Det glemte folkemordet

Det glemte folkemordet

Av Berit Vegheim, Borgerrettstiftelsen Stopp Diskrimineringen

Henry Friedlander, The Origins of Nazi Genocide: from Euthanasia to the Final Solution, 1995:
«In the postwar world, Auschwitz has come to symbolize genocide in the twentieth century.
But Auschwitz was only the last, most perfect Nazi killing center.
The entire killing enterprise had started in January 1940 with the murder of the most helpless human beings, institutionalized handicapped patients.»
Fra Euthanasia på ARCs webside:
Already in 1924/25 Hitler wrote:
“If there is no more power to fight for the own health, the right to live comes to an end.” (Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf, p. 282).
The benefit of eliminating approximately 70,000 handicapped persons was mentioned by Hitler on the NSDAP party conference in 1929.
Fra DRA Forgotten Crimes, fotnote 1, side 2:
“In the formal euthanasia program in Germany, scholars estimate that at least 275, 000 were killed solely because of their disability…
However, as discussed in subsequent sections of this report, most estimates do not include (i) those gassed or shot when they became disabled, (ii) many who were both Jewish and disabled, (iii) those with disabilities killed in occupied countries, and (iv) many of those murdered after the end of the «official» killing programs.
Altogether, as many as a million people with disabilities were likely killed, sterilized or exploited during the Holocaust.”
Friedlander hevder at det nazistiske massemordet tok sikte på å utslette fysisk tre grupper, jøder, sigøynere og funksjonshemmede. Folkemordet på alle tre vokste ut av den samme rasistiske biomedisinske ideologien, selv om tidsrammer, modaliteter og dimensjoner ved mordene på hver gruppe var forskjellige.
Sitat Jean Baudrillard
«Forgetting the Extermination Is Part Of The Extermination Itself.»
Fra DRA Forgotten Crimes, kap. V (webversjonen) siste side:
“Finally, the suffering of the disability community also must never be excluded or minimized in the telling of the «story» of the Holocaust because, as Jewish people have long recognized, the key to «Never Again» is never forgetting. It does not diminish the agonies of the other countless victims of the Holocaust to fully recognize the atrocities committed against men, women, and children with disabilities. There is enough grief to go around. The world has never experienced such a devastating loss as that caused by the Holocaust.
Yet, so long as history fails to recognize the persecution of people with disabilities, we cannot be assured that it will not be repeated.“

Det fortiede folkemordet

Notat og referanser til foredraget “Det glemte folkemordet”, om nazismens behandling av mennesker med funksjonsnedsettelser.

Det som er blitt fortalt:
Den vanlige oppfatningen har vært at utryddelsen kun omfattet utviklingshemmede og psykisk syke pasienter i institusjon, og at dette foregikk i en kort periode fra 1940 til 1941 under det såkalte T4-programmet. Det blir videre hevdet at utryddelsen ble stoppet pga. offentlige protester.
Som Friedlander påpeker i sin bok, er utryddelsen av funksjonshemmede sett på som et skritt på veien.
Fra Rolf Hobson: Rasehygiene og eutanasiprogrammet HL-senterets webside:
«Eutanasiprogrammet var en nødvendig forutsetning for det senere folkemordet på jødene og sigøynerne. For det første ble det klart at avgjørende moralske barrierer kunne brytes, såfremt man hadde godkjennelse fra høyeste hold og arbeidet under et slør av hemmelighold. For det andre ble det utviklet teknikker i institusjonene som siden kom til anvendelse i de okkuperte polske områdene og i tilintetgjørelsesleirene: Gassing med karbonmonoksid, først i lastebiler, siden i spesialbygde gasskamre; ”etterbehandling” av likene for å fjerne gulltenner.»
Det er først de siste år at utryddelsen av mennesker med nedsatt funksjonsevne, er blitt kalt et folkemord. FNs konvensjon om folkemord fra 1951 omfatter ikke denne befolkningsgruppen.
Begrepet Holocaust er nytt i denne sammenheng.
Tallmaterialet er usikkert, hovedsakelig fordi den dokumentasjon som fantes, ble ødelagt.
Men vi vet nå at anslagene som har vært gitt, er altfor lave.
I Forgotten Crimes anslås det at T4-programmet alene tok livet av 275 000. I tillegg kommer alle som ble drept utenfor T4-programmet (se sitater i vedlegg ll).
Det som ikke har blitt fortalt:
Det var T4-programmet og ikke utryddelsen som opphørte i 1941.
