New memorial to gay victims of Nazi persecution unveiled in Paris
Thousands of LGBTQ+ people were killed at the hands of the Nazis.
Thousands of LGBTQ+ people were killed at the hands of the Nazis.
A new memorial honouring and remembering LGBTQ+ victims of the Holocaust has been unveiled in Paris.
Designed by French artist Jean-Luc Verna and unveiled on International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) on Saturday ( 17 May), the monument consists of a giant star wand lying on the ground, which is dark on one side and silver on the other.
Verna, who is also an LGBTQ+ activist, said there is a “black side in front of us, forcing us to remember” and at “certain times of the day, it casts a long shadow on the ground, evoking the dangers looming over, sadly.”
The other side of the sculpture, which is silver, represents “the colour of time passing, with the Paris sky moving as quickly as public opinion, which can change at any moment,” Verna said, as quoted by the Associated Press.
Commenting on the installation of the artwork, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said: “Historical recognition means saying ‘this happened’ and ‘we don’t want it to happen again’.”
Under the Nazi regime, up to 17 million people were systematically killed including six million Jews, hundreds of thousands of disabled people, and thousands of LGBTQ+ people, amongst many other groups deemed “undesirable”.
Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality in Nazi Germany. Some 50,000 were sentenced for their so-called crimes and an estimated 5,000-15,000 gay men were sent to concentration camps.
Same-sex relationships between men was already been illegal in Germany when the Nazi’s came to power – due to a law that had been in place since 1871 – but under the party’s rule the persecution of homosexual men intensified greatly.
In Nazi concentration camps, gay men were made to wear a pink triangle. It was a symbol which Benno Gammerl, a lecturer in Queer History at Goldsmiths, University of London, described as a “Nazi invention”.
Commenting on the time at which the monument has been erected given the changing landscape of LGBTQ+ rights in the United States, Jean-Luc Roméro – the deputy mayor of Paris – “we didn’t know, unfortunately, that this monument would be inaugurated at one of the worst moments we’re going through right now”.
“We’ve never experienced such setback in the United States, with what’s happening to trans people,” Roméro said.
Since Donald Trump returned for his second term on back in January, he has signed a raft of executive orders aimed at removing the rights of transgender Americans, including proclaiming the official policy of the US is that there are “only two sexes”, restricting gender-affirming healthcare for trans youngsters under the age 19, eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programmes across the government and in the military and banning trans people from serving.
