Messages of Support for the Resistance installation
Resistance is an important project which raises issues of great relevance for today and will provide an excellent forum for engaging public debate and challenging public ideas. I hope that it will gain the platform it so clearly warrants.
Baroness Neuberger DBE
Resistance is a powerfully conceived exploration of an important but neglected subject: the Nazi's systematic extermination of disabled people is rarely considered, even within the context of holocaust studies. Liz Crow's short dramatisation vividly conveys the horror of it, but her treatment extends beyond the stark exposure of the historical reality to a reflection on its implications for us today. Her conception of the films as an element within a multi-media installation that will incorporate the viewer's own responses could make this a ground-breaking work. With her combination of skills as an artist and film-maker and her experience as an activist, this promises to be a challenging and original project, capable of engaging on a deeply affective level a wide range of people.
Roger Malbert, Senior Curator, Hayward
This is a courageous project that is characteristically ambitious. It promises high artistic quality and, at a time when Europe is struggling to find culture that enables intercultural dialogue, it will be a fantastic catalyst for debating shared values.
Venu Dhupa, Consultant to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
I have been invited to contribute my name in support of Roaring Girl's Resistance project and it is an offer I don't feel I can refuse. Not because I am disabled, but because I believe, if I believe in anything, that the fascistic ideal of racial and ethnic purification is quite simply based on false and stupid assumptions. My instincts are that we are all due equal respect as members of the human race. And my intellect (what there is of it) tells that civilisation is, or should be, based on the universal goal of respect, empathy and compassion for all. Roaring Girl Productions is so brilliant, I don't see how you can fail.
Robert Wyatt, musician
Your project communicates a powerful message about resistance to oppression, particularly in relation to disabled people.
The Earl of Snowdon
I am one of the creatives who was involved in making the film Resistance. I wrote the music for the film and would like to express how working on it affected me. I am German myself, have in the past learnt much about the atrocities that were committed during the fascist era by my country and yet this was the first time that the systematic killing of people with disabilities during the Nazi regime was brought to my attention.
I think this short film succeeds in telling this story in a way that made me feel deeply emotionally involved and left me wanting to learn more about the campaign of euthanasia and the ideology behind it for which many of my forefathers and mothers fell without much hesitation. I belief that I am hardly the only one who lacks knowledge about this campaign of extermination and find that learning about the issues involved is important to me.
The ideas about what constitutes a life worth living and the moral concepts which, pushed to their most extreme, are used here to justify the murders of some of the most vulnerable people in society, are in many ways still topical today. They will be even more relevant to many of our lives in the future with the development of genetic science affecting many decisions about how people with (genetic) diseases and disabilities should be treated by society. The changing ideas about what constitutes a desirable body both in terms of that body's health and its shape will be increasingly influenced for better of for worse by the possibilities that genetic sciences will produce for the benefit of all our physical well being.
This installation is an ideal vehicle to engage the public in a debate about some of these issues, especially so since it presented by a group of people who are all personally affected by the issues which it raises.
I would personally like to see this project being exhibited, not because I worked on it but because working on it convinced me that bringing this work to the public's attention is worthwhile. Thank you for any support you give to it.
Claudio Ahlers, Composer
Even though the subject that I research, write about and lecture on was a long, long time ago, there is considerable interest in how disabled people lived in times gone by, and how they were treated by their contemporary society. If that is the case for a period such as the Middle Ages, one would expect even more interest in recent history.
The history of the fascist regime in Germany is taught in British schools, colleges and universities, but the thematic strands presented tend to cover the same ground. With regard to the murderous activities of the Third Reich, the Holocaust of Jewish people occupies a central position - but what is often omitted is that other groups of people were also persecuted, such as gypsies, left-wing political activists, homosexuals and of course disabled people. This is where the creative treatment of the topic, which Resistance brings to the fore, can perform a valuable function in plugging the gap, so to speak, left by the dominant discourse surrounding the Nazi regime. More people than just a handful of specialist scholars need to know that disabled people were just as systematically persecuted by the Nazis as the Jews were. The need to know is made all the greater by current developments in the medical and biological sciences, especially in genetics, which re-open the possibility of scientific and popular debate about what is and what is not deemed a 'valid' human being.
