MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS???
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ANSWERS TO MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS...

WHAT DOES THE ASSOCIATION DO?
The Association, reached its peak at over 150 members in eleven countries, encourages the research of what actually happened to the generation of homosexuals who were persecuted or perished during the Third Reich. It also serves a social function of allowing us to share our experiences of being lesbian and gay children of Holocaust Survivors, and a forum to disseminate the information.


 WHERE DO OUR MEMBERS COME FROM?

We have over 150 members in eleven countries!
Our members live in:

WHY DID THE PINK TRIANGLE BECOME A SYMBOL OF THE GAY/LESBIAN MOVEMENT?


chart

The Nazis forced concentration camp inmates to wear various symbols on their uniforms. The Jews wore a yellow "Jewish Star" (made of two inverted yellow triangles). The homosexual inmates wore an inverted "Pink Triangle". {In some camps, such as Schirmeck, homosexuals wore blue bars on their uniforms.} This chart from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's archives depicts the various other groups and their respective colors; such as black for "A-socials" (including lesbians and feminists), purple for Jehovah's Witnesses, red for political prisoners, green for criminal prisoners, brown (maroon) for gypsies.













 HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE SENT TO CAMPS FOR BEING HOMOSEXUAL?
Latest research estimates that approximately 10,000 - 15,000 men were sent to concentration camps solely for being homosexual. They were found guilty of Paragraph 175 of the Penal Code which was expanded in June 1935 to include even the tendency of being gay. Approximately 150,000 men were arrested of this "crime", and approximately 100,000 of those arrested were sentenced to prisons, of whom 10,000 - 15,000 were sent to concentration camps for hard labor as a form of rehabilitation. The vast majority of the persecuted men were Germans, since Hitler didn't care if the non-Aryans were not reproducing. A few non-Aryans were also interned for having relationships with Aryans.



camp picture

This picture is taken from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's archive depicting men in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Since the picture is taken in black and white it is not possible to determine the color of the inverted triangles on their uniforms, which is why it is impossible to know definitively the status of these people. However, Sachsenhausen was one of the camps that housed homosexuals.











 HOW MANY HOMOSEXUALS DIED IN THE CAMPS?
Next to the Jews, the homosexuals had the highest mortality rate. Approximately 75% of those interned "Pink Triangle" homosexuals died in the concentration camps.


 WHAT HAPPENED TO LESBIANS DURING THE THIRD REICH?
Some lesbians, as well as feminists, were considered "A-Socials" by the Nazis and were sent to the camps in limited numbers. Many served their time in camp brothels servicing the Nazis as well as some camp inmates. Homosexual men sometimes could be given a lighter sentence if they too visited the brothels. The Nazis needed more Aryan babies, and anything that discouraged procreation was considered to be a threat to the State. But remember, women in general, had no power in the Third Reich. The ideology held that women had no other sexual needs except to make babies for the Fatherland. As long as a lesbian had a useable womb for the Fatherland, no problem was seen.


 WERE THERE ANY HOMOSEXUALS IN POWERFUL NAZI POSITIONS?
Although Hitler used Ernst Roehm, a known homosexual and the leader of the group of thugs called the S.A., to gain a powerbase, it is clear from even Hitler's early writings, that homosexuality was not acceptable to the Nazi philosophy. In June 1934, Hitler used homosexuality as a public excuse to murder thousands of S.A. Nazi thugs on the "Night of the Long Knives". Heinrich Himmler initiated the Committee to Combat Homosexuality and Abortion early in the early 1930's. The Nazis wanted to make up for the loss of soldiers due to the Fist World War. It wasn't religious bigotry, but an ideological love of making more "Aryans" that made Hitler want to eradicate homosexuality. It is similar to those today who say they love the homosexual but hate homosexuality. But no evidence exists to document any claim that homosexuals were even tolerated in high positions after the Night of the Long Knives. Of course it is impossible to rule out that there may have been some "closetted" self-hating gay Nazis, just as there may have been "closetted" popes or presidents etc. But you shouldn't expect to see a "gay marriage" ceremony between two openly gay men or lesbians among Nazi leaders.


HOW WERE HOMOSEXUALS TREATED IN THE CAMPS?
A distinction must be made here between men arrested for Paragraph 175 of the Penal Code for homosexuality ("Pink Triangle inmates") and heterosexual men who were having sexual relations with other men in the camps and homosexual Jews who were interned for being Jewish. The "Pink Triangle" men were ridiculed, sent to hard labor, often beaten and rarely held any high positions (like Capos) in the camps.

