Paris Memorializes LGBTQ+ Victims Of Nazi Persecution
This past weekend, Paris unveiled a stunning new memorial for LGBTQ+ victims.
In a long overdue ceremony this past Saturday, Paris unveiled its first public memorial honoring LGBTQ+ individuals persecuted and killed during the Nazi regime during WWII.
The memorial, a steel star created by French artist Jean-Luc Verna, is in a public garden near the Place de la Bastille. Its design is intended to be double-sided, literally and figuratively. One side is black and casts a shadow meant to evoke the pain and invisibility of the suffering endured in the past. The other side of the steel heart is silver, reflecting the sky and the movement of the sky, as is the movement in the passage of time.
The Nazi regime targeted members of the LGBTQ+ community under a German law criminalizing homosexuality (Paragraph 175) that was expanded under Hitler. Historians estimate that between 5,000 and 15,000 gay men were deported to concentration camps; many died in captivity. Lesbian women, while not criminalized under the same statute, were often subjected to forced labor, sterilization, or institutionalization under vaguely defined laws targeting “asocial” behavior. These crimes remained unacknowledged in many countries for decades.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo spoke at the event and emphasized the necessity of remembering all victims of hate, especially remembering those whose stories were silenced or erased. It was not until 2005 that former French President Jacques Chirac formally recognized the persecution of LGBTQ+ people during World War II. And even still, it took another 20 years for a permanent public monument to appear in the capital.
Deputy Mayor Jean-Luc Romero-Michel, who is openly gay, used the occasion to reflect on both the past and the present. He referenced recent rollbacks of LGBTQ+ protections from Hungary to the United States, warning that “what once happened can happen again.”
In the context of what is happening in communities globally, the memorial feels both historical and urgent—a space for grief, witness, and collective memory. It is in remembering that we can resist.
Related: ‘LGBTJews In The Federal City’: Celebrating Queer Jewish History At The Capital Jewish Museum
