A monument planned for the centre of Poland's capital city will be a permanent reminder of the “Pink Triangle” gays who were slaughtered in the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. The monument will be a metre and a half long and of the shape of a pink triangle, the symbol that homosexuals were obliged to wear in Nazi Germany and in concentration camps. More gays were slaughtered in Nazi concentration camps in Poland than in any other country invaded by Hitler during the Second World War. It is estimated that between 20,000 and 40,000 perished in the notorious Auschwitz camp in south west Poland. “We have to build this monument so that the people will not forget the thousands of gays who were murdered in the concentration camps of Poland,” said Lukasz Palucki, the founder of the Citizens' Initiative to Commemorate Gays and Lesbians. “World War II is evidence that intolerance, anti-Semitism and homophobia lead to concentration camps. History has proved that hated towards other groups leads to homicide. “It's time to commemorate all the homosexuals murdered in Nazi concentration camps,” Pa³ucki continued, adding that a similar monument was unveiled last December in Berlin. The backers of the monument have announced that a contest for the design is to be held next week. And the hope is that the monument will be in place in May so that the Warsaw Gay Pride march could pass and pay respects. However, the idea is not supported by all the gay community in Poland. “It is not a wise idea,” Robert Biedroñ, the head of Kampanii Przeciw Homofobii (Campaign against Homophobia) said. “I think that such a monument can only make people turn away from gay community. It will be taken as litigious,” he suggested. Two years ago, when the 60th anniversary of the Allied “liberation” of Auschwitz was commemorated, gays were the only group that were not recognised during the official ceremony attended by many world leaders. But on Saturday April 23, 2005, as part of Krakow Pride, a group of about 100 gay men and women from across Europe – and from Israel – took part in a special 30-minute remembrance ceremony of all victims of the Nazi concentration camps when the courtyard containing the notorious “Wall of Death” was closed to the public by the authorities at the Auschwitz camp. Ref: UK Gay News (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 17th January 2007 - 12:00pm