A psychiatric diagnosis was their death verdict.

May 6, 2004

May 2nd - Day of Remembrance and Resistance

International Commemoration 2004

http://www.freedom-of-thought.de/may2/

Bernburg, Germany

Toronto, Canada

Amsterdam, Holland

Berlin, Germany Documentation

Previous events international:

2003

Previous events in Germany:

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

Presseberichte: Neues Deutschland: Deutsch / English

Bernburg:

May 2, 2004: IAAPA erects a memorial glass plaque in the crematorium

next to the gas shower at the Bernburg Psychiatric Institution to

honor the vicitms of psychiatry. The following is the text, which

appears in four languages: English, German, Hebrew and Polish to

symbolize the nationalities of the first victims of the murders

Gathering here from the whole planet we dedicate this memorial

plaque to the memory of all those murdered by doctors and

psychiatrists in Germany, Austria and Poland from 1939 to 1948.

A psychiatric diagnosis was their death verdict.

Remembering these past victims, we are aware that even today state

supported coercive psychiatric laws and practices violate human

rights woridwide.

Our struggle will continue until all members of the human family

enjoy their basic rights to life, liberty and human dignity.

---

Photo: Hagai Aviel

BERNBURG PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTION CELLAR PLAN

Photo: Hagai Aviel

Speech: DEUTSCH

This 2nd of May is the 6th anniversary of the Verdict of the

Foucault Tribunal, where for the first time psychiatry was put on a

public trial by those it persecuted.

The idea to devote a day to Remembrance and Resistance which was

first initiated in Berlin, became later a national event and since

last year it was taken up by groups world wide.

Today we are here in the memorial site of the Bernburg psychiatric

institution, Germany, next to the gas shower. This is one of the six

psychiatric institutions where in 1940 the killing factory by German

medical doctors began.

From 1940 - 1941 groups of psychiatric prisoners from various

institutions, and from 1941 until 1943 groups of jews from

concentrations camps who were selected by medical professionals,

were brought to this hospital to be exterminated.

The medical doctors were the missing link between psychiatric

discrimination and racial ideology to the genocide from 1939 to

1948. This was a radical biologicalization of politics: the denying

of the legal status of " human being " from certain groups in society

based on medical-biological grounds. The aim of the medical doctors

was to cut off any future of their victims, first in a violent

penetration into the body by forced sterilization and humiliating

them by declaring them " biologically unfit " , and than accelerating

the process by mass murder in gas showers.

Our aim in this event is to use memory as an active tool in

constructing the moral of oppressed groups in their struggle for

regaining human rights and human dignity, and by that to forge a

link between us, living human rights activists, and the murdered

victims of psychiatry.

If memory should be allowed to be used only as an obscene peephole

into a chamber of horror it will serve to hide the guilt of the

perpetrators and the continuing denial of the victims dignity.

This " remembrance serves in order to forget " .

We ask for five minutes of silence.

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Toronto:

Photo: Graeme Becque

The memorial in Toronto for the victims of eugenic mass murder in

Germany, was very simple and well attended, considering the weather

and short notice. Even though it was blustery and had been raining

heavily all morning, there were 14 people there. This included

several people whom Ididn't know before, but who had heard about the

event through email and public announcements, as well as a passerby

who stopped and joined us in remembering our brothers and sisters

who were murdered because of their

diagnostic label.

The Toronto event was held in front of the Cenotaph in downtown

Toronto at Old City Hall, which is where the November 11 Remembrance

Day events are always held every year. Fortunately, the rain was in

between downpours when our memorial was held. Graeme took photos of

the event and Don brought his tape recorder to preserve it on tape.

Shortly after 12 Noon the memorial began with the reading of the

statement which the International Association Against Psychiatric

Assault composed and plans to have placed next to the Bernburg

killing centre in Germany. Then, the statement which members of

Psychiatric Survivor Archives, Toronto composed and approved for

this memorial was read out. (It was posted on this list-serve on

April 23.) Copies of the PSAT statement were handed out to

participants and to a few passersby. A minute of silence was

observed at

the conclusion of this statement. Then, white carnations and daisy

flowers were placed below the stone cenotaph inscription " 1939-1945 " .

The statement below, written by two members of Psychiatric Survivor

Archives-Toronto

PSAT Statement for the International Commemoration for the Victims

of Eugenic Mass Murder Toronto May 2, 2004, 12:00 noon in front of

Old City Hall, War Cenotaph

" Well, are you again looking for new victims, you mass murderers? "

These words were spoken by a female psychiatric patient to a group

of doctors who were involved in the eugenic mass murder campaign in

Nazi Germany between 1939-1945. At Noon on May 2, 2004 there will be

a gathering in Toronto in front of the Cenotaph at Old City Hall in

downtown Toronto as part of the International Commemoration of the

Victims of Eugenic Mass Murder. This memorial is taking place in

Germany, Holland, Chicago and Toronto to remember those people who

perished because of their diagnostic label in a society which viewed

them with contempt. We will gather to remember these victims of

eugenics policies and urge vigilance against the poisonous hatred

that gave rise to their murders, malignant ideas which did not die

with the Third Reich.