There were some "green or red triangle" men arrested for political or criminal acts who became Capos and used other men (usually Russian or Polish or Jewish boys) as sexual objects, similar to heterosexual men who take advantage of other straight men in prisons, etc. No one knows if these men had a gay sexual orientation or not. (It is also impossible to know how many "closetted gay men" may have been either inmates or officers.) But since these boys were treated better than the other inmates, the myth being spread is that the homosexuals were running the camp. In fact, the homosexuals were the Pink Triangle men who had to sleep with the lights on and their hands folded on top of their blankets. The isolation, torture, medical experiments, dangerous labor conditions, starvation and beatings were the cause of death for the Pink Triangle inmates as compared to gassings and shootings for Jews.


BRIEF HISTORY AND TIMELINE OF HOW NAZI PERSECUTION OF THE HOMOSEXUAL COMMUNITY FITS INTO THE MAKING OF THE HOLOCAUST

1. Magnus Hirschfeld – (May 14, 1868 - May 14, 1935) - In 1897, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee. The group aimed to undertake research to defend the rights of homosexuals and to repeal Paragraph 175, the section of the German penal code that since 1871 had criminalized homosexuality. The bill was brought before the Reichstag in 1898, but was only supported by a minority from the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The bill continued to come before parliament, and eventually began to make progress in the 1920s before the takeover of the Nazi party obliterated any hopes for reform. When the Nazis took power they destroyed the Institut and burned down the library on May 6, 1933. The press-library pictures and archival newsreel film of Nazi book-burnings seen today are usually pictures of Hirschfeld's library ablaze. At the time of the book burning, Hirschfeld was away from Germany on a world speaking tour. Hirschfeld never returned to Germany. He died of a heart attack on his 67th birthday in 1935 in Nice, where he is buried.

2. The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed coup d'état that occurred on November 9, 1923, when the Nazi party's leader Adolf Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and other leaders of the Kampfbund, unsuccessfully tried to gain power in Munich, Bavaria, and Germany.

3. On the morning of January 30, 1933, in Hindenburg's office, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor.

4. Elections were scheduled for early March, but on February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire. The Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February which suspended basic rights, including habeas corpus and made Hitler the Fuehrer.

5. Opening of Dachau Concentration Camp in March 1933.

6. Closing of the Eldorado homosexual club in Berlin on March 5, 1933.

7. Berlin Book Burning Bonfires – May 10, 1933 including Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Sciences records after it was closed on May 6, 1933.

8. The Night of the Long Knives (German: Nacht der langen Messer or "Operation Hummingbird") was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime executed at least 85 people for political reasons. Most of those killed were members of the "Storm Troopers" (SA) (German: Sturmabteilung), a Nazi paramilitary organization. Adolf Hitler moved against the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, who was a known homosexual. Hitler named Victor Lutze to replace Röhm as head of the SA. Hitler ordered him to put an end to "homosexuality, debauchery, drunkenness, and high living" in the SA.

9. In 1934, a special Gestapo (Secret State Police) division on homosexuals was set up. One of its first acts was to order the police "pink lists" from all over Germany The police had been compiling these lists of suspected homosexual men since 1900.

10. The forced sterilizations of the disabled population began in January 1934, and altogether an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 people were sterilized under the law.

11. On September 1, 1935, a harsher, amended version of Paragraph 175 of the Criminal Code, originally framed in 1871, went into effect, punishing a broad range of "lewd and lascivious" behavior between men.

12. On October 26, 1936, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler created a Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion: a sub-department of the Gestapo. The linking of homosexuality and abortion reflected the Nazi regimes population policies to promote a higher birthrate of its "Aryan" population. On this subject Himmler spoke in Bad Tölz on February 18, 1937, before a group of high-ranking SS officers on the dangers both homosexuality and abortion posed to the German birthrate.

13. On September 1, 1935, a harsher, amended, and broadened version of § 175 of the Criminal Code, originally framed in 1871, to close what were seen as loopholes in the current law, went into effect, punishing a broad range of "lewd and lascivious" behavior between men. A law was passed requiring the sterilization of all homosexuals, schizophrenics, epileptics, drug addicts, hysterics, and those born blind or malformed. By 1935, 56,000 people were thus "treated." In actual practice, the homosexuals were literally castrated rather than sterilized. In 1935 all local police departments were required to submit to the Gestapo lists of suspected homosexuals; shortly there were 20,000 names on the index. The campaign against homosexuality was escalated by the introduction of the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour." Until 1935, the only punishable offence had been anal intercourse; under the new § 175a, ten possible "acts" were punishable, including a kiss, an embrace, even homosexual fantasies! One man, for instance, was successfully prosecuted on the grounds that he had observed a couple making love in a park and watched only the man.