The uncomfortable truth is that such a debate surrounding disability suspended between notions of what are valid and non-valid human beings was not just forced to its extreme level, the 'Final Solution', by the Nazis, as was promulgated for the Jews, but was also carried out by a number of so-called democratic countries, notably Sweden and Switzerland, with programmes of enforced sterilisation for people deemed 'deficient' right up until the 1960s. So far from being a specialist topic with only a niche market, the issues that Resistance and the accompanying conversation piece present are highly relevant. Genetic science can aid both prognostic medicine as well as influence procreative medicine; genetic screening, if carried to its logical extreme, means that parental selection will reject any embryo with so-called defects; and a renewed promotion of eugenics is not unlikely. This timely installation will help to focus popular attention on the fact that in any such eugenic programmes (whether murderous or simply 'preventative') there are real, actual people , with individual lives, characters and stories, who are caught up in what is presented purely as science.
I encourage you to bring this film, and with it the debate, to as wide an audience as possible.
Irina Metzler, Author Disability in Medieval Europe
Resistance is an important and exciting project that is of great relevance today. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
David Richmond, CEO, art + power
Resistance is a much needed work: brilliantly done and covering all issues with skill and insight. The Disability Holocaust has yet to be explored artistically with any great depth or comprehensive distribution. Resistance is the work that achieves a transcendence of truth and enters the sphere of pure artistic engagement with subject and form. The Disability Holocaust has never been more relevant: what with the current debates about genetic futures, the mass support of euthanasia and the increase in hate crimes against the disabled. Resistance should be Ð and is Ð a key concern of all people who live a society that professes equality and access: to not consider Resistance only serves to continue the Disability Holocaust and ensure continued Resistance.
Paul Darke, Outside Centre
This installation sounds excellent. As you will know all state schools and colleges in the UK are now under a Duty to Promote Disability Equality under the 2005 Disability Discrimination Act. Part of this duty is to promote positive attitudes to disabled people. I have found in the work I have been doing in the education sector around this duty is to make staff and students aware of the oppression to which disabled people have faced in history. The way the methods of the Holocaust were trialed on disabled people leading to the death of more than 1million disabled people in greater Germany is of crucial importance especially as this scapegoating grew out of an economic crisis which is similar to the one we are now entering.
Richard Rieser, Director Disability Equality in Education
The hidden holocaust as its sometime referred to, the systematic murder of hundreds of thousands of disabled people by the Nazis is something that should be part of the history curriculum in all schools, but unfortunately it seems to have only recently been discovered to its full horrific extent, so is not yet taught properly. This installation Resistance by Liz Crow is a vital tool in educating young and indeed all people about this terrible phase in our past, and with such a well made, detailed and poignant piece of film and exhibitive art, it could only be passed over by a foolish or ignorant organisation. Any schools and other educational bodies, and all places of art that do programme this into their curriculum, would be forward thinking, responsible intelligent and PR point scoring organisations that both take seriously this worrying part of our past, and the proper education of their young people, or public. And of course, without this reminder of what can happen when disabled peopleÕs lives are openly exterminated, it could so easily happen again. You may think that is ridiculous, but they thought that last time too, and it still happened, right under the noses of the general German public. Not to be missed!
Mat Fraser, actor and presenter
I think this work sounds really interesting historically and seems to me to be very relevant to today as well. I would certainly be interested in seeing it and so would the rest of my family and lots of my friends.
Sadly I think you are right that there are a lot of things going on today which in relation to disability are reminiscent of how the holocaust began in Nazi Germany, not least the ghettoisation of disabled people in residential care, the promotion of social attitudes through adverts on buses about benefit fraud, the changes to ESA etc which give the impression of disabled people as a burden to society and nothing more than a lot of scroungers.
It is my belief and that of a number of other disabled people I know that we haven't moved forward at all in seeking equality but have in fact gone back about 30 years. I think that your work should be shown especially as a warning of how easily the situation could worsen if nothing is done to stop it
Linda Burnip
I am writing to congratulate you on what sounds like a fantastic project. The idea of a film-based installation that explores the horrors of Aktion-T4 is quite something. The fact that millions of Jewish people were systematically murdered in Nazi Germany has brought shame on humanity for eternity, but this is only worsened if we forget that thousands of disabled people were subject to the same inhumanity. Projects such as yours will surely help to stop this from happening. Please let me know as soon as you have details about the tour. I ask this because i would like to come to one of the installations and spread the word among friends and colleagues.
