Gay Nazis myth
There is a widespread and long-lasting myth alleging that homosexuals were numerous and prominent as a group in the
Background
After the Nazis took power in Germany, homosexuals were persecuted. About 100,000 men were arrested, 50,000 convicted and some 5,000 to 15,000 interned in Nazi concentration camps, where they were forced to wear pink triangle badges. Some underwent castration or other Nazi human experimentation aimed at curing homosexuality. Adolf Hitler signed an edict that SS and police personnel would be subject to capital punishment if caught engaging in homosexual activity.[7][11]
History
Origins
The myth is nearly as old as the Nazi party itself.
The worldwide bestseller The Brown Book of the Reichstag Fire and Hitler Terror (1933)—a brainchild of KPD politician Willi Münzenberg—claimed that Röhm's assistant Georg Bell , who was murdered in early 1933 in Austria, had been his pimp and had procured Reichstag arsonist Marinus van der Lubbe for Röhm.[20][21][22] The book claimed that a clique of homosexual stormtroopers led by Heines set the Reichstag fire; van der Lubbe remained behind and agreed to accept the sole blame because of his desperation for affection; Bell was killed to cover it up. There was no evidence for these claims,[23][24] and in fact Heines was several hundred kilometers away at the time.[25] Nevertheless, the matter was so politically explosive that it was aired at van der Lubbe's trial in Leipzig.[20][21] Wackerfuss states that Reichstag conspiracy appealed to antifascists because of their preexisting belief that "the heart of the Nazis' militant nationalist politics lay in the sinister schemes of decadent homosexual criminals".[23]
Speculation on the supposed homosexuality of various Nazi leaders, especially
Hitler exaggerated the homosexuality in the SA in order to justify the 1934 purge of the SA leadership (the
Other anti-Nazis, such as
In the Third Reich gays are regularly being rounded up and put in work camps or even castrated and executed. Outside Germany they are derided in the leftist press and the German émigré community. We are at the point where homosexuals are being made scapegoats on all sides. In any case homosexuality is not going to be 'rooted out' and, if it were, it would leave civilization poorer.[37]
Although Mann was one of the most prominent intellectuals among exiled Germans, his essay was ignored.[35]
Germany's National Vice
In 1945, Samuel Igra, a German Jew who had spent the war in England,[38] published a book, Germany's National Vice, claiming that "there is a causal connection between mass sexual perversion" and German war crimes during both world wars.[39] This was a new element not present in the 1930s antifascist discourse.[38] Igra approvingly quoted British diplomat Robert Smallbones, who wrote in 1938 that "The explanation for this outbreak of sadistic cruelty may be that sexual perversion, in particular homo-sexuality, are very prevalent in Germany."[39] He argued that since both Judaism and Christianity have traditionally condemned homosexuality, "the Jews were the natural enemies of homosexual Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Röhm".[38] Igra wrote:
I think it is reasonable to hold that the psychological forces that let loose the sadistic orgies of the concentration camps, the mass murders in Germany, ... and the subsequent atrocities in the occupied countries may be attributed mainly to one source and that this source is the moral perversion which was rampant among the Nazi leaders and which had its typical embodiment in Hitler himself.[40]
British scholar Gregory Woods describes Igra's book as "a sustained and obsessive pursuit of the myth of Fascistic homosexuality".[39] Igra's argument is undermined by his failure to explain the Nazi persecution of homosexuals or to justify his claim that homosexuality increases antisemitism. According to Woods, Igra's claims have "reappeared at regular intervals ever since the war".[39]
Postwar literature and film
Historian and sociologist
Anti-LGBT activism
Homosexuality was a CENTRAL element of the fascist system, that the Nazi elite was rampant with homosexuality and pederasty, that Adolph Hitler intentionally surrounded himself with homosexuals during his entire adult life, and that the people most responsible for many Nazi atrocities were homosexual.[44]
