Dr. Klaus Mueller: In the blink of an eye: Post-war constructions of (in)visibility of victims and perpetrators, Jun 14, 2012 at Humboldt University Berlin, Chair: Todd Sekuler
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This presentation explores the opposition between the post-war invisibility of gay survivors of the Nazi regime and the desire of post-war society to portray Nazis as homosexuals. In order to forget that ‘ordinary’ men and women had become perpetrators, the Nazi was portrayed as an outsider: deviant and degenerate. Homosexuality came to signify transgression into evil. Due to their exclusion from post-war memory, some gay survivors blamed themselves for their victimization. Their shame, ongoing persecution, and – above all – post-war silence constitute a disturbing figure: the speechless victim. Using various films, including the film within the Berlin Memorial to Homosexuals persecuted under Nazism, the discussion thus moves between the invisible victim and the post-war image of a perpetrator, both of which served collective and voyeuristic needs.