Fwd: From Diane: Honor and Remember Nazi-Era Victims with Disabilities

I wish I were able to be there! If anyone makes it, I would LOVE to have you tell me all about it.

God bless!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nancy Valko

In conjunction with National Disability Awareness Month
Honor and Remember Nazi-Era Victims with Disabilities  

At the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

 

Thursday, October 19, 2006

 

Event Information

The Museum is open to the general public from 10:00 - 5:30. Specialized programs will be offered throughout the day. All programs are free. No reservations are necessary for the lectures and films. Reservations are needed for Guided Highlights Tours (see below). Seating for programs is on a first-come, first-served basis. Sign language interpreters and CART will be provided for the speakers. For more information about the visiting the Museum go to  www.ushmm.org/visit.

 

CART, wheelchair accessible, and sign language interpreters will be provided.

SCHEDULE
subject to change

11:00 – 11:45
Lecture
Nazi Persecution of People with Disabilities
Museum senior historian Dr. Patricia Heberer addresses the issues of sterilization and euthanasia policy in Nazi Germany.** Compulsory sterilization of the "hereditarily ill" was enforced through the German legal system and involved physicians in the role of enforcers of sterilization policy. Four hundred thousand Germans were legally sterilized under this measure from 1934-1945. Dr. Heberer will discuss the acceleration of discriminatory policies, enforced by physicians and public health officials, against individuals living in institutional settings, to serve as a bridge to National Socialist euthanasia (T4) policy. This Nazi program served as a model and staff training ground for the genocide of Europe's Jews. 

11:00 – 3:00
Survivors Registry
The Museum's Survivors Registry will be open to register the names of Nazi persecuted victims with disabilities.  The Museum's artifact collection staff will also be on hand to accept donations of Nazi-era artifacts and/or answer questions about the Museum's collecting process.

11:00 – 3:00

Oral History Testimonies

Interview excerpts from individuals who were deemed "inferior" and became targets of the Nazi eugenics program including victims of sterilization and medical experimentation.

Repeats every 15 minutes.

 

11:30-1:30; 1:30 – 3:00; 3:30 – 5:00 

Guided Highlights Tours (*Reservations needed)

The Guided Highlights Tour (GHT) is a tour option for people who have low vision, are blind, or deaf-blind. This tour takes place in the Museum's Permanent Exhibition "The Holocaust." The two- to three-hour tour features visually descriptive language, touchable reproductions of several key artifacts, and a model of the Museum. The tour also provides visitors with a variety of visual aids, including a monocular, flashlights, and high-contrast black and white photographs. The experienced tour guides are knowledgeable about Holocaust history and low vision and blindness.

                      Reservations are needed >>   Guided Highlights Tours   
Spaces are limited for Guided Highlights tours on October 19, so please reserve your space soon. To make a reservation, please contact the Museum's Education Division at the following:

                      Voice:  202-488-6100 
                      TTY:   202-488-0406

                      Web site:   http://www.ushmm.org/visit/accessibility/   

 

12:00 – 1:00

Film

Liebe Perla
This film follows Perla, from a family of "dwarfs" who survived Dr. Mengele's cruel experiments in Auschwitz, and Hannelore, a German Christian born after the war.  In this film Hannelore attempts to fulfill Perla's dream by obtaining a lost Nazi film in which Perla's entire family is displayed naked by Doctor Mengele at a gathering of the SS hierarchy.

 

1:00 – 2:00

Video Presentation

Legitimizing the Unthinkable:  A Disability Rights Perspective on Nazi Medicine with Harriet McBryde Johnson

Nazi science and medicine focused on eliminating both physical and mental disabilities, real and perceived, as part of the path to "racial purity." While the racial theories underpinning the "eugenics" movement were discredited in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the view of people with disabilities as objects of pity is generally accepted in our own time as is the prejudice that the lives of people with disabililities are inherently "inferior." Renowned activist, author, and attorney Harriet McBryde Johnson brings a disability rights perspective to bear on issues raised by the Museum's "Deadly Medicine" exhibition, in a discussion with Joan Ringelheim, Director of Oral History – USHMM.  Recorded on March 9, 2006 and broadcast on C-SPAN BookTV.

