Media Release
Friday March 5th 2021
 
CALL FOR ALL VICTIMS OF NAZISM TO BE INCLUDED IN NEW HOLOCAUST MUSEUMS  
 
National LGBTIQ advocacy orgsanisation, just.equal, has written to federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, seeking a commitment that proposed Holocaust museums will present information about all the victims of the Holocaust.
 
Mr Frydenberg has announced funding for a number of Holocaust museums across Australia that will memorialise Jewish victims of the Holocaust and educate the public about their persecution.
 
Spokesperson for just.equal, Rodney Croome, said,
 
“We applaud the proposed Holocaust museums and wholeheartedly support the remembrance of the 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.”
 
“Often the persecution of different groups intersected, making it difficult to present the suffering of one group and not others.”
 
 
“She credited her survival of Auschwitz to a man imprisoned for homosexuality who brought food to her and her sister.”
 
Mr 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.”
 
Mr Croome said as many as 100,000 gay men were arrested under the Nazi regoime 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 1970’s the pink triangle was adopted by the LGBTIQ rights movement and is today a symbol of strength and remembrance within the LGBTIQ community”.     
 
For a copy of this statement on the web, click here
For more information contact Rodney Croome on 0409 010 668.