‘On the same level as the Nazis’: the film about Germany’s postwar persecutn of gay men | Film | The Guardian

Contents:

• NETFLIX EXPOS THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY
• PERSECUTN OF GAY PEOPLE NAZI GERMANY
• ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI
• THE HORRIFIC NAZI TREATMENT OF GAYS — THE SAD STORY OF PK MEN“THE NAZIS STUCK 25 CENTIMETERS OF WOOD UP MY ASS”PETER PRKAR·FOLLOWPUBLISHED LSONS OM HISTORY·5 M READ·JUL 22, 2021--4SHAREGAY PRISONERS A NAZI NCENTRATN MP, WEARG A PK TRIANGLE (IMAGE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS NAZI NCENTRATN MPS WAS CEL AND DISGTG. YET, THERE WAS A STE OF PRISONERS WHO WERE NSIRED THE LOWT OF THE LOW BY THE MP GUARDS AND EVEN BY THE FELLOW PRISONERS — GAY MEN.THE TREATMENT OF THE GAYS THE NAZI NCENTRATN MPS WAS TLY HORRIFIC. GAY MEN WERE ED FOR MEDIL EXPERIMENTS AND AS SHOOTG TARGETS. THE GUARDS WOULD AIM FOR THE PK TRIANGL ON THEIR CHTS THAT SYMBOLIZED THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATN.THEY WERE TORTURED, EXPERIMENTED ON, AND RIDICULED. THEY WERE BEATEN TO ATH BY THEIR FELLOW PRISONERS. THEY RECEIVED THE MOST DANGERO TASK THE MP’S STONE QUARRI AND FACTORI.“THE NAZIS STUCK 25 CENTIMETERS OF WOOD UP MY ASS.”— PIERRE SEEL, A GAY HOLOT SURVIVORTHE NOTOR PARAGRAPH 175
• THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI
• THE NAZIS TOLERATED GAYS. THEN EVERYTHG CHANGED
• ‘ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE NAZIS’: THE FILM ABOUT GERMANY’S POSTWAR PERSECUTN OF GAY MEN
• IN 'GREAT FREEDOM,' A MAN IS EED OM THE NAZIS, AND RE-IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS
• SERI: GAY MEN AND LBIANS UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?

NETFLIX EXPOS THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY

Which didn’t stop burly Hler nfidante and head of the Nazi SA paraary wg Ernst Röhm, a not-terribly-closeted gay man, om equentg the tablishment. As the film explas, the SA had a strong homoerotic element, a disgt wh women and femy they somehow ed to jtify homosexualy – for a time, anyway. The film never out and yells , but is also a remr of the Fal Solutn tenor that still acpani much anti-gay and anti-trans rhetoric and, creasgly, policy.

Hirschfeld, a groundbreakg sexologist, both gay and Jewish and therefore a prime target of Nazi Germany, was thankfully not prent when his stute was ransacked by mardg Nazi youth (here aga, there are photos).

Here we experience the nce that thrived before the fall, at a hiaway for those whose differenc would soon mark them for prison, exile, or, many s, ath ( is timated that between 5, 000 and 15, 000 gay people died the ncentratn mps for vlatg Paragraph 175). He was received that day wh meras, bouquets of flowers, and a greetg om the openly gay former mayor of Berl, Kls seven s earlier, Brazda survived a spell Buchenwald, the ncentratn mp to which he was sent havg twice been arrted for vlatg Paragraph 175, the German law prohibg male homosexual activy. Published 2016, Whisnant’s book subverts the notn that the only queer people targeted durg the Third Reich were gay men, suggtg stead that the Nazi party’s broar terpretatn of Paragraph 175 meant that a small portn of terned dividuals were what we today would ll genr-nonnformg or trans.

PERSECUTN OF GAY PEOPLE NAZI GERMANY

What’s more, Whisnant pots out that while lbian women were not necsarily arrted bee of their sexualy, that is neher to say that some lbian women did not end up ncentratn mps, nor that the homophobia of the time didn’t impact them more broadly.

ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI

” And bis the German public’s disda for the trans-posive physician, signs of other cracks the fa of early Berl’s tolerance beg to show when nsirg the number of gay magaz circulatg at the time.

This wasn’t exactly a well-guard secret; gay sirs om the time rell spottg the high-rankg official at gay bars, even pickg up male sex workers Munich. ” The historian ntu to scribe how some might have seen the Nazi’s emphasis on male-bondg, physil power, and homoerotic imagery as a draw toward jog the party the first place.

”Nazi-era propaganda, like this 1933 electn poster, often prented an ialized, homoerotic-tged view of ArchiveWhatever illn of acceptance queer members of the Nazi party might have felt the early 1930s vanished the aftermath of a pivotal event lled The Night of the Long Kniv. To mark LGBTQ+ History Month, Dr Barbara Warnock looks at the persecutn faced by gay people Nazi Germany, and some of the documents The Wiener Holot Library’s Internatnal Tracg Service digal archive that nta evince about their experienc. The Scientific Humanarian Commtee had worked sce s tablishment 1897 to overturn sectn 175, and 1919, one of s foundg members, Magn Hirschfeld, set up the Instute for Sexual Rearch, a pneerg anisatn s approach to gay and transgenr rights.

