The Linguistic Construction of Human “Defectiveness” in the Context of Nazi Medical Crimes Sprache der NS-Medizinverbrechen als asymmetrisierende Humandifferenzierung

This article examines, from a discourse-semantic perspective, how disability was conceptualized in the context of Nazi medical crimes. Language played a central role in this process and was deliberately instrumentalized for National Socialist propaganda. This paper analyzes linguistic categories and metaphorical concepts based on eugenics-ideological texts and contemporary documents related to the medical crimes. Strategies of linguistic asymmetrization and dehumanization can be identified. In particular, the emphasis on defectiveness in connection with human worth, lack of affect control, morality, reason, autonomy, or religion proved central. Disabled people were thereby positioned in zones of distinction toward the inanimate, toward animals, or as legally incapacitated “non-persons.” Large-scale metaphorical concepts such as “society as a (sick) body” or images of distance were also of importance. Opponents of the medical crimes, by contrast, constructed the perpetrators as inhuman and emphasized the humanity of the victims. Due to the strong relationship between language and the cultural construction of disability, the article situates itself within the field of cultural analytic linguistics.

Schweden, Theresa (2026): The Linguistic Construction of Human “Defectiveness” in the Context of Nazi Medical Crimes: Sprache der NS-Medizinverbrechen als asymmetrisierende Humandifferenzierung. Zeitschrift für Kulturlinguistik – Revue De Linguistique Culturelle – Rivista Di Linguistica Culturale – Journal of Cultural Linguistics, 1(1).