When the Teitz family immigrated to the United States in 1939, the oldest son, Werner, pictured with his mother, Sophie, was denied a visa by the US government due to his physical disability. He was murdered in the Sobibór Killing Center in 1943. US Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of the Dumais, Teitz and Zuckerman families
By the time the Nazis targeted Jews in the "Final Solution," they had mastered killing on an industrial scale. People with disabilities were the first victims of Nazi mass murder. In recognition of #DisabilityAwarenessMonth, join Senior Historian Patricia Heberer Rice to learn why people with disabilities were considered such a threat. More than 250,000 people who had physical or mental disabilities, including about 5,000 children, were killed in this secret program.
