GAY NAZI MEMORIAL
At first glance, this Toronto Star/AP story seemed to be announcing a memorial for gay Nazis, which seemed rather odd. This makes more sense, although is rather belated, coming 58 years after the war:
Germany will build a national memorial to homosexuals persecuted and killed under the Nazis, complementing a memorial to the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust, a parliament committee decided today.
Nazi Germany declared homosexuality an aberration that threatened the German race and convicted some 50,000 homosexuals as criminals. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 gay men were deported to concentration camps, where few survived.
Of course, as TIME would note, most of the people who murdered these people were just regular Joes trying to earn a living.
This part of the story is chilling:
Meanwhile, the president of Germany’s parliament said today that a company that co-owned the maker of poison gas used by the Nazis to exterminate millions of Jews would continue to participate in construction of the memorial.
Presumably, no one now affiliated with the company had anything to do with making poison gas and there’s no reason they should be punished. But I can see why this might upset some people.
