This roundtable brings together three scholars, whose research engages with Nazi sterilizations, those who perpetrated them, their locations, those targeted, and their long-term effects. Significant research has emerged, yet scholars continue to uncover previously unknown methods and victims. Here, we focus on under-studied Nazi victim groups – Afro-Germans, Romani people, and women and gender minorities. Focusing on these groups contributes knowledge about the history of the Nazi era, memorialization, and reparations. Drawing research on these varied groups into dialogue illuminates the benefits of comparative, interstitial approaches in Holocaust Studies. The (il)legality of sterilization procedures, the settings in which they were conducted, and the identities of victims have had direct repercussions on reparations, victim-group identity, and public awareness of Nazi crimes.

Discussion will center on the following questions:

1. Looking at the specific victim group(s) you study, where does research stand now? What have we learned and what are potential new directions of research? Where do you see similarities and differences between the different sterilization campaigns you study?
2. What challenges have you encountered during your research on sterilizations?
3. How, if at all, have victims of sterilization in your area of study been “compensated”? What challenges have survivors faced in pursuit of reparations? What obstacles and opportunities regarding memorialization have they encountered?
4. Why is the history of Nazi sterilizations and reproductive crimes important for the larger historiographical narrative? What does it say about the history and memory of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust?