Remembering the Victims of the Euthanasia Holocaust
German historians are compiling the names of the people with developmental disabilities murdered (in addition to tens of thousands of people with physical disabilities) in the German Euthanasia Holocaust circa 1939-1945. From the story:
German historians have started compiling a central register of 9,000 mentally ill people murdered as part of the Nazis' euthanasia policy, most of whom were previously unidentified. More than 100,000 people are believed to have been killed during a drive inspired by Hitler that was carried out in six extermination centres in Germany between 1940 and 1945.A correction is needed here. Hitler didn't inspire it, he was inspired by the pre-existing eugenics movement to boost it. Indeed, in Mein Kamph Hitler discussed these ideas, which he did not generate, but that were already in the public discourse raging in Germany, the USA, and the UK. Suggested Reading: The Nazi Doctors by Lifton and Death and Deliverance by Burleigh, War Against the Weak (about the USA eugenics movement) by Black.
The idea of a Nazi euthanasia campaign, backed by propaganda films portraying the mentally handicapped and incurably ill as "useless mouths to feed", was first outlined in Hitler's 1924 book "Mein Kampf" and became known as Operation T4.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 10:11 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Of course, those killed in the current euthanasia holocaust are denied even the dignity of a name.
Finally. This aspect of the holocaust is perpetually ignored in academic discussions. I wouldn't have known about the disabled victims of the holocaust if I hadn't done my own research on it, and, of course, this was a major topic in several of my intermediate, secondary, and post-secondary history classes. Even the History Channel often ignores or understates this aspect of the holocaust. I think that if scholars remain diligent, holocaust studies will eventually broaden to include acknowledgement of all the Nazis victims.
http://www.holocaust-history.org/lifton/index.shtml
has Lifton's book on the Nazi doctors on line....
Despite their history in the last century, the German people have re-built their national status by redeveloping their sense of compassion for the lives they destroyed. A noble goal for a nation that had once lost it's way.
In addition to the books Wesley's mentioned, both of which are excellent, another book to check out in order to track the historical relationship of American and Nazi eugenic policies is The Black Stork: Eugenic Infanticide and the Deaths of 'Defective' Infants in American Film.' It's an excellent resource for discussing eugenic and infanticidal policies that influenced the Nazis, and also contains shocking revelations about who supported infanticide and who didn't.
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