 

2:00-2:45

Lecture

"Deadly Medicine, Creating the Master Race"

Dr. Susan Bachrach, Museum curator, will address the history of Nazi eugenics and discuss the Museum's special exhibition "Deadly Medicine, Creating the Master Race." This topic provokes reflection on the continuing attraction of biological utopias that promote the possibility of human perfection. From the early twentieth-century international eugenics movements to present-day dreams of eliminating inherited disabilities through genetic manipulation, the issues remain timely. 

QUESTIONS/CONTACTS
Christine Brown, Senior Program Manager
PHONE: 202-314-7848
E-MAIL: cbrown@ushmm.org

_____________________________________________________________________________

**Nazi Persecution of People with Disabilities: Murder of "the Unfit"
The Holocaust was the systematic state-sponsored murder of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators before and during World War II. From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany carried out a campaign to "cleanse" German society of threats to the nation's "health." People with disabilities regarded as "unproductive" and "life unworthy of life" and poor people classified as "feebleminded" and "anti-social" were systematically sterilized. Later, during the war, 200,000 institutionalized Germans were killed by gassing in "euthanasia" facilities and by lethal injection and starvation. Only in Nazi Germany was forced sterilization implemented on a mass scale and only there did it lay the groundwork for mass murder. The coercive practice occurred elsewhere, however, including the United States, where California and Virginia took the lead among states enacting and enforcing sterilization laws.

Learn more

E-MAIL RECEIVED FOR EMERGENCY PRAYERS RE Priest to be executed in East Timor

UPDATE at 9:52 PM Oct 17, 2006

Apparently, he is a Baptist minister, and this is a year old. Please see the hyperlink at update. He is not a priest, but a missionary from the Phillipines to East Timor.

This multi-forwarded email came to my inbox today. Please pray and pass it on. If I am updated, I will put it here, also.

May God be with him, and have Mercy

God Bless!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Oct 17, 2006 12:46 PM
Subject: [YahooMOG2] E-MAIL RECEIVED FOR EMERGENCY PRAYERS

----Original message----
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:20 AM
Subject: Fw: Emergency Prayer Needed


Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 8:22 AM
Subject: Emergency Prayer Needed

I recieved the following email from our (omitted at request of original sender of email) this morning:

Please pray for Fr. Ferdie Flores a missionary in East Timor. He is
going to be executed today by beating. Please forward this to all
Christians.

(Signature omitted at request of original sender of email)

Happy Birthday to my Daughter!

Happy Birthday to my oldest... er, FIRST daughter!!!

and

MANY MORE!

Love ya!

Mom

(are you sure you are really 29?)


oops, SORRY!!
HAPPY 10th Anniversary
of your
21st Birthday!!



(Moving this to the top for today)

The Danger of a New Selective Eugenics

ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome

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Code: ZE06101401

Date: 2006-10-14

The Danger of a New Selective Eugenics

Address by Father H. Ennis

PRETORIA, South Africa, OCT. 14, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a text prepared by Friars Minor Father Hyacinth Ennis for a videoconference of theologians Sept. 27 on bioethics. The Congregation for Clergy organized the event. The text was adapted here.

* * *

The Danger of a New Selective Eugenics,
Which Aims to Destroy Embryos With Defects and Illness

By Dr. Hyacinth Ennis, OFM
Pretoria, South Africa

Because of the wonderful advances made in recent years by human embryology, scientists can now detect various things about the young embryo while in the womb of its mother. Among the things that can be discovered are the presence of certain physical and even mental disabilities or handicaps in the embryo.

Unfortunately such a scientific detection and its concomitant information can lead people -- especially impressionable pregnant mothers -- to decide to undergo a clinical abortion. Just because the embryo is found to be defective, they (mothers and medical personnel) consider it being in their best interest to abort the said imperfect embryo.

