Holocaust Memorial Day is being marked with a talk by a University of Brighton student on the thousands of homosexuals murdered by the Nazis.
Jason Porter, Senior Academic Programme Administrator and PhD student in the School of Humanities, will present ‘Hidden from History: The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals’ at the Brighthelm Centre in North Road, Brighton, this Wednesday (29 January), starting 6pm.
Jason said: “After gaining power in 1933, the Nazis began persecuting homosexuals as part of their plan to ‘purify’ Germany and rid the county of ‘moral degeneracy’.
“The once-thriving gay subculture in cities such as Berlin was devastated. Tens of thousands of homosexuals were arrested, many ended up in concentration camps, branded with pink triangles, with thousands being killed. Those who survived were met with hostility or indifference post-war and for decades their storied were ‘hidden from history’.
“Eventually, those who suffered at the hands of Nazism achieved recognition and remembrance through survivors’ memoirs, testimonies and memorials, whilst the pink triangle was adopted as a symbol of gay liberation and resistance.”
Jason’s talk is part of Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27) – a day of remembrance dedicated to those affected by The Holocaust and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. This marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp this year.
Hidden from History: The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals is at the Brighthelm Centre in North Road, Brighton, tonight starting 6pm.
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