Introtext
A lot of things happened in Sweden during the 20th century. New inventions appeared, such as the car, radio and the aeroplane. People talked a lot about the new, modern society. The new, modern age also brought democracy. For example, as from 1921 all Swedes were able to vote in elections. But which people should be allowed to be a part of the new, modern age? Some scientists began examining people and pondering our characteristics and which characteristics were hereditary. They began asking themselves which people were superior and which people were inferior. This didnt happen very long ago. How do we think nowadays? How do we grade each other nowadays?
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 1
Grading people
During the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, a number of scientists began dividing people into different races. They called their science racial biology (or eugenics) and said that some races were worth more or less than others. At that time many scientists also thought that poor people were inferior as a race to people with more money.
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 2
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 4
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 5
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 6
Fear of degeneration
Degeneration means retrograde development things moving backwards and getting worse. Herman Lundborg, head of the National Institute of Racial Biology, said that society would degenerate deteriorate if inferior persons were allowed to multiply. Herman Lundborg tried, for example, to prove that the Sami were dying out as a result of degeneration. But he never found any evidence.
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 7
Francis Galton
The British scientist Francis Galton began using the word eugenics in the late 19th century. Francis Galton thought that everyone should be awarded marks to see whether they were suited for having children together.
Herbert Spencer
The British philosopher Herbert Spencer coined the well-known phrase the survival of the ttest in his book Principles of Biology, published in 1864. Herbert Spencer was interested in Charles Darwins thoughts concerning the struggle between the species in nature, and felt that what applied in nature should also apply to society.
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 8
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 9
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 10
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 11
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 12
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 14
Many died of TB
TB, tuberculosis, was once widespread in Sweden. Ten thousand Swedes every year died of it in the 1930s. And so it was important to keep everywhere clean and guard against infection.
Hygiene improves
In 1938 Ludvig Lubbe Nordstrm broadcast on the radio a roving report from what he called lthy Sweden. He found draughty, damp houses with too many people living in them. Many people were upset by these radio broadcasts, and a great deal of discussion followed. After this the State began building better homes.
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 15
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 16
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 17
Agne
The year after his mother died, Agne had to leave school. He was then in the fourth year. Instead he began working for a farmer. But there was trouble at the farm and Agne was sent to a correctional institution. He stayed there for some years and it was decided to sterilise him. Agne was against this, but he was sterilised all the same, in 1942.
Maj-Britt
When Maj-Britt was 8 they sent her to the Nannylund institution for the feeble-minded. At rst the teacher describes her as being a little behind in school, but she starts feeling worse and worse. She gets aggressive and disruptive and is sent to mental hospital in Vstervik. When she is 16 she is sterilised. Maj-Britt spends the rest of her life in mental hospital.
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 18
Arne
When Arne was 10 they sent her to the Nannylund institution for the feebleminded. He was quiet and docile, which is perhaps what made him seem feebleminded. Arne was sterilised at 17, and then he was sent home. He worked for many years in a factory and was also a good swimmer. But all his life he lived alone.
Gertrud
Gertrud was the rst child to leave home. She travelled to Stockholm and got a job in service. She eventually married and had a son, Kjell. All her life Gertrud tried to help the other children, who were in various institutions all over Sweden. She wrote letters to the authorities and campaigned for her brothers and sister. Her son, Kjell Sundstedt, has written about his mother and her campaign in a book entitled For Gertrud.
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 19
The Swedish National Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability, FUB
In 1952 a number of Stockholm parents formed an association for children with intellectual disability and their parents. A few years later, in 1956, FUB became a national organisation with branches all over Sweden. Its members worked hard to secure improvements for people with intellectual disability. And in time they succeeded.
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 20
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 21
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 22
JO criticises sterilisation
In 1944 the Swedish Ombudsman of Justice, JO, had an unusual case put before him. Lars Svensson was one of the people who were considered feeble-minded. The hospital where he was living insisted that he be sterilised, otherwise he would not be discharged. Lars Svenssons family protested to JO and wanted to know whether forcing someone to be sterilised was legal. JO found that it was not legal, but nothing happened. Nobody took any notice of what JO said, and Lars Svensson was sterilised.
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 23
Germany - Ingress
When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933 they passed laws on compulsory sterilisation. The hunt was now on for people who were considered feeble-minded and people considered genetically inferior degenerate.
Charles Davenport
Charles Davenport was a well-known racial biologist in the USA. In 1904 he founded the Biological Experiment Station at Cold Spring Harbor, outside New York, in 1904. He also started a Eugenics Record Office for preserving data on the way in which undesirable qualities were communicated between humans.
Harry Laughlin
Harry Laughlin worked for Charles Davenport and made Congress believe that immigrants from the south of Europe showed excessive insanity compared to people from the north of Europe. This led to new and stricter legislation on immigration. Harry Laughlin also campaigned very hard to make all states introduce legislation for the sterilisation of imbeciles.
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 25
How it ended
At least 65,000 people in the USA were forcibly sterilised. Most of the sterilisations took place in California and many of the people sterilised were black women. The number of sterilisations declined in the 1950s, but the legislation stayed on the law books for many years.
Carrie Buck
Carrie Buck was a poor girl from Virginia. Her mother was locked up in an institution for the feeble-minded, and when Carrie became pregnant she was locked up there as well. The doctors wanted to sterilise Carrie, but Carries lawyer said that Carrie could not be termed feeble-minded because she had done well in school. The racial biologist Harry Laughlin took the case to the Supreme Court and Carrie lost. She was sentenced to compulsory sterilisation in 1927. After this it became easier to sterilise feeble-minded people against their own wishes. A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 26
A cooperation between The Living History Forum, The Museum of Ethnography and Swedish Travelling Exhibitions. 27