U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Exhibition Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945
By: Cindy Crane - Posted on: 9/12/2008

Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools (GSAFE) is proud to host the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum traveling exhibition, Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945. The exhibition, coming to Wisconsin for the first time, will be co-sponsored by the UW-Madison General Library System.

Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945 is made up of more than 200 reproductions of photographs, documents and artwork that examine the Nazi regime’s efforts to eradicate homosexuality and the devastating effects the regime had on the gay community. The exhibition explores the Nazi racial and social ideals and policies that were the basis for the persecution.

In addition, an exhibition of books, photos, and documents from library and private collections will be on display.

The exhibition will be on display at UW Memorial Library, 728 State St., Madison from October 10 to December 10, 2008. An Opening Reception will be held on October 18. The exhibition is free and open to the public during library hours; a driver’s license or other photo ID is required.

The theme of the program of events associated with the exhibition is From Hate to Hope. The following events are free and open to the public:

Saturday, October 18, 5:00 p.m., UW Pyle Center (702 Langdon St.)
Opening Reception: Neal Guthrie, historian from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, will introduce the exhibition. U. S. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and State Representative Mark Pocan will also speak. San Francisco-based Pianist Adrienne Torf will perform original music written in response to the From Hate to Hope theme. Proud Theater, a Madison-based youth theater group that focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues, will also perform original work.

Thursday, October 23, 7:00 p.m. (Room L 160 Chazen Museum of Art (800 Univ. Ave)
Panel of Scholars:
• The Homosexual Emancipation Movement in Pre-Nazi Germany, Jim Steakley, Department of German, UW-Madison
• Nazi Uses of Homophobia, Dagmar Herzog, Department of History, CUNY Graduate Center
• Gay Memories of Nazi Persecution in a Transnational Perspective, Erik Jensen, Department of History, Miami University

Friday, October 24, noon, Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium (816 State St.)
Presentation: Sex in Crisis: Sex, Politics & the Religious Right in the Bush Years. Dagmar Herzog, Professor of History at CUNY Graduate Center. Co-sponsored by GSAFE and the George L. Mosse Fund for LGBT History.



Sunday, October 26 (time and location TBA)
Presentation: Lavender Songs: Weimar Cabaret and Beyond.
Alan Lareau, Department of Foreign Languages, UW-Oshkosh, Jeremy Lawrence, New York-based actor and playwright, and Pianist Ariela Bohrod, student at O'Keeffe Middle School. This lecture and performance highlight the cultural scene in Germany before the Nazis seized power, focusing on the Berlin cabaret culture, the presentation of sexuality in popular and literary songs of the time, and the fates of several homosexual men and lesbian artists of that era who were later persecuted under the Third Reich.

Saturday, November 15, 4:00 p.m., Memorial Library (UW-Madison), Room 126,
Presentation: They Wore the Pink Triangle. Historian Andreas Pretzel, Technical University, Berlin, will present the biographies of individual gay prisoners based on his research in the police and court archives in Berlin, and the memorialization of gay victims that has been carried out in Germany in the past decade.

Film Series:
Paragraph 175 (2000, 81 min), Tuesday, October 28, 7:00 p.m., Chazen Museum of Art (800 University Ave), Room L140.

…But I Was A Girl: The Story of Frieda Belinfante (1999, 69 min), Tuesday, November 11, 7:00 p.m.,
UW Memorial Union Play Circle (800 Langdon Dr), 2nd Floor.

Out of the Past (1998, 97 min), Friday, November 14, (location and time TBA). Part of Fall GSA Student Leadership Conference.

Love Story: Berlin 1942 (1997, 47 min), Tuesday, November 18, 7:00 p.m., Edgewood College, Predolin Humanities Center (1000 Edgewood College Dr), Anderson Auditorium.

Bent (1997, 105 min), Thursday, December 4, 7:00 p.m. Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (227 State St), Lecture Hall.

Each film will be followed by remarks from a moderator and audience discussion.

More information about the films is available on the GSAFE website at www.gsaforsafeschools.org. For more information about the exhibition, visit http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/traveling/details/index.php?type=current&content=nazi_persecution_homosexuals.

Busing for High School Students
Busing to the exhibition will be made available to high school students throughout the state. Information about the exhibition will be sent to groups in advance. Groups being bused will also receive packets from our history project. Call GSAFE at 608-661-4141 for more information.

This exhibition has been made possible in part by support from The Duane Rath Endowment Fund and The Foundation for Civil Rights.

Hosting this exhibition and related events in Wisconsin has been made possible by Alliant Energy Foundation, By Youth For Youth, Dane County Cultural Arts Commission, Madison City Arts Commission, New Harvest Foundation, Mosse Fund for LGBT History, Philanthrofund Foundation, Purple Moon Foundation, and William Wartmann.

GSAFE is a Community Shares of Wisconsin organization.

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