. ‘Zákon o základní upravě jednotného Školství (Školský zákon)’ [Law on Basic Regulation of Uniform Education (School Act)], Sbírka zákonů republiky Československé 38 (1948), pp. 829-838. ‘Volební trestné činy’ [Electoral offences], Robotnické Noviny, 5 October 1923, p. 2. ‘Vredy Košis’ [The ills of Košice], Národný Denník Bratislava, 2 August 1927, p. 4. Východoslovenský krajský národný výbor v Košiciach [Eastern Slovakian Regional Board in Košice] Podklady k rokovaniu o populácii cigánskeho obyvatl’stva vo Východoslovenskom kraji a návrhy na reguláciu pôrodnosti [Grounds for the Debates about Natality within the Gypsy Population in the Eastern Slovak Region and Recommendations for the Regulation of Its Natality], 1967 SaK, SIG. Komisia VSl KNV, IX, box 15. ‘Vyhláška MŠ SSR o výkonu ústavnej výchovy a ochranej výchovy v školských výchovných zariadeniach’ [Decree of the SSR Ministry of Education on the performance of institutional education and preventative education in educational institutions], Zvesti MŠ SSR 8 (1980), pp. 104-108. Vynnyk, Oksana. ‘Beyond the National: “Posttraumatic Identity” and Disabled War Veterans in Interwar Lviv.’ Paper presented at the ASN World Convention, Columbia University, 23-25 April 2015. Weed, Ronald. ‘Jean-Jacques Rousseau: On Civil Religion, Freedom of the Individual, Toleration, and the Price of Mass Authenticity,’ in Civil Religion in Political Thought. Its Perennial Questions and Enduring Relevance in North America, ed. by Ronald Weed and John von Heyking (Washington, DC: Catholic University of American Press, 2010), pp. 145-166. Weindling, Paul. ‘American Foundations and Internationalizing of Public Health,’ in Shifting Boundaries of Public Health: Europe in the Twentieth Century, ed. by Susan Gross Solomon, Lion Murard, and Patryk Zylberman (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2008), pp. 63-86. Weindling, Paul. Healthcare in Private and Public from the Early Modern Period to 2000 (London: Routledge, 2015). Willems, Wim. In Search of the True Gypsies: From Enlightenment to Final Solution (New York: Routledge, 1997).

Bibliogr aphy

249

Wingfield, Nancy. ‘Venereal Disease, War, and Continuity in the Regulation of Prostitution: Late Imperial Adriatic Austria and Italy’s New Provinces,’ Acta Histriae 21 (4) (2013), pp. 773-790. Wingfield, Nancy. The World of Prostitution in Late Imperial Austria (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). Yuval-Davis, Nira. Gender and Nation (London: Sage, 1997). ‘Zabezpečení výchovy mládeže vyžadující zvláštní péči. Z jednání vlády’ [Ensuring the education of young people requiring special care. Governmental discussion], Otázky defektologie 9 (6) (1966/67), pp. 225-230. Zahra, Tara. The Lost Children: Reconstructing Europe’s Families after World War II (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011). Zakharov, Nikolay. Race and Racism in Russia (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). Základní devítiletá škola v Nejdku [Nejdek Secondary School]. ‘Dopis školské komisi pří MěNV Problémy s dětmi cikánského původu’ [Letter to the Commission for Reeducating Citizens of Gypsy Origin: The problem of children of Gypsy origin], 1962, SOkA KV, Inv. 753, Sign 104 1-A. Žáková, Helena. ‘Zařazování cikánských děti do zvláštních škol – vliv těchto škol na sociální adaptaci (Zkušenosti ze Severočeského kraje)’ [The involvement of Gypsy children in special schools and the influence of these schools on adaptation: The experience in northern Bohemia], Otázky defektologie 25 (1) (1982-1983), pp. 10-16. Zatloukal, Jaroslav. Podkarpatská Rus: Sborník hospodářského, kulturního a politického poznání Podkarpatské Rusi [Subcarpathean Ruthenia: Economic, cultural and political thinking about Subcarpathian Ruthenia] (Bratislava: Klub přátel Podkarpatské Rusi v Bratislavě, 1936). Zaviršek, Darja. ‘Those Who Do Not Work, Shall Not Eat: A Comparative Perspective on the Ideology of Work within Eastern European Disability Discourses,’ in Disability in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, ed. by Michael Rasell and Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova (London: Routledge, 2014), pp. 184-203. Zeman, Josef. ‘Pomocní školství ve velké Praze’ [Special schools in Prague], Úchylná mládež 4 (1) (1925), pp. 160-167. Zemská politická správa v Brně [District Political Administration in Brno]. ‘Opis: Maršíkov, neštovice 6.03.1920’ [Description: Smallpox in Marsikov, 6 March 1920], 1920, SNA, Bratislava SIG. EMVZ, box 79. Zemská politická správa v Brně [District Political Administration in Brno]. ‘Zdravotní statistika československé armády za dobu od 1.řijina 1921 do 30. září 1925

