TRIESTE: A plaque commemorates the Pink Triangles
The pink triangle
The equal dignity of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, can only be achieved through the complete recovery from oblivion of an ugly page in European history: the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the homosexual victims of Nazi-Fascism and the debate that has opened on the matter can make a significant contribution in this direction.
The drama of the’holocaust and the persecutions that dramatically characterized the Second World War were characterized within them by a further, not always known, discrimination: that against the pink triangles, that is, tens of thousands of people persecuted, confined and eliminated for their different sexual orientation.
The tragedy of the concentration camps characterizes all celebrations aimed at remembering the pre-war dictatorships and supporting the democratic phase of the new Europe. The silence and lack of exploration of the tragedy experienced by homosexuals in Nazi Europe and Fascist Italy pervaded all of post-war Italian politics and culture: after June 28, 1969, with the Stonewall uprising in New York, the slow march for gay and lesbian rights began, first overseas and then in Europe. The recovery of historical memory took even longer. One example among many: in Verona, after the first attempts of Pink Gay and Lesbian Club To be present at the celebrations of April 25, 1997, one had to wait until 2000 to be able to participate in the ceremonies commemorating the gay drama after bitter and endless controversies.
In Trieste, the only Nazi extermination camp on Italian soil, the homocaust began to be discussed in January 2003, with the presentation by the Circolo Arcobaleno of Trieste of the results of the research work on the homosexual holocaust carried out by the Circolo Pink of Verona (Le ragioni di un silenzio, edizioni Ombre Corte 2002), in the presence of the philosopher and MEP Gianni Vattimo.
At the same time, as part of the institutional celebrations of the Day of Remembrance, the Trieste Gay and Lesbian Circle laid down in Rice mill a symbolic triangle of pink flowers and was officially cited in the speech by the Mayor of Trieste. The controversy within the center-right majority that unfortunately followed highlighted the embarrassment and discomfort of part of that coalition in addressing a tragedy that had occurred almost 60 years earlier.
The San Sabba Rice Mill
The commemorations this January will represent for Trieste, but more generally for Italy, the achievement of an important milestone after a long and tiring journey: with the placing of the plaque in memory of the homosexual victims of Nazism, such persecutions officially enter the history of the twentieth century. San Sabba Rice Mill National Monument It is not only a symbolic place par excellence but also a fundamental food for thought for teachers and school children and for the many people who visit this sad place.
This initiative does not eliminate the discrimination still present in Italian society, but it is undoubtedly a significant step towards understanding and respecting all normalities.
The official unveiling ceremony of the marble plaque will take place in the context of the Torchlight Procession for Remembrance, Peace and Coexistence organized by the Trieste Partisan Choir Pinko Toma'i'’.
Wednesday, January 26 ‘'meeting is scheduled for 6pm In front of the Pino Grezar Stadium: the torchlight procession will depart for the Risiera di San Sabba around 6:30 PM. Inside the main courtyard of the Museum, the choir will perform a series of songs in memory of the many tragedies experienced between 1943 and 1945 in that area. Around 7 PM, in the area in front of the commemoration hall, the official unveiling of the plaque dedicated to homosexual victims will take place in the presence of Sergio Lo Giudice, National President of Arcigay and Francesca Polo from the national secretariat of Arcilesbica. A final choral piece will follow: ""Auschwitz"".
Thursday, January 27, As part of the official Remembrance Day initiatives, a triangle of pink flowers will be placed on the area of the former Risiera crematorium.
Some illustrative panels on the Holocaust will also be exhibited in the Risiera museum space.
The President of the Arcigay Arcobaleno Club
Marco Reglia
INFO [email protected]
‘initiative of the weekly DIARIO
For the fifth year, the weekly magazine Diario is publishing a special issue on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Diary
Introduced by writer Jorge Semprun, who argues for the need to safeguard the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, and by Amos Luzzatto and Stefano Levi della Torre, who highlight the dangers of anti-Semitism, this issue will explore, with an essay by historian Mario Toscano and testimonies, the slow dissolution of the racial laws, which, promulgated in 1938, continued to have repercussions for many years into the century. The summary includes, among others, insights by Marcello Pezzetti on the uprising at the Auschwitz camp; Michele Sarfatti on the racial laws in Italian Albania; and Gabriele Eschenazi and Jean Blanchaert on Mengele's trial in absentia.
