Saturday evening, March 9th^, 2019, I grabbed the opportunity to watch a powerful performance called Crying Hands: Deaf People in Hitler’s Germany “based on interviews of Deaf Holocaust and civilian survivors, explores the fates of the Deaf and disabled in Nazi Germany, a neglected story of the Holocaust.”

The play of Crying Hands captured the stories where Deaf human beings had suffered as the most have under this regulated apartheid, persecution, and oppression in the name of bigotry and all of it for the benefit of the greatest generation of political cover ups in the history of the world.

The Deaf story signers in this cast were marvel and made sure the viewers felt the gravity of pain and sorrow, and it was not an easy feat. Carrying that story to Washington, D.C., one of the largest Deaf populations in America, was a masterpiece. It is OK to cry because the definition of crying, “to weep; shed tears, with or without sound.”

While I had been thinking about those times like during Nazi time–thousands of miles away from Gallaudet College where Deaf students were embracing the life of higher learning and pursuit of happiness, while Deaf political prisoners were fighting for their lives, the opposite of pursuit of happiness must have been different world. There might be forgotten Deaf political prisoners we may never knew the stories.

There is a friendly reminder that the readers should buy Crying Hands: Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany and Deaf People in Hitler’s Europe. Those books would understand more empirical evidence and the lack of a universal law.

The Deaf story signers showed with emotion, no matter dealing with the draconian punishment, would also deal with the oppression selling to the massively politically ignorant citizens of Nazi. The most painful thing in 1939, bigotry did not protect Deaf people. Bigotry was the ultimate message where the Nazi uses force of law to punish those they did not like.

Bigotry was a common name since 1590s. The terminology of hate crime was coined in 1980s. In 1939, the term of hate crime did not exist. Hate crime is now more common term than bigotry today.

The cast also brings the message to advocate and stop the growing number of hate crimes in America 2019. We need to remind ourselves whether the degree of bigotry was 80 years ago, we need to bring better message for another 80 years and forever to understand hate crimes more. We need to educate each other more.

That is an important step toward preserving Deaf people’s freedom. The story, Crying Hands was brilliant on the spot. I strongly believe that it should show the story more around America and the world itself, too. Department of Deaf Studies around colleges and universities whose curriculum should be required to read those books and watch this play. It is once in a lifetime. At least it is an academic freedom to learn the truth.

It may be a sociological problem, and the core of this story is to recognize the magnitude of hate crime that shows the abuse of power, and Deaf people should not taunt by their own disdain for the human being that they were born with.

The production of Crying Hands took courage to show the product of truth should favors in Deaf people’s world of hurt and should not be an effort to reject the truth in the name of privileges. The pursuit of justice cannot be neglected. Don’t you agree that hate in the eye of the beholder shall or shall not be ashamed of that injustice?

Thank you:

A Theatre Passe Muraille Presentation of Theatre Manu and Community Engagement Partner the Deaf Culture Centre for bringing this story.

-JT

Copyright © 2019 Jason Tozier

This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.

References:

https://ca.patronbase.com/_TheatrePasseMuraille/Productions/8/Performances

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/crying