By Janneke van der Heide & Jan-Christian WilkeningIntroduction Remembering the crimes committed against people with disabilities during the Nazi era as part of the T4 program is organized in many ways in Germany. Exhibitions and memorial sites are an integral part of this culture of remembrance, as are monuments commemorating the victims of the National Socialist regime in Germany. One of these monuments is the Monument of the Grey Buses. Designed by the artists Horst Hoheisel and Andreas Knitz and originally erected in Ravensburg in Germany in 2006, a stylistically identical Wanderdenkmal [moving monument] was created shortly after. Said Wanderdenkmal has continuously been changing its location and has been temporarily installed across 16 different German cities since its creation. The goal of both the permanently installed and moving monument is the same, namely to commemorate the more than 200,000 victims of the T4 action organized between 1940 and 1941. Grey buses of the Gemeinnützige Krankentransportgesellschaft GmbH [non-profit patient transport company] transported victims to various extermination camps in the German Reich, where they were systematically murdered (Hamm, 2005; Henke, 2008). The possibilities for engaging with the Monument of the Grey Buses are diverse and have already been the subject of publications (e.g. Müller et al., 2017, for a more general approach towards the theory of memory culture see e. g. Assmann & Czaplicka, 1995). In the following remarks, we would like to focus on emotion networking as a specific method that we believe is suitable for using said monument (and others) to initiate historical learning processes in the context of public disability history. Therefore, we will first give insights into Aktion T4, to the Monument of the Grey Buses, and to its importance for public disability history in Germany. Then, the method of emotion networking will be introduced and it will be explained how this approach can be used to critically reflect on monuments that commemorate people with disabilities. We will conclude with some further thoughts on the relevance of emotion networking for the remembrance of people with disabilities who fell victim to the National Socialist regime in Germany. Remembering the Perpetrators and Victims of Aktion T4 August 18th 2024 marked the eighty-fifth anniversary of the order of the National Socialist regime in Germany to have allegedly inferior children systematically murdered; an order that was later extended to adults under the name Aktion T4, an order that symbolizes the crimes of National Socialism like no other singular event (Schlebach, 2024). The “euthanasia” program was the culmination of a Nazi social policy aimed at the exclusion and extermination of allegedly inferior life. It was designed to target all people who, according to the regime's understanding, were abnormal, dangerous to the public, incapable of working, or in need of permanent care (Aly, 2014). In addition to the almost 200,000 people who were murdered in the course of Aktion T4, there were 400,000 people who were forcibly sterilized in accordance with the Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses [Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring], a law created to prevent alleged hereditary diseases, which was passed on January 1st, 1934. These victims did not conform to the Nationalist Socialists' ideas of racial hygiene and were therefore to be neutralized (Klee, 2001). The National Socialist government had abandoned the traditional system of reference, which placed the individual person at the center of medical, preventive, and rehabilitative efforts, in favor of the health of the Volksgemeinschaft, and therefore cemented eugenic patterns of thought (Thümmel, 2003). Eugenic thinking has its origins in the nineteenth century and had already been critically discussed in the Weimar Republic after the publication of the essay "Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens" ["Permitting the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life"] (1920) by the jurist Karl Binding and the psychiatrist Alfred Hoche. However, it had never been put to practice during that time and was only fully implemented on the political stage during the Nazi regime (Staudinger, 1999; Bezenhöfer, 2009). The Monument of the Grey Buses is a reminder of Aktion T4 (image 1). Not only in one place, but rather (temporarily) in several German cities that are connected to the mass murder of people with disabilities. For example, the memorial has previously been placed in Berlin's Tiergartenstrasse (2008), from where the T4 operation was coordinated. Further, it has been placed in front of various former killing centres where the victims were brought to in the grey busses – such as in Pirna (2010) or Hadamar (2018) – to be murdered systematically.Image 1 - Original Monument of the Grey Buses in Ravensburg. Credit: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denkmal_der_Grauen_Busse, last