Kristent arbeid for døve som makt og motmakt i perioden 1930–1945

Abstract

The chapter explores and discusses Christian religious work for deaf people with disabilities in the period of the eugenics, 1930–1945. The minister for the deaf Lutheran church in Norway, Conrad Bonnevie-Svendsen had a leading role both in the church and at the Home of the deaf, a diaconal institution providing a home and care services for deaf persons with disabilities. As a minister, Bonnevie-Svendsen had a leading role in the underground work under the Nazi occupation of Norway. Simultaneously, the Home of the deaf initiated and administered a work farm for deaf men with disabilities, segregating the deaf from the rest of the society. The Christian philanthropic work for deaf thus both adapted to the contemporary practice of segregation and worked against the occupation. This ambivalence is discussed in light of Foucault’s theory of counter conduct.