NIOD Rewind Episode 38 - Expelled from Care: the Dutch Mental Health System During World War II

Why did a relatively high number of psychiatric patients die in Dutch psychiatric institutions during World War II? Anne van Mourik interviews Eveline Buchheim (NIOD) and Ralf Futselaar (NIOD and Erasmus University Rotterdam) regarding their book, ‘Expelled from Care’ (Uit Zorg Verdreven). In Nazi Germany, psychiatric patients were killed as part of the regime’s ‘euthanasia program’, which aimed to eradicate individuals considered genetically and economically ‘undesirable’. Did this National Socialist ideology also contribute to the excess mortality among the Dutch psychiatric population? What was life like for patients and staff working in psychiatric institutions during the war? Credits image: Collection Museum van de Geest | Dolhuys, Haarlem