Writer Javier Cercas also addresses the issue of shared memory in Spain, illustrated with a reportage on the mass graves of the Franco era; director Francesca Comencini recounts Bosnia ten years after the war; several reports from places of horror, from Argentina's disappeared to Soviet Russia, and a few curious stories where memory comes to life on the football pitch.
The issue closes with a report on events, news and appointments, along with a thoughtful guide by Marina Morpurgo on children's books on memory.
Along with Diary, the DVD includes the documentary Paragraph 175 by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, which reconstructs the Homosexual Holocaust through extensive documentation enriched by a series of powerful testimonies. The film won the Golden Bear for Best Documentary at Berlin 2000 and the Best Documentary Award at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.
Memory on RAIUNO
The January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day, will be broadcast by the flagship network RAI from 2pm to 5pm a long TG1 Special to remember the victims of Nazi-fascist barbarity and, in particular, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
The broadcast will also feature a speech by Arcigay National President Sergio Lo Giudice on the persecution of homosexuals during Nazism and Fascism.
Homosexual victims remembered in the Vatican
Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, also remembers homosexual victims in the Vatican
All the victims of the Nazi concentration camps
VATICAN CITY – Sixty years after the liberation from the Nazi extermination camps, the Vatican invites us not to forget "the terror of which man is capable" and recalls that millions of people – including Jews, homosexuals, Slavs, disabled people – were killed with total disregard for their "human dignity.".
These were the words of Monsignor Celestino Migliore, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, speaking yesterday at the UN commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. The papal diplomat's text was published today by the Vatican Press Office.
Remembering the "victims of an inhumane political vision based on an extreme ideology," the bishop said, "reminds us of the very roots of the UN, and its noble task of preventing mistakes like these from happening again.".
Archbishop Migliore recalled the Nazi suppression of Jews, Slavs, disabled people, homosexuals, and political opponents, and emphasized the massive attempt to exterminate the Jewish people. For this reason, he said, the Holocaust is "one of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century and remains a unique event, a shameful milestone in the history of humanity and in the consciences of all.".
All other initiatives of the Arcigay Clubs
BASSANO DEL GRAPPA (VI)
On January 27th at 8:45 pm at Largo Parolini 39, there will be a screening of the documentary "Paragraph 175," followed by a presentation by a historian on the homosexual condition during the National Socialist era.
INFO [email protected]
BOLOGNA
The plaque in memory of homosexual victims in Bologna
The January 25th at 9pm Arcigay Il Cassero's Free Homosexual University and ArciLesbica Bologna present "The Day Before Yesterday" and "Remembering." The screening will be introduced by director Gabriella Romano, writer and essayist Tommaso Giartosio, and historian Gianfranco Goretti.
In the run-up to Holocaust Remembrance Day, the worldwide celebration that commemorates the victims of Nazi-fascist violence, Il Cassero dedicates an event to the works of Gabriella Romano, Ricordare and L'giorno ieri. These are two documentaries that point to a chapter of our history that is often silenced and understudied: the deportation of Italian homosexuals to confinement.
In Italy, too, during the twenty-year period, the fascist regime implemented a persecution of homosexuals, but in a very different way than the Nazi regime. The phenomenon itself was officially non-existent, so much so that neither the Zanardelli Code (1889) nor the subsequent Rocco Code (1931) contain any articles that clearly penalized homosexuality. This, however, was not done in the name of implicit tolerance, but rather with the belief that silence surrounding such phenomena worked much better than overt repression; in short, it was what Giovanni dall'Orto defines as a repressive tolerance: those guilty of the crime of acts against the continuation of the race were punished with the same means the police used against common criminals, namely through sanctions (warning and house arrest) and forced removal from their place of residence, with severe limitations on personal freedom. In Italy there were several colonies of confined people and some (Favignana, Ustica, San Donnino delle Tremiti) are still famous today for this very reason.
Remember collects testimonies from gay Italians who lived during the Fascist years, recounting the persecution they suffered, the clandestine nature of their love life, the frequent police stops, arrests, and their experiences of confinement. Many homosexuals were sent to beautiful desert islands, temporarily populated only by themselves and a few, much-courted Carabinieri. It's remarkable that these former confined men nostalgically recall their days in prison, during which they were paradoxically free to be themselves, even at the expense of the dictatorship, as had never happened before and would never happen again.