Barneeutanasiprogrammet opphørte aldri, det fortsatte ut krigen og også en tid etter.
1929 – Hitler sier åpent at 70 000 mennesker bør elimineres.
375 000 registrert sterilisert fra 1933 til 1939 – flere tusen døde av inngrepet som rammet minst 400 000 til 1945.
1933 – lovforslag om å gi leger rett til eutanasi (den gode død) som offisielt innebar at leger ga uhelbredelig syke hjelp til å dø i humanismens navn.
18. august 1939 – barneeutanasiprogrammet starter.
Et dekret om registrering av alle barn inntil 3 år med en eller annen defekt, dvs. nedsatt funksjonsevne, se ordren og registreringsskjema under Euthanasia på -www.deathcamps.org/.
I 1943 ble aldersgrensen utvidet til 17 år. Foreldre til barn i målgruppen ble fratatt støtte.
Barneeutanasiprogrammet drepte minst 8000 barn og varte hele krigen ut. Anslagene er usikre, fra 8000 til 25 000 barn.
1. september 1939 – vokseneutanasiprogrammet igangsatt.
Et hemmelig notat ga legene Bouhler og Brandt rett til autorisering av leger som kunne ta avgjørelse om å avslutte liv. T4-programmet ble etablert.
Seks institusjoner ble sentrale dødsanstalter.
Målsettingen ble tilslørt med eutanasi (den gode død) som også ble propagandert for som rett til å dø og andre fine formuleringen som ga inntrykk av dødshjelp og befrielse fra smerte.
Registreringsskjemaene av funksjonsnedsettelser forteller at dette ikke bare gjaldt dødssyke, men omfattet et vidt spekter av psykiske og fysiske funksjonsnedsettelser.
Drapsraten økte etter T4-programmets opphør.
Etter at T4-programmet formelt ble avsluttet, rådet det som i ettertid er blitt kalt ”Wild”-euthanasia. Da forsvant alle standarder om menneskeverd. Uten kriterier og registrering trengtes ingen begrunnelse for å drepe pasienter. Brysomme og eldre ble drept.
Massemord ble aldri formelt forankret.
Men T4-prgrammets innhold var kjent blant folk, bl.a fordi svært mange mennesker bidro og var ansatt i programmet. T4 fremsto som glamorøst og ansatte fikk privilegier, bl.a svært god lønn. Det ga status å jobbe i T4-programmet.
Hele den tyske legestand og helsevesen var involvert, også etter T4
44,8 % av alle autoriserte leger var medlemmer i NSDAP (Nazipartiet).
Barrierer mot å ta liv var fjernet; formålet helliget midlet.
Den tyske legeforening tok aldri et oppgjør med sin fortid.
World Medical Association, WMA, valgte så sent som i 1992 en tidligere eutanasilege som president. Legen ble aktivt forsvart av den tyske legeforening, (Seidelmann, 1995). Den tyske legeforening har stor innflytelse i WMA, bl.a økonomisk. Se sitater i vedlegg l.
Institusjonsdrapene fortsatte etter krigen. Personalet og ledelsen fortsatte i sine jobber, og fulgte rutiner som var solid etablert under krigen.
Mange tusen mennesker med nedsatt funksjonsevne, men med arbeidsevne, ble brukt i slavearbeid både i og utenfor konsentrasjonsleirene. De hadde egne merker på seg i leirene, hvor det kunne f.eks. stå døvstum. Programmet i konsentrasjonsleirene ble kalt aksjon 14 f 13.
Mange tusen ble drept i medisinske eksperimenter i hele det tyske riket.
Dessuten døde mange etter de brutale steriliseringsmetodene, mange tok også selvmord.
Jarle Ofstad (Ofstad, 2006) og andre fremtredende forskere og humanister mener at eutanasi aldri har tatt slutt. Også i dag sorteres mennesker på grunnlag av sine arveegenskaper.
Noen fakta om rasehygiene og eutanasi
Nazistenes utryddelse av befolkningsgrupper må ses i lys av sin samtid.
Rasehygieniske teorier rådet fra midten av 1800 tallet i hele Vest-Europa.
1910-1950 – Eugeniske lover ble innført i alle vestlige land. Disse lovene ga staten rett til å sterilisere og eller isolere mennesker med antatt dårlige arveegenskaper.
(eugenisk betyr god fødsel)
I Skandinavia sto omsorgs- og humanismehensyn helt sentralt i argumentasjonen for rasehygieniske tiltak.
