The Week in Germany: Current Affairs

July 4, 2008

Berlin Celebrates Gay Community, Remembers Victims on Christopher Street Day

Memory: Rudolf Brazda, imprisoned at Buchenwald for his homosexuality, paid tribute to gay victims of the Nazis in Berlin. © picture alliance / dpa

Tens of thousands of gays and lesbians defied rain to join the annual Gay Pride Parade through the streets of Berlin on June 28.

The exotically clad procession started for the first time in former East Berlin before making its way along the boulevard Unter den Linden to the Victory column in the west of the city.

Before the celebrations began, political leaders joined with gay and lesbian representatives to pay tribute to the many victims of Nazi persecution of homosexuals between 1933 and 1945 at a memorial unveiled in May.

Among the participants was 95-year-old Rudolf Brazda, who survived incarceration in Buchenwald concentration camp from 1941 to 1945. "It was a terrible time," Brazda said. Asked how he felt now, he responded: "I must say that I feel as though I were in paradise in this democratic society."

German actress Maren Kroymann placed a rose at the memorial to the tens of thousands of gays and lesbians who were persecuted and killed in Nazi Germany.

Wolfgang Thierse, a deputy president of the lower house of the German parliament, joined the ceremony. "This is about a culture of humanity, of respect," he said, adding that it had taken a long time to get approval for the memorial.

Gay Pride parades across the world recall events on June 28, 1969, when New York gays stood up to arbitrary police intimidation.

Source: dpa

Links:

Berlin Unveils Monumnt to Homosexuals Killed by Nazis (TWIG, May 30, 2008)

Und das ist gut so … : Gay Pride Parade Attracts Big Crowds in Berlin, German Consul General Delivers Address in San Francisco (TWIG, June 29, 2007)

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