A new memorial in Paris honoring the memory of the forgotten LGBTQ+ victims of the Holocaust and throughout history was formally unvelied on Saturday, the French-language Strobomag reports.
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Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo unveiled the memorial sculpture on Saturday, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia near Bastille and the Bassin de l'Arsenal. The memorial was dedicated to the LGBTQ+ victims of persecution in France throughout history, including those killed by the Nazis in concentration camps or through summary execution. Also remembered were individuals deported from France for their LGBTQ+ sexual identities.
“History is there to allow us to prepare for the future, to avoid the worst and above all to produce the best,” Hidalgo said at the unveiling. “And so this history obliges us for the future. It was very important that the recognition of this history and the obligation that weighs on us for the future be inscribed in a strong, symbolic, but also concrete way in Paris.”
The sculpture, a massive steel star, was the creation of French artist Jean Luc Verna.
A plaque on the memorial explains the meaning of Verna’s work.
“Stuck in the ground, this wand is not (only) magic. Like a memory that we would like to bury, a part of forgotten memory, it emerges from the earth to call us to remember,” the plaque reads. “The prerogative of fairies, the starry wand offers a matte black stainless steel side and a mirrored side, evoking the dark hours of History as much as hope and light. Leaning towards visitors, the shadow it casts can appear as a shelter and as a threat that History will repeat itself.”
More than 6 million Jewish people were killed in by the Nazis during the Holocaust, with another combined four million LGBTQ+ individuals, political prisoners, Roma, prisoners of wars, criminals, and people from other groups shunned by the Nazi regime. LGBTQ+ prisoners and targets of oppression were forced to wear a pink triangle on their arm, similar to the star worn by the Jewish community under Nazi rule.