accessed on 05.12.2024The Monument of the Grey Buses was designed by the two artists Horst Hoheisel and Andreas Knitz, who see the memorial as a place of remembrance for perpetrators and victims alike:“However, the design is not only intended to commemorate the victims of the ‘euthanasia’ campaign, the deed and the perpetrators are also reflected in the bus as a memorial. The artists use the grey buses as a means of transporting memories, so to speak.” (Stadt Ravensburg, 2006 [our translation])Hoheisel and Knitz themselves describe their monument as a counter-monument (NRW Skulptur, n. d.). According to Quentin Stevens, Karen A. Franck and Ruth Fazakerley, counter-monuments can be distinguished from conventional monuments in terms of subject, form, site, visitor, experience and meaning (Stevens et al., 2012). While conventional monuments commemorate famous people in a country, counter-monuments aim to focus primarily on the history of victims, as Stevens and colleagues explain (ibid., p. 955). In addition, the authors argue, counter-monuments have a rather abstract form, are inconspicuously integrated into their surroundings, evoke a “close, bodily encounter by the visitors” and do not allow a uniform interpretation:“Anti-monumental approaches … , offer no easy answers. They remain ambiguous and resist any unified interpretation; their meanings are often dependent on visitors’ historical knowledge, or supplementary information made available through signs, brochures, guides or interpretive centres.” (ibid., p. 961)The Monument of the Grey Buses represents a valuable source for people interested in public disability history for two reasons. Firstly, the intended discussions and reflections on the crimes committed against people with disabilities during the Nazi era as well as their after-effects and significance for the present are not limited to only one location. Rather, the traveling counter-monument enables historical discussions around groups of perpetrators and victims in different places across Germany. This can be considered to be important for Germany as there is still a need to shed more light on the crimes committed against people with disabilities during the Nazi era. For example, only recently, Lebenshilfe e. V., an advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities, called for the victims of Aktion T4 to be recognized as victims of persecution (Lebenshilfe, 2023). The travelling monument can also act as a starting point for explicitly initiated historical learning processes from which pupils, students and other historically interested people alike can benefit. In recent years, various considerations have been made and materials have been created that deal with the (extracurricular) thematization of monuments in Germany (Dräger, 2021; Dräger, 2022). Whether or to what extent memorials that deal with the history of people with disabilities during the Nazi era should be specifically addressed was just as little a subject of discussion as was the question of the extent to which special methodological approaches would have to be developed in order to be able to convincingly come to terms with the Nazi crimes against people with disabilities with the help of memorials in learning communities.Emotion Networking in Public Disability History Dealing with the history of the National Socialist regime is often emotional, especially (but not only) in Germany. Anger, sadness, fear and disgust are just some of the emotions that can be triggered by confronting the crimes of the Nazis. When monuments in public history are in some shape or form connected with the National Socialist regime, like the Wanderdenkmal of the Grey Buses, the method of emotion networking offers a possibility to share emotions and knowledge about monuments in a structured way. Although an unstructured confrontation with one's own emotions does not have to be fundamentally bad, it seems necessary to us to at least think about structured procedures for historical learning in and outside of schools in order to prevent learners from becoming overwhelmed and traumatized.Emotion networking is inspired by the ‘Circumplex Model of Emotion’ by the American psychologist James Russell (1980) and was developed around 2020 by Hester Dibbits of the Amsterdam Reinwardt Academy and Marlous Willemsen of the Amsterdam Institute ImagineIC (Dibbits, 2020). The activity can be organized both on paper and in space in a group setting. When emotion networking on paper, participants position their emotion(s) as a point in a circle along two dimensions of valence and arousal. By emotion networking in space (like in a classroom or in a public space), the participants gather around the object, showing their emotion by choosing a relative position towards the heritage object. The point of a personal emotional stance can be made visible by stepping forward or backward, or by putting images of emoji’s in front of them. In October 2024, a group of 20 international students in an ERASMUS+ course on ‘Heritage Education’, organized by the University of Cologne (Germany), University of Leiden (Netherlands), the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands) and the Linnaeus University (Sweden), visited the Monument of the Grey Buses in Cologne. They were asked to stand around the object to position themselves emotionally and to choose one or two out of six emoji’s (ranging from angry and sad, to neutral and optimistic) that best expressed their emotions. Strong(er) feelings were expressed by putting the chosen emoji’s close to the heritage item, whilst weak(er) feelings were expressed by putting the chosen emoji’s further away (image 2).  