A rare Holocaust artifact worn by a gay prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp is now on display at the "Remember Us The Holocaust" exhibit at the La Jolla Library.
The striped uniform from the 1940s, complete with a pink triangle sewn on the front that Nazis used to identify gay prisoners, belonged to Heinrich Muller.
"The Holocaust was not just about people who were Jewish," said Sandra Scheller, who organized the exhibit.
Collector Norbert Podlesny delivered the uniform from Poland on Tuesday, along with a photo of Muller wearing it and a document confirming his castration at the camp.
"And signed by a doctor from the concentration camp," Podlesny said.
More than 20,000 people were arrested in Nazi Germany for being gay. Scheller says it's very rare to find one of their uniforms, much less documentation of their horrifying experience.
"It's so important for people to see and experience this because they hear about it - they see it in a book, but when you see it in person, it has a whole different dimension to it," Scheller said.
I covered the first instance of the exhibit when it opened in 2020 in Chula Vista and continued to follow through with Scheller in her fight for a permanent museum.
"We really want to get a building and something that we can carry the legacy," Scheller said.
She believes our coverage helped her raise the $125,000 necessary to bring this artifact to La Jolla.
"GoFundMe was the only way to do it. When it hit channel 10, boy it was like a field goal on a football team," Scheller said.
Scheller is hopeful Muller's uniform will bring more attention to the exhibit so she can eventually open a Holocaust museum in San Diego.
"They have a story to tell - that's why this exhibit needs to turn into a museum," Scheller said.
So that their story is never forgotten.
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