Community Letter: Honoring the Liberation of LGBTQIA+ Auschwitz Prisoners
by: Anonymous Contributor
I wanted to share some historical context on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the notorious concentration camp, Auschwitz-Buchenwald. I don’t want to diminish the intersectional nature of the heinous and vile atrocities of the Nazi party, but I want to draw some proximity between those events and today.
The first book burning of Nazi Germany directly relates to sexual minority communities, along with the destruction of rare historical facts and baseline medical knowledge. The clinic of Magnus Hirschfeld was the target (1).
source
Many people forget that LGBTQIA+ communities, as well as many other minority communities, were targeted alongside the broader narrative of the cultural eradication of Jewish people. The metal sign that towered over the gate entrance at the camp read: Arbeit macht frei. This translates to “Work makes one free.” It wasn’t mere death, it was torture in so many physical and emotional ways, including the literal working to death of people like us.
Days like today, I am reminded that LGBTQIA+ people do not exist in a vacuum. We have always been here and we will always remain. Our struggles are informed by lived experiences and guided by the experiences of people like us throughout history. It really strikes me hard on days like today.
Sources
(1) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/
Further Reading
Robert Biedroń, Nazism’s Pink Hell
