Gay Nazi victims' monument vandalised

The monument -- a grey concrete slab that stands about 5m igh -- contains a window through which viewers can watch a video of a "never-ending" kiss between two men.

The window had been smashed by unknown assailants, police said, adding the incident was being investigated.

The monument is located in the heart of the capital close to the main Holocaust monument.

Hitler outlawed homosexuality in 1936 and convicted about 50 000 people for "unnatural" behaviour deemed unbecoming of the Aryan "master race".

It is estimated that the Nazis sent between 5 000 and 15 000 gay people to concentration camps together with Jews, political opponents, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses and others considered undesirable.

Police said that someone had broken a window - a key part of the memorial - allowing visitors to peer into a gray concrete slab to see an image of a same-sex couple kissing on the monument. They added the monument was vandalized overnight and that they had no immediate suspects.

The memorial was opened in May across the street from the much-larger memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

The majority of homosexuals in the concentration camps died of hunger, disease, abuse or exhaustion. Very few returned and many of those who survived the concentration camps were imprisoned by the post-war German authorities. The law was relaxed in the 1970, but Paragraph 175 was not repealed until 1994.