WWII and People with Disabilities

Last week I went to a film showing put on by the Allan Simpson Memorial Fund in cooperation with the Human Rights Museum Committee being created in Winnipeg. The film is called Liebe Perla. It's about how during the Nazi invasion, even before WWII was declared, the Nazis attacked anyone with a disability and used them for medical experiments.

In Hitler's mind, people with disabilities had no value in what he was trying to create as his perfect society. People with disabilities were considered "non-people," and they were used as medical rats. They were sterilized because he didn't want more "non-people" born, and this was done with no anesthetic. They were also put through medical experiments, some of which he knew would kill them. In the documentary, they interview some people who survived the awful experience of being tortured and watching other detainees go up in smoke in the gas chamber.

Simi Linton, the film's representative in the US, spoke at the showing. She talked about this part of WWII that you don't hear much about in the mainline information about the war. She was basically saying that if we don't talk about it, history could repeat itself.

I cannot believe that this part of history is in the background so often. The Committee of the Human Rights Museum is going to give this part of WWII a voice. I hope that people start looking at this part of WWII and realize that even in today's society disability issues are a long way from where they should be in the broader society. It was only in the late 1970s when sterilization of people with disabilities in Canada was not automatically done without the patient knowing or consenting.