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A new musical spotlights the Nazi persecution of LGBTQ+ people
(New York Jewish Week) — Some 50,000 gay men and women were imprisoned by Nazis during the Holocaust. Of them, approximately 10,000 to 15,000 were held in concentration camps, and nearly all of those who were sent to the camps died there.
And yet, many stories of LGBTQ+ people who died in Nazi prisons are left untold. The numbers, while huge, shrink in comparison to the millions of Jewish people who died and were tortured at the hands of the Nazis.
This dynamic is why writer, director and actor Alan Palmer first learned about Nazi persecution of homosexuals completely by chance. In August 2016, Palmer — who is best known for his off-Broadway show “Fabulous Divas of Broadway” and his role on the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” — was performing at Edinburgh Fringe Festival when he stumbled upon an article about the specific targeting of gay men and women under Hitler. He found himself falling into a world of ever-deepening research, consumed by the idea that there were so many lost stories of LGBTQ+ people who died in concentration camps.
Inspired, Palmer decided to travel to Germany. There, he visited some concentration camps and saw pictures of the gay men who were imprisoned there. “I found these beautiful photos of these people who were Jewish and trans” and gay], Palmer said. “Being a writer of musicals by trade, the pictures started me on a journey of writing this new piece.”
This “new piece” is Palmer’s one-man play, “Chanteuse: A Survival Musical,” which he’s currently performing at Here Arts Center (145 Sixth Ave.). The play relates the story of Werner, a gay man in 1930s Berlin who assumes the identity of his landlady, a German woman who had died unexpectedly, in order to avoid persecution and imprisonment. A performer by trade, Werner reinvents himself as a chanteuse and begins singing for his supper, and survival, in the clubs of Berlin. “It’s fictional, in a way, because there’s no [single] person who had this experience,” Palmer told the New York Jewish Week. “However, each one of the pieces [in the play] is true.”
The play explores the precarity of survival and how intersecting identities complicate ideas about oppression and freedom. “There are heart-wrenching stories of Jewish families whose relatives were killed during these times. And some of those people were gay — but you don’t hear about them much,” Palmer said. “The reason is families didn’t talk about it back then. If Uncle So-and-so was sent away [before the round-ups of Jews intensified], no one talked about why. So all of these records of people who existed are just gone.”
Palmer plays Werner, a gay man in 1930s Berlin who assumes the identity of his landlady to escape Nazi persecution. (Russ Rowland)
Despite being raised in a Mormon community in Salt Lake City, Palmer said he’s long felt a kinship with Jews. “As soon as I left [home] I began to make lifelong friendships with Jewish people, mostly because of theater. You can’t have theater without Jewish people or gay people!” he said. “When I see the rise of antisemitism today I just think: ‘For gosh sakes, how can people keep attacking this group of people?’”
As “Chanteuse” unfolds, Werner, like so many gay men during that time, isn’t able to escape the long arm of the Nazi regime for long. He is eventually outed and imprisoned in a concentration camp, where he both experiences and witnesses brutal violence and dehumanization. “Even though the Jewish people are in another camp on the other side of the wall, there are still a small number of gay Jews on this side. On Friday evenings, the gay Jewish men pray,” he relates, in a touching monologue toward the end of the scene.
“Chanteuse,” written and performed by Palmer and directed by Dorothy Danner, is about memorializing those whose stories were lost. Throughout the play, Werner relates stories of LGBTQ+ prisoners as well as Romani people, people with mental and physical disabilities, and, of course, Jewish people he meets throughout his calamitous journey. It is also, however, about creating connections to the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and antisemitism in the current age.
To that end, Palmer curated a mini pop-up museum, displayed in the atrium outside the theater, that presents information about what happened to members of the LGBTQ+ community in Europe during World War II. “I envisioned people engaging before the performance and having the information sink in during the play,” Palmer said. “But it’s interesting to see how many people walk past all of these panels, and after the show they went out to the museum and actually spent time reading and viewing the history.”
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, gay men were “often subjected to physical and sexual abuse by camp guards and fellow inmates,” and some were “beaten and publicly humiliated.” Some of these prisoners were also subject to inhumane medical experiments or forced castration, according to the USHMM. These “pink triangle prisoners,” named for the badge they were forced to wear in the camps, were arrested for breaking an existing German law that made same-sex relations illegal in the country.
The exhibit draws direct connections between the use of the legal system and false medical science by the Nazis and the current rise in vitriol directed towards the LGBTQ+ community in America and around the world. While our government isn’t conducting forced castrations of gay men and women like the Nazis did, given the veritable flood of anti-LGBTQ+ (and particularly anti-trans) laws being passed by state governments across the United States, Palmer believes we should be paying very close attention to these legislative moves before it’s too late.
“History cannot repeat itself,” Palmer said. “People are being silenced. They’re being forced to hide. I’ve never lived in a closet, I’ve always been myself. My truth was always out there. The idea that people like me are being told they can’t live their whole truth is frightening to me.”
But bringing historical documentation into the experience isn’t the only way in which “Chanteuse” is a multimedia project — it’s also musical, with a score written by award-winning composer and arranger David Legg. “The music serves almost as a spoonful of sugar: It helps the information go down easier,” Palmer said.
Stylistically, the score implements melodic and harmonic elements of both early-‘30s-era jazz and traditional European Jewish music. The instrumentation (piano, tenor saxophone, percussion and upright bass) was chosen by Legg in order to facilitate this evocative musical landscape. “We ended up putting an underscore through the entire piece,” Palmer said. “It created a continuity, so you never feel it’s disjointed — dialogue, song, dialogue, song — the audience is never shocked out of the world we’re creating.”
And yet, Palmer insists that his created world is very relevant to the one we’re living in today. While it may seem unimaginable for something as horrifying as the Holocaust to repeat itself, Palmer said he and his co-creators want to remind audiences of the current trends towards authoritarianism around the world as they watch Werner navigate the terror of being gay in 1930s Berlin.
“Around the United States, we’re seeing more and more bans of drag performance, of gay media,” Palmer said. “And I think drag, like any other art form, is a way of storytelling. It isn’t anything people should be afraid of.”
“This is a moment in which it’s important to say, ‘We all need to work together,’” he added. “You know, if every persecuted group stood strong together, we’d be surprised at how quickly things would turn around in a positive way.”
“Chanteuse” is being performed at Here Arts Center (145 Sixth Ave.) on Tuesdays through Saturdays through July 30. For tickets and additional info, click here. In order to allow broader access to the musical, 10 tickets priced at $10 are available for each performance on a first come, first served basis.
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The post A new musical spotlights the Nazi persecution of LGBTQ+ people appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.