Undesirable citizens: Education, care and control of the “Feeble-minded” in the Swedish Province of Malmöhus, 1900–1950
This paper contains the main results of a recently completed historical research project about the situation of persons cate- gorized as“feeble-minded” in Sweden. In this study, the case of Malmohus province constitutes the microhistorical core. Here, educational and care institutions such as schools, asylums and working homes were particularly established in the first half of the 20th century. The motives behind these foundations will be discussed and the working routines in those institutions will be analysed in terms of teaching and after-care of the inmates and their exclusion justified by social constructs such as “uneducable” or “moral imbecile”. This paper aims at demonstrating how feeble-mindedness was perceived as a social problem, and how close the efforts of education and care were connected to eugenic ideology and control. Thereby, the history of the feeble-minded will be interpreted as a striking example of the contradictions of modernity. The coincidence of social inclusion and exclusion was a characteristic of the situation of an undesirable group of citizens in the Swedish society under the era of modernization. This outcome is of high relevance for understanding the early historical development of the Nordic welfare state.
Starved to Death? Nutrition in Asylums During the World Wars
The aim of this study was to compare nutritional conditions in Swedish mental hospitals and institutions for “feebleminded” people during the two world wars with those in German institutions of the same era. During World War I, lack of food in Germany and Sweden led to high death rates at institutions containing many patients. During World War II, the Nazis used starvation as a means of killing disabled people. Restriction of food occurred even before the war began, and continued in private initiatives even though the official “euthanasia program” had ceased. In Sweden, rationing due to the war affected the nutritional conditions in institutions. There was, however, no division of inmates into “worthy” or “unworthy” eaters. Despite weight losses, there are no signs of higher death rates at Swedish institutions, except at Vipeholm. The discussion in the mass media about “killing disabled persons” at institutions and comparing their conditions to Nazi Germany seems to be based on statistical misconceptions.
Kitchen Conversations: Democracy in Action at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Abstract This article describes the Lower East Side Tenement Museum9s ongoing public dialogue on immigration, the first in the United States. As she joins facilitators in reflecting on the importance of dialogue in a democracy, museum president Ruth J. Abram explains how and why the program was initiated, the obstacles that had to be overcome, and the public reaction to it. Kitchen Conversations represents the museum9s commitment to the proposition that historic sites must function as places of civic engagement, using the history they interpret as a starting place for dialogue on related contemporary issues.