Powerful image shines light on LGBTQ+ perspective
‘Remember the Yom’ is a social media-based national Holocaust remembrance campaign, which utilises the power of imagery and community in the days leading up to Yom Hashoah.
“It was beautiful, but also very powerful … you could actually feel it there on the sand, signifying the importance of the continuity of Holocaust remembrance,” said Jody Newhouse.
She was one of 120 people who formed a giant pink inverted triangle at sunrise at Bondi Beach on March 30, photographed from above by a drone-mounted camera.
It was for the fourth ‘Remember the Yom’ social media-based national Holocaust remembrance campaign, which utilises the power of imagery and community in the days leading up to Yom Hashoah, to encourage broader awareness and reflection.
Returning to Bondi Beach for the second time, the project has previously been set on a disused railway track in Melbourne’s north, and on the sea cliff at Sydney’s Dover Heights.
The inverted pink triangle has become a symbol of LGBTQ+ liberation, but during the Holocaust, as the campaign’s founder Robyn Pakula stressed, “In the same way the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a yellow Star of David badge, LGBTQ+ people were forced to wear a pink triangle.
“Decades after the Holocaust, the Jewish community continues to experience antisemitism and, as the child of a Holocaust survivor, that’s terrifying.
“Our communities are stronger together, and that’s why we gathered on this iconic beach, to say ‘never again’.”
Following on from Sydney World Pride 2023, Pakula decided to partner with LGBTQ+ health advocacy organisation ACON, and Jewish group Dayenu LGBTQ+ Sydney, to run their most inclusive campaign yet.
The group photo shoot featured a Welcome to Country, meditation, Nadav Kahn reciting the Shema Yisrael prayer as the sun rose, and a follow-up morning tea.
Newhouse travelled to Bondi from her home in the northern NSW town of Bellingen to be part of it.
“I’ve taught about the Holocaust to year 10 students at Bellingen High School, where there are no Jewish students, so Holocaust awareness is very close to my heart,” she said.
ACON CEO Nicolas Parkhill said, “It is essential for all Australians to continue to discuss, reflect upon, and increase their engagement on the horrendous monstrosities that were inflicted on both Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities during the Holocaust, and examine how these continue to impact.
“Using the iconic Bondi Beach, stunning imagery, along with social media, is a contemporary way to do that.”
Dayenu LGBTQ+ Sydney president Saul Flaxman added, “Jewish and LGBTQ+ people have a shared experience of discrimination and persecution, but also resistance and resilience, and this project is about … standing together in solidarity.”
To find out more, go to the
Remember the Yom Facebook
and Instagram sites.
The volunteers gather on the sand before the photo shoot.
comments