Surprise

Tomorrow is Christopher Street Day, the yearly big gay pride parade in Berlin. I googled the term and found that the Nollendorfplatz (the U-Bahn station near my hotel) has played an important role in the LHTBQ+ scene in Berlin since the early 20th century, and that it became the focus of Nazi anti-gay terror in the 1930s. Since 1982, the wall of the station has a memorial plaque in the form of a pink triangle that says "Beaten to death - Ignored/Silenced to Death: for the homosexual victims of National Socialism". I learnt this only this afternoon, which is slightly ironic, since I have been 'touring' monuments and museums for two weeks. I think I have done quite a thorough job, but I am sure, after I finish my article, that memorials will (have to) be added. That is the advantage of publishing something online (besides the accessibility): it is easy to make additions and changes when and where necessary.

The plaque below the triangle says: "The 'pink triangle' was the sign with which the National Socialists stigmatized homosexuals in the concentration camps. Beginning in 1933, almost all the homosexual bars around Nollendorfplatz were closed by the Nazis or misused for the creation of 'pink lists' (homosexual card indexes) through raids." (instead of translating this myself, I used the translation found on the website of the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art.

Unfortunately, as you can see, not everybody gives memorials the respect that we owe them.