THE HORRIFIC NAZI TREATMENT OF GAYS — THE SAD STORY OF PK MEN“THE NAZIS STUCK 25 CENTIMETERS OF WOOD UP MY ASS”PETER PRKAR·FOLLOWPUBLISHED LSONS OM HISTORY·5 M READ·JUL 22, 2021--4SHAREGAY PRISONERS A NAZI NCENTRATN MP, WEARG A PK TRIANGLE (IMAGE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS NAZI NCENTRATN MPS WAS CEL AND DISGTG. YET, THERE WAS A STE OF PRISONERS WHO WERE NSIRED THE LOWT OF THE LOW BY THE MP GUARDS AND EVEN BY THE FELLOW PRISONERS — GAY MEN.THE TREATMENT OF THE GAYS THE NAZI NCENTRATN MPS WAS TLY HORRIFIC. GAY MEN WERE ED FOR MEDIL EXPERIMENTS AND AS SHOOTG TARGETS. THE GUARDS WOULD AIM FOR THE PK TRIANGL ON THEIR CHTS THAT SYMBOLIZED THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATN.THEY WERE TORTURED, EXPERIMENTED ON, AND RIDICULED. THEY WERE BEATEN TO ATH BY THEIR FELLOW PRISONERS. THEY RECEIVED THE MOST DANGERO TASK THE MP’S STONE QUARRI AND FACTORI.“THE NAZIS STUCK 25 CENTIMETERS OF WOOD UP MY ASS.”— PIERRE SEEL, A GAY HOLOT SURVIVORTHE NOTOR PARAGRAPH 175

The Nazis promoted tradnal fay valu, wh distct genr rol for men and women, and enuraged women to have many children: gay people were regard as a threat to the ials.

In 1937, Herich Himmler, head of the SS, said a speech to SS lears that the persecutn and even murr of homosexuals was sirable bee gay people hred efforts to breed a domant racially strong natn. In 1935, the regime expand sectn 175, wing the spe of activi fed as illegal and creasg the penalty for homosexual activy om six months to five years. In total, around 15, 000 gay men were rcerated ncentratn mps, of whom 60% are timated to have died: they were murred or perished as a rult of poor health and maltreatment.

THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI

The Nazis did not the ma target lbians to the same extent as gay men, nor were they subject to 175 – perhaps bee the Nazis did not nsir women to have the same potential as men to be a polil threat – but they did view lbians as a threat to their ials of racially strong Natnal muny. The documents The Wiener Holot Library’s digal py of the Internatnal Tracg Service (ITS) Archive n provi wh some rmatn about the men and women persecuted by the Nazis on the grounds of their sexualy, as well as sights to how Nazi persecutn agast gay people operated. Sometim ncentratn mp prisoner rds ITS llectns rerd the grounds on which male prisoners were held as ‘Sectn 175 – Homosexual’ – reference to the relevant sectn of the law.

Some survivors of Nazi persecutn were able to e the documents and evince ntaed the Internatnal Tracg Service Archive as a basis to claim pensatn after the war, but this was not the se for gay victims. For more related sourc, try a search for any of the followg keywords our Collectns Catalogue: Social persecutn, Homosexuals, Women, Inty, Natnal Socialism, Historgraphy. '” She go further, wonrg if “the purge of the SA and the killg of Röhm reprented the leral objective rrelative for the supprsn and reprsn of the homosexual sir their own Nazism?

Even before Ernst Röhm was murred, the Nazis had begun crackg down on homosexualy, banng anizatns, burng books, and arrtg the first of some 100, 000.

THE NAZIS TOLERATED GAYS. THEN EVERYTHG CHANGED

Around 15, 000 gay people were sent to ncentratn mps, where some were experimented upon bizarre efforts to fd a “cure” for sexual orientatn, a forhadowg of Amerin psychologil and later fundamentalist efforts to try the same thg.

‘ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE NAZIS’: THE FILM ABOUT GERMANY’S POSTWAR PERSECUTN OF GAY MEN

“The Nazis stuck 25 centimeters of wood up my ass”Gay prisoners a Nazi ncentratn mp, wearg a pk triangle (Image: Wikimedia Commons)The treatment of prisoners Nazi ncentratn mps was cel and disgtg. Yet, there was a ste of prisoners who were nsired the lowt of the low by the mp guards and even by the fellow prisoners — gay treatment of the gays the Nazi ncentratn mps was tly horrific.

”— Pierre Seel, a gay Holot survivorThe notor Paragraph 175Graphs wh the number of nvictns due to Paragraph 175 (Image: Wikimedia Commons)In 1871, the law known as Paragraph 175 me to force the German Empire.

