Post by Admin on Jan 27, 2017 11:18:56 GMT
Holocaust Memorial Day: remembering the psychiatric patients who were victims of Nazi persecution -
www.mentalhealth.org.uk/blog/holocaust-memorial-day-remembering-psychiatric-patients-who-were-victims-nazi-persecution
"We’re all familiar with the horror of the Nazi attempts to annihilate the Jewish population in the 1940s – the Holocaust.
One of the less well-known aspects of Nazi policy was the genocide that included the slaughter of up to 275,0001 psychiatric patients. The majority of them, like me, had a diagnosis of schizophrenia. A further 400,000 people were sterilised on medical grounds.
Nazi persecution
Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis attempted to kill all Jewish people in Europe. This is known as the Holocaust (The Shoah in Hebrew). In addition, the Nazis targeted gypsies, black people, Slavic people, gay people, people with disabilities political opponents and those whose religious beliefs conflicted with Nazi ideology.
This year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day is “how can life go on?” It includes remembering past events, encouraging us to consider how we are facing hate today and how we can help people from persecuted groups to ensure that life goes on in the face of hate and persecution.
With these themes in mind, consider some of the arguments used to promote the murderous policy adopted toward psychiatric patients and why we must be aware of the impact this thinking could have now and in the future.
In the 1930s the eugenics movement was well established in the US and UK. The work of Ernst Rüdin and Franz Kallmann reinforced this - they believed that schizophrenia was simply an inherited disease. It became part of the quest for rassenhygiene (racial hygiene), which drove the Holocaust with mass murder at its core.
But this interpretation of the science was by no means the only driver. One early motivation was cutting the cost of care for psychiatric patients. Funding for care decreased as demand increased.2
In 1920, Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche published Permission for the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life. In it, they asked the question “Is there human life [whose] prolongation represents a perpetual loss of value, both for its bearer and for society as a whole?” They answered this by describing patients as “mentally dead”. This argument was repeated in, among others, The Eradication of the Less Valuable from Society.2"
www.regent.edu/acad/schedu/uselesseaters/
www.mentalhealth.org.uk/blog/holocaust-memorial-day-remembering-psychiatric-patients-who-were-victims-nazi-persecution
"We’re all familiar with the horror of the Nazi attempts to annihilate the Jewish population in the 1940s – the Holocaust.
One of the less well-known aspects of Nazi policy was the genocide that included the slaughter of up to 275,0001 psychiatric patients. The majority of them, like me, had a diagnosis of schizophrenia. A further 400,000 people were sterilised on medical grounds.
Nazi persecution
Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis attempted to kill all Jewish people in Europe. This is known as the Holocaust (The Shoah in Hebrew). In addition, the Nazis targeted gypsies, black people, Slavic people, gay people, people with disabilities political opponents and those whose religious beliefs conflicted with Nazi ideology.
This year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day is “how can life go on?” It includes remembering past events, encouraging us to consider how we are facing hate today and how we can help people from persecuted groups to ensure that life goes on in the face of hate and persecution.
With these themes in mind, consider some of the arguments used to promote the murderous policy adopted toward psychiatric patients and why we must be aware of the impact this thinking could have now and in the future.
In the 1930s the eugenics movement was well established in the US and UK. The work of Ernst Rüdin and Franz Kallmann reinforced this - they believed that schizophrenia was simply an inherited disease. It became part of the quest for rassenhygiene (racial hygiene), which drove the Holocaust with mass murder at its core.
But this interpretation of the science was by no means the only driver. One early motivation was cutting the cost of care for psychiatric patients. Funding for care decreased as demand increased.2
In 1920, Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche published Permission for the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life. In it, they asked the question “Is there human life [whose] prolongation represents a perpetual loss of value, both for its bearer and for society as a whole?” They answered this by describing patients as “mentally dead”. This argument was repeated in, among others, The Eradication of the Less Valuable from Society.2"
www.regent.edu/acad/schedu/uselesseaters/