This being the case, many medical specialists and indeed even legal systems, permit and encourage a so-called therapeutic abortion in such instances. This, for example, is the sort of an abortion permitted in the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act of South Africa of 1996 which, "inter alia," legally allows abortion when "there exists a substantial risk that the fetus would suffer from a severe physical or mental abnormality."

The Catholic Church does permit medical procedures to be carried out on the human embryo "which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing" ("Donum Vitae," I, 3). However, the use of such procedures to warrant the abortion of defective embryos (either because of physical or mental defects) has been roundly condemned by the Church in recent times.

It is one of the cases elucidated by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical letter "Evangelium Vitae" of 1995 (Nos. 14 and 63) where he calls it "eugenic abortion." A similar line is taken by the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2274) and by the Charter for Health Care Workers (No. 61) of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers of 1995.

Such a "eugenic abortion" is plainly and simply contrary to the Fifth Commandment and the "right to life" of the unborn child. It is at the same time a violation of the Hippocratic oath. The Declaration of the Rights of the Child of the United Nations in 1959 declares that "the child, because of its physical and mental immaturity, needs special care and safeguards, including legal safeguards, before as well as after birth."

Thus, such a so-called eugenic abortion is a violation of legal justice and good medicine. It is a form of unjust discrimination against an innocent human life: Certain individuals are deemed worthy of living while others are discarded because of their inability to reach the technical standards of science in regard to human perfection. In this respect this type of "selective eugenics" becomes acceptable in some medical and legal quarters.

There is a naivete here that fails to recognize the depth of tragedy in human existence -- it has rushed in where angels fear to tread. It fails to see that its "panacea" has only served to open a Pandora's box of further problems of deeper consequence. The slippery slope has drawn closer to the abyss.

A line has to be drawn -- such procedures are not in the best interest of the unborn child and only help to illustrate society's incapacity to cope with so-called human imperfection and physical disability. Unborn children, especially the "defective" ones, are indeed, the most vulnerable of humans!

Orthodox priest beheaded in Iraq

Orthodox priest beheaded in iraq

Oct. 13 (CWNews.com) - A Syrian Orthodox priest was beheaded in Iraq on October 11, in the latest reminder of the dangers faced by the Christian minority there.

Father Boulos Iskander had been kidnapped in Mosul, and his relatives received a demand for $350,000 in ransom. The kidnappers later said that they would reduce the ransom to $40,000 if the Syrian Orthodox church in Mosul would issue a public rebuke to Pope Benedict XVI for his Regensburg speech.

Orthodox officials complied with the kidnappers' demands, and posted billboards around Mosul repudiating the Pope's remarks. The family also raised the ransom money. But the kidnappers broke off negotiations, and on Wednesday the priest's brutally dismembered body was discovered.

Christian churches in Mosul have been the target of several recent attacks by Islamic militants, and Church officials there report that many families are leaving for safe heaven in other countries. The Christian population of Iraq has fallen by nearly 50% in the past 20 years.

Part of my unofficial Poll on Sunday's Readings...

OK, Here is another example of what I mean when I say little or nothing is said on the ONE time per three year cycle about DIVORCE in our pulpits, and it does irritate me. NOTE the tiny paragraph devoted to what MOST of the reading was about, as well as the FIRST reading for that day...and note that MOST of the 'reflection' is devoted to FOUR VERSES of ONE READING. He devotes four paragraphs to those four verses in a message we could hear ANY SUNDAY of the year.

Sad, isn't it? Very sad. Whom would you offend by speaking Truth? Not those who are still married. Not those who pray constantly that the Church will begin to speak Truth ONE SUNDAY OUT OF THREE YEARS!!

Not those who FOLLOW the Church teachings on Marriage being indissoluble... the ones that will/may be offended JUST MAY BE those who need to hear it the most!

Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M. writes:

Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the Book of Genesis, 2:18-24, "So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: 'This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called woman for out of her man this one has been taken.'" This reading has been chosen to show the origin of the Church's teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.

