Dawn Raffel, “The Strange Case of Dr. Couney” and Edith Sheffer, “Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna”

In Conversation with Robyn Spizman Gerson, Media Personality and New York Times Best-selling Author

Community Partner: Jewish Abilities Alliance

DAWN RAFFEL, The Strange Case of Dr. Couney

What kind of doctor puts his patients on display? As acclaimed journalist and magazine editor Dawn Raffel recounts, Dr. Couney figured out he could use incubators and careful nursing to keep previously doomed premature infants alive, all while make good money displaying these babies alongside sword swallowers, bearded ladies, and burlesque shows. How this turn-of-the-twentieth-century émigré became the savior to families with premature infants, known then as “weaklings”–while ignoring the scorn of the medical establishment — is one of the most astounding stories of modern medicine. But who was this mysterious savior of tiny babies and what was the secret he carried with him throughout his life?

EDITH SHEFFER, Asperger’s Children

Hans Asperger, the pioneer of autism and Asperger syndrome in Nazi Vienna, has been celebrated for his compassionate defense of children with disabilities. But in this groundbreaking book, prize-winning historian Edith Sheffer exposes that Asperger was not only involved in the racial policies of Hitler’s Third Reich, he was complicit in the murder of children. In the first comprehensive history of the links between autism and Nazism, Sheffer uncovers how a diagnosis common today emerged from the atrocities of the Third Reich.

SHORT FILM SCREENING: Join us at 11:30 am for the screening of That Was Awesome!, a short film by Dad’s Garage and the MJCCA, performed by MJCCA’s Spotlight Theatre Company, actors with developmental disabilities. Free with ticket to Raffel/Sheffer program.