Nazism and homosexuality

{{Nazism}}{{Homophobia}}
{{cquote|The myth that Nazis condoned or promoted homosexuality sprang up as a slander against Nazi leaders by their [[socialist]] opponents in the 1930s. Only one of the half-dozen leaders in Hitler's inner circle, Ernest Rohm, {{sic}} is believed by credible historians to have been gay. ...<br>There is no question that the Nazis saw homosexuality as one aspect of the "[[Degenerate|degeneracy]]" they were determined to extinguish. When it came to power in 1933, the Nazi Party moved quickly to strengthen {{wpl|Paragraph 175|Germany's existing penalties against homosexuality.}} On Oct. 11, 1936, Hitler's security chief, Heinrich Himmler, went further, announcing that homosexuality was to be "eliminated" in Germany, along with [[miscegenation]] between the races.|||The [[Southern Poverty Law Center]].<ref>[http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2005/spring/holy-war/making-myths Anti-Gay Religious Crusaders Claim Homosexuals Helped Mastermind the Holocaust], the ''[[Southern Poverty Law Center]]''.</ref>}}

The apparent connection between Nazism and homosexuality is cited by various [[wingnut]]s<ref>Such as [[Scott Lively]] and Kevin Abrams ({{wpa|The Pink Swastika}}), [[Pat Robertson]] and the Family Defense Council ([http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2005/spring/holy-war/making-myths Anti-Gay Religious Crusaders Claim Homosexuals Helped Mastermind the Holocaust], the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]]).</ref> as proof that the [[gay agenda]] is a [[Nazi]]-style [[conspiracy]] to [[family values|destroy the family]].<ref>Typically [[Fundamentalist Christianity|Christian fundamentalists]] in the good old [[United States|US of A]] indulge in this [[conspiracy theory]], but this practice of ''[[reductio ad Hitlerum]]'' began in the [[Soviet Union]], [[irony|ironically]].<br>{{cite journal |author=Erik N. Jensen |date=January–April 2002 |title=The Pink Triangle and Political Consciousness: Gays, Lesbians, and the Memory of Nazi Persecution |journal=Journal of the History of Sexuality |volume=11 |issue=1/2 |pages=319&ndash;349, pp. 322&ndash;323 and n. 19 }}<br>It's nice to see [[wingnuts]] and [[moonbat]]s working together, isn't it(?!)</ref> It is widely regarded by most decent scholars as [[homophobic]] vitriol and utter [[bollocks]], as well as a form of [[pseudohistory]]. The Nazis were opposed to homosexuality [[Abortion and Nazism|and abortion]], despite what [[Conservapedia]] may tell you.

Apart from one notable exception (see below), the Nazis were predominately [[heterosexual]], and up to 15,000 gay men were killed in [[the Holocaust]]. Which would be odd for a party enforcing a gay agenda, wouldn't it?

== Treatment of homosexuals in Nazi Germany ==
: ''{{wpa|Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust}}''
{{cquote|After roll call on the evening of June 20, 1942, an order was suddenly given: 'All prisoners with the pink triangle will remain standing at attention!' We stood on the desolate, broad square, and from somewhere a warm summer breeze carried the sweet fragrance of resin and wood from the regions of freedom; but we couldn't taste it, because our throats were hot and dry from fear. Then the guardhouse door of the command tower opened, and an SS officer and some of his lackeys strode toward us. Our detail commander barked: 'Three hundred criminal deviants, present as ordered!' We were registered, and then it was revealed to us that in accordance with an order from the ''Reichsfuhrung'' SS, our category was to be isolated in an intensified-penalty company, and we would be transferred as a unit to the {{wpl|Clinker brick|Klinker Brickworks}} the next morning. The Klinker factory! We shuddered, for the human death mill was more than feared.|||Holocaust survivor {{wpl|Leo Clasen}}<ref>James Steakley. [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Homosexuals_and_the_Third_Reich.html Homosexuals and the Third Reich], ''Jewish Virtual Library''.</ref>}}
Although some claim that the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany was a myth,<ref>Wickoff, Jack. [http://www.whale.to/b/wikoff.html The Myth of a Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals] (Hosted by [[whale.to]] and cited by [[Metapedia]], so you know it's [[w:WP:RS|fucking reliable]], eh?!</ref> the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum claims 5,000 – 15,000 gay men were killed in [[the Holocaust]].<ref>[http://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/persecution-of-homosexuals/ Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals], ''United States Holocaust Memorial Museum''.</ref> Male homosexuality was made illegal in Nazi Germany under {{wpl|Paragraph 175}} – a law so vague that it prohibited same-sex fantasies – and were forced to wear a pink triangle in concentration and death camps.<ref>Alternatively, if you were gay and Jewish, the Nazis would superimpose a pink triangle onto a [[w:Judenstern|''Judenstern'']] for you. How thoughtful of them. [http://www.stonewallsociety.com/gaysymb.htm Gay Symbols], ''Stonewall Society''.</ref><ref>{{wpa|Pink triangle}}</ref>

