News Archives - 2001

From 1939 to 1945, as part of Hitler's euthanasia program, approximately 275,000 people with all types of disabilities were among the first to die in the Holocaust. Their story has been essentially silent until the early 1990s.

For the first time in the United States, from Nov. 7 through Nov. 11, a photographic exhibit of the site in Hadamar, Germany, where 15,000 people with disabilities were killed, will be on display at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.

Bringing the exhibit are two Norwegians: Karl-Johan Johansen, teacher at Sor Trondelag College in Trondheim, Norway. He is also a consultant to many organizations working with people with disabilities especially as it relates to self-advocacy and research of progressive programs. He has worked and consulted with PROFF, an organization that serves people with disabilities within the community. And Per Frederiksen, who works for PROFF and lived for 15 years in an institution in Norway. After the exhibit closes, they will leave to attend a national conference in California. These will be the only two places in the United States the exhibit will be on display.

An opening presentation will be held on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. in the Foss Chapel. The presentation will be followed by a reception at Christensen Center, where the exhibit is being housed.