Disability History Month: The dark and hidden past of disability

It’s Disability History Month. This has happened every year from 16th November to 16th December since 2010.

Has your church ever done events around this, in the same way many do events around Black History Month?

The dark history of disability

A lot of history surrounding disability is dark and uncomfortable, but for some unknown reason is kept hidden. Some of that history is being repeated even today, because when history is hidden - we don’t learn from it.

I could write many columns about the atrocities done to disabled people over many centuries, but I’m going to keep to one defining moment in history.

The logo for the UK disability history month is based on what happened at that time - it’s a black triangle and is from a part of the Holocaust that people either don't know or don't really talk about: a black triangle was worn by disabled people on the left hand side of their clothes. They were forced to wear it by the Nazis during the ‘T4’ Eugenics Programme, a programme that was designed to eliminate them.

The T4 Programme and the killing of disabled people

The killing of disabled began in 1939. All children under the age of three who had illnesses or a disability, such as Down’s syndrome or cerebral palsy, were targeted under the T4 Programme. Medical experts were required to give their approval for the ‘mercy-killing’ of each child.

When war broke out in September 1939, adults with disabilities, chronic illnesses, mental health problems and more were then included in the T4 Programme. Six centres were built to make the process of killing disabled people faster.

Previously, lethal injection or starvation were the chosen ways of killing, but they were then thought to be too slow to cope with the huge numbers of disabled adults being killed. This led to the first gassings at the killing centre in Brandenberg, Austria leading to thousands of disabled people dying in gas chambers that had been disguised as shower rooms.

It's believed that around 250,000 disabled people were killed under this Nazi regime.

The relevance today: Language and attitudes

If we only learn from one area of disability history, we need to learn from this. There are already glimmers of the language used by the Nazis around disabilities that was repeated in schools and churches being used today. This is especially obvious in our press. The Nazis called disabled people ‘Useless Eaters’ and presented them as a drain on resources.

Disabled people only have to travel down the street or use public transport to have similar language thrown at them today. I’ve had it too.

It’s also one reason among many that the assisted dying bill sends chills through the bodies of disabled people.

Don't let this part of the Holocaust story be forgotten. We need to learn from it so it never happens again.