Only Jews persecuted during the Nazi reign should be honored at a Holocaust memorial in Brooklyn, according to one New York politician.
Assemblyman Dov Hikind opposes markers at the memorial honoring other victims of the Nazis. They include homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, the disabled, political prisoners and Gypsies.
"To include these other groups diminishes their memory," Hikind told The New York Post.
The politician's mother, Frieda Hikind, survived the death camp at Auschwitz.
"These people are not in the same category as Jewish people with regards to the Holocaust," Hikind said Sunday following a press conference at the memorial. "It is so vastly different. You cannot compare political prisoners with Jewish victims."
Hikind said he is not against a memorial to honor the other groups -- as long as it is somewhere else. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said there's no doubt that most of the atrocities were committed against Jewish people. But Quinn, who is openly lesbian, said it's important to include other groups who were persecuted.
"The Holocaust memorial means you memorialize anyone who died in the Holocaust," said Theresa Scavo, president of Community Board 15, who lobbied for the additional recognition. "It doesn't matter what color or sexual orientation you were."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg declined to comment on the issue.
