Nazi Concentration Camps and LGBT

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Post #11

Focusing on this topic has been of an extreme interest to me. As someone who is attempting to minor in German Studies, I actually never really heard about this topic. It was always hinted to in books and texts that I read, but never truly discussed in-depth. So there was an incentive to find out any information that I possible could. Being able to do this and look at it with an academic eye was very insightful. When I actually did a bigger search of sources, there were much more that came out with the search. This has been extremely insightful from a academic standpoint. Also insightful from a personal standpoint.

As someone whom is extremely interested in German studies and LGBTQ studies, being able to combine both was extremely exciting. Although it was over a very heartbreaking topic, it felt good to be able to shine light upon this topic that I myself knew little about. Even though little was known about this topic, because I did my topic on this, there is more information out in the world about this topic. Being able to dedicate my time and effort towards this has made me feel like I am helping the situation. I always tell people that we cannot look to the future, without shining light on a past. Especially such a past that is already mostly in the dark light.

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Post #10

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2015/01/27/remembering_the_gay_victims_of_the_holocaust.html

           An amazing article written on the gay victims of the holocaust. Very insightful and provides a few names that went through this quiet holocaust.

“Legislating Homophobia in the Third Reich: The Radicalization of Prosecution Against Homosexuality by the Legal Profession.” by Giles Geoffrey.

           Journal article written by Giles Geoffrey. Describes the laws and procedures that went into making “homosexual acts” illegal and what happened to higher ups that were caught in these acts.

Hidden holocaust? : Gay and lesbian persecution in Germany, 1933-45 “  by;  Günter Grau; Claudia Schoppmann; Patrick Camiller

           Book written about the quiet holocaust, also called the hidden holocaust. Gave insight into what happened to the women that were caught in “homosexual acts”. Or lack of because they weren’t persecuted like men were.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Ohy15dJsQ

           “Paragraph 175” is a documentary about what went into the law of making “homosexual acts” illegal. Also stories of what happened to people whom were persecuted and sent to work camps and concentration camps.

http://www.ushmm.org/

            This is the site for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This can provide an introduction into what the holocaust was, and gives even greater insight into the gay and lesbian people whom suffered under this wrath.

“The Pink Triangle” By Richard Plant.

           This is one of the first books that came out and shed light on the hidden holocaust. It revealed what was done and what happened to gay men in the concentration camps.

http://www.homocaust.org/

           This is a website dedicated solely to the gay and lesbian victims of the holocaust. It is very insightful and attempts to shed a light on both gay and lesbian victims, instead of just on gay men.

“The Story of Gad Beck” by Carsten Does and Robin Cackett

           This is an amazing documentary dedicated to the life of Gad Beck, whom was one of the last remaining survivors of the holocaust against LGBT.

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Post #9

On addressing this topic, there are a few steps that must be taken.

1. There needs to be an awareness of the event. Not many know about what happened to the LGBT during the holocaust. There is a general knowledge that the Nazi’s did not like “homosexual acts” and deemed them as immoral. What is not known, is what happened to them in the concentration camps. Even when trying to look up information, it was difficult to find actual facts that had database to support it.

2. Presentism is something that would also need to be addressed before it became a problem. Very easily one can project their current mindset upon the past. An example of this happening, is of the mention for LGBTQ. Back in this era, there was not an overall term for people whom were sexually variant and gender variant. Not only this, people whom were imprisoned and executed, may not have considered themselves “sexually variant” and may have had only characteristics that SS members deemed “homosexual”.

3. Recognition and furthering study of people whom might have been transgender and gender variant. There was no actual reliable data about members of the LGBT that might have been transgender or gender variant. This is another minority within the quiet holocaust that is mainly unspoken about in any form of academia. This may be because of the presentism and not many people considered themselves transgender or even had a word for it. Yet there are some people whom were crossdressers that felt the Nazi’s wrath.

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Post #8

As stated before, this is an issue that took place in the past. Even though this may have taken place in the past, it is still an important part. We cannot get through the present unless we learn from our mistakes that are in the past. Not only was this a horrible holocaust of millions of people, there was a quiet holocaust of LGBT member during this time as well. If we do not recognize what has happened in the past, we may accidentally allow it to happen again. There may be signs that we cannot see, and we may accidentally ignore them if we allow this past to be forgotten and not acknowledge.

