For me, the magic of Halloween was always a fun respite from the business of dull logic and dry decorum; that is, until I found out about the Pennhurst Asylum Haunted House in Spring City, PA.
First opened in 1908, Pennhurst was called the Eastern Pennsylvania Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic. It was built to house intellectually and physically disabled children but it soon became overcrowded and vastly understaffed. Those were the days of the extreme popularity of eugenics, before the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990.
Pennhurst literally became a house of horrors for the thousands of people who were forced to live there between 1908 and the institution’s closing in 1987. Torture was used on many of the residents; everything from arranged fights between patients or “inmates” as they were called, to chemical poisoning, and medical experimentation similar to that which was frequently conducted in the concentration camps of Germany.
Individuals were often beaten, chained to their beds, sexually abused, put in isolation, and forced to live in filth and squalor. The school was state sponsored and kept open for decades, despite several law suits that made it to the high courts. In 2008, Richard Chakejian purchased the property to create a for profit haunted house attraction. Due to a wealth of complaints, it is now manned by disabled adults.
As my disabled son said: “This is like turning the site of Dachau in Germany into a haunted amusement park.”
I agreed with him. Even if it were run by Jews, would that make any more sense? No, the site of such abominable discrimination and murderous torture must become hallowed ground devoted to the memory of those who perished there.

Jordanpearsonfp@gmail.com
This is very important to me.