Sachsenhausen Memorial — Pink Triangle Prisoners

More than a thousand men imprisoned as homosexuals — forced to wear the pink triangle — passed through the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin. In the summer of 1942, around two hundred of them were murdered at the camp's Klinkerwerk brickworks satellite. Homosexual prisoners stood at the very bottom of the camp hierarchy, and after liberation their persecution did not end: Paragraph 175 remained German law for decades. Remembrance came late, and from below. Activists first laid flowers here in May 1989; officials had refused a permanent marker for years. On November 22, 1992, a memorial plaque for the camp's homosexual victims was finally unveiled — one of the first at any German camp memorial — bearing the words "Totgeschlagen – Totgeschwiegen": beaten to death, silenced to death. The memorial site's permanent exhibition now documents the fate of the pink-triangle prisoners, and annual commemorations continue. Visiting: the grounds are free and open daily (museum buildings closed Mondays in winter). From Berlin, take the S1 to Oranienburg (~45 minutes) and walk or ride bus 804. This is a place of mourning — allow unhurried time, and see the plaque near the camp's memorial area.