Holocaust Remembrance Day

[Behind the Aegis]

Please visit: Homocaust: The gay victims of the Holocaust @ http://www.homocaust.org/

During the Nazi period up to 100,000 gay men & women were persecuted & imprisoned for their sexuality under Paragraph 175 of the German Penal code. The Third Reich had no place for such 'deviants' & set out a systematic strategy to rid itself of this 'poison'. About 15,000 were sent to concentration camps where, forced to wear the 'pink triangle', as many as 60% lost their lives.

Those that did survive were subject to ongoing persecution in post-war society & struggled hard to be recognized as victims of the Holocaust. In 2005 very few of these witnesses are left to speak of their experiences & in a few years there may be no survivors left. Their voices call now to future generations to listen & learn ensuring their plight does not slip quietly in to the realms of history alone.
While the contents of this site do not constitute easy reading, the message remains simple: NEVER AGAIN.
Listen closely to these voices because they are calling to you…





השואה... לעולם לא עוד.

[William769]

1. Thanks am going to visit now.

[William769]

2. Declaration of survivors.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. A symbol that came to be because "words matter!"

[William769]

4. ...

[Call Me Wesley]

5. I just recently read an article in DER SPIEGEL

about all the high-ranking NSDAP members who served the new 'Bundesrepublik' as pretty much happy campers, doctors, politicians, lawyers, etc. Not surprisingly, because those were the ones who were available; the ones who were likely to oppose, were mostly dead or forbidden to perform any kind of business. § 175 was law until June 11, 1994 (!.) Between 1950 and 1960, over 100,000 investigations were made and 50,000 of them ended up in prosecution.

Interesting is, although they were punished under the Nazi regime for made up cases, lesbians did not fall under § 175. (On edit for clarification: ) They were marked 'asocial,' and women were prosecuted as well if they didn't live up to the 'mother-figure' the regime wanted.

With § 175 still in place, many survivors tried hard to put their experiences behind them fearing further persecution. However, after the 'liberation' some survivors did bravely struggle for recognition through the courts. Survivors such as Karl Gorath, Heinz Dörmer, and Pierre Seel, fought many years for retribution for their imprisonment. Goraths' attempts at legal reparations were rejected both in 1953 and 1960. Pierre Seel refused to give up and continued fighting throughout the 1980's and 1990's.

In the 1945 Nuremberg war crime trials that followed the liberation no mention was ever made of crimes against homosexuals. No SS official was ever tried for specific atrocities against pink triangle prisoners. Many of the known SS Doctors, who had performed operations on homosexuals, were never brought to account for their actions. One of the most notorious SS doctors was Carl Peter Vaernet who performed numerous experiments on pink triangle inmates at the Buchenwald and Neuengamme camps. He was never tried for his crimes and escaped to South America where he died a free man in 1965.

Many of the pink triangle survivors were never recognised as victims of the Holocaust during their lives and never lived to be repatriated. For those who continued to fight, it would be many years before their efforts paid off.

[Behind the Aegis]

11. "Asocial" ranking for lesbians, which is why they sometimes use the black triangle.

Use by lesbians

Lesbians have over time claimed the black triangle as a symbol of defiance against repression and discrimination, and it is considered a counterpart to the gay pink triangle. Today, it is as a lesbian symbol that the black triangle is most widely recognized[citation needed], though some anarchists use a black triangle as their symbol. Wikipedia

On DU2, there is a piece about one of the last "pink triangle" survivors. I'll look for it later, if someone doesn't post it before then.

[Call Me Wesley]

12. Most were even marked 'prostitutes.'

You can imagine what that meant for them in camp, although, they had a better chance to survive.

Here's the documented last one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Brazda

P. S. On a side note, since he went to live in Alsace, there was the only concentration camp site I visited so far (I was a kid,) Natzweiler-Struthof. I sure was too young to understand all of its history, but there was the gallows tree and the ovens.

[Behind the Aegis]

13. As promised, here are the other DU threads revolving around this topic...

Snoutport (1000+ posts) Sun Aug-07-11 11:10 PM
Original message
Rudolf Brazda, Who Survived Pink Triangle, Is Dead at 98 (last gay survivor of the Nazi death camps)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/06/world/europe/06brazda.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=world

Another reminder of why the fascist right cannot win.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=221&topic_id=183521

w8liftinglady (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-11-11 07:02 PM
Original message
Gad Beck, profiled in Miami Herald a decade ago, now the last known gay survivor of Holocaust
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2011/08/...

Last week, news outlets including The New York Times reported the death of Rudolf Brazda, the last remaining gay survivor of the Holocaust.

Today, Dallas Voice reports that another gay survivor remains: Gad Beck, who wrote an autobiography, An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin, and was profiled a decade ago in a documentary about gays and the Holocaust, Paragraph 175.

Ten years ago, before a screening of Paragraph 175 at Temple Israel of Greater Miami, I interviewed Beck.

Then age 78, Beck wept during our telephone talk as he spoke of how he lost his "great, great love' to the Nazis during World War II.

Here's my profile of Beck from Nov. 17, 2001:



Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2011/08/gad-beck-profiled-in-miami-herald-a-decade-ago-now-the-last-known-gay-survivor-of-holocaust.html#ixzz1Ulw3ermH

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=221&topic_id=183779

Also...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,772667,00.html|At 98, Gay Concentration Camp Survivor Shares Story

http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hsx/|The Nazi campaign against homosexuality

(Sorry for the "sloppy links", but the damn "link" function isn't working...again!)

[queerart]

6. A Video....

Here is a video that fits this discussion.

The page on YouTube will say:


"The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as being potentially offensive or inappropriate. Viewer discretion is advised."


But the video is only offensive to the haters who are pissed they couldn't get it pulled off You Tube entirely.....


Just click on "CONTINUE" to see the video.....


Gay Sex Crime Holocaust

http://www.youtube.com/verify_controversy?next_url=/watch%3Fv%3DiqpgaajRInU

[William769]

7. Thank you very powerful.

I know anther place this should be posted but then I again I'll just get accused of more whining.

[queerart]

8. Hugs & Kisses To You..... n/t

[joeybee12]

9. KNR

[Zorra]

10. Thanks, Behind the Aegis

Holocaust...never again
........................
........................

[Smarmie Doofus]

14. Rec and Kick to keep it up top for a while. n/t