Jason Porter, Senior Academic Programme Administrator and PhD student in the School of Humanities, will present ‘Hidden from History: The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals’ at the Brighthelm Centre in North Road, Brighton, this Wednesday (29 January), starting 6pm.
Jason said: “After gaining power in 1933, the Nazis began persecuting homosexuals as part of their plan to ‘purify’ Germany and rid the county of ‘moral degeneracy’. Statutes were strengthened, books were burned and clubs were closed.
“The once-thriving gay subculture in cities such as Berlin was devastated. Tens of thousands of homosexuals were arrested, many ended up in concentration camps, branded with pink triangles, where they faced particularly harsh treatment, with thousands being killed. Those who survived were met with hostility or indifference post-war and for decades their stories were ‘hidden from history’.
“Eventually, those who suffered at the hands of Nazism achieved recognition and remembrance through survivors’ memoirs, testimonies and memorials, whilst the pink triangle was adopted as a symbol of gay liberation and resistance.”
Jason’s talk is part of the annual day of remembrance dedicated to those affected by The Holocaust and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. The day (27 January) marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp this year.