From the same perspective of investigation, but earlier in order of realization, The day before yesterday recounts the Fascist period from an exclusively female perspective, giving voice to five women who describe its climate of repression, fear, and, above all, silence. This multi-voiced narrative testifies to the extremely limited social space women occupied while simultaneously evoking the richness of their inner world, their aspirations, and their dreams. And in a context that valued women solely for their role as mothers, female homosexuality was the ultimate taboo, often seen as an unmistakable sign of the devil's presence or classified as a manifestation of hysteria, requiring psychiatric treatment. A word never to be uttered, and whose existence the morality of the time, of course, denied.
On Thursday, January 27, at 10:30 a.m., in the Villa Cassarini Gardens, two wreaths will be laid on the triangular pink marble plaque in memory of the homosexual victims of Nazi-Fascism. Representatives of the Arcigay Il Cassero club of Bologna will attend the ceremony. One wreath will be laid by the ANPI (National Association of Italian Partisans) and the other by the Municipal Administration. The plaque for homosexual victims was placed in the gardens in 1990.
INFO [email protected]
BRESCIA
The pink triangle
Arcigay Orlando joins the initiative organized by the CGIL Historical Archives ‘'A Train to Auschwitz'’. This year, too, we have chosen to combine our commemoration of the homosexual victims of the Nazi-Fascist extermination with the commemoration of all victims of this barbarity. "Our idea was to create an event as secular as possible, in which all groups affected by persecution could identify and find space, regardless of confession or ideology," explained Lorena Pasquini of the Historical Archives. The unity of all discriminated against diversity seemed to us the best antidote to the ghetto culture.
The gravest danger facing those who do not belong to a majority, whether by faith, ideology, race, or sexual orientation, is isolation. And homosexuals have been condemned to isolation for centuries, deprived of the right to freely express their sexual orientation, a fundamental right on a par with the right to freedom of thought or belief.
Commemorating the homosexual victims of the concentration camps today means recognizing sexual orientation as a discriminating factor of yesterday and today, despite those who do not want to admit the existence and importance of a homosexual issue, and there are still many of them, unfortunately, as the news and politics often remind us.
Access for gay and lesbian citizens to the same rights as heterosexual citizens is Arcigay's primary goal, and our commitment in this direction stems from the assumption that subjects of law are individuals, all individuals, in their diversity and not in their majority.
Rights belong to everyone, majority and minority, and in claiming ours, we recognize and demand the rights of all those who, in any sphere, do not identify with the majority's choices. A single diversity is condemned to repression or extinction, while many diversities reestablish the social pact on the sharing of common rights and enrich it with their variety.
This is why today, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, we willingly join with all those commemorating the resistance of so many different peoples to the brutal and failed attempt to reduce us to a prevailing ethical model.
Arcigay Orlando Club
INFO
https://www.arcigaybrescia.it/memoria.htm
[email protected]
CREMONA
The Arcigay La Rocca Club and Arci Nuova Associazione are organizing a screening of the film Paragraph 175 on Sunday, January 30, at 9:00 PM at the "Luogocomune" Arci Social and Cultural Center in Via Speciano 4, Cremona.
An exhibition on the deportation of homosexuals during the Nazi dictatorship will be held at the same location from 22 to 31 January 2005.
INFO [email protected]
MILAN
January 27th will mark the 5th International Holocaust Remembrance Day, dedicated to remembering the victims of fascist and Nazi persecution and deportation.
A day "not to forget...""
Precisely to remember all those who have unjustly suffered for their religion, their political ideals, their ethnicity, but also for their way of loving, the CIG Arcigay Milano will participate in the demonstration to be held in the city on Sunday, January 30th.
To also remember the homosexual victims of Nazi-fascist madness.
A pink triangle pinned to our chest, the mark of homosexual deportees to concentration camps, will be our humble symbol of respect for all the victims.
Paul Ferigo
CIG Gay Initiative Center – ARCIGAY Milan
INFO [email protected]
MODENA
On 27 and 28 January 2005, the Municipality of Modena – Youth Policy Department together with ARCIGAY Modena presents Forgotten Memories.
On the 27th at 9pm at the Tent on Viale Monza, for the day of remembrance, the video will be screened Paragraph 175 By Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein. The film collects for the first time the testimonies of homosexual survivors of Nazi concentration camps.
During the screening, the exhibition curated by ARCIGAY on the deportation of homosexuals to concentration camps during the Nazi dictatorship will be presented.
The January 28th Three guests, speaking about three books, tackle the theme of memory from three different angles: the removal of the extermination of homosexuals, the memory of the Jews forced to work in the Holocaust workshop and the removals of today.
