Gay holocaust memorial damaged
August 20th, 2008
Berlin’s memorial to the LGBT victims of World War II has been vandalised.
The memorial to homosexual men and women persecuted by the Nazis was installed in May 2008. Part of the memorial is a screen showing a looped video of two men kissing. Just three months later, this screen has been smashed.
Klaus Wowereit, Berlin’s first openly-gay mayor, said: “An attack against this memorial is clearly directed against homosexuals; that can be said without waiting for further police investigations. We must show our condemnation of this act of intolerance and homophobia.”
Germany’s Association of Lesbians and Gays said in a statement: “Everything suggests that this attack was motivated by a hatred of homosexuals. The attack shows in a drastic way how necessary this monument is. Hostility to homosexuals remains virulent. The kissing scene shown in the monument evidently hit the mark. Even in a democratic society there are people who can’t stand the sight of men kissing in public.”
An estimated 15,000 gay men were condemned to concentration camps by the Nazis.
I sought out the memorial to LGBT victims of concentration camps when I visited Berlin. It was at the back of a railway station, you wouldn’t have known it was there. We asked to community wardens using the german word for gay and their attitude was appalling, they dismissed us and laughed when we requested the location of the memorial.
I’m glad you found it…we tried for an entire day and we couldn’t spot it anywhere!! A hidden memorial defeats the object of Wowereit’s open policy don’t you think?!