Ved å luke ut livsuverdig liv og dårlig arvestoff, reddet man menneskeheten fra forfall og undergang. Ideen om den ”nordiske rase” rådet.
Norske forskere var ledende innen rasehygienisk forskning.
I Norge var Jon Reidar Mjøen en av de ledende rasehygieneteoretikerne.
Mjøen utga boken Rasehygiene i 1914.
Rasehygiene besto av positive og negative tiltak; fra økonomisk støtte til familier med antatt gode arveegenskaper til isolasjon og tvangssterilisering.
For eksempel foreskrev Mjøen total isolasjon for ”legemlige og åndelig forkrøblede individer” for å redde den menneskelige rase.
Norge hadde nære bånd til Nazi-Tyskland og leverte både teoretiske og empiriske bidrag til naziregimets ideologer.
Nazismen ga legitimitet til å sette rasehygienisk utryddelse i system.

Referanser om Holocaust og mennesker med funksjonsnedsettelser
Kildelisten er laget av Berit Vegheim, Stopp Diskrimineringen.
Artiklene kan fås på mail fra post@stopdisk.no. Se også www.stopdisk.no.
Spesielt anbefalt kilde: Forgotten Crimes av Disability Rights Advocates, USA.
Av de kilder som finnes om utryddelsen av mennesker med nedsatt funksjonsevne, er Forgotten Crimes en av de mest grundige og fullstendige, fordi den ikke begrenser seg kun til eutanasiprogrammet, T4, slik andre kilder gjør. Utryddelsen i institusjonene fortsatte etter at T4 var formelt avviklet, den såkalte ”Wild”-euthanasia og barneeutanasien ble ikke avviklet. Videre viser den at utryddelsen også skjedde i konsentrasjonsleirene og i annet slavearbeid. Rapporten viser dessuten at anslag over drepte er for lavt i andre kilder.
Kilder:
Den vakre død Høgskoleavisa 5/2001. Høgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag. www.hist.no/
Ewans, Suzanne E. (2004): Forgotten Crimes. The Holocaut and people with Disabilities. Utgitt av Disability Rights Advocates, DRA. Kortversjon på –www.dralegal.org-. Vedlegg 11
Friedlander, Henry (1995): The Origins of Nazi Genocide: from Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Press
Neugebauer, Wolfgang, red.: (2005) Tötungsanstalt Hartheim.
(Oberösterreich in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus ; 3) ISBN 3-900313-78-4
Ofstad, Jarle (2006): Den siste hjelper: aktiv dødshjelp. Arneberg forlag.
Rapport fra en dødsleir. Høgskoleavisa 10/2001, Høgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag. www.hist.no/
Rundskriv 1944: De uhelbredelige sinnssyke
Seidelmann, William E. (1989): Mengele Medicus. Medicine’s Nazi Heritage, in: International Journal of Health Service 19, 1989, S. 599-610
Seidelmann, William E. (1995): Whither Nurenberg? Medicine’s Continuing Nazi Heritage.
Foredragsmanus om tysk og internasjonal medisins manglende oppgjør med sin nazifortid. Vedlegg 1 inneholder sitater fra artikkelen.
Skorgen, Torgeir (2002): Rasenes oppfinnelse. Rasetenkningens historie. Spartacus forlag.
Vegheim, Berit (2006): Diskriminering og rasisme i dagens Norge. Når raseteorien er forkastet, er det på tide å finne fram til en ny og tidsriktig forståelse av rasismefenomenet.
www.stopdisk.no/
Gode kilder om Euthanasia på nett
ARC – Action Reinhard Camps: www.deathcamps.org/
Det danske Holocaustsenteret: www.holocaust-uddannelse.dk/baggrund/eutanasi.asp
Disability Rights Advocates: www.dralegal.org/
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: www.ushmm.org/
Vedlegg l
Utdrag fra ”Whither Nurenberg?”
Her følger et lite utdrag fra foredraget Whither Nurenberg? av William E. Seidelmann. M.D (Seidelmann, 1995, 2006), som handler om legestandens manglende oppgjør og fortsatte forsvar for utryddelsen av mennesker med funksjonsnedsettelser. Utdraget er dels referert på norsk.
44.8 % av alle autoriserte leger var medlemmer i NSDAP (Nazipartiet).
