Liberation of Auschwitz Is A Reminder To Every Canadian

The liberation of Auschwitz reminds us of the ignorance and evil dealt enormous cruelty upon people with disabilities

By Andria Spindel, President and CEO, March of Dimes Canada – “Action T4” (German: Aktion T4) is likely not a familiar term to most Canadians, but to those of us in the disability/rehabilitation sector it should be, and it should remind us that ignorance and evil dealt enormous cruelty upon people with disabilities as part of the Nazi-era agenda.

It is a reminder to recognize and support the dignity, equality and humanity of our fellow human beings, including those with disabilities.

The Holocaust that resulted in the death of 6,000,000 Jews, included an official government sponsored program.

From September 1939-August 1941 the T4 program lead to the extermination of 70,173 people with mental and physical disabilities, followed by an ensuing, less official, elimination of another 200,000+ people with disabilities.

Treigartenstabe 4, the address of a villa in Berlin, in the borough of Tiergarten, was the headquarters of a supposed care institution, that really served as the headquarters for Adolf Hitler’s private physician and henchmen who directed part of a eugenics program aimed at “cleansing racial enemies,” including people with disabilities or mental health issues, from the German body politic.

Why must we remember January 27, 1945 and continue to memorialize those murdered and celebrate  this day? Because on that day, the Soviet Red Army liberated one of the most notorious, sickening and inhuman death camps, the Auschwitz Concentration Camp which included both labour and extermination camps, where at least 1.1 million people died. The place? Oswiecim, Poland.

Of those killed, “90% were Jews, but there were 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Romani and Sinti, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, 400 Jehovah’s Witnesses, thousands of homosexuals, and tens of thousands of other people of diverse backgrounds.

Those who did not die in the gas chambers, died of starvation, forced labour, infectious diseases, individual executions and medical experiments. “ (Wikipedia) The latter practice was part of the treatment of people with disabilities under Action T4.

On November 11th each year, we in Canada, commemorate the end of World War II; Remembrance Day  is a day to honour our own fallen soldiers.

Lest we forget, millions of people died, for no reason other than their difference,  their “otherness”, their “distinctiveness”, whether in dress, beliefs, customs, language, physical appearance, mental state, or sexual preference.

We honour their memory on January 27th, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a UN sponsored commemorative day which should remind us that human beings can be extremely inhuman, that “NEVER AGAIN” MUST MEAN  NEVER AGAIN, and that all human life has meaning, all human beings have value. Arising from the ashes of the crematoriums were several significant outcomes: The United Nations itself was created to help the world end hatred, end anti-Semitism, and end war. Has it been successful?

The State of Israel was established by the UN, to provide a permanent home for the Jewish people, allowing Jews to return to their ancestral home, should they wish. The concepts of equality, freedom, tolerance, inclusion, diversity, became part of our lexicon and our common values  post WWII.

It didn’t all happen at once. In Canada, we have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which guarantees rights to all citizens, but its taken specific legislation like Ontario’s AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) to cover full inclusion for people with disabilities, and other institutional frameworks have also evolved to support these values.

At the UN, we have an international Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, endorsed by Canada and may other countries, setting a standard on human dignity for people with disabilities.

For March of Dimes, and every disability/rehabilitation organization, our legacy must include knowledge that the horror of Action T4 is the antithesis of our values, and that our vision is always to strive for a society inclusive of all people with disabilities. We have a moral obligation to remember the past and to create a better future; loving and valuing the vulnerable, and those with disabilities among us.

For more on the T4 Program and Hadamar, see The Nazi Euthanasia (T4) Programme

Stephen Pate, NJN Network