Stolpersteine ​​for gay resistance fighters in Amsterdam

Nine so-called stolpersteine ​​are placed in Amsterdam for Jewish gay and lesbian resistance fighters who were murdered by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. This is done at the initiative of COC Netherlands.

One of the people who are commemorated in this way is the resistance fighter Karel Pekelharing. He belonged to the group that raided the detention house on the Weteringschans in Amsterdam in 1944 to liberate resistance members. At the house where Pekelharing lived on the Rombout Hogerbeetsstraat, the first stolperstein will be laid today.

Stolpersteine, also known as stumbling stones, are gold-coloured memorial stones bearing the names of people who were deported to the extermination camps during the Second World War. There are approximately 8,500 of these stones throughout the Netherlands. It contains the name of the victim and the place and date of death.

The stones are placed in the sidewalk at the victim’s last residential address. For the first time, the Netherlands will receive stolpersteine ​​for people “who were persecuted for what they did and who they were”, says the COC. “Jewish, resistance fighter and lesbian or gay.”

Homosexual victims

COC Netherlands and historian Judith Schuyf took the initiative for these memorial stones on the occasion of Pride Amsterdam. Schuyf did a lot of research into homosexuality during the war. She wants to commemorate the people who can be shown to have been murdered partly because of their homosexuality, she says on NPO Radio 1. “Nothing is left of these people, except their name, date of birth, date of death and date of arrest. I find that so tragic .”

It is not known how many Dutch people were killed in World War II because of their sexual orientation. It is also not clear how many homosexuals were in the resistance. “A lot of information has disappeared,” says Schuyf. However, more is known about a group of homosexuals who were arrested by the Amsterdam police and taken to camp Westerbork in the summer of 1942. From there they were taken to extermination camps.

“The people we commemorate now were all members of the Artists’ Resistance”, says Schuyf. In addition to Pekelharing, eight others are commemorated. Mina Sluyter was murdered in Auschwitz in September 1942. She was a seamstress and lived in the Amsterdam Kerkstraat, where a stolperstein is also placed. Samuel Hoepelman was murdered in April 1943 in Sobibor. He was an office clerk and lived on Valckenierstraat in Amsterdam.

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