August 26, 2013
Israel to Build Monument to Gay Nazi Victims
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 1 MIN.
The city of Tel Aviv, in Israel, will build the country's first monument dedicated to the homosexual victims of the German Nazi regime.
According to Haaretz, the design will feature a giant pink concrete triangle - the symbol used by the Nazis to identify gay prisoners. It will be built in Meir Park.
The place of remembrance to the 50,000 gay men that were convicted under Nazi law is the brainchild of Meretz Party municipal council member Eran Lev.
"One of the first restrictions the Nazis imposed on the Jews was against going to public parks," Lev told Haaretz. "This will be the first and only memorial site in Israel to mention the victims of the Nazis who were persecuted for anything other than being Jewish."
Gay Star News writes that monument will also bear the names of prominent Jewish gay men who were persecuted by the Nazi regime - including Magnus Hirschfeld, the prominent sexologist and one of the world's first gay rights activists, and Gad Beck who was the last known gay concentration camp survivor.
The memorial is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Similar monuments to the gay victims of the Nazis have been built in Sydney, San Francisco, Cologne, Montevideo, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Berlin.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