Dr. David Bolt, Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Disability Research, Lancaster University
This letter is to emphasise the importance of having an installation like Resistance which is currently in the making. Most people say, they heard about the Holocaust, they saw enough, and we donÕt need any more of it. Yet, records show that there is hardly any material available for Hitler OtherÕs Victims. That is the disabled, the deaf, the gypsy, the black and lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the Holocaust. Some even call them the forgotten victims.
For example, only in 1998 for the first time ever, Gallaudet University in Washington DC held a Conference called ÒDeaf People in Hitler EuropeÓ. At the conference which I attended, many stories of harrowing and suffering emerged. Yet, hardly any information is available about the suffering of Disabled people in the Holocaust or that of LGBT. As a result, Bristol City Council in its Holocaust Memorial Day 2009 is trying to present accounts of these forgotten victims.
This installaion will be a vital archive material as to what have happen to Disabled people in the Holocaust. Resistance is not just another Holocaust story; it is the story of Disabled people, the T4 programme which looked to eliminate disability from the face of the earth. The project must receive further funding to enable it to complete. So many people are awaiting the final result.
It seems people have not learnt their lesson, and now the human embryo fertilisation, is on the agenda. Parents can choose to eliminate disability. People saying clearly that disability have no place in our today society. What rights have non disabled people have to decide who has the right to live and who doesnÕt. Disabled people can contribute to society, in many areas, science, art, education etc. Society must learn and realise what has happen to Disabled people and what might happen again within the Human Embryo Programme. This is not just another Holocaust storyÉ this is a warning to us allÉ we must not let history repeat itself. Please support this project; itÕs needed.
Eva Fielding-Jackson, Senior Youth and Community Worker/ Specific- Disability, Organiser of Holocaust Memorial Day event, Bristol City Council
This is of course a difficult time to get funding, especially for something that fits into the world of art rather than obvious commerce, but at the same time this is such a crucial film in that it explores in a terrible and crucial but widely unheard of aspect of the Holocaust, and an important and empowering response from the disabled community. It is thus far from depressing and in a period of economic unrest and global fear it is unfortunately timely.
Jonny Persey, Met Film
At a time when all organisations in the Criminal Justice System (particularly the Crown Prosecution Service) are looking at ways of publicising the reporting of Hate Crime against disabled people it is of paramount importance to recognise the relevance of your project.
Disability Hate Crime is not a new concept, it has been with us for many years, not the least being the period when the Nazi regime saw disabled people as different and a burden, (so unlike current attitudes Ð I think not). The similarities of that regime to the current vogue of attacking (either physically or verbally) anyone who is disabled and different or more vulnerable is one which touches my new work as a Chair of a CPS Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel, and the work being undertaken by Disability Now, and through certain new academic initiatives is part of a process of empowerment for disabled people to withstand the targeted crime against them. Your work would well fit into a history of Hate which we have had to bear over the years.
Stephen Brookes MBE BA (Hons), Disability Trainig and Media Research
To those with the responsibility to change public perceptions: disabled people constitute 1 in 4 of the UK population and 1 in 3 of the global population. The UN has published Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Yet disabled people continue to be excluded from education, work, independent housing, travel and disgracefully nowhere more prominently than in the arts and media. A matter of conscience for all media arbiters.
It was Winston Churchill, a decade before Hitler, who first suggested the forcible sterilisation of all disabled people. Liz CrowÕs installation projects an area of ÔlostÕ disability history. Today the development of eugenics, pre-natal scanning, and a rush to legal rights for newly disabled people to assisted suicide, place this issue at the forefront of responsible social and political debate. Meanwhile hate crimes against disabled people, threatened draconian legal measures to restrict the human rights of those incurring mental illness, and the common medical practice of denying organ transplants to learning disabled people show up the urgency of exploring how such attitudes arose and have persisted.
In the only book published in Europe of Disability Arts - STRENGTH: Broadsides from Disability on the Arts (2006) I identified Liz Crow as the leading film maker in this field, and an arts and media icon of the new millennium.
