Germany Opens Memorial to Gays Murdered by Nazis

[WillParkinson]

Berlin inaugurates memorial to Nazi's gay victims (Berlin)Germany unveiled a memorial Tuesday to the Nazis' long-ignored gay victims, a monument that also aims to address ongoing discrimination by confronting visitors with an image of a same-sex couple kissing.

The memorial - a sloping gray concrete slab on the edge of Berlin's Tiergarten park - echoes the vast field of smaller slabs that make up Germany's memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust, opened three years ago just across the road.

The pavilion-sized slab includes a small window where visitors can view a video clip of two men kissing.

Berlin's openly gay mayor, Klaus Wowereit, said the monument was a reminder of the ongoing struggles that still confront gays.

"This memorial is important from two points of view - to commemorate the victims, but also to make clear that even today, after we have achieved so much in terms of equal treatment, discrimination still exists daily," Wowereit said as he inaugurated the memorial alongside Culture Minister Bernd Neumann.

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon08/05/052708berlin.htm

(Part of a fairly long article.)

[LeftCoast]

1. I'm glad to see this memorial finally opening - I can't believe it took over 50 years

One bit of trivia...when the Allies occupied Germany after WWII the one Nazi-era law they kept was the one criminalizing homosexual activity. Many homosexual men liberated in nazi camps remained in prison afterwards because of it.