Holocaust scholars attacked a proposal on Thursday to include images of kissing lesbians in a monument dedicated to the thousands of homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis, reports the Local.
Possibly placing an image of two lesbian women kissing at a gay Holocaust memorial in Berlin is drawing protest from some scholars, saying it would distort history.
The monument was built in May 2008, the memorial to the estimated 5,000 to 15,000 homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis is a gray concrete slab. It sits opposite the city's largest memorial dedicated to the six million Jewish Holocaust victims.
Designed by Ingar Dragset and Michael Elmgreen, the memorial features a window in which viewers can see a looping video, currently of two men in a "never-ending" kiss. The original idea was to exchange the image of kissing men with kissing women every two years.
However, holocaust experts have protested by writing a letter to culture minister Michael Neumann and gay Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit, claiming a lesbian kiss would distort history because lesbians were not targeted for persecution in the Holocaust.
According to the Advocate, Neumann defended the plans, set to debut in May 2010, as true to the original concept of the memorial in addressing present-day discrimination against lesbians and gays as well as the plight of homosexuals at the hands of the Nazis.
"The option of using a lesbian film motif in the memorial is in no way meant to put on the same level the persecution of homosexual men and women under the Nazi regime. Research shows that the persecution of lesbian women by the Nazi regime was not comparable to that of homosexual men. This is also clearly explained in a plaque on the memorial," said Neumann.
A decision on whether to allow the lesbian eternal kiss video in the memorial is expected in the coming weeks.
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