Last week I had a trip to Austria. Somewhere I’ve never been before. I can recommend Vienna for a city break (and also if you love great cakes!)
Now that I’ve got your attention with photos of cake, I can talk about the real reason I went to Austria.
Just before the second world war Hitler decided to put into place what a lot of other people had been talking about for many years before – eugenics. This is a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. This started shockingly with the euthanasia of children with disabilities and then doctors at long stay institutions for adults with physical or learning disabilities and mental ill health were asked to complete a form, asking if the person they were caring for was able to work. These forms were then assessed by a group of doctors in Berlin and a decision made as to whether that person had a “life worth living.” (These people were referred to as “useless eaters”, i.e. taking from the system and not being able to pay back.) If the answer to the question about working was no, then the person was taken from their home to one of a number of centres, and there they were almost immediately murdered through the use of carbon monoxide gas. False death certificates were sent to families informing them that their relative had died of an illness such as flu or TB.
This horrendous practice became known as Aktion T4.
There was of course, a public outcry about this, and by 1941 people with disabilities were not moved to other centres, they were euthanized in the place that they called home, the long stay hospitals. They were murdered by the doctors and nurses that had been caring for them. This practice carried on until the end of the war. The ways in which these people were murdered went on to influencing the method of murdering millions of other people during the holocaust.
Between 275,000 and 300,000 innocent people with disabilities and mental ill health died as a result of Aktion T4.
During my week in Austria I visited one of the centres that people were sent to; Hartheim Castle. I learned about Aktion T4 and heard some of the personal stories about the people who died there. There was also a memorial service attended by people from all over Europe. The speeches at the service made reference to the importance of human rights of people with a disability and the value of life.
What I saw and heard at Hartheim Castle has had a profound effect on me. As a caring group of people who work in social care, the story above will be horrifying to us. It has brought home the fact that we must all be seen as equal citizens, whether we can work or not. There are many other ways in which people contribute to society. Stop for a minute and reflect on the lives of the people you support. What have they taught you? I know that I’ve been taught about resilience, patience and how few material things we need in life to be happy.
Over the next few months, we will really start to embed the 7 keys to citizenship – love, freedom, home, purpose, help, money and community. These keys belong to all of us, whether we have a disability or not. True equality means ensuring equal opportunities for all individuals in all 7 keys, to achieve their full potential. Let’s learn from the past and move forward to extraordinary lives, really worth living.