Berlin Pays Tribute to Gay-Rights Activist Persecuted by Nazis

A stretch of the Spree River in central Berlin was named after gay-rights activist and sexual researcher Magnus Hirschfeld in a dedication ceremony on Tuesday, May 6.

On the same day 75 years ago, the Nazis plundered his offices and later burned hundreds of his books.

Hirschfeld had founded the world's first institute dedicated to fighting discrimination against homosexuals. He went into exile in France and died there in 1935.

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Memorial to gay Holocaust victims to be unveiled this month

This is an update to: backstory

By Adam Lake

Pinks News

A memorial to the persecuted homosexual victims of Nazism will be officially unveiled in Berlin on May 27th.

It takes the form of a gray concrete slab, with a window to allow visitors to view a video. It cost 600,000 euros (£450,000).

There will be two alternated videos which show either two men kissing or two women kissing.

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Kentucky legislators pass Holocaust resolution

The General Assembly yesterday approved a resolution calling for expanded opportunities for Kentucky public school children to learn about the Holocaust and other acts of genocide.

House Joint Resolution 6 is named after the late Ernie Marx of Louisville, a Holocaust survivor who made a life's mission to spread education about the horrors he witnessed.

The resolution would direct the Department of Education to make curriculum materials available for optional use in public schools by March 2009.

The resolution reflects four years of efforts by middle-school students at St. Francis of Assisi School in Louisville, where Fred Whitaker offers instruction on the Holocaust and takes students to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

"These middle school students really knew something we should all know," Whitaker said. "They really knew there was something powerful that (happens) to anyone when they study the Holocaust and genocide."

The Senate deleted a clause in the House version that cited other people the Nazis deemed "undesirable" because of their "race, nationality, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion, and political ideology."

Whitaker said he received indications earlier in the session that the reference to sexual orientation was a "red flag" that could have endangered the bill.

Whitaker said that, even without the language on other victims of the Nazis, "you can't study the Holocaust and not also come across pink triangles," the insignia that homosexual prisoners were forced to wear.

The Holocaust museum says the Nazis arrested about 100,000 men as homosexuals and that an unknown number died amid brutal conditions.

Marzian said she could accept the Senate changes.

"You have to compromise in legislation," she said.

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Traveling exhibit explores Nazi persecution of gays

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - In Nazi Germany, some gay men were castrated and prosecuted under draconian laws prohibiting homosexuality. Others were subjected to crude medical experiments designed to "correct" their sexual orientation. Gay men in concentration camps were singled out with distinctive pink triangle badges and assigned backbreaking labor that often killed them.

A traveling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum uses photographs, documents and artwork to chronicle the Nazis' arrests and persecution of tens of thousands of gay men from 1933 to 1945.

The exhibit, which is on display through the end of the month at the University of Rhode Island, gives voice to what its curator describes as "one of the lesser-known stories of the Nazi era."

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Gay Holocaust; memorials, documentaries and the pink triangle

If tolerance for difference is one of the lessons humanity is supposed to have learned from the Nazi era, the contemporary treatment of homosexuals around the world demonstrates that the lesson has not yet been learned.

87 countries currently maintain laws that prohibit or regulate sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex. These laws are extremely broad in their scope and lend themselves to ideological interpretations which often serve as a pretext for the persecution of homosexuals.

Clearly, in different places throughout our contemporary world, much of the same discrimination and even some of the same crimes that occurred under the Nazi regime are currently being perpetrated against homosexual people.

The past is not past. History is repeating itself virtually every day. This is because the lessons of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals have not yet been taught or learned. We believe that one of the best ways to commemorate and historically legitimize those who were murdered by the Nazis is to prevent such atrocities from occurring again throughout the world.

The pink triangle was pinned on us by the Nazi's. Matt and Andrej ask that we not forget the reason we still wear the pink triangle. In memory of our brothers, murdered by the Nazi's while wearing a pink triangle.

I want to thank Matt and Andrej where I obtained much of this.

I loved their page titled: 8 Memorials to the Gay Holocaust

Other resources:

The book: The Pink Swastika

The documentary: Paragraph 175

It speaks with the 6 remaining gay holocaust survivors.

That wasn't a typo, 6 remaining gay holocaust survivors in the world!

German Memorial for gay holocaust victims

UPDATE: Click here to view an update to this story.

BERLIN (AP) — A new Berlin memorial to the Nazis' murdered gay victims — including a video presentation showing same-sex couples kissing — should be ready within months, officials said Thursday.

"The $890,000 memorial to gay victims will be located in Berlin's Tiergarten Park, across from the memorial to the murdered jews of Europe", said Culture Minister Bernd Neumann.

Homosexuality was banned and illegal under the Nazis. Tens of thousands of people — primarily men — were arrested and many were sent to concentration camps.

With emancipation all holocaust victims were set free, except for homosexuals who were placed in prisons. After all homosexuality was still illegal!

Nazi persecution of homosexuals 1933-1945

I ran across the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum online and found this great presentation.


Nazi persecution of homosexuals 1933-1945:
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hsx/