“A half century has passed since the death camps were liberated, but still the leading politicians had nothing to say about gays now in prison in Romania, facing execution squads in Iran and Afghanistan, or denounced by presidents in Uganda and Zimbabwe - declaring lesbians and gays have no human rights and should be arrested,” says Bill Schiller, of the International Lesbian and Gay Cultural Network, co-organiser of the conference, along with Tupilak - the organisation of lesbian and gay cultural workers in the Nordic area. 

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  historian, Frederik Silverstolpe.

During one of the seminars - 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. An initiative was launched to hold a “Hidden Holocaust” conference in Stockholm to cover all categories of prisoners.

A memorial concert - jointly arranged with Sweden’s Homosexual Socialists - was also held. Performers included the Women’s House Choir and the Gay Choir of Stockholm, Eva Hansson, Jan Hammerlund, Anders Jonsson, Finnish dancer Timo Loponen, and Peter Fröberg.

Gays and Lesbians in the Holocaust

The conference decided to make “Gays and Lesbians in the Holocaust” an annual event, held around January 27th - anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, to be hosted by Germany or occupied nations.  Discussions have begun with future organizers in Germany, Austria, Poland and Latvia for 2001 and beyond.

The conference paid a special tribute to German pioneer film maker, Rosa von Praunheim, for his latest film focusing on the German sex­ologist Magnus Hirschfeld — whose institute was destroyed by the Nazis — and to the directors of the film Paragraph 175.

Colin de la Motte-Sherman