Ithaca College's Handwerker Gallery Teams with Holocaust Museum for Exhibition Portraying the Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals
 Ithaca, NY--An opening reception for "The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933-1945," the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's traveling exhibition depicting the tragic fate of homosexuals during Hitler's Third Reich, will take place at Ithaca College's Handwerker Gallery from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 26. The reception will be preceded at 4:00 p.m. by a talk by Ted Phillips, deputy director in the Division of Exhibits at the Holocaust Museum, who will share his experiences curating the exhibit. Free and open to the public, "The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933-1945" will run through February 26. "This exhibition reflects the Holocaust Museum's commitment to recognizing all the victims of Nazism," Phillips says. "Homosexuals, Poles, Gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, the handicapped, and Jehovah's Witnesses all were targeted by the regime, and five million of them were murdered, along with six million Jews, between 1933 and 1945. We created this as a traveling exhibition to tell this important story in communities throughout the United States." An estimated one million homosexual men were living in Germany in 1933, when Adolf Hitler and his National Socialists took over that country's government. Nazi policy asserted that homosexual men carried a "degeneracy" that threatened the nation's "disciplined masculinity." As homosexuals were believed to form self-serving groups, the emergence of a state-within-the state that could disrupt social harmony was also feared. Additionally, the Nazis charged that homosexuals' failure to father children was a factor in Germany's declining birth rate, thus robbing the nation of future sons and daughters who could fight for and work toward a greater Reich. "The exhibition explores why homosexual behavior was identified as a danger to Nazi society and how the Nazi regime attempted to eliminate it," Phillips says. "The Nazis believed it was possible to 'cure' homosexual behavior through labor and 're-education.' As their efforts to eradicate homosexuality grew more draconian, gay men became subject to castration, institutionalization, and deportation to concentration camps." Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality, and of these, approximately 50,000 were sentenced for violating the Nazi's law against homosexuality. An estimated 5,000 to 15,000 were sent to concentration camps, where an unknown number of them perished. Through reproductions of some 250 historic photographs and documents, the exhibition examines the rationale, means, and impact of the Nazi regime's attempt to eradicate homosexuality that left thousands dead and shattered the lives of many more. In addition to the exhibit, the Handwerker Gallery will be the site of three related events. On Wednesday, February 8, at 6:30 p.m., the film "Paragraph 175" will be screened. The title refers to the section in the Third Reich's penal code that outlaws homosexuality. On Monday, February 13, at 6:30 p.m., there will be a showing of "Paper Clips," a film chronicling the efforts of the middle schoolers in Tennessee who collected 11 million paper clips to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. On Monday, February 20, at 6:00 p.m., Paisley Currah, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; John Hanson, assistant professor and director of Hope College's DePree Art Center and Gallery; a Hope College student; and several Ithaca College faculty members will hold a roundtable discussion, "The State of the Closet in Academia." "The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933-1945" is sponsored at Ithaca College by the Handwerker Gallery, Hillel, and the Ithaca College Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Education, Outreach, and Services. A national monument to freedom, the Holocaust Museum is both a memorial to the past and a living reminder of the moral obligations of individuals and societies. Twenty-three million people--including more than 7 million schoolchildren--have visited the museum since in opened in 1993. Through its website, traveling exhibitions, and educational programs, the museum reaches millions more every year. For more information visit www.ushmm.org/museum. For more information on the Handwerker exhibition, contact Cheryl Kramer, assistant professor of art history and gallery director, at (607) 274-3548 or ckramer@ithaca.edu. Contact: Dave Maley Office: (607) 274-1440 news@ithaca.edu Reference: 1858 |
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