As the Strasserist and moderate (by Nazi standards) views of Röhm weakened in January 1933, the Nazis conducted a purge of "homophile" ([[LGBT|LGB]]) clubs in Berlin, outlawed sex publications (particularly those from the ''Institut für Sexualwissenschaft'') and banned organised homophile groups, causing many such as {{wpl|Erika Mann}} and writer {{wpl|Richard plant (writer)|Richard Plant}} to flee Germany. In March 1933, Kurt Hiller, the main organiser of Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute, was sent to a concentration camp. In May 6 of the same year, the ''Hitlerjugend'' (Hitler Youth) made an attack on the Institute, and 20,000 books and journals, and 5,000 images, were destroyed in the process. However, the names and addresses of gay men, lesbians, transgender people, etc. were seized by the Nazi authorities,<ref>{{wpa|Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust}}</ref> and used for political blackmail later on. In 1937, Himmler gave a speech, reiterating his belief that [[White extinction scenario|the German nation would "go ''kaputt''"]], unless a systematic killing of gay men occurred, ASAP.<ref>Himmler, Heinrich. ''[[Question of Homosexuality]]'', 1937.</ref>

Nazi Germany thought of German gay men as against the plan of creating a ''Herrenvolk'' ("master race"), and sought to force them into sexual and social conformity. Gay men who would not change or feign a change in their [[sexual orientation]] were sent to concentration camps under the "Extermination Through Work" campaign.<ref>Neander, Biedron. [http://en.auschwitz.org/h/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=3 Homosexuals. A Separate Category of Prisoners], ''Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum''</ref> More than one million gay Germans were targeted, of whom at least 100,000 were arrested and 50,000 were serving prison terms as "convicted homosexuals".<ref name=USHM>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070205070729/https://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hsx/ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — Archived from the original]</ref> Hundreds of European gay men living under Nazi occupation were castrated under court order.<ref>Giles, Geoffrey J. "'The Most Unkindest Cut of All': Castration, Homosexuality and Nazi Justice," Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 27 (1992): pp. 41–61.</ref>

Lesbians, on the other hand, were considered "asocial" for some reason, and given a black triangle.<ref>{{wpa|Black triangle (badge)}}</ref>

==Organisations relating to homosexuality in Nazi Germany==
===''Institut für Sexualwissenschaft''===
: Position: '''Pro-gay'''
The {{wpl|Institut für Sexualwissenschaft}} (''Institute for Sexual Science'') was an early sexology institute (1919-33) headed by {{wpl|Magnus Hirschfeld}} (a Jewish physician), who is widely considered a father of the modern gay rights movement in Germany and anti-Nazi fighter.<ref>However, this is not entirely true, as he did have some rather dubious ideas regarding [[eugenics]], [[Social Darwinism]], and his view of [[Homosexuality#Psychological harm|homosexuality as a mental disorder]].<br>[http://www.bifff-berlin.de/Hirsengl.htm Hirschfeld and Praunheim: Eugenics and Racism, Today] ''Berliner Institut für Faschismus-Forschung und Antifaschistische Aktion e. V.'' (in English)</ref> According to ''der Ewige Jude'',<ref>"The Eternal Jew", the German equivalent of the English phrase "The Wandering Jew"</ref> Hirschfeld was an example of what happens when the Jews meddle with Aryan culture, as he "promoted homosexuality and perversion", and "in the guise of scientific discussions ... tried to direct mankind's healthy urges down degenerate paths".<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=033hjDunlLc#t=2349 Der Ewige Jude / The Eternal Jew] (English subbed). '''[[NSFW]]''', unless your boss is a literal [[Nazi]].</ref>