In 2015, statements that LGBT activists were "jack-booted homofascist thugs" and that Hitler was a homosexual were among the controversies that led to Republican National Committee official Bryan Fischer being fired.[45][46] Fischer also claimed that the Nazi party was founded at "a gay bar in Munich", that only Nazis who were "hardcore homosexuals" could advance in the party ranks, and that "Homosexual activists... [will] do the same thing to you that the Nazis did to their opponents in Nazi Germany".[47] During the 2015 Irish referendum on same-sex marriage, psychologist and No advocate Gerard van den Aardweg "claimed the Nazi party was 'rooted' in homosexuals".[48] In Death of a Nation, a 2018 film praised by Donald Trump Jr., Dinesh D'Souza claimed that Hitler did not persecute homosexuals in Nazi Germany.[49][50]
Reception
Historicity
American sociologist Arlene Stein acknowledges that while there was a degree of homoeroticism in Nazi sports and physical culture, which was channeled into "militarism, brutality, and ideological fixations on powerful leadership figures," this does not prove revisionist claims. She notes that the Nazis "identified homosexuality with the emasculation of men", which threatened the traditional family praised in Nazi propaganda.[6] The German sociologist Erwin J. Haeberle wrote: "It is often assumed by casual students of Nazism that Hitler and many Nazi leaders were originally quite tolerant of homosexuality, that the entire SA leadership, for example, was homosexual, and that the intolerance set in only after the murder of Rohm and his friends in 1934. However, all these assumptions are false."[6]
There is no evidence that homosexuals were overrepresented in the Nazi Party, which Siemens considers unlikely because of the Nazis' homophobic politics.[51][52] Historian Laurie Marhoefer concludes: "Although remarkably long-lived, mutable, capable of regenerating itself in various contexts, and even entertained at times by reputable historians, the myth of legions of gay Nazis has no historical basis".[5] Daniel Siemens listed Alexander Zinn , Jörn Meve, and Andreas Pretzel as writers on the historiography of gay Nazis who would agree with Marhoefer's statement.[17]
According to American historian
In 2014, German cultural historian Andreas Pretzel wrote that "The
Purpose
Wackerfuss argues that by "equating sexual deviance and political deviance", readers can "rest comfortably in a naïve belief that their societies, their social circles, and they themselves can never fall into fascist temptations".[2] In his view, "the image of the gay Nazi therefore has very real consequences for modern politics" despite the rarity of actual gay Nazis.[58] According to Stein, contemporary proponents of the gay-Nazi theory on the religious right have four main goals:[59]
- strip gays of their "victim" status to decrease public support for LGBT rights
- drive a wedge between LGBT and Jewish voters, both traditionally progressive groups
- create a parallel between conservative Christians and Jews
- legitimize the idea that Christians are oppressed in the United States
Notes
- ^
- ^ "In Western Europe as well as the Soviet Union, there was a general tendency among socialists in the 1930s to identify homosexuality with Nazism...The stereotype of homosexuality as a characteristic not just of individual Nazis but of the Nazi system as a whole was firmly established during three episodes: (1) the Röhm affair in 1931-32; (2) the Reichstag fire in 1933, when the destruction of the parliament building was followed by mass arrests of the Nazi regime's political opponents; and (3) the so-called Night of the Long Knives or Röhm putsch in 1934, when a large number of the leaders of the SA (Sturmabteilung), the paramilitary troops of the Nazi party, were liquidated for political reasons."[3]
- ^
- "Although remarkably long-lived, mutable, capable of regenerating itself in various contexts, and even entertained at times by reputable historians, the myth of legions of gay Nazis has no historical basis."[5]
- Erwin J. Haeberle wrote: "It is often assumed by casual students of Nazism that Hitler and many Nazi leaders were originally quite tolerant of homosexuality, that the entire SA leadership, for example, was homosexual, and that the intolerance set in only after the murder of Rohm and his friends in 1934. However, all these assumptions are false."[6]
- The claim that "gay people helped bring Nazism to Germany... [is] a flat-out lie".[7]
References
- ^ a b Oosterhuis 1995, p. 227.
- ^ a b c Wackerfuss 2015, p. 344.
- ^ Oosterhuis 1995, pp. 227–228.
- ^ a b c Wackerfuss 2015, p. 341.
- ^ a b c Marhoefer 2015, p. 154.
- ^ a b c Stein 2016, p. 531.
- ^ a b c d Zimmerman, Jonathan (August 27, 2011). "Did Nazis persecute gays, or were they gay themselves?". The Bakersfield Californian/History News Service. Archived from the original on 2012-05-27. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
- ^ Marhoefer 2015, p. 152.
- ^ Marhoefer 2015, pp. 151–152.
