Nazis killed, like, six million Jews. So back in 1985, New York City’s then-Mayor Ed Koch dedicated the Holocaust Memorial Park in Sheepshead Bay to commemorate those we lost in the genocide. But now the city’s Parks Department has kowtowed to crazy demands (some 13 years in the making) for the park to honor non-Jews who died in the Holocaust! Like: the disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, and, yes the gays, because Adolf Hitler ran up a huge gas bill executing all of these folks, too. As is typical with these things, on-lookers claim the addition of these other groups is backed by politicians looking to curry favors with certain voters. Well, yeah. (Photo)
Dan T
You’ve got to be kidding me with this post. First of all, you make it out to seem ridiculous to memorialize the 10,000 gays, 100,000 mentally ill, 4,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, and 200,000 gypsies massacred in the Holocaust. All in all, five million non Jews. Are these numbers not high enough to warrant recognition? Can you honestly believe that minority groups seeking a spot in the park have “crazy demands”?! Your attempt at a pithy, cynical attitude of attributing something like this to a politics-as-usual mentality and joking about Hitler’s “gas bill” serves only to discredit you as someone with anything meaningful to say. There are currently 234 granite markers in the park commemorating Jewish murders during the Holocaust, and this new plan will add FIVE commemorating non-Jews. I have to ask – why do you really care? Or are you just trying to stir up controversy with a poorly written (you might want to check the grammar in your highly idiotic gas bill sentence), insensitive, and completely pointless blog post?
Jonathan
@Dan T: I think you may have misinterpreted this post…
bryce
im pretty sure dan t misintirpritid the post. and im confused about his math.
but he’s right its a pretty bad post and im not sure how to intirprit it either.
it needs a lot more information, and should probably be a little more sensitive about all the different groups who were massacred during ww2.
Captain Freedom
@Jonathan: BULLSHIT! I agree with Dan T on this one. Queerty is once again being its typical UPPITY GAY self by joking about the Holocaust and talking about the concentration camps in a comedic fashion. Whoever wrote this article should have the shit kicked out of them.
TANK
It’s only jews only to dov hikind, who is voicing a very confused and false notion about the issue; responding instead to what he believes will benefit him politically by ingratiating himself with his constituency.
No one can take the holocaust from the jews as they were rounded and factory murdered more than the others combined, but it’s important to honor all who were slain by the nazis. The holocaust museum does it, so I think that this park can more than accomodate it.
IT was 10-15,000 homosexuals, actually.
Jonathan
@Captain Freedom: I think the post is insensitive, but I think some of the (tasteless) irony was lost on Dan T. Obviously these demands are not crazy, they are logical, necessary, and late.
But yeah, wouldn’t want anyone getting too UPPITY around here, there’s plenty of room at the back of the bus!
Tallskin
“Why Do We Gotta Honor the Gays in NYC’s Jews-Only Holocaust Park?”
What kind of fucking English is that ?????
Surely you can string a sentence together for fuck’s sake!
Charles
What is the over/under on when this site will finally kick the bucket? It’s clear from the quality of writing that you have hit the desperate/deranged state that normally occurs before death.
bryce
CALM DOWN its a bad article but not the end of the world
Dennis
I’m giving Queerty a pass on this one…just another sarcastic headline (they love them some sarcastic headlines) when the point of the post is that OF COURSE gays (and others) should be remembered as co-victims of the Holocaust. Clunky wording, but I say the “heart” of the post was in the right place.
Trying sarcasm on such a sensitive subject is sort of a risky editorial choice, though.
Forrest
Uh, I think regular commenters should know that Queerty has a rather snarky side. This gay jew is not bothered by the article’s title. I am bothered by straight jews who forget that Jews come in “gay” too.
OY VEY
David Hauslaib
@Dan T: @Forrest: Yes, sarcasm, from a gay Jew. Move along.
