German Memorial to Gay Holocaust Victims Nearly Complete

Four years after Germany established that it would build a memorial for the thousands of gay and lesbian victims of the Nazis, the government has agreed to a design that should be ready within months.

Four years after Germany established that it would build a memorial for the thousands of gay and lesbian victims of the Nazis, the government has agreed to a design that should be ready within months. According to pinknews.co.uk, the multi-media structure designed by Ingar Dragset and Michael Elmgreen will consist of a grey concrete slab, with a window to allow visitors to view one of two alternating videos that show either two men or two women kissing. Initially, the memorial planned for a video of just two men, but that proposal drew heavy criticism from people who claimed that lesbians were being excluded.

At a cost of 600,000 euros, the memorial to gay victims will be constructed opposite the Berlin memorial for Jewish victims of the Nazis, which is a solemn field of more than 2,700 slabs in Tiergarten Park.

Later this year, a memorial will be built for the hundreds of thousands of Roma, the  “gypsies” of Europe, who perished in Nazi concentration camps, along with millions of Jews, Poles, Catholics, Communists, and other opponents of the Nazi regime.


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