Thursday, January 31, 2013
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LEST WE FORGET:From "Homocaust" site 'Declaration of gay survivors 50 years after their liberation'
http://homocaust.org/
"50 years ago, Allied troops did liberate us from Nazi concentration camps & prisons. But the world we had hoped for did not happen to come true. We were forced to hide again & faced on-going persecution under the same Nazi-law that was on the books since 1935 & stayed on the books until 1969. Raids were frequent. Some of us - just tasting their new freedom - were even sentenced to long-term prison again.
Although some of us tried courageously to gain recognition by challenging the courts up to the West German Supreme Court, we were never acknowledged as being persecuted by the Nazi regime. We were excluded from financial compensations for the victims of the Nazi regime. We lacked the moral support & sympathy of the public. No SS-man ever had to face a trial for the murder of a gay man in or outside the camps. But whereas they now enjoy a pension for their 'work' in the camps, our years in the camps are subtracted from our pension.
Today we are too old & tired to struggle for the recognition of the Nazi injustice we suffered. Many of us never dared to testify. Many of us died alone with their hunting memories. We waited long, but in vain for a clear political & financial gesture of the German government & courts. We know that still very little is taught in schools & universities about our fate. Even Holocaust museums & memorials many times don't mention the Nazi persecution of homosexuals.
Today, 50 years later, we turn to the young generation & to all of you who are not guided by hate & homophobia. Please support us in our struggle to memorize & document the Nazi atrocities against homosexual men & lesbian women. Let us never forget the Nazi atrocities against Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's witnesses, Freemasons, the disabled, Polish & Russian prisoners of war & homosexuals.
let us learn from the past & let us support the young generation of lesbian women & gay men, girls & boys to lead unlike us a life in dignity & respect, with their loved ones, their friends & their families."
NEVER SUCH ATROCITIES AGAIN1
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