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Next, OnQ, Nazi persecution.

It's the focus of a new exhibit at the Jewish Community Center.

The victims gay men during World War two.

Roughly about 100,000 homosexual men were persecuted during the Nazi era.

We'll take you inside this compelling local exhibit.

Also tonight, the third largest architectural collection in the world, right here in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Museum.

And Pittsburgh's playoff hopes are over for now.

But diehard Steelers fans know the team will play another day.

We look back at 75 years of Steelers football.

OnQ starts right now.

And welcome to OnQ I'm Michael Bartley.

A national exhibition called The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals is getting a lot of attention right now.

And it's on display here in Pittsburgh at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill.

Hitler's vision of a master race didn't include tens of thousands of homosexual men who the Nazis either murdered or put in prisons and concentration camps.

The exhibition is compelling and disturbing, with its focus on how the Nazis tried to terrorize gay German men into so-called conformity under a German law known as paragraph 175.

Roughly about 100,000 homosexual men were persecuted during the Nazi era.

Some of them were not sent to gas chambers, but they were sent to either camps for labor camps, and they died from disease or malnutrition.

Or some of them were experimented.

Some of them were castrated.

And these are the mug shots of men who were arrested in Germany accused of homosexuality during the Nazi regime.

These images are part of an exhibit that the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill telling and showing yet another horrific persecution of the Nazi zeal to achieve racial purity.

The Holocaust Center brought in the exhibit The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, which was developed by the U.S.

Holocaust Memorial Museum and also circulated by the U.S.

Holocaust Memorial Museum.

And it's an exhibit that focuses on another victim group during the Nazi regime.

And that victim group, of course, were homosexuals.

When the Nazis came into power in 1933, there was already a law on the books outlawing sexual acts between men.

It was called paragraph 175.

In 1935, the Nazis rewrote that paragraph, making punishments harsher and broadening its scope.

So even a simple expression between men could be seen as a criminal offense.

The Nazis take a very conservative position, and this is part of what we'll get into the next panel.

That homosexuality is a degeneracy that is weakening Germany.

Ted Phillips is the curator for this exhibit.

He's the deputy director of exhibits at the U.S.

Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Fundamentally, for the Nazis, they wanted a larger German population.

Panel five.

The goal is to have more Germans, more Aryan Germans, ultimately toward the notion of a master race.

Phillips was in Pittsburgh recently training docents for the exhibit.

I began this project in the summer of 2000.

I was fortunate to be able to go to Berlin and work with the Gay museum in Berlin that had just put on an exhibition dealing with the persecution of Berlin homosexual.

So a great deal of my base information came from the research they had already done for their exhibition.

And then I spent the next two years putting together the text and selecting the materials to go to illustrate this story.

Building on the materials I got from the Gay museum in Berlin with additional materials from 40 different repositories, and I think 12 or 13 countries specifically created as a traveling exhibit.

This exhibit does not have any original artifacts, and the events are told through the use of photographic reproductions on text panels.

The story is in a chronological fashion.

It's divided into five sections.

The first couple of panels, look at the existence and the question of homosexuality before the Nazis came to power.

There's a section that I call the, ideology of persecution that looks into why did the Nazis persecute gay men.

And it also addresses the question that lesbians, in fact, were not specific targets of Nazi persecution.

This is a but effort by the state to eradicate homosexuality among its men.

The third section looks at the period 1933, which is when the Nazis came to power, to 1939, when the World War two broke out.

The fourth section is 1939-1945, which looks at the persecution during the war years.

An interesting note here is that homosexuals were not barred from serving in the German Army.

And then the final part is 1945, sort of up to the present.

It looks to see what happens in the aftermath of the Nazi era.

To get a sense of the persecution that continued for some time, the change in the laws in Germany about homosexuality.

Pittsburgh is the 21st stop for the exhibit.

It was brought here by the Holocaust Center of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh.

We do this because we wanted to bring out reach out to the broader community to explain that the Holocaust was not only a Jewish event.

Certainly the focus for the Nazis were in fact to destroy Jews, but other groups were included as well.

And so we wanted to say that the Holocaust is not only a Jewish event, it is a human event that could that had ramifications for all humanity.