Image 2 - Schematic situation of emotion networking in space. Credit: www.emotienetwerken.nl, last accessed on 05.12.2024We then asked the participants, following the protocol of the method, to voluntarily share and explain their position and feelings. One student responded that the experienced emotion was strong, because of the hard concrete the bus is made from, and that this represented in her eyes the harshness of the historical event to which it referred (image 3). Another student suggested that the size of the windows of the bus reflected the personal scale of the victims, as was the phrase that is carved in the stone in the midst of the bus: ‘Wohin bringt Ihr uns?’ [Where are you taking us?]. Another student expressed weak feelings towards the heritage object, not feeling any particular emotion in front of a – in her opinion – log and unwieldy concrete bus. Yet, most of the students felt affected by the senses when looking into the aisle down the middle of the bus, which is actually split in two parts. Striking and causing emotion for some students was that this particular aisle is suitable for wheelchairs, which made the connection of the impaired of past and present heartfelt. The particular geographical position of the monument did raise eyebrows, questioning the symbolic meaning of the perfect ‘see through’ from the aisle of the Monument on the Cologne Cathedral. Image 3 - A group of international students at the Monument of the Grey Buses in Cologne. Credit: Picture of the authors, taken in October 2024While the participants share their emotional arguments for choosing a particular spot around the heritage item, interruption is not allowed, as emotion networking is an exercise in listening to each other. After the interactions of emotions, emotion networking requires that knowledge is added by means of information about various stakeholders that are involved in the particular heritage. In a classroom setting, this knowledge is usually added by showing information sheets or slides or showing short videos of different people who represent multiple perspectives (Dibbits, 2020). When emotion networking in a particular space, such as at the Monument of the Grey Buses, information about stakeholders can be communicated by telling. In this case the used stakeholders were the disabled victims of the “euthanasia” policy of the Nazi regime, the relatives of the disabled victims of the “euthanasia” policy, the perpetrators like the managers of the institutions involved and doctors, the Nazi regime as such, the German population as such in wartime and postwar period, and the disabled patients and their relatives nowadays. After the sharing of knowledge by means of stakeholders to get a multiperspective view, the students can adjust their emotional position if their feelings have changed. Again, positions and arguments are then exchanged without interruptions from other participants. The question is if the awareness of multiple perspectives has redirected the emotions. Finally, to conclude the method of emotion networking, a short discussion can be instigated about the question ‘What has this exercise taught you about (this particular) heritage?’ (ibid.)Emotion networking shows the complexity of different individual emotional stances and prevents the sometimes persistent bipolarity of collective emotional stances towards the heritage object. At the same time, it acknowledges that emotions may change by interacting and adding multiple perspectives and can be defined as dynamic. Thus, emotion networking provides insights into the interactions between the participants, as well as between the participants and the heritage item. (ibid.)The overall goal of emotion networking around a sensitive heritage item, is – in the words of the developers Dibbits and Willemsen – to become “heritage wise”: acquiring “a competence that enables people to critically relate to heritage and discuss it, by paying attention to the social dynamics surrounding heritage and their own and others’ position in relationship to it” (ibid.). Whether the central item is a sensitive object in public disability history, or a sensitive social or historical topic to discuss in your history class, emotions are channeled by the structured form of the method, and by means of keeping a balance between individual emotion and knowledge of multiple perspectives.  