Michael introduces Mayor of Cambridge Gerri Bird and Rowan Group

NOTE - LONGER VERSION THAN THE EDITED FILM = 
Our theme for this Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 is ‘Stand Together’ and as Mayor of Cambridge I welcome each and everyone of you – and encourage everyone today to reflect on this theme and take it up as a call to action!  

 

I’m so pleased to hear the words of the Choir Singers in their song today calling for the “end of Persecution, the end of Discrimination” because words are important to us as they tell people what we think, what we mean.  

 

In Nazi Germany there was widespread propaganda in the form of posters, news-reels and cinema that portrayed disabled people as “useless eaters” and people who had “lives unworthy of living”.  The propaganda stressed the high cost of supporting disabled people and suggested it was not fair for society to pay for this.   That it was a burden on society and the state.

 

When the Nazi’s came to power in 1933 they first started a compulsory programme for people with disabilities involving sterilisation so that people with disabilities could not have children.  Then in 1939 the Nazi’s started a secret action programme (called T4) where people with disabilities were either gassed or given a lethal injection.  

 

During the Holocaust, it is estimated that 300,000 people with disabilities were killed by the Nazi regime in the T4 action.  This included both those with mental health problems and those with physical disabilities.  They were all gassed. Just imagine the enormity of this tragedy! We remember and mourn their deaths on this Holocaust Memorial civic occasion….

 

We may think that here in the UK we would never do such a thing.  But, I am regularly surprised about the way that people feel it is OK to talk negatively about people with disabilities.

 

Disabled people are significantly more likely to be victims of crime than non-disabled people.  

 

People don’t just talk negatively about people with disabilities.  Some people think it is OK to be violent.  There are over one thousand people prosecuted every year for disability hate crimes, and the majority of these crimes are against children with disabilities. This violence against children is truly shocking! 

 

As a child, my experiences were challenging because I was born in a Magdalene Home in Cork in Ireland, which was an unsafe place for children.  I was lucky to survive the Home because at the age of 10 months I got polio, and this meant that I stayed in hospital until I was 7 years old.  I was then sent to Cambridge to follow my Mother but went into foster care and was eventually adopted.  Through all of these changes in location, those in charge neglected my education because I had a disability. But I loved school, both the learning and the sociability! Yet I only went to school for 3 years in all.

 

Since school age, I’m very proud of my achievements proving people wrong again and again.  I also ask people to look at the person in the wheelchair and not at the chair.  This is my mantra! At so many workplaces I’ve been the first to be employed who is a wheelchair user.  And I’ve been the first Mayor of Cambridge in a wheelchair serving now for my 2nd time as Cambridge Mayor.  I love being your Mayor! 

 

In my lifetime of experiences as a wheelchair user,  - 60, 50, 40, 30 years ago attitudes towards disabled people centred on their impairment as the cause of their experiences and disadvantages – now –  things have changed. However, we all still need to work to raise awareness and remove barriers to independence that Cambridgeshire disabled people face. 

I’m really proud to be a supporter of the Rowan charity, which gives young people with learning disabilities a thriving Arts Centre, providing a safe, welcoming environment using Arts as a tool to bring people together, and to express their creativity! 

I’m really thrilled that the young people involved in the HMD education project have been shocked to learn about the T4 action and about hate crimes in the UK today, and so have chosen to ‘stand together’ with their peer group in Cambridge, chosing Rowan as one of our 2 charities for donations today. So if you can, do please donate at the end of the civic event, to support Rowan Arts activities for those with disabilities here. 

And please through words and actions, help to create a culture of understanding and respect, so that children and adults today, don’t have to go through what I experienced growing up!