In Germany, a number of social welfare organisations for deaf people existed at the accession to power of the Nazi Party in 1933.
The ReGeDe union included such groups as deaf advocacy and support agencies, self-help organizations, sports clubs, and much more.
Werner Thomas made such a plea to involve deaf children in Hitler Youth, found in the Newsletter of the Berlin Deaf Athletic Association:[1]Of the Leipzig and Dresden Sports Associations almost one hundred percent of the members are doing their duty with joyful hearts as Hitler Youth.
It is then all the more shameful that many Berlin athletes still oppose membership...training in Hitler Youth and the troopers is very worthwhile for the German people as a whole.
There out youngsters will be trained in iron discipline, comradeship and self-sacrifice...We, as deaf, will never be called to the labor force, to the army and so on.
!...I urge you for the last time...to report to the troop leader...otherwise, dissociate yourselves with our fine community...Finally I appeal to the respected parents and also to my fellow club members to give their full understanding to the action that I have undertaken in the state's interestReGeDe's recruitment methods were successful, as it grew from 3,900 on Easter in 1933, to 11,588 members by January 1, 1937.
"[1] Albreghs and the administrative head Ballier, both of whom signed the ReGeDe membership card, did not hesitate to denounce their "hereditarily diseased" fellows.
"[1] Albreghs, Siepmann and Edmund Matz worked together to pursue a policy of unifying all organization for and of deaf Germans with the premise: "where resistance arises, it will gradually be eliminated" and "when necessary, harshly and ruthlessly".
One deaf person who experienced these events recounted: "despite the fact that I was a party member, I was sterilized after a 12-month long judicial process.
It was founded by Heinrich Siepmann, a leader of the Deaf who proposed the consolidation of the separate Reich Union with the athletics division under the Nazi regime.
Athletics was seen as a means by which children could be conditioned, not only physically, but socially in favor of representing Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party as a whole.