IS THIS WHY GERMAN LEADERS DO NOT SUPPORT USA IN IRAQ? by RAT

My son is deaf and I received this posting from a wonderful deaf lady, my age. Even though this occurred during my lifetime, I really was not aware. During World War II, we did not have TV, etc.

>In 1975, Mr. Horst Biesold, a teacher of deaf students in Bremen, West Germany, was curious. Mr. Biesold loved sports-especially deaf sports. Mr. Biesold was hearing, but he knew many deaf people. He had many friends who were deaf because he loved deaf sports. Mr. Biesold wondered why none of his deaf friends had children.<

>Finally, he asked one of his friends about it. The man was very embarrassed. But he told Mr. Biesold the truth: The German government had sterilized him. Under the Nazis in the 1930's, the government had removed his testes. The testes are the male reproductive glands. Without his testes, Mr. Biesold's friend could never father children.<

>Stunned, Mr. Biesold began to do research. He wanted to find out how many deaf adults in Germany could not have children. Mr. Biesold's research showed that: 17,000 deaf people were sterilized in Germany in the 1930's; Catholic priests and Jewish rabbis tended to protest sterilization. Protestant ministers tended to support it.<

>Deaf people had a Nazi organization; their Nazi organization supported sterilization. When people were sterilized, no medicine was used for pain; the reproductive glands-testes in men and ovaries in women-were removed without anesthetic; 33% of the people who were sterilized were under 18 years old; 9% of the people who were sterilized were women, pregnant more than six months, as part of forced abortions.<

>By 1940, sterilization was replaced by murder; the Nazis called it "mercy killing;" About 150,000 handicapped people- and 1600 deaf people were killed by the Nazis. "Mr. Biesold's work was so important," said Marla Petal, who invited Mr.Biesold to speak at the Temple Beth Solomon of the deaf in 1983. "The Nazis hurt deaf people beyond belief. They murdered and maimed themand they wiped out a generation of their children. "Deaf people were among the first victims of the Holocaust." <

MY COMMENT: In late 1950s, my husband was assigned to Germany. I will never forget a day with friends in a Wiesbaden park - they had a severely retarded son. As we walked along the path, local Germans would look at the boy and completely get off the sidewalk almost running as far away from us as they could. It was disgusting.

I did not know they had experienced days of eliminating the disabled as well as Jewish people. I had heard that there were German families with handicapped children that never let them out of their homes and kept it secret.

Before moving to base housing, we lived in a German apartment building which was a German military recruiting facility on the first five stories. A very elderly German doorkeeper on duty on the ground floor really bonded with our deaf son. I will never forget the Christmas Eve, he knocked on our door to give us a present to put under our tree for him.

After sharing the previous with online friends, I received this response from one who is a British minister serving in Austria.

>Of the six mercy killing centres of 1940-41 established by the Nazis, the largest is close to me here at Schloss Hartheim where at least 18,000 were killed as part of the project T4. Close to Dresden was the second largest number with over 9,000 and the other four centres had around 3,000 each. <

>These mercy killings were disabled children either physically including deaf or mentally. After 1941 disabled adults were also exterminated. As the Nazis destroyed all records in 1944 and 1945 the numbers exterminated will never really be known but these numbers quoted are what can be established from other local records but most realise that the numbers are probably a very conservative estimate. Schloss Hartheim became a sub camp of the main concentration camp of Mauthausen. In Linz alone were three subcamps of Mauthausen plus Ebensee and Gusen and others were also established.<

>I am very much aware of all the horrors. Each year on the first Sunday in May there is Homecoming Day when former inmates return to Mauthausen and each year I try to get over for the English service held. I noticed that this year the number of former inmates returning had dwindled considerably. But a large number of younger folks come too and there were 12,000 present this year for the commemoration. Mauthausen was liberated by the Americans at the beginning of May 1945.<

>Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau in Upper Austria and first went to school in Fischlham and later went to the monastery school in Lambacj were many think he goit the idea of the swastika from. Then his parents moved to Leonding and his parents are buried in the cemetery there. His former parents house is about 20 mins by cycle from my house. Hitler went to the Fadinger School in Linz where he failed and then tried in Steyr
I apologize for the length of this posting. We are facing similar disasters today. Many people especially those in the media seem to be outraged because they believe we invaded Iraq and have found no weapons of mass destruction. It may take time - in fact some of the material and weapons may have been taken to a neighboring country. We have found massive grave sites and evidence of prison camps that even housed children.

Dear friends, for years, I have regretted that we did get involved in WWII earlier. Look how long it took us to prevail. This one with Iraq is in the end stage in less than a year.