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The Federal German capital, Berlin, needs a memorial to the
persecuted homosexual victims of National Socialism.
Such a monument should set a signal against intolerance, animosity towards and
the ostracism of gays and lesbians.
In 1935
the Nazis passed a law ordering the criminalisation of all male homosexual
activity. To this end Paragraph 175 of the Penal Code was severely sharpened.
The Nazi-„Justice“ system condemned tens of thousands of men for homosexual
activities. Thousands were sent to concentration camps because of their
homosexuality. In the camps they were usually made to wear the pink triangle.
Very few survived the ordeal of the camps. For homosexuals the years spent
under Nazi rule meant a life of enforced self-denial, permanent danger, and
fear of being discovered or betrayed.
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“Those who were murdered should not be denied the one thing, in our impotence,
we can give them – commemoration.”
(Theodor W. Adorno) |
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After
the crimes of the Nazis, Germany extended its guilt in relation to homosexuals
by continuing the persecution. The Paragraph 175 of the Penal Code of the
Federal Republic of Germany which remained in force until the year 1969 was the
unchanged Nazi version of 1935. The Federal Law on Compensation continued to
ignore that persecution based on homosexuality.
Nor was there any compensation for the destruction of the lesbian and gay
civil rights movement by the national socialists.
We are putting forward the case for collective compensation, which makes the
recognition of the injustices clear, includes the needs of the work of
remembering, and is also dedicated to the struggle for the human rights of
lesbians and gays.
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The Prisoners with the pink triangle did not live long.
(Reimund Schnabel
Die Frommen in der Hölle
(The Pious in Hell)) |
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With
the establishment of the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe a monument
will exist in Berlin that reminds people of the German responsibility and
encourages opposition to all forms of anti-Semitism.
In the same way memorial sites to other victims of national socialism are
necessary. The separate memorials should not indicate the differences of the
various groups, but encourage people to consider the special history of the
particular group.
The establishment of a memorial to the persecuted homosexuals is intended - at
long last - to provide a worthy form of honouring their memory in the German
capital, Berlin. This appeal is supported by the following signatories:
Marianne
Birthler
Federal Official responsible for the Archives of the GDR secret
police (Stasi)
Dr. Alexander Brenner
Chairman of the Jewish Congregation in Berlin
Frank Bsirske
Chairman of ver.di (trade union)
Michel Friedman
Deputy President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
Günter Grass
Author
Prof. Dr. Walter Jens
Author
Dr. Inge Jens
Editor
Bischöfin Maria
Jepsen
Hamburg
Günter Jeschonnek
Author
Anetta Kahane
Regional Bureau for Foreigners Affairs
György Konrád
President of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin-Brandenburg
Dr. Margot
Käßmann
Bishop of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Hannover
Dr. Larissa
Klinzing
Executive Committee-member of the GEW (Teachers’ Trade Union)
Margret
Mönig-Raane
Deputy Chairman of ver.di
Dr. Günter Morsch
Director of the Foundation for Brandenburg Memorial Sites
Joachim Müller
Advisory Council, Foundation for Brandenburg Memorial Sites
Dr. Lore Maria
Peschel-Gutzeit
Minister of Justice in Hamburg
Romani Rose
Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma
Lea Rosh
Publicist and Journalist, Chairperson of the
“Association for a Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe”,
Prof. Dr.
Reinhard Rürup
Historian, Scientific Director of the Foundation “Topography of
Terror“
Prof. Dr. Julius
Schoeps
Moses Mendelssohn Centre
Dieter Schulte
Chairman of the DGB (Central Council of German Trade Unions)
Jakob
Schulze-Rohr
Architect
Paul Spiegel
President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
Eva-Maria Stange
Chairperson of the GEW (Teachers’ Trade Union)
Susanne
Stumpenhusen
Chairperson of ver.di in Berlin-Brandenburg
Ulrich Thöne
Chairman of the GEW in Berlin
Christa Wolf
Author
and many more...
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