The reasons for a silence. The Persecution of Homosexuals During Nazism and Fascism (edited by Circolo Pink, Ombre Corte, Verona 2002).
Deliberately excluded from the culture of remembrance, treated as criminals and perverts, the homosexuals who left the camps in 1945 were not recognized as "survivors." They simply survived. Historical research and the culture of remembrance have for decades concealed the violent repression that the Nazi and Fascist regimes inflicted, with varying methods and intensity, on homosexuals, contributing to the silence surrounding the victims and survivors. The contributions and materials collected in this book aim to break this guilty silence. However, the lack of further data, locked away in the respective state archives, prevents us from giving this tragedy a clearer picture; also as a result, collective memory fails to recognize this and other forgotten holocausts.
Witnesses of the catastrophe. Testimonies of prisoners of the Jewish Sonderkommando of Auschwitz-Birkenau (by Carlo Saletti, Ombre Corte, Verona 2004). Isolated from the rest of the deportees, the crematorium prisoners had lived their precarious existence in the face of the destruction of their people and of those who, according to the criminal plan cultivated by National Socialism, were to disappear. Of the little more than two thousand Jews who had been part of them, a hundred fortunately survived the end of the camp. Some of them had the strength to tell the world what they had seen and experienced.
The ghosts of Portopalo (by Giovanni Maria Bellu, Mondadori, Milan 2004). On Christmas night 1996, the largest shipwreck in the history of the Mediterranean since the end of World War II occurred in the Strait of Sicily. While attempting to disembark in our country, approximately three hundred illegal immigrants of Pakistani, Indian, and Tamil origin died when a "carretta del mare" (sea tramp) completely unsuitable for carrying such a load sank. The incident went almost entirely unreported. But in the following months, fishermen from Portopalo di Capo Passero, who sailed that stretch of sea, found human bodies in their nets every day, along with their catch.
During the book presentation, it will be possible to visit the exhibition curated by ARCIGAY on the deportation of homosexuals to concentration camps during the Nazi dictatorship.
INFO [email protected]
PADUA
On January 27, at 9:30 a.m., at the Temple of the Unknown Internee (Viale Internato Ignoto, 24 (Terranegra area) in Padua, the Tralaltro – Arcigay Padova club will participate in the official celebration of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Various groups, representing those interned in Nazi concentration camps, will parade in front of the square, attending the flag-raising ceremony and the national anthem. Afterward, there will be a tribute to the fallen and the laying of wreaths. Padua Mayor Flavio Zanonato is expected to attend.
INFO [email protected]
PIACENZA
The January 28, 2005 at 9:30 a.m. at '‘S.Ilario Auditorium – Via Garibaldi – Piacenza:
Homocaust – The Pink Triangle
PLAN
9:30 a.m. Introduction to the day's theme: "Homocausto: Homosexuality in the Time of Nazism"“
10:00 am Presentation of the documentary film: “Paragraph 175“ by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
10.15 am Film screening.
11:30 a.m. Conference with scheduled presentations by: Giovanni Dall'Orto — Franco Grillini — Delia Vaccarello — Paola Guazzo
A public debate will follow. The participation of some of the city's higher education institutions is expected.
The Fahrenheit 451 bookstore in Piacenza will be hosting a public display of books and publications on the topic for the duration of the event.
A further initiative on the theme of homosexuality and Nazism is planned for the month of March.
The exhibition will be inaugurated at the Cassinari Art High School in Piacenza
“Homocausto: homosexuality in the time of Nazism” and Ettore Scola's film “Una giornata particolare” (1977) will be screened.
The director and other guests are expected to attend, followed by a discussion with the students.
INFO [email protected]
PIOMBINO (LI)
On the occasion of the commemorations for the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on January 27, 1945, Arcigay Piombino announces that it has responded positively to the appeal of the President of the Tuscany Region, Claudio Martini, urging a member of the LGBT community to participate in the "Train of Remembrance," traveling to Poland from January 25 to 30 with 1,200 students. President Andrea Panerini will join the official regional delegation to commemorate the "pink triangles," the homosexual victims of the Nazi concentration camps, second only to the Jews in the cruelty of their treatment.
INFO [email protected]
REGGIO EMILIA
The January 27th at 5pm, to the Valli Theatre, in the Hall of Mirrors, 'Culture Department' organizes with 'University of RE and MO, the Teatri Foundation, Jewish Community of MO and RE, Opera Nomadi and Arcigay Giòconda (institutions that represent in the present the memory of many of the victims of the Holocaust), a dialogue lesson by Professor Sergio Luzzatto, full professor at the University of Turin, Student of Fascist Ideology.