- ^ Marhoefer, Laurie (22 June 2017). "From gay Nazis to 'we're here, we're queer': A century of arguing about gay pride". The Conversation. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ "Persecution of Homosexuals in the Third Reich". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- ^ Oosterhuis 1995, p. 228.
- ^ Whisnant 2016, p. 33.
- ^ Hancock 1998, p. 630.
- ^ a b Dillon 2018, p. 391.
- ^ Dillon 2018, p. 390.
- ^ a b c d e Siemens 2017, p. 174.
- ^ zur Nieden 2005, p. 173.
- ^ Göllnitz 2021, p. 226.
- ^ a b Göllnitz 2021, p. 229.
- ^ a b Rabinbach 2008, pp. 110, 112.
- ^ Wackerfuss 2015, pp. 147–248.
- ^ a b Wackerfuss 2015, p. 248.
- ^ Rabinbach 2008, p. 112.
- ^ Schwartz 2019, p. 197.
- ^ Göllnitz 2021, p. 228.
- ^ Lingiardi 2002, p. 90.
- ^ Haggerty 2013, page.
- ^ Spotts 2016, p. 94.
- ^ Oosterhuis 1995, pp. 247–248.
- ^ Siemens 2017, pp. 173–174.
- FOCUS Online(in German). Retrieved 28 May 2020.
- ^ Schwartz 2019, p. 170.
- ^ Tamagne 2007, p. 289.
- ^ a b c Oosterhuis 1995, p. 247.
- ^ Lingiardi 2002, pp. 90–91.
- ^ Spotts 2016, pp. 95–96.
- ^ a b c Oosterhuis 1995, p. 244.
- ^ a b c d Woods 1998, p. 251.
- ^ Oosterhuis 1995, pp. 244–245.
- ^ Oosterhuis 1995, p. 245.
- ^ "Anti-Gay Religious Crusaders Claim Homosexuals Helped Mastermind the Holocaust". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ Babits, Christopher (11 January 2017). "Finding Hitler (in All the Wrong Places?)". Not Even Past. Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
- ^ Stein 2016, p. 530.
- ISBN 978-1-4408-2991-8.
- ^ "WATCH: Rachel Maddow Follows Up on Haaretz Report of RNC 'Hate Group' Trip to Israel". Haaretz. 29 January 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ Slisco, Aila (2 January 2020). "AFA's Bryan Fischer claims Nazi Party "started in a gay bar," says only "hardcore homosexual" men advanced up the ranks". Newsweek. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ McGarry, Patty (14 May 2015). "Dutch psychologist links homosexuality to conspiracy theories". The Irish Times. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ Prigge, Matt (31 July 2018). "Death of a Nation: more angry nonsense from Trump's favorite film-maker". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ Polus, Sarah. "Donald Trump Jr. co-hosts Dinesh D'Souza's very conservative D.C. film premiere". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ Marhoefer 2015, p. 155.
- ^ Siemens 2017, pp. 174–175.
- ^ Wackerfuss 2015, p. 343.
- ^ Jensen 2002, pp. 322–323.
- ^ a b Jensen 2005, p. 323.
- ^ Jensen 2002, p. 323.
- ^ Pretzel 2014, p. 76.
- ^ Wackerfuss 2015, pp. 342–343.
- ^ Stein 2016, pp. 531–532.
Sources
- Dillon, Christopher (2018). "Masculinity, Political Culture, and the Rise of Nazism". The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Political Culture in Europe. ISBN 978-1-137-58538-7.
- Göllnitz, Martin (2021). "Homophobie und Revolutionsangst. Die politische Dramaturgie des 30. Juni 1934" [Homophobia and fear of revolution. The political dramaturgy of June 30, 1934]. Revolution in Kiel – Revolutionsangst in der Geschichte [Revolution in Kiel – fear of revolution in history] (PDF). Kieler Schriften zur Regionalgeschichte: Band 8. Wachholtz Verlag . pp. 209–234.
- Haggerty, George (2013). Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-58513-6.
- Hancock, Eleanor (1998). ""Only the Real, the True, the Masculine Held Its Value": Ernst Röhm, Masculinity, and Male Homosexuality". PMID 11620476.
- Jensen, Erik N. (2002). "The Pink Triangle and Political Consciousness: Gays, Lesbians, and the Memory of Nazi Persecution". S2CID 142580540.
