Finding Ivy

A Nazi-led killing programme targeted people with disabilities because they were deemed unworthy of life. Dr Helen Atherton’s painstaking research sheds light on the victims and challenges how we perceive those with disabilities today.

Between 1940 and 1941, around 70,000 people with disabilities and mental illness were murdered by the Nazis.

A state-led killing programme in Germany and Austria called Aktion T4 was guided by the belief that they had ‘lives unworthy of life’ and were an economic burden on society.

Dr Helen Atherton, a lecturer and nurse historian based in the School of Healthcare at the University of Leeds, has painstakingly reconstructed the lives of the British-born victims of Aktion T4 in her project ‘Finding Ivy – A Life Worthy of Life’.

Her research will be showcased in an exhibition in the University’s Parkinson Court from 17-21 June 2025, with an expert panel discussion in the Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre on 19 June.

“Without this research, these victims would have disappeared into history,” she said. “They would never have been recognised for the people they were. No identity, no commemoration.

“I wanted to change the Nazi perception that these people had no value.”

The journey started while Dr Atherton, who is also a qualified nurse for people with learning disabilities, was researching a PhD exploring the prevalence of eugenic attitudes amongst health and social care professionals.

She wanted to understand how different countries had employed eugenic interventions to control those deemed to be physically and intellectually ‘unfit’. These included institutionalising or sterilising individuals.

“In Nazi Germany, doctors and nurses took this one step further and actually murdered people,” she said. “In their view, these people needed lifelong care and that was considered an economic burden. This is how I discovered the Aktion T4 programme.”

During a visit to Hartheim Castle near Linz, Austria – a former institution for mentally disabled people that became one of six killing centres used in Aktion T4 – Dr Atherton discovered that not all the victims were German or Austrian citizens.

“I saw a plaque with a breakdown of the nationalities of those who had died there. I couldn’t understand how someone from Britain could have their life ended in such a horrific way in another country,” she said.

“I could only find out their names, dates of birth and birthplaces, but I wanted to know more. I started by looking at one person, Ivy.”

Working alongside Florian Schwanninger, director of the Schloss Hartheim Learning and Memorial Centre, Dr Atherton trawled through thousands of entries in censuses, birth and marriage records, newspapers and Red Cross documents, to reconstruct Ivy’s life.

Their investigation into Ivy’s family tree traced her origins to Scotland, where she was born in 1911 to Austrian and German parents.

The research led to a family grave in Vienna, where Ivy was buried. A neighbour of Ivy’s niece knew how to get hold of Ivy’s living relatives. The relatives provided lever arch files containing historical documents and photographs, allowing Ivy’s name to be acknowledged and her life story to be told. That was in 2019.

During Covid, Dr Atherton spent many nights sat at her dining room table, finding out about other British-born people killed in Aktion T4 with a view to telling their stories.

“At first, it was just personal interest and curiosity – I never thought it would lead anywhere – but my work blossomed over the years to include 13 individuals from five out of the six killing centres,” she said.

“I like to see a person’s family tree grow and I don’t give up easily! The truth is out there, you just have to find it.”

The Finding Ivy project now incorporates the life stories of 13 British-born people murdered as part of Aktion T4. Their stories are told via display panels at the exhibition.

Visitors are encouraged to critically reflect on their own attitudes, beliefs and behaviours towards marginalised and devalued groups.

Societal attitudes have changed in many ways since the 1940s, but some subtle and socially accepted practices have the same outcome today. 

Pre-natal screening for Down’s Syndrome is common practice, while poor-quality healthcare is leading to people with learning disabilities dying up to 20 years earlier than the average.

“Pregnancies involving foetuses with Down’s Syndrome can be terminated up to the point of birth. That suggests that people with Down’s Syndrome have less value,” said Dr Atherton.

She also encourages people to reflect on the current debate around assisted dying.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is being debated in Parliament. If approved, it will give some terminally ill patients in England and Wales the option of an assisted death. Critics of the proposed bill argue that people with learning disabilities might be coerced into decisions.

The Finding Ivy research has brought a new historical awareness of an overlooked aspect of war. It has also helped people to understand the parallels in contemporary care for people with learning disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

The exhibition has toured Europe and has been seen across England, Wales, Germany and Austria.

Reflecting on the project, Dr Atherton said: “We have a professional responsibility to learn from history and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

“The project draws attention to parallel thinking in terms of the perceived societal value of people with disabilities then and now, and how eugenic undertones still pervade contemporary thinking about this group.

“I want people to feel that they can challenge when they feel that the wrong decision is being made, in order to safeguard individuals.”

Finding Ivy is a timely and vital reminder of the marginalisation of people with disabilities, across almost a century of modern history.

Hartheim Castle is now a place of learning and remembrance with a permanent exhibition dedicated to the 70,000 people who lost their lives in Aktion T4.

Their stories are not forgotten.

The ‘Finding Ivy: A Life Worthy of Life’ exhibition takes place from 17-21 June in Parkinson Court at the University of Leeds during Learning Disability Week.

A panel discussion about the issues raised by this research will be chaired by the newly appointed Lord Mayor of Leeds, Dan Cohen, from 5.30pm on 19 June. Both the exhibition and the panel discussion are free to attend.

Alongside Dr Atherton will be:

• Dr Liz Corcoran, Down's Syndrome Research Foundation UK
• Dr Nancy Jennings, relative of Zdenko Hoyos, one of the 13 British-born victims
• Jo Lay, Chair of the Learning/Intellectual Disability Nursing Academic Network (LIDNAN).

Further information

Dr Helen Atherton is a lecturer and nurse historian based in the School of Healthcare. She is a qualified nurse for people with learning disabilities and the co-editor of the book ‘Learning Disabilities: Towards Inclusion’. 

Her research focuses on the social history of people with learning disabilities. She has led and worked on projects with people with learning disabilities to raise public awareness of this history.

Dr Atherton regularly writes and speaks about the dangers of eugenic thinking in contemporary society.

For further information, email Richard Abbott in the University of Leeds press office at R.Abbott1@leeds.ac.uk.