14. Nurnberg Laws- Protect the Sanctity of Marriage - September 15, 1935

15. Sachsenhausen opened in 1936. More homosexuals were interned for the new Paragraph 175 expansion and sent to camps like Sachsenhausen.

16. Under the revised Paragraph 175 and the creation of Special Office II S, the number of prosecutions increased sharply, peaking in the years 1937-1939. Half of all convictions for homosexual activity under the Nazi regime occurred during these years. Concern was only for Aryans or if one of the people were Aryan. Non-Aryans were not the target. Camps were used to “toughen” up effeminate men.

17. November 7, 1938, Killing of Ernst Vom Rath, German Embassy Diplomat in Paris, and a known homosexual, by Herschel Feibel Grynszpan (Grünspan) (born March 28, 1921, died between 1943 and 1945) a Polish Jew living in Paris whose parents were deported out of Hannover and a possible homosexual. No proof, but claims that they had an affair. But the killing of Vom Rath was the pretext for Kristallnacht.

18. Kristallnacht – November 9, 1938 – Joseph and Henry sent to Dachau. Pink Triangle Capo was already there for years.

19. WWII – Poland invaded on September 1, 1939.

20. In October 1939, Hitler himself initiated a decree which empowered physicians to grant a "mercy death" to "patients considered incurable according to the best available human judgment of their state of health." its aim was to exterminate the mentally ill and the handicapped, thus "cleansing" the "Aryan" race of persons considered genetically defective and a financial burden to society.

21. During the war, volunteering to go to the eastern front was a way of homosexuals getting out of going to the camps.

22. July 12, 1940 - Himmler orders that all homosexuals sentenced under § 175, "who have seduced more than one partner", should be taken into "preventive detention" after they are released from prison". In reality that means they are sent to a concentration camp. Those incarcerated there for § 175 offences are forced to wear a pink triangle in order to make them identifiable.

23. WWII- USA- December 7, 1941, and on November 15, 1941 - In a Decree of the Führer for the Cleansing of the SS (Secret State Police) and the police force, Hitler orders the death penalty for homosexual activity by members of the SS and Police.

24. 1944- The Danish SS-Doctor Carl Vaernet carried out medical experiments on homosexuals in Buchenwald concentration camp. He wanted to "cure" homosexuals by implanting artificial hormone glands in the region of the upper leg.

25. End of War in May 1945 and West Germany keeps Paragraph 175 on the books until 1969, so homosexuals were afraid to ask for restitution for fear of re-arrests.



THE GOALS OF THE ASSOCIATION ARE:
  1. To remind others in the "Holocaust Community" that Hitler's wrath began with the persecution of homosexuals.
  2. To remember the significance of the lives (and their contributions) of a previous generation of homosexuals who perished or who persecuted in the Holocaust.
  3. To provide support and friendship to all lesbian, gay and bisexual children who share this unique influence on their lives.
  4. To remind and educate others in the "Holocaust Community" that some of their family members may also be gay or lesbian, and that a better understanding of human differences should be learned from the Holocaust experience.

 MEMBERSHIP:






THEATER AND MOVIE REVIEWS
175 SALON.COM review of PARAGRAPH 175 by Michael Sragow and an interview with the Directors/Producers, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.
Update on PARAGRAPH 175, the new documentary film project about homosexuals
during the Nazi era, by the Academy Award winning team of Rob Epstein and
Jeffrey Friedman ([italic on]The Celluloid Closet, Common Threads - Stories
from the Quilt, The Times of Harvey Milk,[italic off] etc.)

The Academy Award winning team of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman ([italic
on]The Celluloid Closet, Common Threads - Stories from the Quilt, The Times of
Harvey Milk,[italic off] etc.) have been working on PARAGRAPH 175, a new
documentary about the experience of homosexuals during the Nazi era.    The
film is scheduled to be completed in early summer, for broadcast on Channel 4
in the UK and HBO/Cinemax in the US.  Strategic planning for distribution and
exhibition is currently underway and will likely begin with a series of
international film festival screenings at the end of the year. PARAGRAPH 175,
is being produced under the sponsorship of Reflective Image, Inc., classified
by the Internal Revenue Service as a non-profit organization.

If you want to know more about the movie BENT,click below to jump to the MGM website on the movie:

THE MOVIE BENT







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