You won't find this monument in most of the tour guides. Like gay people in society, the monument is easy to miss... but it is there... so make sure you stop by on your way to the Anne Frank House.
The monument's design simultaneously looks back on gay and lesbian histories as it also looks toward the future. Designed by Karin Daan, the monument consists of three triangles of pinkish granite that together compose one giant triangle. In the picture above you see the first triangle close to a canal. This triangle points to the National War Memorial on the Dam in the centre of Amsterdam. The three triangles are linked by a stripe of pink bricks that are connected across a road and into a church's backyard. (See map below).

With the triangle on the water as its central point, Karin Daan expanded the design to make her work as monumental as possible without disrupting the surroundings.
As well as the triangle on the water, there is a podium triangle on land 60 cm high and a memorial triangle at street level. All the triangles measure 10 x 10 x 10 meters, creating one large triangle with sides of 36 meters.

The second triangle is a polished triangle most people walk over without even realizing that is even there. It bears the Dutch inscription "Naar vriendschap zulk een mateloos verlangen" ("Such an immense longing for friendship") a line from the Dutch gay poet Jacob Israël De Haan. This 'memorial triangle' points to the nearby Anne Frank House, the centre for the struggle against fascism, anti-Semitism and racism.

The third triangle is raised as a sort of podium and is used mainly as a gathering spot and can be used as a bank to sit on and contemplate. This triangle points to the nearby centre for the struggle for lesbian and gay liberation, the COC.

Why this monument was raised

At many times in history, gays and lesbians were persecuted. This happened in The Netherlands from the 1730's. In 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany. In their ideal of a pan-Germanic Reich populated by 'noble Germans', Jewish, Roma / Sinti and homosexual women and men were seen to be a danger to the 'vigour of the German people'. About 50,000 people were sentenced because of their homosexuality and several thousands of them died in concentration camps. Outside of the gay community, this persecution of homosexuals is usually ignored. That is why this monument was raised on September 5th 1987.
This Homomonument has become one of the world's foremost public memorials of the lesbians and gay men who were harassed, imprisoned, or executed. Every 4th of May -during the annual national memorial service- gays and lesbian gather around this monument in the evening to remember all the victims of gay hate.

The design of the Homomonument

An important aspect of the monument was that it should address both men and women. It was also not meant to be a traditional monument tucked away in some dark corner, but a living monument in the centre of the city. It was also not intended to be a monument only to those who suffered under the Nazi regime. Oppression of homosexuality existed long before the Nazis and continues up to the present day.
Therefore the Homomonument has three dimensions: a warning from the past, a recognition and confrontation with the present, and an inspiration for the future.

The basis of Karin Daan's design is the situation at the site: a bend in the quay-wall of the canal. Here she designed a triangle out of pink granite. The pink triangle was the sign homosexuals had to wear in the Nazi concentration camps. During the 1970's it became fashionable for gays and lesbians to wear a pink triangle to confront others with their sexual orientation.
Between the triangles, daily life carries on undisturbed (including the busy taxi stand). Together, the three triangles effectively articulate the Homomonument's mediation between past, present, and future. Its solemn symbolic recognition of war and persecution is balanced by its function as a lively venue for social and political gatherings.

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