250 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

Svazek 1’ [Health-care statistics of the Czechoslovak Army between 1 October 1921 and 30 September 1925, part 1], 1925, SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 83. Zemská správa politická v Praze [District Political Administration in Prague]. ‘Oběžník: Onemocnění cikánů neštovicemi na Moravě V Praze 12.března 1920’ [For circulation: Infection of the Gypsies by smallpox in Moravia and Prague, 12 March 1920], 1920, SNA, SIG. EMVZ, box 79. Zemská ústřední péče o mládež v Čechách [District Central Department for the Care of Youth in Bohemia]. ‘Výchovné ústavy Zemského ustředí péče o mládež pro mravné narušenou mládež’ [Reeducating district institutions for delinquent youth], 1946, NaP, MŠK SIG. 13, box 8. Zemský národní výbor v Brně [District People’s Board in Brno]. ‘Zemská péče o mládež v Brně číslo jednání 17430/48 S.D. V Brně 4.XI.1948’ [District care for youth in Brno […], 4 November 1948], AMB, Zápisy o schůzích komise sociální [Minutes of the meetings of the Commission on Social Issues], box 1. ‘Zhodnocení vývoje osvojení a pěstounské péče a zvláštních zařízení pro výkon pěstounské péče’ [Evaluation of the development of adoption and foster care], 1984, NaP, Fond MPSV, sign. 8720, box 105. Židovský, Jan. ‘Doktore, není mé těchotenství ohroženo?’ [Doctor, is my pregnancy at risk?], Půvab, zdraví a krasa (1973), pp. 81-82. Zimmermann, Michael. Rassenutopie and Genozide: Die nationalsocialistische Lösung der Zigeunerfrage [Racial utopia and genocide: The national socialist solution to the Gypsy question] (Hamburg: Christians Verlag, 1996). Zvláštní komise Čs. Eugenická společnost [Special Commission of the Czechoslovak Eugenic Society]. ‘Memorandum k otázce eugenické sterilisace’ [Memorandum on the issue of sterilization], 1937, AAV, Masarykova Akademie Práce, box 47.

Index analogy between disability and ethnicity 20 anti-Gypsyism 17 Apetaur, Josef 117 Bartoš, August 113 Board for Reeducating the Gypsy Population 186 Brožek, Artur 45-46 Čáda, František 126 civil religion 24, 31, 40 Cold War 25 Czechoslovak People’s Party (Československá strana lidová) 23, 36, 93 Czechoslovak Red Cross 53, 59 Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers’ Party (Československá sociálně demokratická strana dělnická) 36 defectology 125 Disabled Youth (Úchylná mládež), journal 112 disadvantaged socio-cultural backgrounds (socio-kulturně znevýhodněné prostředí) 167 Driml, Karel 42, 47, 59, 64, 67, 85 Dubitscher, Fred 111, 196 epistemic communities 22 eugenics 31, 58, 131, 177 European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) 208 European Union 21, 207 Fetter, Vojtěch 158, 170 For our children (Poradna Naším dětem) 54 forced sterilization 20, 55-58, 93, 107-110, 168, 177 Foustka, Břetislav 100-101 functional health 62, 78, 112, 204 Gaňo, Viliam 125-126, 129 genetic counseling 182 genetic narrative 18 ghettoization of the Roma 192 Grellmann, Heinrich Moritz Gottlieb 97, 99 Gypsy issue 78, 147-148, 207 Hamza, František 33, 41, 45, 62 Haškovec, Ladislav 33, 55 Herfort, Karel 56, 116, 126 Hrdlička, Aleš 96, 155-157, 164, 168 infectious diseases 78, 86 International Labor Organization 84 intersectionality of childhood, health and ethnicity 90

