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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThey Wore Pink Triangles: Gay Victims of the Holocaust
Jews comprised the largest single group of victims of the systematic slaughter by the Nazi Third Reich. However, several other groups were also targets of mass extermination, among them were homosexuals, especially gay men.
Prior to the rise of the Third Reich, Germany had a large, and thriving GL community, especially in Berlin, which boasted several gay bars, clubs, newspapers, and organizations. The larger cities were much more tolerant, but homosexuality was still frowned upon, so people were discreet and cautious. However, with a crushing depression in post WWI Germany, many started looking for scapegoats to the problems of Germany and the reason for her defeat in WWI. Jews, of course, were the main target, but gays and others also became singled out for blame. When the Nazis started to rise to power, a long standing, but mostly unused law, Paragraph 175, was enforced. It criminalized all sexual acts between men. Gay men started to be arrested, tried, and imprisoned throughout Germany.
When the initial work camps were established, gay men were among the first to be sent to the various camps. They gay men were identified with a large "A" on their clothes. It stood for Arschficker, "Ass Fucker". Eventually, they would come to be identified by a pink triangle. While there were a few other identifiers employed, the pink triangle became the most recognized and used. Gay men were made to wear a pink triangle on their chest, as well as a large one on their back. The pink triangles were made larger, like the yellow triangles for the Jews, than other triangles, so that guards and other prisoners would know a gay man was approaching.
Gay men were brutalized in the work camps. They were made to do chores so grueling as to work them to death. They didn't just face hate and degradation from the guards, but other prisoners could be just as cruel, as they viewed them as "perverts". The men were sometimes forced to work nude, raped, beaten to death, lynched, and even had dogs set upon them. Eventually, with the death camps establishment, they would die in the gas chambers. Most other prisoners avoided them so there would be no "guilt by association."
The liberation of the camps didn't have the same meaning for gay men. Many were simply moved to German prisons to serve out their sentences from their prosecutions under Paragraph 175. Some were given "time served" shorter sentences or reprieves. Those who didn't go directly to jail, faced discrimination because their families were "shamed" by having a "homosexual" in the family. While others received compensation for loss of money and property, gay men didn't get any reparations. It would 54 years (1999) before the first memorials of the Holocaust included gay men!! But it was the dawn of the 21st century (2000), before the German government officially apologized for the persecution of gay men after the liberation of the camps and acknowledged the devastation brought down on gay men in during the Holocaust.
Believed to be the last gay survivor of the Holocaust, Gad Beck passed away on June 24, 2012.
Today is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. We must remember.
The pink triangle is no longer a symbol of shame and persecution; it is a symbol of PRIDE!
LostOne4Ever
(9,267 posts)Lunabell
(5,920 posts)For remembering.
Skittles
(152,964 posts)they are tough reads but well worth it
never forget
Behind the Aegis
(53,833 posts)It is surprising how many today aren't even that aware of the Holocaust, but especially that gay men were victimized during and after!
secondwind
(16,903 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)The Nazis also had a thing about Gypsies, the physically and mentally disabled, Communists and Socialists.
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MillennialDem
(2,367 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)There was absolutely no scientific basis for their belief in a superior Germanic race. Too bad the science of DNA was not available in the days of the Third Reich.
brer cat
(24,402 posts)I was totally unaware that gays were moved from the camps into German prisons, and that it took another half-century (!) for Germany to acknowledge their persecution. I took a lot of history courses in HS and college, along with much outside reading, and the involvement of gays in the holocaust was mostly a footnote (along with the Romas). I wonder how long it will be before we have significant GLBT inclusion in history courses? A few more half-centuries?
What bothered me the most about your excellent piece was the statement "Most other prisoners avoided them so there would be no 'guilt by association.'" Shunned by the damned, to be the most wretched of the wretched: there are simply no words.
Again, thank you. Never forget.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)detailing treatment so foul they surpass credence.
In some camps it was almost like being in a camp within a camp.
bullwinkle428
(20,627 posts)by some wack-a-doodles on the right who are trying to push the despicable meme that many within the top ranks of the Third Reich formed a kind of "gay mafia", as a way of further demonizing the LGBT community.
herding cats
(19,549 posts)Thanks for posting. Education and remembrance of the atrocities committed against gays are vital to changing society.
Mister Ed
(5,896 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)Or ironic...is that many in high positions in the SS were gay.
Behind the Aegis
(53,833 posts)Lots of gay men (or those suspected of it) were murdered.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)What an awful time.
Archae
(46,262 posts)Rather many of the SA, "Brownshirts" or "Stormtroopers" were gay, especially their leader Ernst Rohm.
The SS in a power play eliminated most of the SA, with the "justification" that they were "deviants."
you are right.
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)k&r
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Stephen Retired
(190 posts)Number23
(24,544 posts)I can't imagine HOW they went about finding out another person's sexual orientation let alone why and then punishing them for it.
Response to Number23 (Reply #15)
Name removed Message auto-removed
marble falls
(56,359 posts)Response to marble falls (Reply #31)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Rex
(65,616 posts)LOL! So stupid...your hazy mind is thinking of natural selection, which does not involve genocide. Not even a nice try...lazy trolling is pathetic, why not take up a real hobby like skydiving?
arcane1
(38,613 posts)In fact, they remain exactly the same through each successive generation.
It's quite a scene!
Sissyk
(12,665 posts)Let us never forget.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)I saw a student production of the play at Yale.
Later, I was talking with the gay friend who suggested I see it about a potential love interest of his. I asked him, "Is that the guy you went to Bent with?"
Awkward silence.
"Um, usually I don't talk about stuff like that, but... yeah."
More awkward silence.
"Oh, Bent! The play Bent!"
My Bawlmer accent had betrayed me. He thought I said "bed"!
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)for those who might want to seek it out....Clive Owen, Jude Law, Mick Jagger....
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118698/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm
Roger Ebert's review:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bent-1997
Zorra
(27,670 posts)thanks, BtA.
William769
(55,124 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)MillennialDem
(2,367 posts)victims of the holocaust?
Archae
(46,262 posts)irisblue
(32,829 posts)Response to Behind the Aegis (Original post)
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marym625
(17,997 posts)Thank you for this thoughtful post
Rex
(65,616 posts)Is that what your avatar represents?
Behind the Aegis
(53,833 posts)It is what gay Jewish men were made to wear.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Never again.
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)not know until now that the persecution continued after the liberation.
Shows that I don't know as much as I think\thought I do\did.
So thanks for educating me a bit more about this.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Thank you for putting it up.
Sid
roamer65
(36,739 posts)If there ever was a justifiable war, it was the war to remove Hitler from power.
They say Stalin used a piece of Hitler's skull as an ashtray. If true, I cannot think of a more fitting use for it than such.
sheshe2
(83,347 posts)NEVER FORGET NEVER AGAIN~
Believed to be the last gay survivor of the Holocaust, Gad Beck passed away on June 24, 2012.
Today is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. We must remember.
THIS THIS THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The pink triangle is no longer a symbol of shame and persecution; it is a symbol of PRIDE!
Love you.