Paddy Masefield, OBE MA FRSA, former theatre director, playwright and arts consultant. Formerly board members, the Arts Council of England, British Film Institute, Central Television. Honorary Life Member, Directors Guild of Great Britain
Thanks for telling me about this project, it really excites me that somebody is thinking about disabled people's place in that terrible history and wanting to raise awareness that the ideology and practice of the Nazis was not just about exterminating Jews or about exterminating everybody who did not conform to a very narrow and unrealistic perception of the human race. We need to make sure that the ideas do not slip into our laws and practices however benign they may seem this project is relevant to today and relevant to everybody.
Lani Parker
As a woman of Italian Jewish descent, the events of the holocaust are part of my heritage as well as history. As a disabled woman - and someone who has experienced mental ill health through significant periods of my life Ð I am utterly convinced that the outrages of Aktion-T4 must be more exposed and discussed, but at the same time must reflect with pride disabled people's ongoing capacity to overcome gargantuan struggles throughout history. This project does just that.
Moya Harris, Equal Measures
The public interest in the horrors of Nazi Germany has again increased not least thanks to the influence of mass media on popular culture. We know of 45 Holocaust films that have been made since the year 2000, several of them highly successful blockbusters. Still, most of the writers and artists deal with mainly the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, while other gruesome aspects of the Nazi Party's policy remain neglected, such as Action T4, their Euthanasia programme. About 275,000 disabled people were killed, amongst them thousands of children.
Liz Crow's Resistance installation can help to bring this part of history to light, as well as draw people's attention to the more or lesser obvious connections with current social and political developments. This is art as it should be, relevant to our lives, opening our minds, and we can't wait to see it in a gallery near us.
Silvie Fisch, Director, Disability Cultural Projects
It's an ambitious task to combine the topic of war, which is an important historical issue as well as it is one of ethics matter, much spoken about but never deep enough, and the issue of disabled people's situation. It's a "double-deep" step into survey of the ethics of human relationships. It's definitely a new, unknown face of reality. I sincerely hope Poland will appear on the list of countries to see the installation for both topics are live and in high need of fair and open discussion here. Wishing you good luck and hoping to see the results of your work as soon as possible
Kseniya Kviatkouskaya, Student of Collegium Medicum, Iagellonian University in Cracow, Poland; Coordinator of The Cracovian DeafNight Project
I want to endorse the importance of your production regarding people with disabilities and the Holocaust. As a historian, I am concerned that too often this significant historical event gets overlooked or is dismissed as irrelevant. In fact, people with disabilities were the first victims of the Holocaust. Attention must be paid. I hope that eventually you will be able to bring this work on tour in the United States. I can assure you that you would have a venue here at San Francisco State University. The Institute on Disability, which I direct, would cohost it in conjunction with the Department of History and the Jewish Studies program. Please keep me informed of your progress.
Paul K. Longmore, Professor of History and Director, Institute on Disability, San Francisco State University
From many perspectives Resistance is a unique project. Disabled people have never before in history looked in-depth at how our voices are undermined, the prevailing attitudes which cause us to fail consistently. The message that society persistently gives out around our existence is fundamentally a call for our eradication - albeit at best benign and informed by ignorance. However the effect on our self-worth is revealed by the statistics which show us to be at the bottom of the tables in all spheres, in terms of participation in society. Collecting the stories that detail societyÕs fear and loathing of our existence is of paramount importance.
Colin Hambrook, Editor, Disability Arts Online
Resistance is one of the most important and courageous projects yet to be undertaken. The attempted genocide of anyone with an impairment or long term health condition by the Nazis during the 1930s and 40s was one of the most appalling atrocities in human history. It is crime against humanity which has been almost completely wiped from our collective memory. This is mainly because many governments across Europs and North America in the first half of the last century were sympathetic to the eugenic ideas upon which it was justified. These ideas remain with us today and find expression in the justification for selective abortion, assisted suicide and the growing problem of hate crime. If the mistakes of the past are not to repeated, it is imperative that this project be given your fullest support.
Professor Colin Barnes, Centre for Disability Studies, University of Leeds
The Resistance project is a timely aesthetic and intellectual force recovering a history threatened by obscurity. It demonstrates the difference that committed independent filmmakers can make to the project of fully inclusive social justice. It deserves to grace the curriculum of every Media and Film Studies course in the country.
Irene Rose, Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, Liverpool John Moores University, Co-Founder of the Cultural Disability Studies Network
This page last modified: 21 Dec 2009