The Berlin Memorial

As if to mark the opening of the Berlin memorial to gay and lesbian victims of the Nazi regime, on Monday, the day before the opening, the French TV channel TV5 telecast Un Amour a Taire (top picture). The next picture is a TV grab on the night of the 27th. This is a still from a looped video installation inside the grey concrete memorial. One can watch the video by peering into the window on the concrete structure. The next image (thanks to the newspaper Berliner Morgenpost) shows German politicians gathered at the Tiergarten for the opening ceremony. The most poignant presence is that of the Mayor of Berlin. Klaus Wowereit, in a blue tie, is openly gay. The fourth and last image (from the newspaper Berliner Zeitung) is that of the memorial.

Nazi persecution of homosexuals (by the way there is only one recorded instance of a lesbian being persecuted but she was persecuted because of her race - Jewish) began in 1933 with the destruction of the Institute of Sexual Science founded by Magnus Hirschfield. Hirschfield is written about at great length by the novelist Christopher Isherwood in his 1970's autobiography Christopher and His Kind.