This new online exhibit from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum offers some valuable insights into the persecution of homosexuals by the National Socialist government under Adolf Hitler. The exhibit begins by recounting the story of Richard Grune, an artist who had trained at the Bauhaus school, who was identified by the Nazis in 1934 and later spent the entirety of World War II in the Flossenburg concentration camp. The primary sections of the site consist of 12 short essays that recount the Nazi ideology behind the persecution of homosexuals, their initial raids and surveillance of known homosexual gathering places, and other dominant themes during this somber period. The short essays also include important visual documentation of the period, including images of internal Nazi documents. Perhaps the most evocative and moving elements of the site are the haunting drawings created by Richard Grune, drawn after his release from the concentration camp. All in all, an effective and sensitive site designed to elucidate one of the less well-known aspects of social history under the Nazi regime.
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