Made by members of a quilting club in Gers, France

~ 4 hours to full day or multiple days
~ no minimum or maximum participation
~ usually combined with other presentations
~ Jeanne brings all supplies needed plus quilts to display and handouts
~ $585 per day plus travel expenses

Between January 1940 and August 1941 under a top secret program known as Aktion T4, Nazi physicians ordered the murder of 70,273 people with disabilities, calling them “life unworthy of life” or “useless eaters”. Jeanne Hewell-Chambers is gathering 70,273 quilt blocks from around the world to commemorate every one of the people murdered so casually and callously under Aktion T4.

The block use is a rectangle cut in one of three sizes (3.5″ x 6.5″ OR 6.5″ x 9.5″ OR 9.5″ x 12.5″) made of white or slightly off white fabric to represent the paper of the questionnaire created and distributed by Aktion T4, providing the only information sought by physicians when making these life or death determinations. When two of three assessing physicians placed a red X on the bottom of the page, the person was murdered. Two red X’s are placed on each block base to commemorate one person.

Though we have commemorated more than the original goal of 70,273, we know that hundreds of thousands more people with disabilities were murdered, so we’re not stopping.

Jeanne and The Engineer (Andy, her husband) are available to lead a Block Drives on your campus, at your office, church, or school – anywhere kind, compassionate people gather. Jeanne will arrive with handouts, quilts to display, and all the materials needed to make blocks in one of two ways: sewing or ironing. They will stay at the location as long as desired, telling people about the project, answering their questions, and bearing witness to their stories.

And when all the blocks are made, Jeanne will find a volunteer to turn them into a quilt bearing your organization’s name on the label along with the name of everyone who made a block and helped make the quilt. Blocks can be dedicated to specific people, and those dedications are also on the label. (Note: people can choose to remain anonymous.)

Perhaps you’d like to add a presentation to give folks an opportunity to hear more about the project as well as an opportunity to participate. Jeanne will be happy to help find a way you can provide an opportunity for people to wrap a dark time in history with kindness while learning more about this time in history and becoming part of something that’s meaningful and lasting.

When you’re ready to get The 70273 Project on your calendar, let’s talk.

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Depending on luggage space and airline weight requirements, we might need to ask you make copies of the Provenance (release) Form.

Blocks and quilts become part of The 70273 Project, Inc. and will travel around the world in exhibits. Arrangements can also be made for your quilt to be on extended loan to your school, office, university, library, or wherever you’d like to display it to help educate others.