51³Ô¹Ï

Thursday, 21 November 2024
9:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m. EST

We invite you to join a virtual discussion on Thursday, 21 November 2024 at 9.30 a.m. New York time. The expert panel will examine the impact of Nazi rule and occupation from 1933-1945 on LGBTIQ+ people. The panel will discuss responses and resistance, including the actions of Willem Arondeus and Frieda Belinfante. The fight for recognition after the end of the Holocaust by LGBTIQ+ survivors and their legacy, will be considered.

Opening remarks

Ms. Lise Gregoire-van Haaren is the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the 51³Ô¹Ï in New York. Prior to this, from August 2019 to August 2024, she served as Director responsible for European Union affairs at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as Deputy Director-General for European Cooperation. From 2016 to 2019 she was the first woman Ambassador - Deputy Permanent Representative - of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the 51³Ô¹Ï in New York and one of two Ambassadors representing the Kingdom in the UN Security Council (2018). Before joining the Permanent Mission in New York, Mrs. Gregoire-van Haaren was Head of the Political Affairs Department in the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, a post she held since 2013. From 2009 to 2013, she was Counsellor (Acting) at the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the European Union in Brussels.

Speakers

Klaus Mueller is the European Representative of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) working on Holocaust documentation and education, antisemitism today, and genocide prevention. He serves on the US delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Klaus holds a PhD in Sociology. He researched and oversaw the inclusion of materials documenting the Nazi persecution of homosexuals into the USHMM permanent exhibition - a theme he continued working on independently as a historian, curator and filmmaker. Klaus interviewed gay survivors for the documentary films Paragraph 175 and But I was a Girl about Dutch resistance fighter Frieda Belinfante. He served as dramaturgical and historical consultant for Eldorado - Everything The Nazis Hate. His exhibitions portraying gay and lesbian survivors have been shown in the Netherlands, South Africa and Germany. In 2013, Klaus founded the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum. Today, the Forum connects LGBTIQ+ leaders from 76 countries

Joanna Ostrowska holds a PhD in Humanities from the Jagiellonian University in Krak¨®w (Poland). She has been a lecturer in Jewish Studies, Gender Studies and Polish-Jewish Studies. Dr. Ostrowska is the author of Przemilczane. Seksualna praca przymusowa w czasie II wojny ?wiatowej (Unmentioned. Sexual Forced Labor during World War II, 2018; Mauthausen-Memorial research award, 2020), ¡®Mein F¨¹hrer!¡¯ The Victims of Forced Sterilization in Lower Silesia, 1934¨C44 (2019), and Oni. Homoseksuali?ci w czasie II wojny ?wiatowej (Them. Homosexuals during World War II, 2021), which was translated into German (2023) and Slovak (2024). She co-edited Erinnern in Auschwitz: auch an sexuelle Minderheiten (Remembering in Auschwitz: Also Sexual Minorities, 2020).

Gurchaten Sandhu is the Director of Programmes at ILGA World. Gurchaten is a widely respected LGBTI changemaker and community leader.  Before their time at ILGA World, Gurchaten was the Non-Discrimination Programme Officer at the International Labour Organization¡¯s (ILO) Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch, where they built their expertise and knowledge on promoting social justice through decent and inclusive work for all, in particular to enhance LGBTIQ+ rights at work and economic inclusion. They were also the President for UN-GLOBE, the group representing LGBTIQ+ personnnel in the 51³Ô¹Ï system. Gurchaten has been listed as the OUTStanding LGBT Role Model from 2018 to 2021. They are also an Honouree of the Out & Equal¡¯s 2021 Global LGBTQ Corporate Advocate Outie Award, and the winner of the British LGBT Award for Exceptional Inclusion 2021 and the Pink News Awards 2002 for Community Role Model.