The victims of the two World Wars
Disability may be congenital, acquired later in life through accident or illness, or sustained in war. Of these categories, disabled veterans have received the most consistent attention in European memory: they were honoured for having shed their blood and sacrificed their bodies and minds in the service of their countries. The First World War, for instance, left an indelible mark on European memory cultures. The fate of permanently disabled soldiers returning from the battlefields became a recurring theme in novels, films, and paintings. Yet in public spaces, their representation remained limited: monuments typically commemorated the fallen soldiers or, more symbolically, the unknown soldier. One notable exception is a monument located in Haparanda, a city at the northernmost edge of Sweden’ s coastline, near the Finnish border. During the First World War, the International Red Cross facilitated the exchange of more than 63,000 wounded and sick veterans between Russia and the Central Powers in neutral Sweden. The veterans suffered from various conditions, including gunshot wounds, tuberculosis, and mental illness. Around 200 of them died in transit and were buried in the churchyard where the monument now stands. The transport operation received considerable media coverage, as the“ army of misery” provided many civilians with their first direct encounter with the horrors of war.
During the Second World War, people with disabilities— including those with mental illness or hereditary conditions— were among the first to fall victim to the dehumanising ideology of the Nazi regime. The principles of eugenics sought to“ improve” the genetic quality of the population on the basis of racial superiority. This led to the systematic implementation of euthanasia programmes designed to eliminate those deemed“ undesirable,” most infamously through the Aktion T4 programme. Disabled people were, in fact, a test case for the mass killings later extended to Jewish people and other persecuted groups.
The hierarchies of remembrance often reflect the moral values of societies. Although people with disabilities were the first victims of the Holocaust, they were the last to be commemorated. Berlin’ s Holocaust Memorial, dedicated to Jewish victims, was inaugurated in 2005 and quickly became an iconic site. A memorial followed it to the LGBTQI + community in 2008, and another to the Roma and Sinti victims in 2012. The T4 monument, situated in Berlin’ s Tiergarten district, from where the killings were administered, consists of a 24-metre-long structure made of translucent sky-blue plexiglass. The tone— known as Prussian blue— is identical to the pigment found in the chemical compounds of Zyklon B gas used in the gas chambers, traces of which can still be seen on their walls. This“ murderous shade” has thus become a powerful symbol of remembrance.
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Observing Memories ISSUE 9