The second reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews, 2:9-11, "He who 'for a little while' was made 'lower than the angels', that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." Today's reading talks about Jesus' exaltation through abasement.

The Gospel is from St. Mark, 10:2-16. On the "divorce" section of this Gospel see today's first reading. Christ clearly states that from the very beginning, God's plan for marriage was that it should be a life-long unity of one man and one woman. Its purpose is the procreation of children and their education, as well as the mutual love and fulfillment of the husband and wife. These demand this life-long bond. Divorce, which tries to break this bond, breaks the law of the Creator who decreed what was best for the temporal and spiritual welfare of the human race.

The last four verses of today's Gospel describe an incident which is in no way connected with the previous discussion but which has a very useful lesson for all Christians. Cont reading here....

If you cannot read it there, I have it in its entirety. Sadly, these priests think that they are giving us fine words to live by. Do they not know that we need to hear the TRUTH spoken, even on hard topics?

"MY PEOPLE PERISH FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE!!" Hosea 4:6.

Benedict XVI Angelus Oct 8, 2006 On Marriage

Pope Benedict XVI waves to the faithful during the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's square, at the Vatican, Sunday,Oct. 8, 2006. Pope Benedict XVI delivered a strong defense of Christian marriage, urging couples to resist modern cultural currents inspired only by a search for happiness and pleasure. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)

More will follow as soon as I can find his talk. I heard parts of it today on Relevant Radio. It sounded VERY good!




Found it on Zenit (thanks Grace!) updated 7:31 PM 10/15/2006

ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome

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Code: ZE06100806

Date: 2006-10-08

Jesus' Words on Marriage

Christian Spouses, "Missionaries of Love and Life"

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 8, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today before reciting the midday Angelus with the crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

This Sunday, the Gospel presents us Jesus' words on marriage. To the question if it is lawful for a husband to repudiate his wife, as established by a precept of the Mosaic law (cf. Deuteronomy 24:1), he responded that it was a concession of Moses because of "hardness of heart," while the truth about marriage goes back "to the beginning of creation," when, as is written in Genesis, God "made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one" (Mark 10:6-7; cf. Genesis 1:27; 2:24).

And Jesus added: "So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:8-9). This was God's original plan, as the Second Vatican Council also reminded in the constitution "Gaudium et Spes": "The intimate partnership of married life and love has been established by the Creator and qualified by his laws, and is rooted in the conjugal covenant. ... For God himself is the author of matrimony" (No. 48).

My thought is directed to all Christian spouses: With them I thank the Lord for the gift of the sacrament of marriage, and exhort them to remain faithful to their vocation in each stage of life, "in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness," as they promised in the sacramental rite.

May Christian spouses, aware of the grace received, build a family open to life and capable of facing together the numerous and complicated challenges of our time. Their testimony is particularly necessary today. Families are needed that do not let themselves be drawn by modern cultural currents inspired by hedonism and relativism, and that are willing to realize their mission in the Church and in society with generous dedication.

In the apostolic exhortation "Familiaris Consortio," the Servant of God John Paul II wrote that the sacrament of marriage "makes Christian married couples and parents witnesses of Christ 'to the end of the earth,' as authentic 'missionaries' of love and life" (cf. No. 54). This mission is oriented both to the internal life of the family -- especially in mutual service and in the education of children -- as well as the external: the domestic community, in fact, is called to be the sign of God's love to all. The family can only fulfill this mission if it is supported by divine grace. For this reason, it is necessary to pray tirelessly and to persevere in the daily effort to keep the commitments assumed on the wedding day.

I invoke the maternal protection of the Virgin and of Joseph her spouse on all families, especially those going through difficulties. Mary, Queen of the Family, pray for us!

[Translation by ZENIT]

[At the end of the Angelus, the Pope greeted pilgrims in several languages. In English, he said:]

I warmly welcome the English-speaking pilgrims who are here today. Throughout this month of October we remember in a special way Our Blessed Lady. We ask for her prayers for our loved ones and for ourselves. May her Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, bless all of you during your stay in Rome.

© Copyright 2006 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana