A monument in the form of a pink triangle will pay respect to the estimated 15,000 members of the LGBT community sent to concentration camps.
By JPOST.COM STAFFMemorial to gay Holocaust victims in Berlin.(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality will unveil a monument to commemorate members of the LGBT community who were persecuted by the Nazi regime for their sexual orientation and gender identity on January 10.The new monument will be mounted outside the Municipal LGBT Community Center in Meir Park (Gan Meir) which serves as the city's main hub of activity for the LGBT community.The monument will be shaped in the form of a pink triangle, reminiscent of the pink triangles LGBT community members were required to attach to their clothes in the concentration camps, and will feature short texts in Hebrew, English and German.Homosexuality was a felony under the Third Reich. The Gestapo founded an anti- homosexual unit that kept lists of nearly 100,000 names of people who were alleged members of the LGBT community. An estimated 15,000 of those were sent to concentration camps. In Buchenwald experiments were carried out with the intention of supposedly curing people from homosexuality.The German ambassador to Israel H.E. Andreas Michaelis and Tel Aviv-Jaffa mayor Ron Huldai will be among those speaking at the unveiling ceremony.In statement on Monday, Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai said, "This monument reminds us all how important it is for us to respect every human being. It is only natural that such a reminder will exist in Tel Aviv-Yafo – a city that warmly embraces all groups and minorities."