“the German medical profession found in the Nazi movement a sympathetic ear to ideas of eugenics, race, and degeneration that had been developing within German medicine. The Nazi leadership found in medicine a scientifically legitimate vehicle for the achievement of their political goal of racial purification. This was central to the professional goal of population health or «volksgesundheit,» which focused on race hygiene”
Tre viktige hendelser som ledet fram til et system for å sikre ren rase.
1) Lov om sterilisering i 1933 – hele det tyske helsevesen deltok i programmet for å hindre spredning av dårlige arveegenskaper.
2) Nurenberg raselovene i 1935 – rase ble en diagnose som måtte stilles av leger.
3) Euthanasiprogrammet – etablert 1. september 1939, formelt avsluttet i 1941.
Programmet tok livet av flere hundretusen personer i Polen, Tyskland og Østerrike. Men også i andre områder som ble invadert.
Programmet utviklet et velsmurt apparat for masseutryddelse og tilsløring av den ved at det ble etablert et tilsynelatende ordinært byråkratisk system.
Programmet prøvde ut effektive drapsmetoder og etablert praksiser og rutiner som var overførbare til andre grupper. Noen var eksperter på masseutryddelse gjennom hele krigen.
SS members were provided with educational sessions by the staff of Eglfing-Haar (drapsanstalt for barn) where the killing continued until virtually the end of the war.
T4 apparatet ble brukt til å drepe i konsentrasjonsleirene før de fikk sitt eget apparat.
Verschuer og hans assistent Mengele.
Førstnevnte fikk fortsette sin karriere etter krigen, og blir fortsatt referert til i faglitteratur om genetikk.
Forskningsmaterialet – de drepte – er blitt benyttet til nåtid.
Et eksempel er Hallervorden-Spatz (hjerneforskere) med en sykdom oppkalt etter seg.
Fromm 1973-74 og Sewering-saken, valgt som president for WMA i 1992.
Han ble støttet av tyske leger i både den tyske organisasjonen. og i WMA-styret.
“Sixty years after Hitler’s rise to power, 55 years after the start of the euthanasia programs, and 50 years after the murder of Babette Frowis, the death of an innocent handicapped girl in the Nazi terror state was justified with the assertion that disabled people who are aggressive are dangerous!”
“In 1987 a German medical student was publicly rebuked by Dr. Vilmar because she had criticized the Federal Chamber for permitting the euthanasia doctors to continue to practice.”
I 1986 mistet en lege legelisensen i Tyskland for kritikk av dem.
Den tyske legeorganisasjonen er ledende for europeisk utdanning.
Vedlegg ll
Sitater fra webversjonen (kortversjonen) av ”Forgotten Crimes”
Some people erroneously believe that the number of victims with disabilities is relatively small. However, ample evidence shows that people with disabilities were subjected to slave labor, were looted, plundered, and otherwise exploited, both within Germany and in the territories conquered by the Nazis. In every way that other victims, such as the Jews, suffered and lost, people with disabilities suffered and lost. Nevertheless, the full extent of the atrocities suffered by people with disabilities may never be known. Until very recently, little historical research was directed toward disabled victims of the Holocaust. Even today, only a handful of scholars have begun to focus their attention on this task.
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People with all kinds of disabilities depression, retardation, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, cancer, mobility impairments, «slow learners,» deafness and blindness were labeled as «useless eaters.» People with disabilities were the first victims of Hitler’s efforts to create a master race; the elimination of people with disabilities was a central component of the Nazis’ plan to «purify» the Aryan race. People with disabilities were also the last victims, and they continued to be murdered even after the German war machine collapsed.
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The Nazi mechanisms for mass extermination of Jewish victims, such as carbon monoxide poisoning in «shower rooms,» were first developed and perfected through the disability program. As a result, more than 275,000 people with disabilities were murdered in the Aktion T-4 program, not counting all those who lost their lives in the concentration camps and after the formal phase of T-4 ended.
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History matters. Remembrance of the mass barbarism of the Holocaust for people with disabilities is critical to a current understanding of both (a) why and how people with disabilities continue to be marginalized and (b) the attitudes and moral failures that allowed the Holocaust to happen. Until the full story of the Nazi nightmare is told and remembered, we all remain at risk.
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Although these objectives never fully crystallized into formal legislation, they were effectively carried out by means of a well-organized «euthanasia» program known as Aktion T-4. In September 1939, Hitler signed a secret memo charging Philip Bouhler and Dr. Karl Brandt, Hitler’s personal physician, with the responsibility of authorizing physicians to grant a «mercy death» to patients judged incurably «sick.» However, the massive organization of T-4 and the descriptions of those to be killed reveal that it was never intended to be limited to «mercy deaths» for the terminally ill.
