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Homomonument

memorial in Amsterdam

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ51411
Source-derived summary

The Homomonument is a memorial in the centre of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. It commemorates all LGBTQ people who have been persecuted because of their sexual orientation. Opened on 5 September 1987, it was the first monument in the world to commemorate gays and lesbians who were killed by the German Nazi regime.

The monument takes the form of three large pink triangles made of granite, set into the ground, which together compose a larger triangle. It is located on the bank of the Keizersgracht canal, near the historic Westerkerk church. The Homomonument was designed to "inspire and support lesbians and gays in their struggle against denial, oppression and discrimination."

During the Netherlands' annual Remembrance Day ceremony on 4 May, wreaths are laid on the monument to commemorate LGBT victims of persecution. A day later, on Liberation Day, the monument becomes the site of a street party.

Symbolism

The Homomonument is an abstract composition of three pink triangles made of granite. The symbol has historical roots; the pink triangle was a cloth badge used in Nazi concentration camps to identify men who had been jailed for homosexuality, which also included bisexual men and transgender women. It is estimated that 100,000 men were arrested and half of these spent time imprisoned during Nazi rule.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Homomonument” is memorial in Amsterdam. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Homomonument, memorial and Amsterdam, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1987—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1987-09-05. For this dossier, Homomonument, memorial and Amsterdam is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “memorial in Amsterdam” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q51411. Authority coordinates are 52.374, 4.885. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1987.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Homomonument”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Homomonument primary sources, Homomonument archive and Homomonument research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Homomonument”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Homomonument” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.