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LGBT community marks Holocaust Memorial Day

By James Ledward
Jan 25, 2012 - 2:27:50 PM
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Brighton’s LGBT community is marking Holocaust Memorial Day with an exhibition at Jubilee Library, which runs till Sunday, January 29.

Called The Third Sex in the Third Reich, it traces the way Germany’s Nazi Party changed the world for male and female homosexuals and transvestites, from the very beginning of its reign to well beyond the end.

It has been compiled by Brighton Ourstory, Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual History Centre with the support of Brighton & Hove City Council’s Equalities and Inclusion Unit.

The exhibition includes poems written by members of Allsorts Youth Group, with the help of Queer Writing South, inspired by the famous "First they came for…" poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller.

Eighty years ago, Germany’s capital city, Berlin, led the world in its liberal attitudes towards same-sex love. Within three weeks of the Nazi Party taking power in 1933, Berlin’s gay clubs were being closed down and its gay organisations and publications banned.

The Nazis wanted to cleanse German society of people it didn’t approve of. When the first concentration camps were opened gay men were among the first to be interned.

Although few in number by comparison with other groups persecuted by the Nazi Party, gay men were treated particularly harshly.

Unlike the Jews, homosexuals were not targetted for extermination but their treatment meant they died in larger numbers than some other groups.

Linda Pointing from Brighton Ourstory, said:
"It’s been an emotional experience for us, researching this profoundly dreadful aspect of LGBT history. The exhibition isn’t always a comfortable read but Brighton is not unlike Berlin at that time and we should take note. One of the quotes we’ve used is Thomas Jefferson’s ‘The price of liberty is eternal vigilance’."

The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is ‘Speak Up Speak Out’.


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