Research project
Finding Ivy: a life worthy of life
- Start date: 01/04/22
- End date: Ongoing
- Primary investigator: Dr Helen L Atherton
- External co-investigators: Dr Simon Jarrett, Visiting Research Fellow, Open University Florian Schwanninger, Lern und Gedenkort, Schloss Hartheim, Austria Dr Carola Rudnick, Gedenkstätte Luneburg, Germany Dr Barbara Elkeles from Erinnarung und Mahnung, Telgte, Germany; Dr Nancy Jennings.
Description
From 1940 to 1941 around 70,000 adults with mental and physical disabilities living in institutions across Germany and Austria were systematically killed under a Nazi state-led programme called Aktion T4. The victims were deemed to have ‘life unworthy of life’.
The ‘Finding Ivy– A Life Worthy of Life’ research project reconstructs the fascinating lives of these people, as well as telling the story of the killing programme in which they were caught up, and its aftermath. Most of them were from the families of German and Austrian immigrants who moved to Britain to work in the early twentieth century before fatefully returning to Germany before the Second World War. Others were from mixed marriages between British and German or Austrian nationals.
The project draws attention to parallel thinking in terms of the perceived societal value of people with disabilities then and now, and how eugenic undertones still pervade contemporary thinking about this group.
Impact
The Finding Ivy Exhibition
The exhibition is touring internationally and can be seen in the following venues across England, Scotland, Wales, Germany and Austria:
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January 27th- March 31st 2024 |
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7 April-15th April 2024 |
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22nd April-29th April 2024 |
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5th June-21st June 2024 |
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1st August-6th September 2024 |
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29th July-29th August 2024 |
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5th September-29th September 2024 |
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1st October-31st October 2024 |
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21st October-8th November 2024 |
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1st October-31st October 2024 |
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1st November-30th November 2024 |
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1st December-1st January 2025 |
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1st January-31st January 2025 |
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1st January-31st January 2025 |
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January-February 2025 |
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13th March-13 April 2025 |
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1st February-17th February 2025 |
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18th February-11April 2025 |
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March 2025 |
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13th April-30th June |
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May (TBC) |
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1st June-30th June |
Publications and outputs
Royal College of Nursing Institute article
Project website
https://www.schloss-hartheim.at/en/memorial-exhibition/traveling-exhibitions/exhibition-finding-ivy