International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed every January 27 to mark the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945. We must remember our history to honor the dead and protect future generations.

Before the Nazis came to power, both the Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities were thriving. LGBTQ+ communities were growing across Germany, especially in cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt. Gay men and lesbians formed social clubs, published gay and lesbian journals and newspapers and openly advocated for the repeal of Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code, a statute that outlawed sexual relations between men. These groups also joined with advocates for reforming laws around sex work and reproductive rights. The Jewish sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld started the Institute for Sexual Sciences in Berlin, a community center that promoted diversity among sexual orientations and gender identities and provided services including medical care, professional training and sexual education. The institute even provided healthcare for transgender patients and its staff performed some of the first modern gender-affirming surgeries.

This increased visibility changed dramatically when the Nazis began a campaign of repression against vulnerable populations across Germany. As the Nazis began targeting the Jewish people, they also began raiding gay and lesbian bars and cafes and shut down LGBTQ+ publishing houses. They attacked the Institute for Sexual Sciences, forcing it to close and burning thousands of the institute’s books, articles and patient files. In 1936, the Nazi regime established the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion, cementing a link between anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes and the movement against reproductive choice. Paragraph 175 was used to arrest about 100,000 men for engaging in same-sex activity and over half were convicted. Between 5,000 and 15,000 of those convicted were imprisoned in concentration camps and forced to wear a pink triangle to identify them as gay. Those marked by the pink triangle were subject to severe physical and sexual abuse by guards and fellow inmates.

Within Germany, the liberation of the concentration camps and defeat of the Nazi regime did not bring immediate relief to the LGBTQ+ community. Male same-sex relations were not decriminalized until 1967 in East Germany and 1969 in West Germany, so many survivors faced reimprisonment. It was not until the 1990s that the German government finally acknowledged gay men as victims of the Nazis. Paragraph 175 was repealed in 1994 and Nazi-era convictions under the law were overturned in 2002.

To this day, many of the same forces underlying the Nazi regime, including antisemitism, white supremacy, homophobia, and transphobia, continue to hold sway, impacting the lives of Jews, LGBTQ+ people, and other marginalized populations. Worldwide, 68 countries continue to criminalize same-sex sexual relationships and dozens of countries criminalize being transgender. Antisemitism continues to be a powerful force, including here in the United States, with an upsurge in antisemitism and defamatory conspiracy theories fueling attacks on synagogues and against Jewish people. One such attack occurred as recently as this month in Colleyville, Texas.

Neo-Nazi and other white supremacist groups have also become emboldened in recent years, culminating in violent mob attacks such as the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville and the 2021 United States capitol riots. In 2020, the most recent year of data, Anti-Jewish hate crimes were the largest share of religious hate crimes in the United States, standing at 78% of all religious-based hate crimes. In an unsettling parallel between antisemitism and homophbia, the proportion of all hate crimes in 2020 that were anti-Jewish and the proportion that were against gay males each represented 8% of all hate crimes.

Across the United States, troubling actions by local and state legislators show that they are blinding themselves to the lessons of history. For example, local and state governments have attempted to ban schools from appropriately teaching about the Holocaust and America’s history of racial oppression, despite the influence of Jim Crow laws on Nazi policy and the Nazis’ own history of banning and burning books. State legislatures have begun to implement the most severe restrictions on reproductive rights seen in decades. State legislatures have also introduced and in some cases passed laws aimed to restrict transgender and non-binary people from receiving life-saving medical care and participating in public life. Recent attacks on voting rights have undermined the ability of vulnerable and excluded communities from receiving equal access to the ballot box.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, HRC remembers all whose lives were violently stolen by the Nazi regime. We pledge to honor their memory by reiterating our commitment to fight against oppression whenever and wherever it occurs, alongside and in solidarity with all who are experiencing violence and persecution. In doing so, we recall the long history of activism within the LGBTQ+ community, such as when the pink triangle was reclaimed as a symbol of recognition and empowerment. Through tragedy we may find the strength to create a safe, equitable future for all marginalized people.