Scholar Criticizes Gay Holocaust Monument

Jewish scholar tells German newspaper that new gay monument is “a scandal,” that it was built so close to the original.

On May 28, Israel Gutman, a leading scholar and Holocaust survivor from the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, told the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita that the decision to erect a monument to homosexual victims of Nazi Germany in Berlin was a mistake.

“The location was poorly chosen for this monument,” he told the paper, according to Agence France-Presse. “If visitors have the impression that there was not a great difference between the suffering of Jews and those of homosexuals, it’s a scandal. A sense of proportion must be maintained.”

In late May, the monument by Danish-Norwegian artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, was unveiled by Klaus Wowereit, Berlin’s openly gay mayor, at the Tiergarten park. The location is across the street from the national memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust.


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