Discussion with Alberto Melloni of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia: "A justice of historical knowledge? Is it a duty or an obstacle to knowledge?"
To the 9pm film screening Paragraph 175 : Personal stories of some homosexuals persecuted during Nazism. Free admission at the Circolo headquarters at Via Emilia al'Ospizio, 102.
Fundraising to unveil a plaque in memory of homosexual victims of the Trieste Risiera di S. Sabba concentration camp.
INFO [email protected]
TRENTO
The Arcigay Trentino Club will screen the video documentary PARAGRAPH 175 (in English) on THURSDAY 27 JANUARY 2005 at 8.45 pm at the Club Headquarters.
The implementation of Section 175, Germany's 1871 anti-homosexual law, led to approximately 1,000 convictions per year by the mid-1920s. It also left homosexuals vulnerable to blackmail and social stigma.
Like many other groups in Germany, homosexuals failed to recognize the danger they faced when Hitler came to power.
Due to homophobia, Paragraph 175 remained in force for decades after the end of Nazism.
Paragraph 175 is, among other things, a warning that human rights gains are fragile and must be constantly and vigilantly protected. The connections between homophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, and other forms of organized hatred are complex and real.
In Italy, repression did not reach Nazi levels, but measures were adopted to limit personal freedom. Between 1938 and 1943, approximately 300 homosexuals (or presumed homosexuals) were sent into confinement. The Fascist Code (Rocco) did not include a specific anti-homosexual law when it came into force (1931). This was not a liberal choice, but a denial of the existence of Italian homosexuals (if anything, they could only be foreigners), as evidenced by the minutes of the parliamentary debate. Despite the absence of an anti-homosexual article, repression did take place in Italy, involving hundreds of people. People were forced into confinement, subjected to constant arrest, forced to sign, a subtle repression that was often internalized in such a way as to generate self-censorship (few gays of that era have agreed to talk about themselves; among the few documents is the video by director Gabriella Romano, "Ricordare").
IN MORE THAN 80 COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD (and many states in the USA) HOMOSEXUALITY LAWS VERY SIMILAR TO PARAGRAPH 175 ARE STILL PRESENT IN THE LAW CODES.
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UDINE
To mark the 15th anniversary of Arcigay Nuovi Passi, the Udine branch is organizing a packed program of events dedicated to Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Here is the program:
Monday, January 24, 2005
6:00 pm – Ajace antechamber
Inauguration of the photographic exhibition
""Homocaust. The Forgotten Extermination of Homosexuals""
Exhibition open from January 25th to 27th
from 10am to 12pm and from 3pm to 6pm
7:00 pm – Ajace Hall
Conference debate
""The Pink Triangles: Persecution and Extermination of Homosexuals under Nazism""
Interventions by:
– Giovanni Dal'Orto, editor of the monthly magazine "Pride""
– Gianna Malisani, Councillor for Culture in Udine
– Pietro Pisano, President of Arcigay Udine
– Eva Dose, President of Arcilesbica Udine
THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2005
UDINE – AJACE ROOM
5:00 pm – Round table
""Other Faces of the Holocaust""
– 'elimination of the mentally disabled: the Nazi project of Aktion T4
– The Gypsy people between extermination and discrimination
– The situation of Roma in Slovenia: past and present
– The repressed memory of the extermination of gays and lesbians in the Third Reich
Saturday, January 29, 2005
UDINE – SAN OSVALDO
Pavilion 21 of the DSM, former Psychiatric Hospital
9:00 PM
PINK TRIANGLES
Staged reading accompanied by projections and music.
Organized by the Reading Workshop of the Arcigay Nuovi Passi club in Udine
January 28 – 29 – 30, 2005
UDINE – VISIONARY CINEMA
"VISIONARIO" Cinema Bar on Via Asquini in Udine from 7pm to midnight
– documentary film "PARAGRAPH 175""
– photographic exhibition
""Homocaust. The Forgotten Extermination of Homosexuals""
INFO 340.9465354 [email protected]
NAPLES
Arcigay Antinoo is organizing a screening of the film "Paragraph 175," a documentary by Rob Epsterin & Jeffrey Friedman (USA 1999), on Thursday, January 27, 2005, at 7 p.m., at the club's headquarters in Vico San Geronimo alle Monache 15/17. Free admission.
INFO [email protected]
