Customer Reviews:
 A Dark Chapter in Deaf History August 16, 2001
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This book is a remembrance of what was and tells of the pain and suffering of the German Deaf Community under the leadership of the Third Reich. I read this book, not as a hearing person, but as a Deaf person and I felt there pain. This book is horrifying but more so was the persons who were involved in the Deaf community who helped this government succeed to there sick ideas. Crying Hands reaches out from the darkness to shed light on one chapter in the history of our Deaf people and of our struggle over centuries of oppression. This books value is in it history; Deaf Holocaust History. I recommend this book for everyone.
Inclusion, Democracy, and Equality--or Fascism October 27, 2000
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This little book, a nicely translated academic effort that is quite readable, demonstrates the depth of the idea that those who are rendered surperflous are being set up for death. This notion first expressed by Richard Rothstein sweeps across issues of race and nation, and into questions of ablity/disability, perhaps now the most obscured of the social issues that must be addressed by those who seek a more democratic, egalitarian, and civil way of life. The idea that inclusion means ALL, has not reached into the mind-sets of too many on the left, an odd circumstance since many fine efforts like the text at hand show that the old saw, An Injury to One only Goes Before an Injury to All, is quite true. This is a good book for educators, activists, and researchers in all fields.
Sad history of Deaf people at hands of Nazis September 19, 2000
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I first read the book on the medical holocaust in Germany by Dr. Friedlander. I then came across this one in my search for more material having to do with the Deaf in Germany. This book was originally a dissertation, however, Gallaudet Press and the translater, William Sayers, did a great job in turning what would be a dry dissertation into a short, but interesting book. Horst Biesold is an interpreter who in the performance of his job, came across members of the German deaf community who were finally willing to tell their story about being forced to undergo sterilization. He writes with obvious concern for and about his deaf clients, and the emotional and psychological impact that the eugenics laws had on these people. It is with concern and dismay that I am researching the same subject only in the United States, since the Nazis often wrote that many of their ideas and programs were first proffered by eugenicists in the U.S. This book is a good reminder that when societies don't stand up for what is right, even when it does not directly affect most individuals, you cannot tell how far the 'slippery slope' is going to go. The Holocaust did not just become the Final Solution for the Jews, but included the gypsies and the disabled, and those who were considered 'life unworthy of life.' With the completion of the Human Genome Project, and proponents of euthanasia getting more vocal, and doctors like Kervorkian, and HMOs who put their bottom line before the worth of people...it is all too possible that this horror could happen again, and in this country. I urge ethicists, physicians, and educators to read this book as well as members of the deaf/disabled community so that we can protect ourselves from those who would put less value on our lives for whatever reason. Karen L. Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh
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