On this mild September evening, almost all the seats are taken in the foyer of the Palatinate State Library in Speyer. Author Alfons L. Ims is seated on the podium alongside archivist Dr Walter Rummel, me, and the library director and host for the evening, Ute Bahrs. We are there to discuss his book »An ›Asocial‹ Family from the Palatinate«. This is the second event dedicated to this book in the Palatinate region. Why Speyer, when the Ims family lived in Kaiserslautern? Speyer is an integral part of the history of the large Ims family during the Nazi era. The Welfare Office” data-bs-content-id=”popover-id-5613″ aria-label=”Youth Welfare Office – Glossary term”>Youth Welfare Office had almost all of the children from this family placed in »correctional education« in Deaconess Institution (Diakonissenanstalt), a protestant church-run welfare facility in Speyer. Two of them later only narrowly escaped the Nazi »euthanasia« programme of murder. In her opening remarks, Sister Corinna Kloss, head chaplain at the Deaconess Institution in Speyer, underlined the responsibility that her institution also has to protect the life of each individual.
Photo: Jonas Kolbenschlag
The event firstly covered the historical background to the family’s persecution and the ideology that underpinned it. It was instructive for me to see how alien this topic is to the audience. It is certainly a good thing that people are now entirely unable to comprehend the National Socialist concept of the welfare system as a »filter« that excluded individuals who did not fulfil »hereditary« criteria or were considered ineligible for »people’s welfare« (Volkspflege). However, at the same time, this underlines the challenges of communicating such aspects of history. This was one of the occasions when such communication was not entirely successful. A female audience member stood up and expressed her consternation at the »failure of pedagogy« under National Socialism. If I understood her correctly, in her opinion educational theory (and practice) in the Third Reich had essentially failed because they did not take a vehement enough stance against Nazi ideology and therefore abandoned the people they were meant to protect. And yet from this perspective it did not actually fail at all – failure can only be attributed to those people or institutions that actually wanted to achieve something different or did not achieve their goals. Under National Socialism, pedagogy and welfare did not position themselves outside the system but rather shared its ideological principles and helped to shape and support it. At the event in Speyer it was clear that this uncomfortable truth is hard to accept.
Dr. Ulrich Baumann
People were defined as »asocial« and faced persecution if they did not fit into the »national community« (»Volksgemeinschaft«) under Nazism. The groups affected were primarily the unemployed, the homeless, prostitutes or non-conformist youth. They were accused of posing a danger to society. The welfare authorities, justice system and police were among the institutions which worked together to persecute these individuals. They created a dense network of surveillance and compulsory measures.
The Youth Welfare Office was a public welfare institution with the task of supporting children and teenagers in need, along with their families. Yet the Nazis specified who was to receive support. In order to access the necessary information about the families, the Youth Welfare Office worked closely with the welfare office and the National Socialist youth organisations. If children or teenagers came to the attention of the authorities, the Youth Welfare Office could apply for them to be placed in corrective education.
Welfare refers to assistance and care provided to other people. Its public institutions included youth welfare offices and health authorities as well as general welfare offices. The tasks of the welfare offices included providing financial assistance to the unemployed. The Nazis excluded certain groups from welfare because they were not considered part of the »national community« (»Volksgemeinschaft«). These groups included Jews or people deemed »workshy« and »asocial«.