Between 1939-45, at least 200,000 men, women and children were

murdered due to eugenic policies first promoted by medical

professionals who received the active support of the of the German

state. The victims were psychiatric patients and people with

developmental and physical disabilities.

Ideas, which led to this barbaric eugenics policy, did not originate

in the mind of Adolf Hitler. Instead, he supported what others had

been promoting long before his assumption of power. Doctors and

political activists on both the left and right in Germany, the

United States and Canada, among other countries, publicly supported

the forcible sterilization and, in some cases, outright murder, of

people with disabilities. Leading psychiatrists, such as Canadian

C.K. e (1857-1924), expressed their support for eugenics long

before the Nazi period saw the most draconian application of these

ideas anywhere in the world. Indeed, in 1942, after the eugenic mass

murders had commenced and became known inside and outside of

Germany, the " American Journal of Psychiatry " published the views of

psychiatrist Kennedy who advocated the murder of so-

called " defective " children. In an editorial, the APA journal fully

supported his murderous ideas. By this time, eugenics practices had

a long history outside of Germany.

Legislation, first in Indiana in 1907 and eventually in 30 states,

saw the passing of sterilization laws with at least 60,000 victims

in the United States over the next six decades. Alberta (1928) and

British Columbia (1933) also passed eugenics laws with approximately

3,000 people sterilized in both provinces combined, by the early

1970s. Eugenic mass murder did not take place in North America as it

did in Nazi Germany. But the ideas, which led to the killings in

Germany, had, as its inspiration, the writings and legal advocacy of

leading members of the medical, judicial and political elite in

North America and Germany long before the Nazis came to power.

Psychiatrists, especially professors of psychiatry and psychiatric

department heads, played leading roles in planning and dministering

the eugenic mass murder program. The first people targeted in the

systematic mass killing of specific groups of people under Hitler

were disabled children and psychiatric patients. Most victims were

murdered in 6 German-psychiatric " killing centres " : Hadamar,

Hartheim, Grafenek. Sonnenstein, Brandenburg, and Bernburg. The

method of killing in Nazi Germany included gassing, injections,

starvation and various other forms of abuse. The murderers were

doctors, nurses and attendants who were not ordered to carry out

this policy but did so as willing volunteers. Historians have shown

that there was no coercion by Nazi officials of hospital staff to

kill people with disabilities. These clinical murderers viewed

psychiatric patients and people with developmental disabilities

as " life unworthy of life " . This policy was first implemented with

the compulsory sterilization law of July 1933, introduced less than

six months after Hitler assumed power in Germany. Forced

sterilization was eventually imposed on up to 400,000 Germans who

were categorized as having mental and physical disabilities.

Between 1939-1941, 70,000-80,000 people were murdered in gas

chambers in mental institutions in Germany. They were targeted

as " worthless " members of society. These eugenic victims were the

first to die in gas chambers under Nazi rule. The murderers who

established this method of killing people in asylums would proceed

to transfer their barbaric " expertise " to the death camps of Poland

where the Jews of Europe became their primary victims. From 1941-45

other methods of murder besides gassing were employed on people in

mental institutions. An unknown number of psychiatric patients and

people with developmental disabilities were also murdered in Eastern

Europe in the wake of German invasions. Only a few of the medical

murderers were ever punished during the post-war period.

There are people who still think the world would be better off

without psychiatric patients or people with disabilities, including

psychiatrists who search for a " gene " for schizophrenia, for

example. There is a direct link between these ideas and the eugenic

ideas from the early 20th century where people believed to have

supposedly " defective " hereditary traits are viewed as a " burden " on

society.

Today, May 2, 2004, we join in remembering all victims of eugenics

mass murder in Nazi Germany. Above all else, we recognize these men,

women and child victims of eugenics policies as HUMAN BEINGS whose

life and memory are as valuable and cherished as that of all victims

of tyranny during this terrible period in world history. Just as is

said of the six million Jews, and millions of others, such as Roma

people, homosexuals, and Slavs, we say in regard to psychiatric

patients and all people with disabilities who were murdered under

the Nazis and their accomplices: " Never Again! "

Please take one minute of silence to remember the 200,000 victims of

eugenics mass murder between 1939-1945.

Psychiatric Survivor Archives, Toronto

info@...

www.psychiatricsurvivorarchives.com

see photos at: http://psat.0catch.com/may2

May 6, 2004