Between January 1940 and August 1941 (before the Holocaust began), 70,273 physically and mentally disabled people – men, women, teens, boys, and girls – were murdered by the Nazis. Though they never even laid eyes on the disabled person they were evaluating, the Nazi doctors read the medical files and, if from the words on the page, the person was deemed “unfit” or an “economic burden on society”, the doctor placed a red X at the bottom of the form. Three doctors were to read each medical file, and when two of them made a red X on the page, the disabled person’s fate was sealed. Most were murdered within 1-2 hours.
I decided to make a few blocks for the project.
When I was young my parents encouraged me to write to a great aunt who never grew up mentally. As I did genealogy I found out that my aunt was in this institution.
The 1907 legislature passed a law calling for the creation of the “Wyoming Home for the Feeble-minded and Epileptic.” The school opened in Lander in 1912 as the “Wyoming School for Defectives.” In 1919 the facility’s name was changed to the Wyoming Training School; (thankfully it was called the Training a school when my aunt was there)
Can you imagine that it would take 2 red x's on a doctor's report and the Nazi's would put to death "defectives"?! Terrifying!
I'm not sure where the project is going but it was simple enough to make a few blocks to send in signifying the lives that were snuffed out so horrifically.
Despite this downer kind of post, make it a great day!