- Jensen, Erik N. (2005). "The Pink Triangle and Political Consciousness; Gays, Lesbians, and the Memory of Nazi Persecution". In Herzog, Dagmar (ed.). Sexuality and German Fascism. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-57181-551-4.
- ISBN 978-0-8126-9515-1.
- Marhoefer, Laurie (2015). Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-1957-9.
- Oosterhuis, Harry (1995). "The "Jews" of the Antifascist Left". Journal of Homosexuality. 29 (2–3): 227–257. PMID 8666756.
- Pretzel, Andreas (2014). "Schwule Nazis" [Gay Nazis]. In Schwartz, Michael (ed.). Homosexuelle im Nationalsozialismus: Neue Forschungsperspektiven zu Lebenssituationen von lesbischen, schwulen, bi-, trans- und intersexuellen Menschen 1933 bis 1945 [Homosexuals Under National Socialism: New Research Perspectives on the Life Circumstances of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, and Intersexual Persons from 1933 to 1945] (in German). De Gruyter Oldenbourg. pp. 69–76. ISBN 978-3-486-85750-4.
- JSTOR 27669222.
- Schwartz, Michael (2019). Homosexuelle, Seilschaften, Verrat: Ein transnationales Stereotyp im 20. Jahrhundert [Homosexuals, Political Cliques, and Betrayal: A 20th Century Transnational Stereotype] (in German). ISBN 978-3-11-063650-5.
- Siemens, Daniel (2017). Stormtroopers: A New History of Hitler's Brownshirts. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-23125-0.
- ISBN 978-0-300-22097-1.
- Stein, Arlene (2016). "Whose Memories? Whose Victimhood? Contests for the Holocaust Frame in Recent Social Movement Discourse". Sociological Perspectives. 41 (3): 519–540. S2CID 147317075.
- Tamagne, Florence (2007). A History of Homosexuality in Europe, Vol. I & II: Berlin, London, Paris 1919-1939. Algora Publishing. ISBN 978-0-87586-357-3.
- Wackerfuss, Andrew (2015). ISBN 978-1-939594-06-8.
- ISBN 978-1-939594-10-5.
- Woods, Gregory (1998). A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08088-9.
- zur Nieden, Susanne (2005). "Aufstieg und Fall des virilen Männerhelden. Der Skandal um Ernst Röhm und seine Ermordung" [The rise and fall of the virile male hero. The Ernst Röhm scandal and his murder]. Homosexualität und Staatsräson. Männlichkeit, Homophobie und Politik in Deutschland 1900–1945 [Homosexuality and raison d'état. Masculinity, homophobia and politics in Germany 1900–1945] (in German). Campus Verlag. pp. 147−192. ISBN 978-3-593-37749-0.
Further reading
- Bernhardt, Markus (2007). Schwule Nazis und der Rechtsruck in Gesellschaft und schwuler Szene (in German). Pahl-Rugenstein. ISBN 978-3-89144-387-3.
- Meve, Jörn (1990). Homosexuelle Nazis: ein Stereotyp in Politik und Literatur des Exils (in German). MännerschwarmSkript. ISBN 978-3-928983-02-0.
- Munier, Julia Noah (2017). Sexualisierte Nazis: Erinnerungskulturelle Subjektivierungspraktiken in Deutungsmustern von Nationalsozialismus und italienischem Faschismus (in German). transcript Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8394-3874-9.
- Tabbert, Tankred (2019). Schwule Nazis: Zur Ästhetik und Massenpsychologie des Faschismus (in German). Artislife Press Hamburg. ISBN 978-3-9820707-8-0.
- Wahl, Hans Rudolf (2004). "Männerbünde, Homosexualitäten und politische Kultur im ersten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts Überlegungen zur Historiografie der SA". ISSN 0044-2828.
- Zinn, Alexander (1997). Die soziale Konstruktion des homosexuellen Nationalsozialisten. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-3-631-30776-2.
- Zinn, Alexander (2018). "Aus dem Volkskörper entfernt"?: Homosexuelle Männer im Nationalsozialismus (in German). Campus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-593-50863-4.
External links
- Germany's National Vice, full text
- schwule-nazis
.de site by German journalist Alexander Zinn