The Nazis ransacked the institute and burned its books, along with works by pacifists, liberals, socialists, and Jewish authors, stolen from local libraries and book shops. The discredited<ref>Paul Halsall. [https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/modsbook44.asp "Internet Modern History Sourcebook / Holocaust"]. ''Fordham University History Department''. Quote: "The Annotated Pink Swastika … [is an e]xtensive point by point refutation of the Lively/Abrams book. The effort is worthwhile, but it should be noted that no serious historian takes the Lively/Abrams book seriously as anything other than evidence about the modern American far right…."</ref><ref>Jacob Anderson-Minshall (February 3, 2016). [https://www.advocate.com/books/2016/2/03/new-book-debunks-pink-swastika-myth "New Book Debunks the Pink Swastika Myth"]. ''The Advocate''.</ref> book ''[[The Pink Swastika]]'' claimed the Nazis burned the books at the ''Institut für Sexualwissenschaft'' because they were secretly gay themselves and trying to cover it up, but ''The Annotated Pink Swastika'' found that was actually [[bullshit]] based on [[quote mining]] of one of the institute's employees, Ludwig Levy-Lenz, who was himself just speculating:<ref>(1996/1997). [http://www.qrd.org/qrd/religion/anti/annotated.pink.swastika "The Annotated Pink Swastika"], New Edition. ''Citizens Allied for Civic Action''.</ref>
{{blockquote|This quotation is not correctly presented. The absence of substantial material is not indicated. Among other things left out is 'I refer here especially to a young girl whose abdomen was covered with pin scratches caused through the sadism of an eminent Nuremberg Nazi….' Furthermore, the author of The Pink Swastika left out the salient fact that Ludwig L. Lenz, who "worked at the Institute" was a gynocologist !!! The Pink Swastika author tries to give the false impression that only homosexuality is involved here. …<br>Despite the claim of the Pink Swastika author, the Lenz quote is not given in full. Only about two-thirds is given, and even that is selectively quoted. The Pink Swastika author has deceptively changed it to cover up the omissions by not preserving the paragraphs or punctuation. He leaves out an incident with a Nazi woman patient who wanted to call Hirschfeld "Kirschfeld" because it sounded "more [[Aryan]]." (It isn't wise, when trying to smear homosexuals, to let readers know that Hirschfeld's clients were overwhelmingly heterosexual and largely female.) Also missing is Lenz's statement that not just files, but everything "not nailed down," including furniture and pictures on the wall, was dragged out and burned, and his lament that even "trade union buildings of the socialists, the communist clubs and the synagogues" weren't treated with such passionate hatred when they were later raided and closed. Haeberle correctly identifies Lenz's comments on the Nazis' motive as "speculation" and then raises an interesting point of his own: would the Nazis really have burnt such material that could have been used to destroy enemies and to blackmail fellow Nazis and keep them in line? "Is it not rather more likely that they were saved for use by the Gestapo?"<br>The Pink Swastika author doesn't address an obvious conflict of Lenz's "speculation" with material from Steakley. It's curious that the conflict should have escaped the author's attention, for he quotes from the very pages where the conflicting information appears. Lenz says "everything" was destroyed. The Pink Swastika author states that "twelve thousand books and thirty-five thousand photographs" were destroyed, and cites Steakley as the source of those numbers. What he covers up is that Steakley actually says "More than 12,000 books were removed from the Institute's library of 20,000 volumes, together with a large part of its unique collection of 35,000 pictures." In others words, not everything was destroyed, suggesting that Lenz's speculations were highly exaggerated.<br>This is yet another example of the deceptive "scholarship" of the Pink Swastika author. Burleigh and Wippermann don't "report" on the raid but quote an account of a witness. Nothing is said of "secrets" or personal files, only of books and manuscripts. Finally, it's ironic to see the Pink Swastika author characterizing the burning of books as "synonymous with Nazism." A phenomenon of the early 1990s was fundamentalist Protestant ministers — surely members of the anti-gay movement — staging public burnings of books, magazines, and even phonograph records they didn't like.}}

