The horrifying stories of persecution against LGBT individuals during World War II are still marginalized by historians. In the current political climate in Poland, this feels like an ever pertinent topic. Dr. Joanna Ostrowska, a researcher and the author of Oni. Homoseksualiści w czasie II wojny światowej [Them: Homosexuals During World War II] explains how to honour the memory of LGBT people, and why it is crucial to do so now.

Paulina Małochleb: Why did you decide to write about the history of LGBT people detained in prisons and concentration camps after 70 years? What is the aim of your book?

Joanna Ostrowska: The purpose of writing this book was to symbolically bang my fist on the table and raise awareness about the topic. It is a story of double injustice: the suffering of non-heteronormative people convicted under Paragraph 175 of the German penal code – a statute that criminalized homosexuality [it was introduced in the 19th century and often used during the Third Reich – author’s note] – as well as the silence and shame that was cast on them after the war. This silence endures today, when we decide that there were not enough LGBT war victims to even bother writing about them. I wanted my book to be a signal for other researchers that there are thousands of documents waiting to be found. When I started working on this project 10 years ago, I had no idea my book would have but one goal: to remind society about the LGBT community in the fight against rising homophobia.

Do you want to present a martyrology of those who have been entirely removed from the collective memory?

I wasn’t interested in a martyrology. However, I felt moved by another keyword: ‘element’. Not only would I constantly see it