On Christopher Street Day (23 June 2012) a remembrance ceremony will be held at the Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted under the National Socialist Regime. The event has been organised by the Berlin-Brandenburg Gay and Lesbian Foundation, the Berlin Christopher Street Day Association and the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It will take place at 11 am, before the traditional Christopher Street Day parade.
The Brandenburg Justice Minister Dr Volkmar Schöneburg and Dr Ulrich Baumann, Deputy Director of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, will give speeches at the ceremony, along with Bodo Niendel from the board of the Berlin Christopher Street Day Association and Ulrich Keßler from the board of the Berlin-Brandenburg Gay and Lesbian Foundation. Petra Pau, Vice President of the German Parliament, the Berlin senator Dilek Kolat and a large number of members of the German Parliament and the Berlin House of Representatives will also be in attendance.
The National Socialists brought in harsher penalties against homosexuals on 28 June 1935. In the years that followed, around 100,000 gay men were arrested and 50,000 were sentenced according to § 175 of the German Criminal Code. At the end of their sentences, approximately 10,000 of these men were deported to concentration camps. Around half did not survive the ordeal.
- Remembrance Ceremony for the Homosexuals Persecuted under the National Socialist Regime
- Saturday 23 June 2012, 11 am
- Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted under the National Socialist Regime, Ebertstraße / corner of Hannah-Arendt-Straße, Berlin-Tiergarten
Contact:
Jörg Steinert
Geschäftsführer und Pressesprecher
Landespressestelle Berlin-Brandenburg
Kleiststraße 35
10787 Berlin
Tel.: 00 49 (0)30 – 70 71 75 80
Fax: 00 49 (0)30 – 22 50 22 21
joerg.steinert[at]lsvd.de
www.berlin.lsvd.de
