Holocaust Memorial Park

History

In June 1985, city-owned land in Brooklyn – home to the largest Jewish population in the country and to many Holocaust survivors – was designated Holocaust Memorial Park. Construction of a permanent memorial for the park, located at the edge of Sheepshead Bay, began in 1994.

An eternal flame on top of a truncated steel tower was designed by George Vellonakis of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. A slab in front of the tower includes text remembering the approximately six million Jews who were systematically murdered by the Nazis and the roughly five million other victims, including “Homosexuals and others deemed ‘anti-social.’” As part of the original design concept approved by the City’s Arts Commission, 10 of about 40 granite markers surrounding the tower were reserved for the “Other Victims” so that their fates could be given historical context. However, this proposal was rejected by the Holocaust Memorial Committee, the local non-profit overseeing the park’s content, and Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, who had allocated funds for the memorial’s construction. Both argued that their fates were already mentioned on the slab at the tower’s base.

In response, Manhattan resident Rick Landman, a lawyer, gay rights activist, and co-chair of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Children of Holocaust Survivors (established in 1991), and Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (who was also on the advisory committee to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.) filed an unsuccessful request in 1996 to have five granite markers inscribed for the Other Victims. These markers were to represent the homosexual community; political prisoners and “asocials” (with text mentioning lesbians); the disabled community; the Gypsy, Roma, and Sinti community; and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The following year, without these markers, New York City’s first public memorial to the Holocaust was dedicated on June 22, 1997.

The Holocaust Memorial Committee continued to deny the request for these five markers every year it was filed through 2009, when Landman’s group asked the City of New York for an appeals process. Barry Litchy, vice president of the committee, accused city officials of taking control of the park away from the Jewish community (even though the park was city owned). Assemblyman Dov Hikind, whose mother survived the Holocaust and whose constituents included many Orthodox Jews and Holocaust survivors, also voiced his opposition, calling the Holocaust “a uniquely Jewish event.” Michael Berenbaum, of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, countered that including non-Jewish victims had long been accepted practice at institutions around the world. According to a 2009 article in the Forward, he noted that, “In order to understand what is unique about the victimization of the Jews, you must understand where their fate paralleled and where their fate differed from other Nazi victims.”

A blue-ribbon panel consisting of representatives from various Holocaust museums reviewed and approved the application. In 2010, it was given final approval from the parks commissioner and the mayor. Demonstrations in opposition were made from a segment of the Orthodox community.

On July 25, 2012, the five markers were inscribed. Landman, the gay American-born son of German Jewish refugees whose family lost 17 people to the Holocaust, said on that day,

The following year, on Sunday, May 5, 2013, an intimate unveiling ceremony was held for all five markers, with representatives from each community. Members of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah and the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn unveiled the homosexual community marker. They were joined by representatives from the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Children of Holocaust Survivors and the Church of the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen.

The marker reads:

“Dedicated to the Memory of the Homosexual Community

After the Nazis seized power in 1933, the persecution of homosexuals intensified in Germany. In 1935, the law that in 1871 criminalized homosexual acts (penal code Paragraph 175) was expanded. In 1936 the police task force to combat homosexuality and abortion was formed.

Around 50,000 men were convicted under Paragraph 175. Thousands of male homosexuals were incarcerated in concentration camps, where many died, victims of harsh conditions, hard labor, medical experimentation, beatings or murder. Some had to wear pink triangles for identification.

After the war, homosexuals continued to be arrested and prosecuted under Paragraph 175 until its repeal in 1969.”

The fate of lesbians is included in the political prisoners and “asocials” marker: “Lesbians, alcoholics, homeless people and others were deemed “asocials” and were forced to wear black triangles in the concentration camps. They were subjected to forced manual labor, justified by the Nazis as “reeducation” to instill proper social habits and personal discipline.”

Entry by Amanda Davis, project manager (December 2024).

NOTE: Names above in bold indicate LGBT people.