David Shneer (pronouns: He/Him) Louis P. Singer Chair in Jewish History at the University of Colorado Boulder, discusses the history and the later memorialization of the persecution of gay men in Germany before and after the Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s. In his lecture, “The Pink Triangle: The History and Memory of the Nazi Persecution of Gay Men”, he outlines the creation, enforcement and abolition of Paragraph 175 criminalizing gay male sexuality and focuses on both the prosecution and persecution of gay men, comparing and contrasting their treatment to the genocide aimed against Jews, while noting that lesbians, though persecuted, were grouped under the “asocial” category. He explains how the term “genocide” is not appropriate to describe the Nazi persecution of gay men, which, he states, does not minimize their experience; he argues against the quantification of suffering by various groups such as Jews, Sini and Roma, instead arguing for tolerance among the varying victim groups to allow all targets of Nazi terror to tell their stories and be included in the narrative and in memorialization. Shneer describes the various monuments to gay persecution that have risen in a variety of places, including concentration camps, near other Holocaust memorials, and in gay neighborhoods and notes that it was gay activists responding to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s who began to use the term “gay holocaust” for political purposes. At the close of his presentation, one audience member objects to the comparison of Jewish and gay victimization, while others comment on the need to learn and teach tolerance for all minimized groups. The lecture was introduced by David Slucki, PhD, Assistant Professor, Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston, was sponsored by the Zucker/Goldberg Center for Holocaust Studies and was held on the College of Charleston campus as part the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program Sunday brunch series.
Postcard with a color photograph of the Column of Three Eagles by Polish artist and Majdanek survivor Maria Albin Boniecki. The sculpture is located in Field III at the Majdanek State Museum, on the site of the Majdanek concentration camp.
Postcard on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, including an image from the monument to the heroes of the uprising located at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Postcard with a black-and-white photograph of the memorial to the 77,297 Bohemian and Moravian victims of Nazi persecution, located in the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague.
Postcard with a black-and-white photograph of the chapelle ardente at the Hollandse Schouwburg. The building served as a theater from 1892 to 1943 and as a deportation center for Jews during the Holocaust. It is currently a Jewish museum and memorial.
Postcard with a black-and-white photograph of the chapelle ardente at the Hollandse Schouwburg. The building served as a theater from 1892 to 1943 and as a deportation center for Jews during the Holocaust. It is currently a Jewish museum and memorial.
Postcard with a color photograph of the monument Fight and Martyrdom by sculptor Wiktor Tołkin at the Majdanek State Museum, on the site of the Majdanek concentration camp.
Postcard with a color photograph of the Mausoleum by sculptor Wiktor Tołkin at the Majdanek State Museum, on the site of the Majdanek concentration camp.