Gay Holocaust Monument Defaced

International News, By Joal, 18th August, 2008

A monument to gay and lesbian victims of the Holocaust has been defaced, according to week-end reports from German authorities.

Unveiled in May of this year, Berlin police say the pillar, located in central Tiergarten Park across from the larger Jewish holocaust memorial, had its window broken. A central part of the memorial, the window allows visitors to peer in to the monument where a one and a half minute loop of video footage shows two men engaged in a passionate kiss.

Although there are no immediate suspects, police say the matter is being investigated and the monument is in the process of being fixed.

Holocaust memorials in Berlin have been vandalised by neo-Nazi groups in the past, with the 2,711 concrete slabs that make up one of the sites south of Brandenburg Gate, vandalised 15 times since its unveiling.

A plaque on the German memorial to gay holocaust victims reads: “Because of its history, Germany has a special responsibility to actively oppose the violation of gay men’s and lesbians’ human rights. In many parts of the world, people continue to be persecuted for their sexuality, homosexual love remains illegal and a kiss can be dangerous.”

It’s estimated that 15,000 gay men died in concentration camps during World War II. According to other sources, when concentration camp figures are combined with figures of those tortured and beaten during the rize of the Nazi regime, as many as 600,000 may have been killed in total. Unlike the Jewish population, many gay men and women were excluded from reparations following the war, as homosexuality was still illegal.

Memorials to gay victims of the holocaust exist in San Francisco and Italy, one was also unveiled in Sydney in 2001. Located in Green Park, the memorial sits opposite the Sydney Jewish Museum. Comprising a large pink triangle with images of gay male concentration camp prisoners, black columns rise out of the triangle, representing lesbians victimised by the Nazi regime.

This is the video which plays within the Holocaust monument:

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