Bones Believed To Be Victims Of Nazi Euthanasia Program
MENDEN, GERMANY--Skeletons of children believed to have had physical and intellectual disabilities were found last week in an unmarked grave near a hospital where Nazis performed euthanasia during World War II.
According to Deutsche Welle news service, excavators found bones of twenty children between the ages of 1 to 7 years, alongside skeletons of five adults in the mass grave.
The local prosecutors said there was reason to believe the remains belonged to victims of the Nazi euthanasia program, which was practiced publicly from 1939 to 1941, and secretly until the end of the war in 1945.
An estimated 70,000 Europeans with disabilities were killed during Adolf Hitler's campaign to rid his "Master Race" of what the Nazis called "useless eaters".
Methods used to murder millions of Jews and people from other groups -- such as lethal injections and mass gassing -- were first performed and perfected on people with disabilities, most of them children.
Copyright 2006 Inonit Publishing
Article reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service. Please do not reprint, republish or forward without permission.
This goes to show once again how bad the nazis were. It also makes me wonder why there are still people that call themselves nazis. Why would you kill people because of their race, and poor innocent children?
Posted by: Karah Miller | October 11, 2006 09:11 PM
It's amazing that after over 50 years they're still finding the bodies of the victims of the Nazi onslaught of World War II. That just reinforces how insane the Nazi's were and how they would've kill everyone but themselves if they weren't stopped.
Posted by: Ross Sacharow | October 12, 2006 01:45 PM
As a person responsible for training people who work for individuals with varied capabilities, I have discussed this issue in training and I am amazed that people do not realize that The Holocaust was not limited to one specific group of people. We rarely note how deadly a concept it is to exclude any person/people from full community memebership for ANY reason; once it begins,where does it end??
Posted by: Anne Beman | October 13, 2006 11:02 AM
How true it is that history sometimes repeats itself,alhough in other suttle ways. I always thought the Nazi Party were killing the infirm because of their social security system would be able then enable them spend that money to fuel their war machine. Watch out the Demccrats always like to tinker with the Social Security System each time they gain enough power! Remember Carter and question # 13" What can you do that lead to an uproar! Also Clinton who let
Social Security unfairly picked on the disabled children receiving SSI. About 70% of the cases were reversed,especially the parents knowing how to play the game. I too thought it needed tweaking but not on the backs of the very poorest! What we do need is a "National Health"type system for everyone. Why the govwernment has not gone after the disabled military I do not know. They are the ones that will use a lot more of resources both medical and financial for a long time down the raod. You can add two and two on that!
Posted by: Gregory | October 18, 2006 01:50 PM