All Our Children

Author(s):

January 1941. Nazi Germany. A terrible crime is taking place in a clinic for disabled children. The perpetrators argue that it will help struggling parents and lift the financial burden on the mighty German state. One brave voice is raised in objection. But will anyone listen? Stephen Unwin's debut play memorializes this overlooked aspect of the Holocaust, remembering the 200,000 children and young people who died and the brave few who fought against this injustice.
Format: Drama
Cast Size: 3M, 2W
Character breakdown

Eric

Martha

Elizabetta

Victor

Bishop Von Galen

Snapshot

Notes:

The persecution, sterilization and murder of hundreds of thousands of disabled people is one of the most overlooked chapters in the whole ghastly history of Nazi Germany. Between 1939 and 1941 as many as 100,000 people with a wide range of disabilities were dismissed as lebensunwertes Leben (‘lives unworthy of life’) and systematically killed in six converted psychiatric hospitals across Austria and Germany. Public opposition to the program was limited. The most striking intervention came from the Bishop of Münster, Clemens von Galen. All Our Children is a timely work of historical fiction, but rooted firmly in the true evils of the past.

Original or Prominent Production: The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture
Nationality of Author:
Original Language: English
Publisher:

Nick Hern Books

Experience(s) Chronicled:

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