Because some things must not be forgotten or ignored...

New Memorial to Gays Murdered by the Nazi Regime
http://humanrightsamerica.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/new-memorial-to-gays-murdered-by-the-nazi-regime/

Seems the news about the memorial is spreading.

Germany unveils memorial to Nazis' gay victims
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Germany_unveils_memorial_to_Nazis_gay_0528.html
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 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 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.

Nazi Germany declared homosexuality a threat to the German race and convicted some 50,000 homosexuals as criminals. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 gay men were deported to concentration camps, where few survived.

"This is a story that many people don't know about, and I think it's fantastic ... that the German state finally decided to make a memorial to honor these victims as well," said Ingar Dragset, a Berlin-based Norwegian who designed the memorial along with Danish-born Michael Elmgreen.

The commemoration "unfortunately comes too late for those who were persecuted and survived in 1945," said Guenter Dworek, of Germany's Lesbian and Gay Association. He said the last ex-prisoner that his group knows of died in 2005.

Wowereit echoed his regret over the time it took to honor the Nazis' gay victims.

"That is symptomatic of a postwar society which simply kept quiet about a group of victims, which ... contributed to these victims being discriminated against twice," he said.

Few gays convicted by the Nazis came forward after World War II because of the stigma attached to homosexuality. The law used against them remained on the books in West Germany until 1969, and Dworek said there were 50,000 convictions under the law after the war.

The effort to get a memorial built started in 1992, and a 1999 parliament decision to build the memorial to the Holocaust's 6 million Jewish victims also called for "commemorating in a worthy fashion the other victims of the Nazis."

The memorials to the Jewish victims and gays will soon be joined by another honoring the Roma and Sinti, or Gypsy, victims. Some 220,000 to 500,000 Gypsies were killed.


P.S. I am glad they made a point of recognizing the Jewish victims and Gypsy victims as well, this sort of thing should not be forgotten no matter who the victims were. Not to mention the fact they lost more people in the holochaust.

In response to the newest AQ video

There's a new video supposedly from Al Quaeda which encourages terrorists to use WMD (presumeably from Iran?). One question is why would a terrorist organization be so public about its orders. And then there is another issue...but video is worth ten thousand words.

This all reminded me of another video clip which is surprisingly relevant, take a look (starting at 6:50): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuI2QWc7JZI

What do you all think?