All humanity was at stake.

When you have a society and a government that is based on a perfect Aryan race in which human beings are stratified in a hierarchical structure, the Aryan race at the top and everyone else below all humanity as it is at stake.

The personal stories.

This is basically what struck me.

And as a gay Jewish man, I could not help but identify with each and every story of those people who were persecuted because of their homosexuality.

Nachum Golan moved to Pittsburgh from Israel when he was a young man.

He served on the committee to bring this exhibit here.

I think what we try to do with that exhibit, just to show people the danger of ignorance or prejudice and use it as a vehicle nowadays for us, because we are facing not as homosexuals also, homosexuals but also in immigration laws, in health care issues, in all walks of life.

We experience a lot of ignorance and discrimination and hopefully from that we can learn to understand that diversity is okay.

Diversity is not something that we should persecute against.

We should accept diversity and learn from it and expand.

The exhibit is open to everyone in the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, is offering community programs, as well as docent led tours for the community and for high school students and college students.

The mission is to educate.

We know very well that homophobia is extant in our society today.

And the question is, how do you treat people today?

Who are minority ethnic minority?

The importance is, is to teach young people that every day of their lives, when they get up, they have to judge themselves how they treat others, their family, their friends, their colleagues, and especially those who are perceived of as being different.

Their sense of responsibility to people who can't speak up for themselves.

People on the other side of the world, like in Darfur, advocate for people who don't have others to speak up for them.

And I think that's our responsibility every day of our lives.

I think there's so much that we still forget to learn and take away from this history.

There's so much that is that causes pain and misery in our society, in all societies across the world.

This was a time period where such pain and misery is at such an extreme level.

We need to keep remembering that misery and try to eradicate it from our own lives.

For more information about the exhibit, log on to our website wqed.org/OnQ Our next story takes us to another exhibit.

This one a celebration of Architecture.

The Carnegie Museum's Hall of Architecture is the third largest collection of its kind in the world.

And recently, the museum marked a major anniversary.

OnQs Tonia Caruso has that story.

It debuted in the spring of 1907 during a grand and much anticipated affair at the Carnegie Museum in Oakland.

The occasion was the opening of the Hall of Architecture and the premiere of dozens of plaster cast masterpieces for public view.

Andrew Carnegie took pride in this great hall, for it embodied everything he wished for the citizens of Pittsburgh.

For him, the hall was a means to educate, a way of uplifting the many working class people here.

So here it is.

And you walk in here and it's like walking into Europe.

Yes, yes.

But it's even better in some ways because we have all of these fantastic examples in one room.

Mattie Schloetzer is the organiz of an exhibit celebrating the Hall's centennial anniversary.

Old photographs, drawings, letters and documents still exist today detailing how Carnegie and the museum's first director, John Beatty, compiled the collection.

Andrew Carnegie wanted to bring the world to Pittsburgh.

And to do that, he decided that these examples, these reproductions of architectural monuments and sculptures, would be a great way of bringing all these different examples into Pittsburgh in one place, so that people that didn't have the means to travel, mainly his workers here in Pittsburgh, could come and have an incredibly edifying experience all in one place.

Today, the hall continues to amaze visitors not only because of the many outstanding casts, but because of the sheer number of them.

The Carnegie Museum has the third largest collection in the world.

How were these things made?

They were made in Europe for the most part.

Museums had production houses, and a lot of the fragments that are around in the back of the room and in the corners were produced in mass and production houses at the Louvre, the British Museum, the Berlin Museum and the Trocadero in Paris.

And many of the examples that we have could be purchased for less than $10.

There were catalogs produced for.

But the cast of Saint Jean was not ordered from a catalog.

It is a one of a kind reproduction.

At 38ft high and 75ft long, it's also one of the largest casts ever produced.

The facade of Saint Jean, which is in Gard, France, and still stands today, was actually produced on site by workmen and it was a very intense, labor intensive and also an expensive process.

It was made by a process called a waste mold.

So an impression was made up against the building with clay to get the impression of the building, and then plaster was poured to make a mold.

And from that mold, the cast that we have here was produced.

Any idea that it's a waste mold means that when the mold and cast were separated, the mold was destroyed.

