Link: Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism
IranWire’s Maziar Bahari visited Berlin to meet with Mueller to make a series of short films as part of the Sardari Project. One of these films explored the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism and Mueller’s personal history connected to the memorial. Bahari and Mueller spent several days visiting six different memorial sites across Berlin to discuss how these memorials came into being and the significance they hold today and potentially for the future. All films became part of the Berlin: City of Memorials documentary series. These films are published on IranWire and associated social media sites in English and Persian.
Berlin is a city of memorials. But this has not always been the case. The post-war years were characterized by heated national debates about how Germany should remember the horror of its past. And these debates continue to this day. Successive German governments have been either reluctant to create memorials or uncertain about how best to do so – but individuals have led the way. Dr Klaus Mueller, the Representative for Europe at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is keen to emphasise that most memorials have come about as the result of the efforts of a small number of people, who determinedly made the case for its need.
In Germany, the creation of a new memorial has the power to spark a nationwide discussion. These are personal and political questions. How has the country dealt with its responsibility for the murder of European Jews? Has it reckoned with the Nazis’ persecution of suppressed minority groups such as Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses or people with mental and physical disabilities? Post-reunification, what message did the German government want to send to the world about its attitude towards the country’s past? What do memorials mean for victims?
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