Thread: What

Holocaust? I'm doing a project on disabled (the blind, deaf, mute, and cripples) during the Holocaust. I can't seem to find detailed information, just overall history on disables. Do you know any good websites?

Try this site on the T-4 Euthanasia program.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/t4.html

Also this site which deals directly with your question.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/disabled.html

The Holocaust museum has a section on it and traveling speakers recently there was a symposium at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf on this. Just as there are still living undisabled survivors there are living disabled. Deaf are common. Mentally retarded and insane were often put to death. Only a few deaf were euthanized, but a lot were forcibly sterilized. Interestingly enough to hearing people one reason deaf dislike Alexander Graham Bell so much was the invention of the telephone it created a lasting barrier to deaf in professional and personal life. He was trying to help his deaf wife by inventing a machine to restore her hearing. Another is his pushing the strict oralism movement in America. Before that using sign language brought from France deaf professionals and sincre hearing as a minority had taught deaf children and deaf had more control over their lives. The oralism movement removed that from their hands and made a lot of deaf second class citizens. Oralism put the power over the deaf in the hands of hearing and at the same time split the deaf community. Finally Bell came up with the idea deaf should be forcibly sterilized to stop them from passing the gene on. This ignored the fact that most deaf had hearing parents and most deaf couples had hearing children. This is still true. Supposedly Hitler thanked him for his "insight", but that may just be a story. Today in America we are a long way from equality especially in more consertative areas of the country. Typically every state of the union has at least one city where there is a large deaf enclave and the hearing community accepts the deaf well. That is the city, the states residential school for the deaf is located in. But even the SSA doesn't treat deaf the same from city to city and state to state. Some areas it is good and easy to get services like interpreters. Others the SSA workers fail to make accodomation for communcation for years and then blame deaf for any mistakes. We have come a long way in my life time. But there is a long way to go.