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Nazi eugenics and the year of the vuvuzela

We hear about Adolf Hitler’s order to sterilise people with disabilities, the fight for legal abortion in Italy and how the sound of the vuvuzela dominated the 2010 World Cup.

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service.

We hear about the people with disabilities who were sterilised in Germany following an order in 1933, passed by the then Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

Also, we find out about the first man to descend into the β€œGates of Hell”, the Darvaza Crater, in Turkmenistan.

Plus the story behind the vuvuzela which was dubbed the β€œworld’s most annoying instrument”.

Contributors:
Helga Gross who was sterilised in Germany as part of the Nazis’ eugenics order. This is an archive interview from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Dr Susanne Klausen, Julia Gregg Brill Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the Pennsylvania State University.
Campaigner Emma Bonino who fought for legal abortion in Italy.
Explorer George Kourounis who was the first person to descend into the Darvaza Crater, in Turkmenistan.
Paramedic Daniel Ouma who helped people injured in the Westgate Mall terror attack, in Nairobi, in Kenya, in 2013.
Freddie 'Saddam' Maake who claims to have invented the vuvuzela.

(Photo: Adolf Hitler. Credit: Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

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52 minutes

Last on

Mon 25 Sep 2023 23:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 23 Sep 2023 13:06GMT
  • Mon 25 Sep 2023 09:06GMT
  • Mon 25 Sep 2023 23:06GMT

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