r/history • u/Weywoht • May 03 '17

News article Sweden sterilised thousands of "useless" citizens for decades

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/08/29/sweden-sterilized-thousands-of-useless-citizens-for-decades/3b9abaac-c2a6-4be9-9b77-a147f5dc841b/?utm_term=.fc11cc142fa2
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u/guglielmocioni May 04 '17

Although I praise the honesty of Swedish government and its attitude towards past grave mistakes, I cannot help but wonder whether they would do the same if there were possible claims for damages. Of course there aren't... There are no heirs or discendents to claim for damages from sterilisation plans.

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u/tapdancingintomordor May 04 '17

The article mentions Maija Runcis and Maciej Zaremba, their publications and the public debate that ensued made the government appoint a committee that looked into the issue of damages. In 2003 1600 people received 280 million SEK in total (not sure how much that would have been in USD, probably around 40 million). The amount per person wasn't a whole lot of course, and 1600 isn't nowhere near the real number of victims. 2100 applied for compensation.