Conclusion Memorials in Germany that exclusively commemorate Aktion T4 are rare. This makes it all the more important to consider how these few memorials can be used to provide learners with access to the history of people with disabilities under the Nazi regime. The emotion networking method seems suitable for discussing and reflecting on emotions triggered by monuments such as the Monument of the Grey Buses. Particularly in view of the emotional nature of the memory of the National Socialist regime, we believe that an examination of emotion networking would be beneficial in order to be able to use public disability history spaces as starting points for historical learning processes. We cannot answer how sustainable or effective emotion networking was for the international students mentioned above. However, we would like to point out the overall positive feedback from the students, who largely rated the excursion to the Monument of the Grey Buses positively. Therefore, we are confident that not only students interested in heritage education would benefit from emotion networking, but also people around the world who are interested in facing their emotions when confronted with the public history of disability.Janneke van der Heide is a cultural historian and history teacher affiliated with the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. She completed her PhD at the University of Amsterdam on the political and social impact of Darwinism in the Netherlands (1859–1909). Her research interests include the reception of Darwin’s ideas and history education, and she has published in several edited volumes on the cultural reception of Darwin in Europe. Since 2008, she has taught courses on heritage education, cultural history, and the philosophy of history.Jan-Christian Wilkening is working as a research assistant in the Department of History Education at the University of Cologne. He just defended his PhD thesis on “Historical Thinking and Learning of Students with Intellectual Disabilities: Participatory Practices of an Inclusive History Education”. His research primarily focuses on inclusive history education, public history, and historical thinking._____________________References: Assmann, J. & Czaplicka, J.: Collective Memory and Cultural Identity, in: New German Critique 65 (1995), S. 125-133.Aly, G.: Die Belasteten. „Euthanasie“ 1939-1945. Eine Gesellschaftsgeschichte, Frankfurt/M. 2014.Bezenhöfer, U.: Der gute Tod? Geschichte der Euthanasie und Sterbehilfe, 2. ed., Göttingen 2009.Dibbits, H.: Emotienetwerken: erfgoed- en burgerschapseducatie in de 21 eeuw, in: Cultuur + Educatie 19 (2020), pp. 8–26.Dräger, M.: Denkmäler im Geschichtsunterricht thematisieren. Frankfurt/M. 2022. Dräger, M.: Denkmäler im Geschichtsunterricht. Frankfurt/M. 2021. Hamm, M. (Ed.): Lebensunwert – zerstörtes Leben. Zwangsterilisation und „Euthanasie“, Frankfurt/M. 2005. Henke, K.-D. (Ed.): Tödliche Medizin im Nationalsozialismus. Von der Rassenhygiene zum Massenmord, Köln 2008.Klee, E.: Deutsche Medizin im Dritten Reich. Karriere vor und nach 1945, Frankfurt/M. 2001.Lebenshilfe: Von den Nazis ermordete Menschen mit Behinderung werden zu Opfern zweiter Klasse gemacht, URL: https://www.lebenshilfe.de/presse/pressemeldung/von-den-nazis-ermordete-menschen-mit-behinderung-werden-zu-opfern-zweiter-klasse-gemacht?srsltid=AfmBOoo3zTAxQZW8boV0aTi6lU0UB_3L4f8sCNSLI9W58GeXH2WII3X7 [last accessed on 11.12.2024]. Müller, T. / Schmidt-Michel, Paul-Otto / Schwarzbauer, F. / Hoheisel, H. (Ed.): Vergangen? Spurensuche und Erinnerungsarbeit - das Denkmal der Grauen Busse, Zwiefalten 2017. NRW Skulptur: Denkmal der Grauen Busse, URL: https://nrw-skulptur.net/skulptur/denkmal-der-grauen-busse/ [last accessed on 11.12.2024]. Schlebach, A.: Euthanasie. „Rassenhygiene“ der Nationalsozialisten, in: NDR [online], URL:    https://www.ndr.de/geschichte/chronologie/Euthanasie-Rassenhygiene-im- Nationalsozialismus,euthanasie100.html [last accessed on 11.12.2024].Stadt Ravensburg: Mahnmal Weißenau, URL: http://www.dasdenkmaldergrauenbusse.de/images/files/Standorte/Weissenau/WeissenauBroschuere.pdf [last accessed on 11.12.2024]. Staudinger, R.:  Rassenrecht und Rassenstaat. Die nationalsozialistische   Vision eines „biologisch totalen Staates“, Tirol 1999.Stevens, Q. / Franck, K. / Fazakerley, R.: Counter-monuments: The Anti-monumental and the Dialogic, in: The Journal of Architecture 17 (2012), 6, pp. 951–972. Thümmel, I.: Sozial- und Ideengeschichte der Schule für Geistigbehinderte im 20. Jahrhundert. Zentrale Entwicklungslinien zwischen Ausgrenzung und Partizipation, Berlin 2003. Recommended citation: Janneke van der Heide & Jan-Christian Wilkening (2025): The "Counter-Monument" of the Grey Buses: Emotion Networking as a Method for Public Disability History. In: Public Disability History 10 (2025) 1.

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