Outcry over lesbian kiss at Holocaust Memorial
March 26th, 2010 by Martina.Booth
Holocaust scholars have attacked plans to include images of lesbians kissing in a monument dedicated to thousands of homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis, saying it distorts history.
The Berlin monument, erected in May 2008, currently comprises of a concrete slab with a window through which viewers can watch a video of two men perpetually kissing.
It is located opposite the city’s memorial to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
In May the video will switch to feature two women locked in an embrace - a move which has angered scholars, who say there were no known Holocaust victims targeted for being lesbian.
“Historical truth must remain the focus,” said Alexander Zinn, a board member of the foundation that maintains the former Nazi concentration camps near Berlin.
He is one of a group of scholars that have written a letter of protest to Culture Minister Michael Neumann and Berlin’s openly gay mayor Klaus Wowereit.
Neumann defended the plans, saying the original concept of the memorial was to address present-day discrimination against lesbians and gays - as well as the plight of homosexuals at the hands of the Nazis.
“The option of using a lesbian film motif in the memorial is in no way meant to put on the same level the persecution of homosexual men and women under the Nazi regime,” he said in a statement.
“Research shows that the persecution of lesbian women by the Nazi regime was not comparable to that of homosexual men. This is also clearly explained in a plaque on the memorial.”
It is thought that between 5,000 and 15,000 gay men died in concentration camps.
A jury will take a decision about the next video used at the memorial in the coming weeks.
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