"A half century has passed since the death camps were liberated, but still the leading politicians had nothing to say about that group of victims of nazism - gays and lesbians - which even now face death in Iran and Afghanistan and prison in Romania or are denounced by presidents in Uganda and Zimbabwe who demand their arrested and punishment,"

says Bill Schiller, of the International Lesbian and Gay Cultural Network, co-organizer of the conference, along with Tupilak - the organisation of lesbian and gay cultural workers in the Nordic area.

No Homo Monuments Suggested by Holocaust Forum

t a seminar attended by Swedish parliamentarians Yvonne Ruwaida of the Swedish Green Party and Tassos Stafadalidis, of the Left party, the parliamentarians also expressed dismay that the official forum paid so little time to gays. Sweden's national newspapers and radio news reported criticism of the official international forum's lip service to gay victims of Nazism and the continuing attacks by neo nazis in many countries - including Sweden.

"There were no new pledges from the visiting presidents and prime ministers in Stockholm, to follow the examples of those few cities like Amsterdam, the Hague and Berlin with monuments to the homosexual victims of Nazism, " Schiller adds. Instead we learn that the Neue Bremm camp near Saarbrücken (Germany) has rejected a request to erect a tribute to murdered gays. "... this insults all the victims."

The January 26-29 conference also focused on the growing number of films, books, songs and art work describing the situation for homosexuals during the Nazi Regime and how Homoculture can be used as a weapon against homophobia and silence today. Citing Amnesty International's newest reports and films on gay and lesbian rights, another seminar focused on the use of homo culture as a weapon against silence, homophobia and dictatorship in such places as Belarus. Film festivals, art exhibits concerts and cultural seminars have been opening new doors and illustrating the contribution homosexuals make to a nation's foundation.

The conference paid a special tribute to German pioneer film maker, Rosa von Praunheim, for his latest film focusing on the German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeldt -- whose institute was destroyed by the Nazis -- and to the producers of Paragraph 175 - a feature documentary built around personal stories of homosexual men who experienced persecution under the Nazis.

The head of the Swedish humanists, Carl-Johan Kleberg, explained how this world-wide human rights organization has long championed gay rights - such as in India during fundamentalist attacks on audiences trying to see the Canadian/Indian lesbian film, Fire.

"Totgeschlagen, Totgeschwiegen" (Beaten to death, Ignored in Death)

At the memorial concert, the ILGCN announced the winner of the 2nd Orfeus Iris prize: the memorial museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland - in honouring all lesbians and gays who perished there and in other camps, and for the museum's exhibiting the pink triangle on the prison uniform and for mentioning in its information material that homosexuals were murdered there.

Visiting German historian, Dr. Günter Grau, hosted one of the seminars describing the persecution and extermination of homosexuals by the Nazi regime. Another seminar was hosted by pioneering Swedish researcher and historian, Frederik Silverstolpe.

Homo Culture vs. Dictators, AIDS

The co-ordinator of the Swedish AIDS-support organization, Noah's Ark-Red Cross, Jan- Olof Morfeldt, emphasised the importance of using films, theatre, art and music to describe life living with AIDS, spreading information instead of fear, and dealing with homophobic reaction to those carrying the virus.

Seminars were enriched with poetry and drama readings by Pelle Hannaeus, initiator of the new Swedish queer theatre group, Komonq, with work dealing with AIDS.

Films at the conference included ILGCN's Toronto co-ordinator, Paul Lee's Thick Lips Thin Lips, the film, Barbed Wire Flight with ILGCN cultural envoys, the Finnish ERI dance company, and the British AIDS film, Relax.

Art and photography at the conference and theatre was provided by Sweden's Paul-Peter Hallberg, Germany's Gerhard Blum and Denmark's Lars Denys. The cabaret performers included the Women's House Choir, Stockholm Gay Choir, Eva Hansson, Venus Passagen, Jan Hammarlund, Anders Jonsson, Finnish dancer Timo Loponen and Sweden's ILGCN cultural Ambassador, singer Peter "Sexodus" Froeberg.

Annual "Gays and Lesbians in the Holocaust"

The conference decided to make "Gays and Lesbians in the Holocaust" an annual event, taking place around January 27th - the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, to be hosted by German or occupied nations. Discussions have begun with future organizers in Germany, Austria, Poland and Latvia for 2001 and beyond. An initiative was launched to hold a "Hidden Holocaust" conference in Stockholm to cover all categories of prisoners. An invitation to Dr. Grau to return to Stockholm was also accepted, and the ILGCN and Tupilak - co-organizers of the seminars, pledged their support for the new conference.

Conference organizers extended a special thanks to ILGCN's Berlin co-ordinator, Colin de la Motte-Sherman, for crucial information and special editions of the ILGCN journal, ERATO, to Frank Stevens of Dutch Amnesty and to Kurt Krickler, editor of Austria's Lambda Nachrichten, for additional information and contacts.

For donations to the memorial concert's fund-raising lottery, thanks went to Balder Record's CD with gay Nordic singers and musicians, art photo postcards by Ismo Hyvärinen of Helsinki and Stockholm's gay-run clothing shop, Maskulin.

Colin de la Motte-Sherman

[1] It has subsequently been accepted that in this context, this is a common, but wrong use of the word "holocaust".