Disabled Persecution

Over 200,000 disabled people were the first victims of the Holocaust. The atrocities caused by Hitler and the Nazi regime are well known in the Jewish community. Most people think only of the great losses suffered by the Jews when the word "Holocaust" is mentioned. But Hitler and the regime despised   disabled people   because an impairment   of any kind was an abhorrent to the future of his dream of a perfect race. In his lunacy, Hitler believed by eradicating every disabled person, he could wipe out disability. Babies born deaf, blind or with even the slightest imperfection were immediately disposed of, and abortions were common if the parents' genetic lineage was in question. Hitler ordered the making of propaganda films to persuade the public of the necessity of eliminating people with genetic defects. The film "Victims of the Past" was made on Hitler's explicit orders and he made sure the film was shown in Germany's 5,300 cinemas. Special lighting effects distorted features so disabled   people were portrayed as grotesque and could only survive at the expense of healthy people. The Nazis also sterilized nearly 400,000 Germans believed to have genetic impurities. During the 1930's, disabled people in Germany were referred to as "useless eaters". Nazi Germany targeted disabled people   and older people as a drain on public resources. Doctors, not soldiers, were put in charge of killing older people and disabled people, since they had first-hand knowledge of where they lived, and if their medical condition was temporary or not. Those deemed "curable" were transferred to special hospitals for slave labour and experiments. Dr. Josef Mengele was the most famous of these "researchers", torturing hundreds of children, especially those of a multiple birth, i.e. twins. The lives of institutionalised children were further brutalized by visits from members of the SA, SS, Hitler Youth and League of German Maidens who were taken on tours of institutions. The visitors regarded these tours as "freak shows" and there were many instances of nasty and brutal behaviour towards the children who lived in the institutions. More than 20,000 visitors came to the Eglfing-Haar institution. Dr. Pfannmuller, the director, took his visitors to the wards and lectured them (in front of the children) about the necessity of killing disabled for the "good of the nation". Pfannmuller advocated killing children long before the child euthanasia program was put into effect and used starvation as his preferred method.Taken from Barbara J McKee http://www.chairgrrl.com/

The Nuremberg Laws: Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health: The Attempt to Improve the German Aryan Breed, July 14, 1933Article I.(1.) Anyone who suffers from an inheritable disease may be surgically sterilized if, in the judgement of medical science, it could be expected that his descendants will suffer from serious inherited mental or physical defects.(2.) Anyone who suffers from one of the following is to be regarded as inheritably diseased within the meaning of this law: 1. Congenital feeble-mindedness2. Schizophrenia3. Manic-depression4. Congenital epilepsy5. Inheritable St. Vitas dance (Huntington's Chorea)6. Hereditary blindness7. Hereditary deafness8. Serious inheritable malformations(3.) In addition, anyone suffering from chronic alcoholism may also be sterilized.Article II. (1.) Anyone who requests sterilization is entitled to it. If he be incapacitated or under a guardian because of low state of mental health or not yet 18 years of age, his legal guardian is empowered to make the request. In other cases of limited capacity the request must receive the approval of the legal representative. If a person be of age and has a nurse, the latter's consent is required. (2.) The request must be accompanied by a certificate from a citizen who is accredited by the German Reich stating that the person to be sterilized has been informed about the nature and consequence of sterilization. (3.) The request for sterilization can be recalled. Article III. Sterilization may also be recommended by: (1.) the official physician (2.) the official in charge of a hospital, sanatorium, or prison. Article IV. The request for sterilization must be presented in writing to, or placed in writing by the office of the Health Inheritance Court. The statement concerning the request must be certified by a medical document or authenticated in some other way. The business office of the court must notify the official physician. Article VII. The proceedings of the Health Inheritance Court are secret. Article X. The Supreme Health Insurance Court retains final jurisdiction.

During the period of Nazi Horror in Germany over 100,000 disabled people were executed.

FIRST they came for disabled people and no one took any notice.