Memorial to Persecuted Homosexuals under National Socialism in Berlin, Germany. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K Lavers)
The Memorial to Persecuted Homosexuals under National Socialism located at the edge of the German capital city’s famed Tiergarten Park was vandalized this past weekend, according to a Berlin Police spokesperson.
The Berlin Police said that a park security official observed a male suspect “papering” the monument with slips of paper later found to contain Biblical verses condemning homosexuality and then attempting to set the memorial ablaze by tossing a burning object at it. The suspect fled when confronted by the guard.
Berlin Police are investigating this incident and another attack against a memorial for victims of the Holocaust, the “Platform 17” memorial, inside the Berlin-Grünewald train station.
The Memorial to Persecuted Homosexuals under National Socialism, in the shape of a cube with a window insert where a video of a same-sex couple kissing can be seen, was first erected in 2008.
German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported that under the Nazi regime in Germany from 1933-1945, gay people were systematically repressed and persecuted, with some 50,000 being convicted on account of their sexuality.
Many thousands of them were deported to concentration camps and large numbers murdered there.
The second arson attack took place at the “Platform 17″ memorial, which honors the German Jewish people who were sent to their deaths during the Holocaust from the Grünewald train station.
In a statement issued Aug. 14 the Berlin-Brandenburg Lesbian and Gay Association decried both incidents.
“We are shocked by the inflammatory energy of both acts and hope that the person responsible in both cases will be caught quickly,” the organization wrote.
These past two weekend incidents are among a rising rate of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments in Germany, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, a German television station, reported.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the number of attacks against queer people increased in 2022. Last year, 1,005 cases were counted, including 227 violent crimes and 341 insults. That is about 15% more cases than in the previous year. The gay anti-violence project “Maneo” in Berlin also reports a slightly higher number of cases. According to Maneo, they will be “at a high level” overall in 2022.
The queer commissioner of the federal government assumes that the vast majority wants queer people to be able to live without fear and have equal rights. However, the results of a study from 2023 showed “that this consent is not stable and self-evident.”
Kerstin Thost, the spokesperson for Berlin-Brandenburg Lesbian and Gay Association told ZDF “We all have a responsibility now to work tirelessly to protect and treat everyone equally. In this situation, everyone should position themselves for human rights and democracy. Even those who are not affected by queer hostility themselves.”
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