===''Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und der Abtreibung''===
: Position: '''Anti-gay'''
The {{wpl|Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion}} (created on 10 October 1936 by a special decree of the ''Reichsführer-SS'', Heinrich Himmler)  was the central instrument of [[Nazi Germany]] for the fight against [[homosexuality]] and [[abortion]] in Nazi Germany. It was based on a similar organisation set up by [[Stalin]] to combat immorality in the [[USSR]]. The primary task of the ''Reichszentrale'' was the collection of data about [[homosexuals]].

Its creation was the sign of the revival of persecution of gay men during the relative calm after the 1936 Summer Olympics, and the central archive of data allowed the ''Reichszentrale'' to coordinate and begin the persecution and punishment of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. In order to do this, it had at its disposal special mobile squads, which also could carry out executions. By 1940 the section had acquired data regarding some 41,000 homosexuals, both suspected and convicted. Investigation of homosexuality within the Party was not encouraged, unless the leadership ordered it for political reasons, such as during the Night of the Long Knives.<ref>{{wpa|Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion}}</ref>

==Gay Nazi list==
{{cquote|While there were some sexual deviants [homosexuals] in the SA, notably {{wpl|Ernst Röhm|Ernst Röhm,}} who defended homosexualism {{sic}} as leaving patriotic men free from [[family values|family concerns]] to devote their activities to [[Nazi Germany|the nation]], this was a minority tendency. This faction was crushed in any case during the {{wpl|Night of the Long Knives|Röhm Rebellion of 1934,}} along with the {{wpl|Strasserism|Strasserites.}} All major NS [National Socialist/Nazi] figures such as Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Hess, Göring, [and] Heydrich were [[heterosexual]]s.|||[[Metapedia]] on [[Stopped clock|being right]] for once.<ref name=Meta1><capture>[http://en.metapedia.org/m/index.php?title=Sexual_revolution&oldid=385864 Metapedia "Sexual revolution", Revision as of 12:30, 27 December 2014]</capture> (in footnote of article).</ref>}}
* {{wpl|Heinrich Himmler|Himmler}} ('''ALLEGED''' 
by me
) – [[tu quoque|all that talk on homosexuality]] (see "see also") seems like a form of [[psychological projection]] to me.
* [[Adolf Hitler|der ''Führer'']] himself ('''ALLEGED''') – yes, he had a wife, but that doesn't deter some to suggest that Hitler may have been gay.<ref>{{wpa|Sexuality of Adolf Hitler}}</ref>
*Ernst Röhm ('''CONFIRMED GAY''') – killed in the Night of the Long Knives (aka Röhm Putsch/Rebellion), as he was deemed an opponent of [[Hitler]].<ref>Röhm was considered the main target of the Night of the Long Knives, but other [[w:Strasserism|Strasserists]] were killed in this Putsch. Röhm's sexuality was given as the official reason for his death, as [[w:Paragraph 175|homosexuality was outlawed in Germany]] at the time.</ref> He was the only Nazi official who referred to Hitler as the familiar ''du'',<ref>''Du'' is the German informal singular. Most officials referred to Hitler as ''Mein Führer'' ["my leader"], never mind the German formal for "you" (singular), ''Sie''.</ref> prompting the rumour that Hitler was actually [[gay]] himself, as anyone who is friendly with a gay man [[Association fallacy|must also be gay]], right?

== See also ==
*''[[Question of Homosexuality]]'', a speech given by {{wpl|Heinrich Himmler}} 
*[[Eugenics]]

== External links ==
*{{wpa|Holocaust victims}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|90%}}

[[Category:Conservative deceit]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]

Categories: Conservative deceit, Pseudohistory