Paris has unveiled a memorial in the city’s public gardens near the Bastille recognizing the long-ignored LGBTQ+ victims of the Nazi regime. The monument, a massive steel star created by French artist Jean-Luc Verna (hopes to ignite reflection on the public’s duty to remember the past and continue to fight discrimination, according to Paris’ Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
Verna described the star’s symbolism saying: “There’s a black side in front of us, forcing us to remember…at certain times of the day, it casts a long shadow on the ground, evoking the dangers looming over [us], sadly.”
On the opposite side of the star, it is a silvery color that reflects the sky. Verna says this represents “the color of time passing, with the Paris sky moving as quickly as public opinion, which can change at any moment,” Verna said.
Pink News reports that between 1933 and 1945, around 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality and around 50,000 were sentenced for their “crimes.”
Despite these figures, the LGBTQ+ community has not received much recognition for the war crimes they suffered. Jacques Chirac became the first French president to publicly acknowledge this history back in 2005, when he reflected on the fact that queer people had been “hunted down, arrested, and deported,” during the war.
Mayor Hidalgo acknowledge the importance of the memorial when she said: “Historical recognition means saying ‘this happened’ and ‘we don’t want it to happen again.’”
