Memorial 2008

This year’s memorial was a great success. People came from all over the Netherlands and Belgium to attend.

We were honored to have Mr. Binjamin Heyl, author of the book The Forgotten Chapter in the History of Health Care, 1933 – 1945 (the only Dutch-language book to date dealing with this material) as guest speaker.

We also showed the documentary A World Without Bodies by professors David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder.

Afterwards a dynamic discussion developed in the audience. There was wide consensus that eugenics is still going on today, be it in more veiled form. For instance, Mr. Heyl referred to the inhumane conditions in Dutch nursing homes for the elderly, and audience member pharmacist Mr. Fernand Haesbrouck from Belgium told us how drugs like Vioxx are withdrawn from the market, while drugs that cause thousands more deaths are not withdrawn, because they are administered to "psychiatric patients" whose lives and health are not valued the same as other people's.

Our commemoration concluded with a minute of silence.

We refer you also to the commemorations held this year by our colleagues in Germany. If you held commemorations this year, we would appreciate receiving information or links.