In 2017, Germany’s Cabet approved a bill that would expunge the nvictns of tens of thoands of German men for “homosexual acts” unr that untry’s anti-gay law known as “Paragraph 175. Partly drivg this new era of tolerance were the doctors and scientists who started lookg at homosexualy and “transvtism” (a word of that era that enpassed transgenr people) as a natural characteristic wh which some were born, and not a “rangement. Durg the followg year alone, the Gtapo arrted more than 8, 500 gay men, que possibly g a list of nam and addrs seized at the Instute for Sexual Rearch.

IN 'GREAT FREEDOM,' A MAN IS EED OM THE NAZIS, AND RE-IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY

Italy, wh a fascist regime obssed wh virily, sent at least 300 gay men to btal mps durg the war perd, clarg them “dangero for the tegry of the race. Still, if they had been proment members of the gay and trans muny before the fascists me to power, as Berl lbian club owner Lotte Hahm was, was too late to hi.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

As part of their missn to racially and culturally “purify” Germany, the Nazis arrted thoands of LGBT dividuals, mostly gay men, whom they viewed as Uned Stat Holot Memorial Mm timat 100, 000 gay men were arrted and between 5, 000 and 15, 000 were placed ncentratn mps. )Corbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, the mps, gay men were treated pecially harshly, by guards and fellow prisoners alike. “There was no solidary for the homosexual prisoners; they belonged to the lowt ste, ” Pierre Seel, a gay Holot survivor, wrote his memoir I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi timated 65 percent of gay men ncentratn mps died between 1933 and 1945.

Horac Villalobos/Corbis/Getty ImagMemorial plaqu for homosexuals, Jehovah's Wns and Wehrmacht serters are placed where once stood one of the molished barracks Buchenwald ncentratn mp near Weimar, Germany. In 1986, six New York Cy activists created a poster wh the words SILENCE = DEATH and a bright pk upward-facg triangle, meant to ll attentn to the AIDs crisis that was cimatg populatns of gay men across the untry. Here's how the two are lked“One n anize the qutn of female prostutn, which by parison wh this qutn [of male homosexualy] prciple is pletely harmls, a way that is acceptable for a civilized people.

The central argument is that the Nazi regime's emphasis on heterosexualy as an sential mascule tra was ntted by homosexual veterans, who attempted to exert agency by actively fg notns of “masculy, ” the nature of their homosexualy, as well as their stat the Volksgemeschaft (people's muny). The ways which homosexual men perceived homosexualy relatn to hegemonic mascule norms were diverse: whereas some tried to argue for the patibily of homosexualy and martial masculy, those who were arrted often distanced themselv om their homosexual inty.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS

Der vorliegen Aufsatz hanlt von n Erfahngen und Perspektiven homosexueller Männer im natnalsozialistischen Dtschland, sbonre nen von homosexuellen Veteranen s Ersten Weltkrieg. In r Tat stellten homosexuelle Veteranen die unter m NS-Regime übliche Hervorhebung r Heterosexualät als wentlich Merkmal von Männlichke Frage.

Sie versuchten aktiv ihren Handlungsspielrm zu bewahren, m sie Vorstellungen über “Männlichke”, das Wen ihrer Homosexualät sowie ihren Stat nerhalb r Volksgemeschaft selbst fierten.

SERI: GAY MEN AND LBIANS UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Wie homosexuelle Männer dabei Homosexualät Bezug f hegemoniale Männlichkesnormen wahrnahmen, war ganz unterschiedlich: eige machten sich für die Kompatibilät von Homosexualät und martialischer Männlichke stark, wohgegen diejenigen, die haftiert wurn, sich oft von ihrer Homosexualät distanzierten. Die Verfolgung von Homosexuellen im Drten Reich (Parborn: Schöngh, 1990)Google Scholar; Whisnant, Clayton J., Queer Inti and Polics Germany: A History, 1880–1945 (New York: Harrgton Park Prs, 2016), 204-41CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Plant, Richard, The Pk Triangle: The Nazi War agast Homosexuals (New York: Henry Holt, 1986)Google Scholar.

WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?

3 For an expert exploratn of the tensns, see Gil, Geofey, “The Instutnalizatn of Homosexual Panic the Third Reich, ” Social Outsirs Nazi Germany, ed. Gellately, Robert and Stoltzf, Nathan (Prceton, NJ: Prceton Universy Prs, 2001), 233-355Google Scholar; on the culture of the SA, see Hanck, Eleanor, Ernst Röhm: Hler's SA Chief of Staff (New York: Palgrave Maclan, 2008)Google Scholar; Wackerfs, Andrew, Stormtrooper Fai: Homosexualy and Communy the Early Nazi Movement (New York: Harrgton Park Prs, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

Herzog, Dagmar (New York: Berghahn, 2005), 95-130Google Scholar; Gil, Geofey J., “Legislatg Homophobia the Third Reich: The Radilizatn of Prosecutn agast Homosexualy by the Legal Profsn, ” German History 23, no.