“Their Death Won´t Make the Slightest Difference”
Korbach´s Wolfgang Bonhage Museum is showing an exhibition on NS euthanasia in Waldeck-Frankenberg county entitled “Their Death Won´t Make the Slightest Difference” from 9 September 2009 to 25 April 2010. A work group which has spent two years focusing on the topic, on the initiative of the Lebenshilfe Werk and with the involvement of the International Tracing Service (ITS), will present its research results.
Approximately 200,000 to 300,000 mentally and physically disabled people were murdered by the Nazis between 1939 and 1945. They died in gas chambers, by lethal overdoses of medication, or starvation. A further 400,000 were forcibly sterilized. Roughly 500 victims deemed “unworthy” came from the Hessian county. The exhibition commemorates them and restores the dignity of these often forgotten victims.
Twenty-seven plaques tell the history of state-sanctioned murder, trace the lives of the people affected and give an insight into the propaganda with which the campaign was justified to the populace. Work group members did research in numerous municipal archives and at the Hadamar memorial and the Federal Archive to compile material. The International Tracing Service archive in Bad Arolsen was also an important resource.
The exhibition runs from 9 September 2009 to 25 April 2010 at the Wolfgang Bonhage Museum in Korbach, Kirchplatz 4. The hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11.00 am - 4.30 pm. The Museum is offering an extensive lecture program to accompany the exhibition, which not only focuses on the history but also poses questions about current bioethical challenges.
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