Not only should this not be happen so it doesn’t happen again, there must be memory and memorial of the events that occurred. A community like the LGBT has historically been seen as the minority and even within that community there are minorities even within that. This quiet holocaust of LGBT in Germany, is a minority within a minority. There has to be some kind of remembrance or memorial. The people that were targeted and killed did not die for nothing, they died believing in something that others told them they were wrong. They died for being themselves, and that is something that must never be forgotten.

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Post #7

While this issue may not have happened recently, it still has importance and impact now. This quiet holocaust of LGBT during the the Nazi regime is now in our past. Yet there is something that can come from the past, which we cannot overlook simply because we are well past it. Intersectionality can be related to this topic, in at least three ways. One is that it was  based upon sexuality, in that it was brought about because of what they identified as sexually. Another way is that it was severely gendered and separated, because it happened mostly to male men, because women were not seen as serious threats.They were pushed aside and forced to take on roles not in power. Presentism is also a major problem when looking towards these past events. Often times those whom look back at these issues, will forget to put apart their current future and force it upon the past without being aware of what they are actually doing.

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Post #6

One of the most empowered power structures during this time was easily the Nazi Party. They rose to power quickly and took over much of the government before they took over all the government during that time. When Hitler rose to power, so did his ideal for the German Nation. It was going to be one of a strong and resilient people, that were perfect and were able to dominate. This meant that there would have to be a selection process so that they could weed out what was not seen as “ideal”. Due to how the Nazi’s viewed gay men as inferior, this meant that something would have to be done, as to prevent this “disease” as they liked to call it.

Another power structure during this time would have been the SS. Of course any government’s power is only as great as their ability to execute their orders. This meant that there would have to be someone making the laws, and then someone enforcing the laws, which is where the SS came into play. They were the ones who deemed what was seen as a “homosexual act” and were the ones that arrested the men. The SS were forceful and did not allow for any misconception or anything to go by the wayside. If they saw something that they thought was a homosexual act, they acted first and maybe asked questions at a later date.

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Post #5

Gad Beck was in Germany as a young male as the German’s rose to power. His father was of Jewish descent, but his mother was Germany born whom later converted to Judaism. Since he was only of partial Jewish decent, he was not seen as much of a threat as someone whom was fully Jewish. However, Gad was gay and had a lover, “Manfred Lewin” whom was captured and put into a concentration camp. Beck attempted to free his lover by stealing a uniform and walking right a concentration camp and claiming that he needed Manfred for personal use. Manfred declined Gad’s offer of freedom, so that he could stay with his family. After this, Gad attempted to help feed and cloth hiding Jews. Soon after, he and a group of his friends were betrayed by a Jewish spy and was sent to a concentration camp. Gad Beck managed to survive until he was liberated and went on to become the last known gay survivor of the Nazi reign. 

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Post #4

In the book, “Hidden holocaust? : gay and lesbian persecution in Germany, 1933-45.” there is a section about “The Position of Lesbian Women in the Nazi Period.” The discussion in the section isn’t very long, nor very informative on what exactly lesbians faces in Nazi Germany. Because of the fact that they were women, whom were not allowed to hold power, they were not seen as threats. Since they were not seen as threats, they were not prosecuted. When the Nazi's rose to power in Germany, women were ousted from the positions of power and pushed to become subservient to their male counterparts. Homosexual acts done by men were seen as much more immoral and unnatural then that of homosexual acts committed by women. So long as a woman either married a man and hid her true feelings and self, she could pass in Germany society. If the woman was not married then she would have to commit her life towards her work and hide her sexuality. But if by some chance it came out, the woman would more than likely be fired from her job, rather than face time in concentration camps. Crimes committed by women that were punishable, were more likely for insubordinate to the Nazi party or towards their husbands.

Overall this section of the book was purely amazing. This was the first and only few academic sources that I managed to find on what would have been happening to lesbian women in Nazi Germany. The section was overall did very well at portraying that lesbians were generally less persecuted in Nazi Germany, and more often persecuted against for just being women. 

