Disturbance at the Rostock memorial event for queer Nazi victims

Disturbance at the Rostock memorial event for queer Nazi victims

On July 18, 2025, at 3:00 p.m., a memorial event under the motto “Commemoration of the queer victims of the Nazi regime” took place in the Rostock Rose Garden. Ten people took part in this important gathering, which was dedicated to the memory of those persecuted by National Socialism. Unfortunately, the ceremony was interrupted by two drunken disruptors, a 62-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman, who called attention to themselves with threatening and insulting heckling. Police officers were quickly on the scene to determine the identity of the troublemakers and sent both of them off. A criminal complaint for threats and insults was also filed, while the criminal police began investigations to thoroughly investigate the incident. This reports CityReport.

Commemoration of the queer victims of National Socialism has increasingly come to public attention in recent years. Particularly noteworthy is the central commemoration ceremony that took place on June 28, 2025 in Düsseldorf. This event, organized by the LSBTIQ+ Forum Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf Memorial and Memorial, marked the first day of remembrance for queer Nazi victims. Representatives of the city and the forum laid wreaths together at the memorial on Apollowiese. Afterwards, a staged reading entitled “Alone in the Pink Angle” took place in the Beatrice Strauss Center, which was presented by the DüsselDrama theater collective. This reading addressed the life and persecution of queer people during the Nazi dictatorship and the continued oppression after the war. Admission to the reading was free, and the event was supported by various institutions, including the Theatermuseum Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf City Archives. You can find out more about this at Düsseldorf Queer.

Historical context

To understand the relevance of such commemorative events, it is important to take a look at history. When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, measures against homosexuals became increasingly strict. From the end of February 1933, the civil rights movement and homosexual press organs were banned. In addition, Paragraph 175, which criminalized homosexual acts, was tightened on June 28, 1935. In Düsseldorf, for example, mass arrests of suspected homosexual men began, making the city the region with the most arrests under Paragraph 175 in West Germany. In total, around 100,000 investigations were initiated against homosexual men during the twelve years of the National Socialist dictatorship, and an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 men were deported to concentration camps under the pretext of “protective custody”. The Nazi ideology that was valid at the time viewed homosexuals as not “full” men and severely devalued them because they did not contribute to the “Aryan” offspring. MDR provides detailed information on this.

The persecution was cruel: homosexual men in the concentration camps often had to live with the pink triangle as an identifier, which placed them at the bottom of the hierarchical order of the camps. The overwhelming majority of these prisoners did not survive the camps; It is estimated that around 50 to 60 percent of them died. The suffering and oppression of these victims must not be forgotten, which is why commemorative events are not only historically necessary, but also send an important signal against the re-emerging discrimination and prejudices in today's world.