PROCLAMATION NAMES DECEMBER 29 AS:

 

"A Day of Remembrance for People Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities Forgotten in the Holocaust."

 

Harold A. Maio of Florida had an idea: Why not remember people who were labeled with psychiatric disabilities who died in the Holocaust? After all, historically this was the very first large group to die in gas chambers... yet to a large extent this well-documented fact is often forgotten.

For many reasons, Harold chose December 29.

Harold then wrote up a proclamation... and it's snowballing. "Already the State of Nebraska has endorsed the proclamation!" Harold told MindFreedom.

Today, MindFreedom Support Coalition International also officially endorses the proclamation, a copy of which is below (with slight editing changes approved today by Harold). MindFreedom unites 100 grassroots groups.

Harold is keeping track of endorsements, and can be reached at khmaio@earthlink.net

Harold said this about his proclamation:

"The origin of the gas chamber is seldom noted in American news, or elsewhere for that matter. But it was installed in December of 1939 in a jail in Brandenburg where doctors, planning the 'T-4 Progam' murdered inmates from one of Germany's psychiatric institutions. Not even the Wiesenthal Center has this noted in its timeline for the Holocaust. Gas chambers were then installed in institutions, and even mobile units were sent to institutions where no gas chamber could be installed.  

"Why do we not remember?"

BELOW is the proclamation. You can help the world remember -- never forget, never again! Please circulate and ask for endorsements.

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PROCLAMATION: December 29

A Day of Remembrance for People Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities Forgotten in the Holocaust.

WHEREAS, in December of 1939 a group of people removed from German psychiatric institutions under the supervision of doctors in Nazi Germany entered the first gas chamber and perished,  

WHEREAS, in the years following these murders, gas chambers were installed in many German psychiatric institutions, where hundreds of thousands perished,

WHEREAS, history has largely neglected the murders of these people,   

WHEREAS, gas chambers were then installed in concentration camps throughout Europe, where millions were murdered,

THEREFORE:

We do recognize and preserve the honor of those whose lives were taken that first day and do declare this a day of remembrance for those first victims, and do pledge our honor that this day shall memorialize the deaths of those first victims of what became the Holocaust:

December 29, 2002.