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There is strong evidence that the horrific intentions of Aktion T-4 were obvious to the public. Many citizens were active participants in the mass extermination of people with disabilities. The programs required a network of workers to drive the vans, dig graves, run the incinerators, clean the hospital wards and process paperwork. It was even considered glamourous and monetarily beneficial to work on the «classified» T-4 program. Employees were offered dental work at reduced prices that used recycled gold from murdered people with disabilities. T-4 staff members and their families were granted frequent free vacations at choice resorts in Austria, as well as special allowances, bonuses and other perks. The turnover rate of T-4 employees was remarkably low.
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To maintain the high level of «efficiency» and to keep the spirits of the hospital staff at an optimum, the hospital administrators repeatedly underscored the importance of the killing program. For example, during the summer of 1941, a ceremony in the right wing lobby at Hadamar marked a milestone in the killing program. The entire hospital staff attended the celebration, where beer and wine were served. Following the initial festivities, all participants proceeded to the basement to witness the burning of the ten thousandth victim. The corpse was garnished with fresh flowers arranged attractively around small flags bearing the Nazi swastika. One of the doctors offered a few inspirational words to the participants about the importance of the work at Hadamar. The body was then thrust into the furnace. At this point, several of the participants performed a mock eulogy of the victim, to the great pleasure of the others, all set to the music of a local Polka band.
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In addition to Aktion T-4, the Nazis developed a program specifically to target the most vulnerable: children with disabilities. The killing of newborns was of the highest priority to prevent a new generation of people with disabilities. Accordingly, the Reich Committee for Scientific Research of Serious Illness of Hereditary and Protonic Origin was created to pursue a children’s «euthanasia» program. On August 18, 1939, the committee issued a decree that required reporting of all newborns and infants under the age of three with suspected «serious hereditary diseases.» These «diseases» included Down’s syndrome, deformities, paralysis, deafness, blindness, and numerous others. While physicians had been unofficially killing babies «unfit to live» since at least 1933, the creation of this committee officially authorized such killings.
Dr. Karl Brandt explained the aim: «The objective was to obtain possession of these abortions and destroy them as soon as possible after they had been brought into the world.» A questionnaire was prepared in which the attending physician provided a detailed history. The doctors also made predictions about the baby’s future quality of life. The questionnaires were then sent to a committee of physicians who determined whether to give the child a mark of «+», which recommended extermination. Those disabled children selected to be murdered were transferred to one of 28 official killing centers. These were usually located in a wing of a hospital. One such «children’s department» consisted of 640 beds in the Austrian institution Am Steinhof; the «department» was an active children’s killing ward.
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In many cases poison was administered slowly over several days or weeks so that death could be attributed to pneumonia or other complications. Other doctors preferred the particularly painful approach of starvation. Dr. Hermann Pfannmuller wanted his patients to die of «natural causes.» When giving a tour of his hospital, Dr. Pfannmuller was described as exhibiting a child, holding it like a dead rabbit and declaring with a grin: «With this one, for example, it will still take two to three days.»
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. Many of the original T-4 staff were responsible for the «14 f 13» transfers of concentration camp inmates to euthanasia institutions.
Among the markings used to identify concentration camp inmates was a special armband with the German word Blod that indicated prisoners who were «feeble-minded.» These people were also sometimes forced to wear a cruel sign around their necks that read, «I am a Moron!»
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One of the most notorious killing hospitals was the Meseritz-Obrawalde hospital in Prussia, which facilitated the extermination of disabled patients from twenty-six German cities. The staff at Meseritz-Obrawalde selected «patients who caused extra work for nurses, those who were deaf-mute, ill, obstructive, or undisciplined, and anyone else who was simply annoying.» At this institution, the preferred methods of murder were drug overdoses or lethal injections.
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Although the Aktion T-4 euthanasia program was «officially» halted in August of 1941, the exterminations continued. The stop order applied only to the official German killing centers and to the use of poison gas. Mass murder of people with disabilities continued in other institutions and by other means, and the rate of murder actually increased. Also, the stop order did not apply to the children’s killing program or to the so-called medical research on disabled children. Thus, a decentralized system of «wild» euthanasia continued until World War II ended in 1945.
