Gay Victims of Holocaust get Memorial in Berlin

[marmar]

AP, via Yahoo!:



Berlin inaugurates memorial to Nazis' gay victims
By GEIR MOULSON, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 27, 3:07 PM ET



BERLIN - Germany unveiled a memorial Tuesday to the Nazis' long-ignored gay victims, a monument that also aims to address ongoing discrimination by confronting visitors with an image of a same-sex couple kissing.

The memorial — a sloping gray concrete slab on the edge of Berlin's Tiergarten park — echoes the vast field of smaller slabs that make up Germany's memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust, opened three years ago just across the road.

The pavilion-sized slab includes a small window where visitors can view a video clip of two men kissing.

Berlin's openly gay mayor, Klaus Wowereit, said the monument was a reminder of the ongoing struggles that still confront gays.

"This memorial is important from two points of view — to commemorate the victims, but also to make clear that even today, after we have achieved so much in terms of equal treatment, discrimination still exists daily," Wowereit said as he inaugurated the memorial alongside Culture Minister Bernd Neumann.

Nazi Germany declared homosexuality a threat to the German race and convicted some 50,000 homosexuals as criminals. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 gay men were deported to concentration camps, where few survived.

"This is a story that many people don't know about, and I think it's fantastic ... that the German state finally decided to make a memorial to honor these victims as well," said Ingar Dragset, a Berlin-based Norwegian who designed the memorial along with Danish-born Michael Elmgreen. ....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080527/ap_on_re_eu/germany_nazis_gays

[KamaAina]

1. Excellent! Hopefully someday

people with disabilities will get one, too. We were, after all, first on the chopping block.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_T4

Action T4 (German: Aktion T4) was a program in Nazi Germany officially between 1939 and 1941, during which the regime of Adolf Hitler systematically killed between 200,000 to 250,000 people with intellectual or physical disabilities....

The program set important precedents for the later Holocaust of the Jews of Europe: the historian Ian Kershaw has called it "a vital step in the descent into modern barbarism."

:scared: :scared: :scared:

And we didn't even get a cool symbol like the pink triangle or yellow Star of David!

edit: Dadgum Wiki square thingies!

[BlooInBloo]

4. It's just sickentoshing the things people will do to other people....

And yah - the wiki underscores + DU rendering pisses me off too.

[Oak2004]

6. Mostly, we got the syringe and the extermination truck

but disabled people who managed to make it to the camps would have worn a black triangle.

[kevinbgoode]

2. It's interesting how the Nazi solution seems so similar to the American Right

and one wonders, after all of the decades of violence, harassment, degradation, attacks, and the horrendously inhuman treatment of gay families when a member dies. . .when America will construct its own memorial.

I've seen the Dutch memorial, near the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam - that was in 1993, and my sense of awe and pride nearly brought tears to my eyes to imagine a nation was facing the truth about our treatment by the Nazis. I hope I get the chance to see this Berlin memorial as well. . .

By the way, several years ago, a very compelling story of the persecution of gays during the Nazi war of terror was portrayed in Bent. For those of you who enjoy foreign films (subtitled), there is a very compelling French story A Love to Hide about two gay male lovers during the Nazi occupation of Paris:

The trailer can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU4dKBDSuEQ

[BlooInBloo]

3. :))))

[countmyvote4real]

5. Very inspiring. However, I am a bit disappointed in the execution.

Hopefully the picture doesn't do it justice. Maybe I need to see it context with the other stones/slabs.

Still, the commemoration is a great bookmark for the past, present and future.