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BCIFV
home > Media Releases
> February 15, 2000
For Immediate Release
Contact: The Person Within Project, (604) 669-7055
February
15, 2000
Pioneer
in education of children with disabilities
to
speak on abuse of children with disabilities in
Nazi
Germany and 21st century Canada
On
February 22 at 7:30 PM at Oakridge Public Library in Vancouver,
a pioneer in the struggle to advance human rights for children
with disabilities will speak about the similarities between
attitudes toward children with disabilities in our society
and in Nazi Germany.
"In Nazi
Germany, the prevailing belief was that if you were giving
something to a child with a disability, you were taking it
away from another child," says Sally Rogow. This is similar
to many parents' opposition to integration of children with
disabilities into mainstream classrooms, where they believe
teachers' attention will be diverted from their own children.
But failing to staff classrooms to meet all the children's
needs is not the fault of any of the children, says Rogow.
"Children
are children," she says. "With or without disabilities, they
go through the same developmental stages and have the same
needs for attention, affection, and inclusion. They're part
of our society with the same rights as other children."
A retired
UBC professor of education, Rogow developed a ground-breaking
program for teachers of children with disabilities. More recently,
she directed the project The Person Within, a video and workshop
on emotional abuse of children with disabilities developed
and produced by the BC Institute Against Family Violence;
and she completed research on treatment of children with disabilities
in Nazi Germany.
"If there
is any light in the darkness of the Nazi era, it is in the
courage of those who fought back, rescued others, or simply
survived against terrible odds," she says. Among the courageous
were many young people, about whom Rogow has written a series
of stories called "Faces of Courage: Teenagers Who Resisted."
One such
teenager was Jacques Lusseyran. Blinded in an accident at
the age of eight, Lusseyran was a brilliant student who mastered
Braille in six weeks. While in high school, his favourite
teacher and several Jewish friends were taken away by the
Nazis. Because of his disability and despite his academic
abilities, Lusseyran was denied university entrance.
At 17,
Lusseyran organized a resistance group. Called "Voluntaires
de la Liberte," it became part of "Defense de la France,"
a major underground resistance network affiliated with Charles
de Gaulle and the free French government in Algiers. Eventually,
Lusseyran was arrested and sent to Buchenwald, but he survived,
completed university, and became a professor of literature.
Lusseyran
was not alone in his courage, says Rogow. A Holocaust-education
website offers her stories about a deaf, French 17-year-old
boy who saved the life of an American pilot; a developmentally
challenged 15-year-old German boy who escaped a cruel life
in an institution; a physically and developmentally challenged
15-year-old girl who would not give up on her search for a
home after her parents and grandparents died; and others.
Rogow
will speak about her research at Oakridge Public Library on
February 22. Then on February 24 and 25, who is also Program
Director for The Person Within, will lead a Person Within
workshop at Halfmoon Bay Community School in Sechelt.
To read "Faces of Courage," visit www.holocaust-trc.org.
To contact Rogow or for information about The Person Within,
contact the BC Institute Against Family Violence, (604) 669-7055
or reception@bcifv.org.
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