So our cast is the only cast that exists that is a full facade example.

The largest cast here and the largest that we know of in existence.

Other cast reproductions include an Athenian monument, an Italian holy water basin, and the front facade of a French cathedral.

This is the cathedral in Bordeaux, San Andre.

And this cast was actually made for us in Chicago.

It's an example that the early planners wanted to have in Pittsburgh.

And a cast of this existed in Chicago.

So a mold was made and our example was produced in Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago.

The detail is amazing.

It is.

And that's something I hope that visitors will take away from being in the exhibition and here in the hall that even though these are reproductions, it was a highly skilled art that the people that were creating these knew what they were doing.

And they are beautiful and to us now really are treated and appreciated as if they're one not to ever be reproduced again.

Reproductions were big business in their day.

Museums short on cash could easily afford to buy plaster casts.

So this was huge.

They did this in museums all across the country at the time too.

Yes, and also in university.

So there were many museum collections that began with casts, and also universities would purchase and have casts for students studying art history, fine arts and also architecture and even classics.

So as teaching tools, they were very inexpensive to purchase.

So it was kind of important material for students to be able to learn from as well.

Besides their educational value, the casts of the Carnegie have often served as backdrops for special events held in the hall.

What kind of happened to this whole idea of bringing Europe to cities in America?

And when did these start to go away?

They started to go away in the 1920s and 30s, when the early museums like the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Corcoran in Washington and the Art Institute of Chicago got enough money to start purchasing original works of art.

And really, the focus began to be more on original works of art and less on reproductions.

And as museums shifted from reproductions to original works of art.

Many museums simply destroyed their casts, but not the Carnegie Museum.

Do we seem smarter than everyone else because we hung on to these?

I think we do.

I think what we have is very special.

It is really is quite a gem.

Yes.

And what do you want to say to people about coming through here?

What you hope they will take away from this all.

Like me, I'm.

I'm a Pittsburgher And so I grew up here and came through this space a lot.

And I never really realized how unique it is.

This is really special to have in Pittsburgh and part of Andrew Carnegie's legacy.

So it's something that we should be proud of, that we still have and that we still care for and try to teach people about.

That people can come here and still see these examples in one place is very special.

The Hall of Architecture isn't going anywhere, but the special exhibit commemorating its 100th anniversary will last only until the end of this month.

So as always, for more information.

Log on to our website at wqed.org/OnQ.

And speaking of another major anniversary, the Steelers are celebrating their 75th.

And even though for now, playoff hopes are no more, diehard fans can still get their fix.

OnQ contributor Mike Lee reports.

Walk into the Heinz History Center in the Strip District, and you'll not only see one of the largest collections of Steelers memorabilia around, you'll get to relive some of the team's most memorable moments.

Running out of the box Franco Harris's immaculate Reception.

Even the actual piece of turf where the game winning catch occurred Plus the Chiefs cigars.

These are just a few of more than 100 artifacts and interactive displays commemorating 75 seasons of Steelers football.

Joe Green was a guy you could build a franchise around.

These are his shoulder pads.

Andy Masich is president and CEO of the History Center.

He knows a lot about the Steelers Even before they officially became the Steelers.

Early on, the team had several names, including the Hope Harveys after a firehouse and doctor who had sponsored them.

But in 1933, Art Rooney changed the name again to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Why did he call them the Pirates to begin with?

In the early days of professional football, when baseball was king, many teams named their football teams the same as the baseball teams.

There were Brooklyn Dodgers, and there were Pittsburgh Pirates, and so the names just carried over.

But it was confusing.

And that football team really wanted its own identity.

So that's why in 1940, they had a contest and several people came up with the name Steelers and it stuck.

Photographs and personal items of some of the earliest players still exist and are also on display here.

Players like All-American Byron Whizzer White, who would later become a Supreme Court Justice.

Ray Kemp, the first African-American to play for the Steelers, and Johnny Blood McNally.

His football career started when he was still in college.

He wasn't eligible to play in the pros, but so he changed his name to Johnny Blood.

He had just seen a Rudolph Valentino film called Blood and Sand, and so he went with one of his buddies to try out for the pros, and he said, you be sand, I'll be blood.

