Half-truths, concealment and insinuations were the result of both homosexuality itself as a taboo and its criminalisation in post-war Germany. Many years of silence on homosexual prisoners of concentration camps served as an inspiration for both the title of the exhibition and a series of large-format stylized photographs depicting its heroes. They constitute a part of biographical modules. The figures of anonymous prisoners seem to emerge from the shadows, and the faces of some men "reveal themselves" - thanks to the reading of their stories (which are not always explicit) by visitors. It leads to a "meeting" in the place marked by their suffering; to a confrontation of previous conceptions about a relatively unknown group of prisoners and one’s attitude towards homosexuality. The title photograph of two men emerging from the dark is of particular interpretative potential.
The historical and biographical modules are complemented by display cabinets presenting copies of original documents from the collections of the Stutthof Museum in Sztutowo, such as prisoners' cards, transport lists, pages from the registers, death certificates, letters from relatives to KL Stutthof commanders, and police documents. Research for the exhibition also covered several foreign archives (among others Bad Arolsen, Berlin, Ebensee, Flossenbürg, Guben, Kaiserslautern, Münster, Neuengamme, Nuremberg, Saarburg, Spira, Schleswig, Washington, Wolfenbüttel). An inestimable support was also provided by the families of former prisoners: Gisela Keitz, Matthias S., Günter Schön, Therese Schön and Dieter Schröder. Their memories and photographs from their family collections contributed to filling the gaps in the biographies of all three men.
The temporary exhibition “Concealed category. Prisoners with pink triangles in KL Stutthof” is part of a research project aimed at presenting the statistics and specificity of the prisoners' community of the German concentration camp Stutthof. The current view of the German prisoners of this camp is not free from simplifications and marked judgments. It does not explain who these prisoners really were and how they ended up in the concentration camp near Gdansk. The exhibition "Concealed Category" shows that the image of prisoners "forgotten" by the Polish and German historiography can be extremely interesting and multifaceted, and tackling the subject allows us to uncover both the past and the present.
The exhibition “Concealed category. Prisoners with pink triangles in KL Stutthof”.
The Stutthof Museum in Sztutowo. Nazi German concentration and extermination camp (1939–1945), 11 March 2019 - 11 August 2019.
author: Piotr Chruścielski
stylised photographs: Natalia Zwolińska
graphic concept: Magdalena Jedlicka
editing and proofreading: Bożena Dembińska, Edyta Chrzanowska / e-dytor.pl
English version: Joanna Zahorska
cooperation: Gisela Keitz, Dominik Lipa, Aleksander Michalak, Matthias S., Günter Schön, Therese Schön, Dieter Schröder, Marcin Zakolski, Teatr Wybrzeże w Gdańsku (The Coast Theatre in Gdańsk).