Source; “ Hidden holocaust? : gay and lesbian persecution in Germany, 1933-45 “ by;  Günter Grau; Claudia Schoppmann; Patrick Camiller

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Post #3

In the Journal Article,  “ Legislating Homophobia in the Third Reich: The Radicalization of Prosecution Against Homosexuality by the Legal Profession” by Giles Geoffrey, there is much discussion about the laws that deemed being “Homosexual Acts” as being illegal. This was in the form of section 175 of Germany’s criminal code. The original section did not specify homosexuality, but in 1935 the German leaders ratified the amendment to say,  ruling that §175 required ‘an analog of natural intercourse’, by which it meant the heterosexual act.1.” In other words, this meant that if you were found to be engaging in homosexual acts, you would be sentenced to prison for two years. Once you were sentenced, you were then sent to a work camp. What were deemed as “homosexual acts” were up for interpretation. Anything from holding hands, anal acts, and even mutual masturbation. Since the Nazi’s deemed that homosexuality went against their perfect ideal “Aryan Race” often times someone could be arrested on little or no incriminating action. Once someone was arrested they were put into a work camp and labeled with a pink triangle that signified why they were there. Gay men were the majority that were arrested and put into work camps, and it was majority German men.

Overall this article was an amazing find and covered much of the legal work that went about making homosexual acts illegal. It also managed to bring the legal wording down to a level that could be understand by most people. However there was very little mentioned about lesbians and focused more on gay males.   

Source;  “Legislating Homophobia in the Third Reich: The Radicalization of Prosecution Against Homosexuality by the Legal Profession.” by Giles Geoffrey.

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Post #2

In the article, “ The Barely Remembered Gay Victims of the Nazi Concentration Camps” by Liam Hoare, it talks about the Gay victims of the Concentration Camps during WWII. This article was written about the void that was felt at Auschwitz during the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. There was a void because the last remaining gay survivor, Gad Beck, from the concentration camp passed away six days before the event. Sadly, there is not much recognition of the 5,000 to 15,000 gay men that were detained in the concentration camps. It is also not known that gay men were among some of the first victims of the holocaust. The war that was brought upon gay men in Nazi Germany, was in part due to a moral one. 

Because of the Nazi’s ideal thought about Aryan race, homosexual men were seen as weak and as going against the perfect race. Gay men could not produce children, which was supposed to be of the utmost importance to the German children and Hitler’s picture perfect Aryan race. Not only was this immoral, they also viewed this as a sickness that needed to be eradicated from the German Nation. Within the concentration camps themselves, they were treated like experiments, forced to have sex with other female prisoners and were watched by German Scientist. They also wore a pink triangle on their clothes to signify why they were in the concentration camps. One victim was Karl Gorath who was outed by a jealous lover and went to a workers camp, where soon after he was sent to Auschwitz for disobeying orders. 

Although this is not a very well known subject, there is a memorial for the men called “Homomonument” in Amsterdam. At this memorial, it is three pink triangles that form a larger pink triangle. One of the triangles even points to the house where Anne Frank sought shelter with her family. Also in the area is the Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism, which further helps shine light on the situation.

Overall this source did a wonderful job at managing to shine light on a situation that not many know of. They discussed why gay men were singled out and put in the workers camps and concentration camps. However they should have explained in more detail about the gay men that were captured, and whether or not they were purely German or if they might have been Jewish. This poses a lot of questions for someone who cares about LGBTQ studies. One of the most important questions, is how can we preserve the memory of what has happened under the Nazi’s control to gay men? One might want to start with educating the masses and letting known the importance of what happened. Without history, we would know be able to know the mistakes from which we need to assure do not happen again.

Source; http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2015/01/27/remembering_the_gay_victims_of_the_holocaust.html

Photo by; Koen van Weel/AFP/Getty Images

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Introduction

The topic for my Blog Project, is LGBT members and what happened to them during the Nazi Regime in WWII. During this period, there were many different communities being destroyed by the Nazi’s in Germany. Of the largest was the Jews, but there were also Gays and Lesbians being targeted by these horrendous crimes against humanity. This is important to LGBTQ studies, because often times we only focus on instances in America, when it was happening all of the world. For this topic, it is particularly interesting, because I will be taking a look at a different culture and a particular awful time in history, to see what was happening to a minority within minorities.