26th Nov 2015 6:30pm
The Old Courtroom - 118 Church Street Brighton BN1
Lecture by Jason Porter, University of Brighton
Abstract
‘I will never forget that barbaric murder of my love – before my very eyes, before our eyes, for there were hundreds of witnesses. Why are they still silent today? Have they all died? I suspect that some people prefer to remain silent forever, afraid to stir up hideous memories… As for myself, I have made up my mind to speak, to accuse, to bear witness.’
For years after the war, homosexuals who had been victims of Nazi persecution continued to be prosecuted, socially stigmatised and their stories silenced. As a result, gay survivors, and those who perished, had to wait decades until they were acknowledged as victims of Nazism. Because of this, only a handful of written testimonies of gay victims exist. Remembrance of these men has been referred to as an ‘empty memory… one with few names and fewer faces.’ This paper aims to engage with those few names by critical examining the texts they left behind. What can these survivors’ testimonies tell us? How and why are they written? Does the length between the events and their telling inform the narratives that emerge, and what can they contribute to our understanding of this neglected area of study?
