The Sterilization Document

After I finished Rothstein's First Assignment I continued to find new information and documentation.  The most disturbing document that I found was written by a Charlottesville doctor.  In what appears to be a supporting document for a young woman’s commitment to The Colony, the doctor writes to the local Madison physician who attended Rothstein’s subjects.   

“We saw ---- in the clinic and found her to be well down to the imbecile level.  Certainly, there is every reason in the world why this woman should be sterilized.  We found no physical defect except some impetigo.  However, as both the husband and wife are both minors and wife obviously feebleminded we cannot get the gynecology department to sterilize her.  According to State laws, she would have to be committed to the Colony at Lynchburg.  We will be glad to do this if you do not wish to carry it out yourself.  I think it is too bad that this girl cannot be sterilized without all this trouble, but, apparently, it cannot be done.

Thank you for sending her down.  We will be glad to help in any way that we can.”

The date of the document is July 18, 1935. The young woman’s commitment to The Colony does not occur until Nov 1, 1935.  In court records she and her brother are both committed a little over three months later.

This girl’s mother is the woman featured in the Washington Post article by Virginia Lee Warren. She appears beside an image of the Corbin Hollow school teacher in photographs taken by Arthur Rothstein. Warren makes no comment about the girl or her brother’s commitment to the Colony.  Though documents indicate relatives and officials- including the school teacher, were aware that she was to be sterilized, Warren’s article makes no mention of it.  Warren’s article was published two days after the children’s commitment and months after the decision to have the girl  sterilized.  Rothstein's archive includes pictures of the girl and her brother as well as their siblings.  He photographed the family and their home extensively. 

I still don't fully understand this document but I continue to be troubled by it.  It adds a disturbing emphasis to the conclusion of my film.  I talked to the now deceased woman's niece and she confirmed that her aunt had never had any children.  She too was stunned by the document as she never knew this part of her aunt's history.