Tel Aviv unveils first memorial to gay Holocaust victims [View all]
The monument in the centre of the city is designed around a pink triangle - the symbol gay prisoners were forced to wear in the concentration camps. Writing on the monument in English, Hebrew and German reads: "In memory of those persecuted by the Nazi regime for their sexual orientation and gender identity." It is the first Holocaust memorial in Israel that deals with both Jewish and non-Jewish victims alike, according to local reports.
The monument, unveiled on Friday, will stand outside the Municipal LGBT Community Centre in Tel Aviv's Meir Park (Gan Meir).
German Ambassador Andreas Michaelis said: "It is important that we put up monuments and name streets, in order to remember things that happened in the past. But they must be first and foremost reminders for the future."
The Nazis branded homosexuality an aberration threatening their perception of Germans as the master race, and the Gestapo kept a special register of around 100,000 gay people. Thousands were sent to Nazi concentration camps in the 1930s and 1940s.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25687190
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