Helga Gross was among 400,000 Germans forcibly sterilized under a Nazi law targeting people with disabilities. Born to a hearing family in 1923 in Hamburg, Germany, Helga was sterilized at age 16. "They explained to the deaf children that they didn’t want deaf children—that they had to be sterilized because they didn’t want deaf children to have children who would grow up and be deaf as well," Helga recalled. Helga didn't realize the significance of being sterilized until almost 20 years later w