Homosexuals

In the Weimer Republic, before the rise of Nazism, Paragraph 175 of the criminal code made homosexuality illegal. However, many Germans appeared tolerant as there was a strong homosexual support network, clubs, groups, and press, as well as activism. Many saw this as a decadence of the Germans, but nothing much was done until the Nazis took power. In 1933, they dissolved the organizations and support groups and sent the homosexual men to prisons and concentration camps (1).

The threat the Nazis saw in the homosexuals was that they were unlikely to produce children, therefore not helping in the production of pure Germans. They were considered a racial threat, as well as too weak and effeminate to fight for the German nation. If the homosexual was not a German, he was not persecuted; only German homosexual men were (2). In fact, “Lesbians were not regarded as a threat to Nazi racial policies and were generally not targeted for persecution (3).”

Aside from the dissolution of support networks, the shutting down of groups, clubs, and press, and the banning of publication, over 12,000 books and 35,0000 photographs (from the Institute for Sexual Science) were destroyed in mass book burnings in Berlin in May of 1933. Those which weren’t destroyed have never been recovered. The Gestapo and local police kept “pink lists” of men suspected of homosexual activity, and used these lists to hunt down and imprison them. In 1936, Paragraph 175 was revised and made the persecution of homosexuality legal, eventually strengthening it to include any suspected activity as well as thoughts or inclinations. In 1935, Himmler and the Reich Control Office for Combating Abortion and Homosexuality, made it legal to hold in protective custody or preventive arrest anyone they deemed dangerous to German moral fiber. This could be done to anyone, without trial, for an indefinite term. Some of the men interned in concentration camps were purposely mislabeled as political prisoners while others were mistakenly put into other categories (4); however, the majority of imprisoned homosexuals could be identified by the pink triangle patch they were forced to wear (5)(6).

As homosexuality was considered a disease, it was thought it could be cured through ridicule, humiliation, separation, hard work, and beatings. Others thought it could be voluntarily changed to heterosexuality, and those men who ‘gave up’ being homosexuality were given reduced sentences, amnesty, and release. Castration was another way to earn a reduced sentence, though later castration was made mandatory, with or without consent (7).

According to Karen Silverstrim, “In the camps, however, Nazis and prisoners alike consistently singled out one group for mistreatment. The tens of thousands of homosexuals incarcerated and killed in the camps were usually treated more harshly than other prisoners, and were also subjected to cruel medical experiments, like some other victims (8).” Some of those medical experiments caused mutilation of the men, caused illness, or even ended in death while no viable scientific knowledge was gained. In the concentration camps Dora-Mittelbau, Flossenburg, and Buchenwald, homosexuals were given the deadliest assignments; they did not often survive long (9).

“Hitler even searched his own men and found suspected homosexuals that were sent to concentration camps wearing their S.S. uniforms and medals (10),” according to Terese Schwartz. And the SA Chief, Ernst Rohm, and the Army Supreme Commander, Von Fritsch, were murdered due to allegations that they were homosexual (11).

In the end, it is uncertain just how many were killed, though some estimated place the figure between 5,000 to 15,000 (12)(13).

Sources:

(1) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005261 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(2) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005261 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(3) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005261 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(4) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005261 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(5) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/NewsGays.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(6) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005261 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(7) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005261 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(8) Karen Silverstrim, University of Arkansas. Overlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust. http://www.ukemonde.com/holocaust/victims.html (accessed April 15, 2011).

(9) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005261 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(10) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/NewsGays.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(11) Karen Silverstrim, University of Arkansas. Overlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust. http://www.ukemonde.com/holocaust/victims.html (accessed April 15, 2011).

(12) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005261 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(13) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/NewsGays.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).