A Holocaust memorial in
Brooklyn, N.Y., should only recognize Jewish victims of the
Nazi regime, said New York state assemblyman Dov Hikind on
Sunday.
A Holocaust memorial in
Brooklyn, N.Y., should only recognize Jewish victims of the
Nazi regime, said New York state assemblyman Dov Hikind on
Sunday, according to the
New York Post.
"To include these
other groups diminishes their memory," said Hikind, who
added that he is not opposed to a memorial honoring other Nazi
victims, provided it is located somewhere else.
Hikind made the
statements at a press conference following the recent decision
to include markers at the city-owned memorial in Sheepshead Bay
honoring LGBT people, Jehovah's Witnesses, disabled people,
political prisoners, and Roma and Sinti Gypsies among the
Holocaust's victims.
"These people are
not in the same category as Jewish people with regards to the
Holocaust," said Hikind, whose mother survived Auschwitz.
"It is so vastly different. You cannot compare political
prisoners with Jewish victims."
An estimated 5 million
people from other groups, including tens of thousands of gays
and lesbians, were murdered along with 6 million Jews in the
Holocaust.
Hikind, a Democrat and
Orthodox Jew, has long been an outspoken opponent of gay
rights. He has equated a marriage-equality bill, which passed
the assembly in May and now awaits a vote in the senate, with
allowing incest.
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