Ivaniček, Franjo 158 Jedlička, Rudolf 33, 46, 136 Jedličkův ústav 64, 112-113 Jews 92 Justin, Eva 172 Kadlec, Karel 58 Kindermann, Viktor 116 Kirpal, Irene 94 Kolinský, Antonin 45, 48 Langmeier, Josef 134 Lathrop, Julia 47 League of Nations 84 Lesný, Vincenc 101 Lukášová, Ludmila 116 Malá, Helena 166, 169-174 Malý, Jiří 96, 158-159, 161 Martin, Rudolf 160, 170 Masaryk Academy of Labor (Masarykova Akademie Práce) 51, 63 Masaryk, Alice 42, 44 Masaryk, Tomaš 84 Matějček, Zdeněk 134 Matiegka, Jindřich 96, 115, 159-170 McKusick, Victor Almon 183 Mollison, Theodor 160 moral panics 80, 141 Morava 80, 114, 200 nation building 18, 32, 35 National socialism 203 non-historical territories 52 outreach film(s) 22, 89 Pedological Institute (Paedologický ústav) 63, 115 Pedological review (Paedologické rozhledy), journal 120 Pelc, Hynek 33, 47, 50, 59 Pelnář, Josef 59 physical anthropology 31, 96, 155-162, 178 Plaňanský, Karel 56, 180 Plojar, Josef 23 policy of assimilation 21, 192 politics of disability 15, 61-73, 109-142 politics of secularization 37 Procházka, Adolf 23, 123 Prokop Procházka, Ladislav 23, 50 Protection of mothers and children (Ochrana matek a dětí) 54 Protectorate, the 19, 24, 109

252 

The Politics of Disabilit y in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia

public health 22-25 racial assimilationism 155, 157, 204, 207 Racial Hygiene 24, 178, 194, 199 racial science 20 reproductive behavior 33, 186, 188 Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants or Agrarian Party (Republikánská strana zemědělského a malorolnického lidu) 36, 72, 93 Ritter, Robert 172 Rockefeller Foundation 46, 50, 180 Roma 16, 77-100, 130, 145-200 Roma as the primitives, the 94, 99, 167 Rusyns 156 Saller, Karl 160, 170 sedenterization 87 segregation 17 Sekla, Bohumil 152, 159, 180, 185 self-contained isolated group 157 Škerlj, Božo 115, 158 Slater, Eliot 179 Slovakia 19, 82 social hygiene 31, 43, 45, 47, 51, 85 Social Institute (Sociální ústav Republiky Československé) 49 Sovák, Miloš 126, 129, 167

special boards for making the decision concerning the eligibility of abortion (potratová komise) 182 special education 125 special school(s) 110, 133 Šrámek, Jan 22, 40, 48, 51 Šrobár, Vavro 23 Štampach, František 33, 95, 101, 112, 122, 124, 156, 164 State Institute of Hygiene (Státní zdravotní ústav) 51 Štěpán, Josef 165-167 structural violence 16 Subcarpathian Ruthenia 19, 57, 83 Suchý, Jaroslav 161-164, 170, 190 Suk, Vojtěch 155-156, 159 therapeutic abortion 178 Third Republic 123 Tiso, Jozef 22 Tornow, Karl 110-111, 199 Valšík, Jindřich 159 Vlček, Vladislav 23 von Wlislocki, Heinrich Adalbert 99 Vrbenský, Bohuslav 23 Winter, Lev 50 Zeman, Josef 73, 126