July 4



GERMANY:

Gay victims of Nazi persecution could get memorial


Tens of thousands of gays and lesbians killed or persecuted by the Nazi
regime are to be commemorated in a central memorial in Berlin under plans
announced on Wednesday. The Social Democrat-Green coalition launched a
motion in parliament to create the memorial in Tiergarten Park, near the
city center, with the support of the Berlin city government.

"The homosexual victims of National Socialism have so far received little
consideration in the commemorative culture of the Federal Republic," Green
Party manager Volker Beck and SPD parliamentarian Johannes Kahrs said in a
statement.

If approved, the memorial would be the latest in an often controversial
series of German monuments to victims of the Third Reich, many of which,
including Berlin's still-unfinished main Holocaust memorial, have been
held up by protracted disputes. The Nazis maintained a relentless campaign
of persecution against gays, sending thousands to concentration camps,
where they were forced to wear pink triangles to identify them and an
unknown number were killed. Their fate was highlighted earlier this year
when the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., held an
exhibition on the subject that traveled to a number of American cities.

(source: The Advocate)