National LGBTIQ+ advocacy group just.equal have written to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg following the announcement of a new Holocaust museum in Tasmania.
Frydenberg spoke at Hobart Synagogue earlier this week reveal the plans, speaking on the horrors of the Nazi regime.
“This is an example of what we can do, to ensure future generations say ‘never again’,” the Treasurer said.
Back in January, Frydenberg also announced $750,000 in funding for Holocaust museum in Canberra.
just.equal spokesperson Rodney Croome says the advocacy group applauds the proposed centres, and wholeheartedly supports the remembrance of Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
“Our hope is that the museums will also present information about the other groups who were persecuted under Nazism, including LGBTIQ people, people with disability, Roma, political prisoners, and various religious, racial, ethnic and language groups,” Croome said.
“Often the persecution of different groups intersected, making it difficult to present the suffering of one group and not others.”
Croome points to the experience of Kitty Fisher, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who spent part of her life in Sydney.
“She credited her survival of Auschwitz to a man imprisoned for homosexuality who brought food to her and her sister.”
Croome said the Tasmanian Government has already given an assurance that the new Holocaust museum in that state “will cover all groups who were persecuted during this dark time in our world history”.
“We seek a similar assurance from the federal government, and other state and territory governments.”
“We also urge these governments to consult with contemporary Australians who, had they lived in Europe eighty years ago, would have been persecuted, in order to understand how the Holocaust is seen today.”
Croome drew attention to the figures, where as many as 100,000 gay men were arrested under the Nazi regime with many sent to concentration camps. In the camps they were identified by a pink triangle badge that it was compulsory for them to wear. Lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people were also persecuted by the Nazis.
“During the 1970s the pink triangle was adopted by the LGBTIQ rights movement and is today a symbol of strength and remembrance within the LGBTIQ community.”
OIP Staff
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