October 10, 2001
Inside New Special Ed Rules — p. 3 Janet Reno Interview — p. 4 2001 Legislature Review — p. 13
Directory of Organizations — Page 8
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“The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport.”
—Barbara Jordan
Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Mpls. MN Permit No. 4766
Volume 12, Number 10
SOURCES
RESOURCES
October 10, 2001
DISABILITY HOLOCAUST REMEMBERED HADAMAR DURING THE WAR by Susan O’Connor [Last March, while on a faculty exchange to Norway, Augsburg College professor Susan O’Connor traveled with a group of 28 Norwegians, some with disabilities, to Hadamar, Germany to visit the site where thousands of people with disabilities were put to death as part of the Nazi program from 1941 to 1945. What follows is an account of her trip.]
New State Program For People With Disabilities by Deb Holtz
M
innesotans with disabilities will define, develop, and drive the quality assurance system for the services they receive if the goals for a new division within the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) are met. The new Community Quality Initiatives Division was formed out of a desire to have a coordinated approach to quality assurance for community services to people with disabilities. In the past, DHS has sponsored many successful quality assurance projects, such as the development of performance indicators in mental health; reviews of chemical health services; and a variety of consumer surveys for people with developmental disabilities, people living with HIV/ AIDS, and people with traumatic brain injuries. Our division will build upon these efforts and coordinate them for the benefit of all disability groups. We hope to define quality more broadly. Quality measurement traditionally has focused on health and safety, and systems processes rather
than individually defined quality of life. Assuring that individually defined needs for health and safety are met and providing streamlined, easy-to-use processes are integral components to quality, but they are just parts of the entire picture. Basic questions regarding a person’s quality of life need to be asked. Do people enjoy satisfying, ongoing social relationships? Do they enjoy equal employment opportunities? Are people connected to and involved in their communities? These and other more informal aspects of community life need to be considered and measured as part of overall quality.
Persons with Disabilities administration.
Another priority of the team will be working to improve the consistency and reliability of information being provided statewide to people with disabilities. We have heard from consumers that systems need to be developed so that people and their families have the information, tools, and power to direct their own supports and have real choices. Our team will work toward these goals with other divisions within the Continuing Care for
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To assist people of all ages who have a disability to move out of nursing homes
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To further develop a consumer-directed personal care assistance program, and
Our division already has engaged a broad base of representatives of people with disabilities while doing our most pressing work this summer: writing proposals for millions of dollars in federal grants to improve services for Minnesotans of all ages with a disability or long-term illness. The grants are sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, formerly known as the Health Care Finance Agency. The grant funds must be used for three purposes:
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To change the state’s infrastructure to enable more people of all ages who have a disability to live in the community, rather than in institutions.
New Program - cont. on p. 13
T
he killing in Hadamar began in January 1941. Hadamar, Germany was the site where 15,000 people with disabilities were put to death between 1941-1945. It was part of Hitler’s “euthanasia” program, the term used to describe what we now know as The Holocaust. Up until August 1941, many of the murders were committed in the infamous gas chambers. After that date, the archbishop of the area began to question what was happening, and from then until the end of the war in 1945, another 5000 people were killed there in a more secretive manner, either by being intentionally overmedicated or by being starved to death. 15,000 people with disabilities were killed at Hadamar, and between 200,000 and 275,000 in total throughout the rest of Germany and in surrounding countries. The history of what happened at this institution in 1941 begins much earlier. In 1934, those who didn’t fit into the ideal of the Nazis— the poor, the unemployed, and others, over 400,000 people in all—were sterilized. This happened to both men and women. The history of Hadamar itself relates initially to people with disabilities, although, toward
the end of the war, elderly people and even wounded soldiers were sent there to clear out the hospitals. People with all types of disabilities, including epilepsy, were sent to Hadamar. Those who were institutionalized at the time were brought from the institutions to what were called “transit centers.” These were like collection sites. Once there were enough people at a transit center, the hospital was called and three buses came out to pick them up and transfer them to Hadamar. They were told only that they were being transferred to another institution. They arrived at Hadamar and were unloaded into a large room with beds lined up in a row (similar to what we think of in our state hospitals), where they stayed until their deaths. Three main criteria were used to determine who should be killed. First, could the person work? Second, would the person go back to their family or stay in the institution for the next 20 years? Third, did family members ever visit the person? (If they were, there would be more questions to answer.) Documents would be falsified and doctors would have a list of ailments from which to choose an “official” cause of death for the death certificate— TB, perhaps, or lung disease; maybe heart attack, or some other known killer. This was all legally sanctioned. The language used was that they were providing people “mercy deaths,” a chilling phrase to many people with disabilities. Of course, the terms—“euthanasia” and “mercy killing”— were important to help cover up what was really happening.
Doctors, nurses, and administrators were the perpetrators. Although administrators did not carry out the killings personally, they organized the murders, examining the records but never meeting the people. They made the lists of people to be killed. Each day these lists would be sent to doctors who, in the mornings, would go over the records and decide who would be killed that night. All of these people (doctors, nurses, administrators) were from outside of the town of Hadamar so as to avoid any personal connections and maintain the secret. When night came, those selected were told that they were being taken down to the showers. They were led down the dark stairway to the small basement, where up to 80 people at a time were packed. After being taken to this room, they were told to disrobe, and then to enter the shower. As our tour entered this room, the gas chamber, we were met with yellow floor tiles and yellow bathroomtype tiles on the wall. The room—about 15 feet by 12 feet—seemed very tiny, with a single basement window. As we stepped in, Uta, our guide, pointed to the plugged hole where gas would come out of the wall and up to the ceiling as a shower on the people. On the other side, doctors watched as the people fell. The thought of so many people dying in this small room became overwhelming for most of us. It felt to me as if this should be some sort of sacred ground upon which we were standing. I had been prepared for everything I saw, having heard the backHolocaust- cont. on p. 12