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«Although its control over the localized euthanasia killing lacked the precision of the earlier killing-center phase, the T-4 Central Office did continue to recruit and direct T-4 also expanded the pool of potential victims; persons suffering from diseases of old age were included as T-4 combed through old-age homes and poorhouses .» Friedlander Origins of Nazi Genozide, p. 159.
Moreover, the killing continued even after the collapse of the Nazi regime. Three months after the war had ended, a German physician returning home from the front found that psychiatrists at a local institution were still routinely killing their patients. On May 29, 1945, American troops stood by unaware as four year old Richard Jenne became the last victim of Nazi murder at Kaufbenren hospital, less than half a mile away.
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On March 12, 1943, the Swiss government increased its network of internment camps. These camps were used to contain refugees who had entered after August 1942 but who had not been repatriated. Many suffering from physical or mental disabilities were quarantined in various hospitals and sanatoriums. Others were put to work. For example, one refugee kept at Gyrenbad was forced into hard labor, fed poor food, and made to sleep on straw. Later, he was sent to work on an isolated farm. The fact that he suffered from polio and wore a brace on his deformed leg did not matter.
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Eugenic and discriminatory attitudes continue to degrade and victimize people with disabilities in Switzerland. As Professor Jacques Voneche, a specialist in child and adolescent psychology at the University of Geneva, describes: «Obviously, these sterilizations are still being practiced today in Switzerland, but not openly.» He suggests that forced sterilizations are supported by parents, doctors and leaders of institutions. Authorities have denied these allegations, and the Swiss government has evaded responsibility by arguing that the 26 cantons of the Swiss federation are each responsible for making their own decisions on public health.
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The looting methods developed in euthanasia centers were later used in the concentration camps, which also included disabled people. «The system of stealing gold teeth and gold bridgework from the corpses of the murdered victims was first introduced in the euthanasia killing centers and then copied in the extermination camps of Operation Reinhard.»
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Eradicating «social burdens» saved the government and the German war machine millions of Reich marks. Overall, the Nazis expected to save 885,439,800 RMS by September 1, 1951. Even school text books asked students to calculate the costs of maintaining people with disabilities. One such «problem» presented in a text book stated, «[t]he construction of an insane asylum requires 6 million RMS. How many housing units 15,000 RMS could be built for the amount spent on insane asylums?» The termination of state financial allowances for children with disabilities in 1941 became still another source of financial gain.
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Also, historians have revealed that the research of Nazi neurologist Heinrich Gross was based on «the preserved brains of children killed because they were deemed handicapped or anti-social.» Doctors accused of the Nazi-era killings of disabled children used the remains of the victims for research up to the mid-1960s.
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V. UNMARKED GRAVES: THERE HAVE BEEN NO MEMORIALS, NO REMEMBRANCE AND NO REPARATIONS FOR THE AGONIES INFLICTED ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.
The suffering of people with disabilities during the Holocaust has gone unrecognized and uncompensated. Because of neglect by historians, as well as the political powerlessness and economic deprivation of people with disabilities, no memorial center or museum specifically for survivors with disabilities exists anywhere in the world today. People with disabilities are entitled to such a remembrance center one which reflects their own culture, suffering, obstacles, pain and triumphs. A proper memorial should encapsulate the histories and context out of which monumental events arise.
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Moreover, although there are literally hundreds of Holocaust memorials internationally, it is exceedingly rare for any of them to give more than a passing reference to people with disabilities. Most do not even mention the horrors inflicted on disabled people during the Holocaust.
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Similarly, the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, when visited by Disability Rights Advocates staff, did not have, among its many expensive, high-tech displays, even a single exhibit dealing with people with disabilities.
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After the war, disabled victims were not recognized as persons persecuted by the Nazi regime. Survivors received no restitution for time spent in the killing hospitals; neither did they receive restitution for compulsory sterilization. Although the sterilization law had been declared invalid by the Allies, the postwar German state did not recognize sterilization under the Nazi era law as racial persecution, and postwar German courts held that compulsory sterilization under the law had followed proper procedures.
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One reparations Court declared that disabled victims were «people below the level of ciphers.» Another Court refused to punish those who acted in the euthanasia program because euthanasia had had its supporters before the Nazi era, and therefore the act was not punishable as a specifically Nazi crime. From time to time efforts were made to expand the guidelines of a 1953 law, so as to provide for those who were victims of the sterilization and euthanasia policies. These efforts all failed.
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The neglect continues to the present. People with disabilities were designated as one of five victim groups, but were completely overlooked in the notice process of In re: Holocaust Victim Assets; Weisshau