he Remembrance Day for the victims of nazism – an annual national event in Germany - was marked this year in Sachsenhausen - for the first time in any former concentration camp, by its dedication to the memory of the homosexual victims. The Minister for Science & Culture in Brandenburg, Steffen Reiche, opened the ceremony in the ruins of  the „Station Z“  as the nazis called the execution place and crematorium.

The gay historian Hans George Stümke pointed out that the isolation of the homosexual prisoners in the camp mirrored the sit­uation in wider society. He continued: A former inmate reported ”The men with a pink triangle didn’t live long, they were systematically and rapidly destroyed. On arrival – beaten to death on the spot, or the region of the heart was pounded with a heavy jet of water, until the man collapsed, or water was poured over them and they were made to stand for hours in the freezing cold”

After 1945 the Nazi version of the anti-gay law was valid until 1969 in Federal Germany. Along with the Cinti  & Romas, and those brave few who deserted the fascist army, very few gays, have received any compensation for their suffering. As late as 1998, the Kohl Government passed a law which did not specifically mention § 175 refusing to label the injustices against homosexuals as such and not mentioning the Nazi version of Paragraph 175 in particular as an injustice or to annul the court decisions made using it.

Dr. G.  Morsch the head of the Memorial Site Sachsenhausen announced that a major exhib­ition was being prepared for the year 2.000 jointly by the Gay Museum of Berlin and the Sachsenhausen Memorial Site with money from the lotteries of the provinces of Berlin and Brandenburg.

In the afternoon two gay choirs from  Berlin Männe Minne and Rosa Cavalier  gave a performance, of songs and recited historical  texts provided by researcher Joachim Müller,  the gay ”representative” on the board of the curatorium for the former concentration camps in the province of Brandenburg.                                                                                                         

Colin de la Motte-Sherman