DISPOSABLE HUMANITY is a powerful new documentary that covers an oft overlooked aspect of the Holocaust  during World War II.  Leading up to and during the war, Nazi Germany started to explore the practical implementation of eugenics for the overall improvement of society. Filmmaker and documentarian Cameron S. Mitchell introduces us to Aktion T4. It was through this initiative that the practice of mass murder was tested on the disabled population in 1930’s Germany in preparation for a much grander scope of genocide. Part travelogue, part historical doc, we follow Mitchell and his father David T. Mitchell, sister Emma Mitchell, and mother Sharon L. Snyder as they explore this profoundly difficult aspect of human history.

The film opens by introducing us to the basic concept that most of us might not be familiar with. As Germany readied itself for war in the 1930’s they began to build the infrastructure for an insidious plot of systematic euthanasia. Today we have many names for the various conditions like autism, down syndrome, schizophrenia, just to name a few. But under Hitler, teams of doctors were organized to divide the hospitalized population into “teachable” or “unteachable”. Individuals were assessed for their ability to contribute to society. If they were considered a detriment, they were shuffled off to an asylum.

Mitchell and his family begin their journey by stopping by the more popular memorials like Auschwitz. These B-roll tours are intercut with an impressive collection of interviews with various scholars and curators who teach us about how all of the genocide began. We are treated to an impressive collection of photographs, interviews, and personal accounts that explore the incremental nature of evil’s growing hold on a frightened and confused society. Family members were marginalized and soon sent away. One interview subject explains how her grandmother recalled seeing the black plumes of smoke rising as she gazed out her living room window as if it were another aspect of living in a small village.

Mercifully, DISPOSABLE HUMANITY isn’t here to lead us down a bleak path in human history with little recourse. Mitchell and his family visit the public monuments and memorials that keep the atrocities fresh in the minds of visitors. Yet it comes with a warning. To modern day Germans the debate rages between the importance of remembrance versus the fiscal impact of such spaces. It is argued that there is already a space for the collective victims of the Holocaust. So why spend money on the memory of the marginalized?

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason

Mitchell makes the powerful case with his family, two of whom are disabled themselves to some capacity, that every story from the Holocaust, however small or seemingly unimportant, must be told. Care for the marginalized is of the utmost importance. It is at the very root of our integrity as a society. DISPOSABLE HUMANITY is one of the most important documentaries of 2025 as it begs for us to know what it means to be human, however disposable we might seem.