Gutman is quoted as saying:
Feygele rightly points out that there shouldn't be "quibbling over the degree of persecution" but rather Germany should be applauded for the long overdue memorial."For many years after the war I had the impression that the Germans understood the immense scope of the crime of the Holocaust which they had committed ... But this time, they made an error," Gutman told Rzeczpospolita.
"The location was particularly poorly chosen for this monument. If visitors have the impression that there was not a great difference between the suffering of Jews and those of homosexuals, it's a scandal," Gutman said, according to AFP. "A sense of proportion must be maintained."
When I was 17 I visited the US Holocaust Memorial Museum for the first time. It was during summer before my senior year in high school and my mother, sister, and I took a trip to Washington, D.C. for our vacation that year. The museum was only 4 years old at that point and we were very interested in getting to see it. I had read a good amount about the Holocaust and new that homosexuals had been persecuted along with the Jews, but I never really knew to what extent. As someone who had recently come out, to both myself and my friends-but not my family-I was keenly aware of this as I toured through the exhibits. For the first time I felt truly lucky to be alive at the time I was and in the country that, while not accepting me with open arms and ticker tape parades, did not lock me up and murder me. Until that day the Holocaust had always been a remote event to me; something horrible, to be sure, but something that happened to someone else. This was years before I even entertained the idea of converting, much less identifying with Judaism. Being a homosexual and knowing what would have happened to me if I had lived in Germany in the 30s and 40s was my first experience of identification with the Holocaust and its atrocities.
4 years ago I returned to the Holocaust Memorial Museum for the 2nd time, this time as a recently converted Jew. I was hit even harder during my 2nd visit--not only did I realize that being queer would have gotten me killed, but I had chosen to identify with the 6 million Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis. My decision and my journey hit home for me that day in a way that no other experience had, and I was proud to be a Jew, proud to know that I had cast my lot with those who had be persecuted. I didn't choose to be queer, but I chose my Jewishness.
So, is it okay that the memorial to the homosexual victims of the Holocaust is so close to the official memorial to the 6 million Jews who were murdered? I don't think anyone is trying to say that homosexuals suffered more than the Jews, or an equal amount, or anything to that effect. Rather the fact that homosexuals suffered and were persecuted at all must be acknowledged, must be memorialized. Remembering the Holocaust and the victims of the Nazis shouldn't be about who suffered more but simply about the fact that millions of people suffered and died. Period. Obviously the Jews were the main target of the Nazi hatred, but how is it okay for us to deny that others were hated as well? Isn't, in fact, MORE logical that we should be fighting to memorialize all the victims?
No comments:
Post a Comment