And that's how Johnny Blood McNally came about.

And there are many more legendary stories about other Steelers as well.

One stands out in particular.

Here's Rocky Bleiers Purple Heart, 1969.

He goes to Vietnam.

He's wounded by grenade and rifle fire.

Loses his foot, wins the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart comes back.

Makes the Steelers taxi squad, then makes the team and rushes for 1000 yards.

Helps the Steelers win Super Bowls.

I mean, it's an amazing story of grit and determination.

This is one of Lynn Swann original jerseys I like how they're repaired.

Yeah Anne Madarasz as is directo of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum here at the History Center.

Let's talk about some of the individual pieces that are unique to this exhibit.

As a curator, I love the quirky stuff.

You know, I love Franco's turf from the Immaculate Reception, but that elevator panel, you know, Art Rooney leaves leaves his box, gets in the elevator, thinks the game is lost, misses the immaculate reception.

And there's the panel from the elevator he's riding in.

This is a really neat object related to the Immaculate Reception.

We saw a little bit of the old Terry Bradshaw peanut butter.

It comes from a woman in Sewickley who called me up one day and said, I've got this, Terry Bradshaw peanut butter.

Do you want it?

And I said, God, everybody loves the Steelers.

And everybody loved Terry Bradshaw in the 70s and 80s.

You're going to crack a jar open and try it.

It's still got all the original peanut butter in it.

We're going to see how long it lasts and how long it still looks good.

It's another piece of Steelers lore which cannot be told without including the fans.

I think that's one of the great things about the Steelers story, is how the fans identify with the team, and especially in that kind of, you know, that 70s period where you had Gerelas gorillas and Lamberts lunatics.

Well, we've got those things, but we also have great Italian Army material, and a lot of it comes from two of the original founders of the Italian Franco's Italian army, Al Vento and Tony Staggno.

And my absolute favorite is the, Al Vento, little tiny, Italian charm, since they're used to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck.

These are special because these are the ones that made the Immaculate reception happen.

I was there, he had his charms.

He hexed the raiders, and he brought Franco.

Good luck.

And that, of course, is why the Immaculate Reception.

That's the reason why that's the real story.

The real, real story.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, yeah, it's enduring tales like this that's kept the Steelers so popular for the past seven and a half decades.

What are some of your favorite things that you've seen here today?

I was amazed at Matt Stark's shoes of size 19.

Them are huge.

I like the different videos they have running the Immaculate reception.

Seeing that, things with the Super Bowl 40.

The different highlights of that.

My favorite part is in the back, where you can measure your skills compared to the NFL standards.

And I definitely found that I am not NFL ready.

My hand span is not big enough.

I don't think I'm flexible enough, but it was fun to compare myself.

We wanted to see this exhibition.

Our son and daughter came with us.

They wanted to see it.

Grew up with the Steelers in the 70s.

The NFL just did a study recently to see who had the strongest brand in the NFL, and the Steelers won hands down.

So there's something about Steelers fans that they are more passionate, more knowledgeable.

That's one of the things that Dan Rooney often says.

He says a Steelers fan is more knowledgeable.

They cheer at the right time.

They boo at the right time.

Even the kids know their stats, know the players, know the game.

And thanks to this exhibit, Steelers fans, young and old, can know more about the history of their beloved team, especially for the early years.

They're going to learn and know to appreciate some of those great Steelers legends.

In the period before the 1970s.

And because the story comes to the present day, they're going to see the people that they know and root for that their kids love now.

So it's really a multigenerational family story.

It's a team that's part of Pittsburgh.

There are very few other teams in the NFL.

Maybe the green Bay Packers have that kind of connection to the city and the fans that the Steelers have.

But there's something about the Steelers Nation that just can't be replicated anyplace else.

Gotta love it.

And we're told the exhibit was two years in the making.

The artifacts were specially selected from the Pro Bowl Hall of Fame, The Steelers organization and the Heinz History Center.

It will be on display through February 10th.

So go down there and check it out for more information.

Log on to our website wqed.org/OnQ And that's our show for tonight.

Until next time I'm Michael Bartley.

Thanks for watching and good night.