Dan T
@David Hauslaib: As a non-regular reader of your site, I happened on this post quite by accident. That being said, my response was fairly quick and emotional – I can see that you were going for sarcasm, but I don’t think the execution was very successful. Perhaps if I read your posts regularly I’d be more acquainted with the style, but as a fellow gay Jew, I was a bit offended – and that’s not easily done. It seems like this post was pounded out quickly and thoughtlessly (I see you corrected your tense mistake), and I don’t think the subject matter warrants such mindless banter. After poking around the site, I think you do have a good thing going here, but if this is your approach to the news, I’d stick with more trivial subject matter like Adam Lambert and exorcising gay demons.
bryce
@Dan T:
OUCH good comeback
blake
Why shouldn’t other victims of the Holocaust be remembered? Gypsies, gays, and Afro-Germans (children of white German mothers and black French soldiers) were butchered. This isn’t a case of cultural appropriation. Those groups were targeted because of hatred of their perceived differences (ethnicity/race or sexual orientation, for example).
TANK
@Dan T:
Well this gay jew wasn’t offended. “HELP! HELP! I’m BEING REPRESSED” syndrome is tedious.
JesseRivkah
@Forrest: selah b’emet
Phoenix (Who Would Have Been Wearing The Pink Triangle)
WWII cost 50 million people their lives. Along with the 6 million Jews who wound up in the gas chamber, there were 5 million other “undesirables”. That’s not counting innocent civilians who were the “collateral damage” of conquest. WWII was a blood bath that should be remembered as a mad man’s war that cost far, far too many people their lives. The Holocaust was awful, but the Jews did not die alone. All the victims should be remembered.
TANK
@Phoenix (Who Would Have Been Wearing The Pink Triangle):
The holocaust was an unprecedented genocide. It is the fool who lumps that in with collateral damage and the casualties of soldiers. It deserves its own unique recognition.
Bitch, please!
I am confused. What exactly are the Jewish commentators saying? The others who were murdered by the Nazis, are not as worthy of a mention? As for the article, I thought it was written with sarcasm. What is with the screaming for an english 101 corrections? It is a blog, for crying out loud! And by difinition, that means writing whatever is deemed important and amusing to the writer–NOT a paper for an english class! Geez, get a grip!
Bitch, please!
Sorry, *DEFINITION*, to appease the screamers!
Mike
When one man raises his hand to subjugate others, the number is irrelevant. The fact remains, a person has been harmed.
When one person stands up and says, “The People are more worthy, in life or in death, than those people” then the harm is there just the same.
We don’t seek “gay rights”, “special rights”, “specific legislation”, “gender equality”. Governments or policiticans who seek to curry favour with the GLBT population by legislating for us should just consider that we seek nothing more than the SAME RIGHTS that the other 90-odd percent of the human race. We seek to be treated Equally. Don’t legislate or proletise to gain specific favours, just legislate to remove inequality.
All it takes is one bit of legislation.
TANK
Well, the number does matter and the fact remains, too. The magnitude of the act (# of individuals affected) is pretty significant in evaluating the ethical significance of the act or actions, and always has been.
TANK
@TANK:
And that is because a person is worth one and only one. That is, your life is no more nor less important or deserving of consideration and resources than anyone else’s.
osocubano
So… what’s with the maple leaves on the plaque?
Did any Canadians die in the Holocaust?
Prof. O. G. Whataschnozell
@Dan T: You must be new to this site. This is the standard format of just about everything “reported” here.
This site is entertainment first ans whatever you take it to be second. I never consider it news. I look at it more like a free National Inquirer aimed at the working class queen.
I mean really, don’t expect the HRC to even think of submitting an article or statment directly to them unless of course they need to rally the masses for their misguided, selfish issues.
tom sheepandgoats
As it turns out, the oldest (103 yrs) surviving male concentration camp survivor is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which is not at all what one would expect, given their relatively tiny numbers. He travels, and gives seminars on the holocaust. This California station covered his stop in Los Angeles:
http://cbs2.com/video/[email protected]