Gay Focus at Holocaust Museum
New York Times, January 4, 2003
229 W. 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036
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By Elizabeth Olson

WASHINGTON—They were called the "175ers"—homosexuals that the Nazis arrested, beat, used as prison labor and sometimes castrated.

Charges were brought under Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code, which outlawed "unnatural indecency" between men, starting in 1871. The Nazis broadened the statute to make "simple looking" and "simple touching" reasons for tracking and rounding up gay men.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here, where two million visitors a year learn about the persecution of Jews under Hitler, has decided to focus exhibitions on other groups, beginning with homosexuals. For two years the museum’s researchers combed records, mainly in Germany. The somber result is "Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933-1945," an exhibition that is running through March 16 at the museum, at 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, and will then travel to New York, San Francisco and other cities. (More information: ushmm.org.)

While tens of thousands were incarcerated and an unknown number killed, few homosexuals told their stories then—or later. For decades after the Allied victory they were subject to the same criminal statute that Hitler’s regime had used to pursue them. The law was expunged in 1994, and it was only last May that convicted "175ers" were pardoned by the German government.

Only fragments of their brutal treatment in the Nazi era are known. Robert T. Odeman, for example, who wrote cabaret songs, was convicted for homosexual offenses in Berlin and sent to prison. After he was released, police arrested him again, citing his letters to a half-Jewish friend. Mr. Odeman was sent to a concentration camp, from which he and two others escaped in 1945.

He died in Berlin 40 years later without knowing that his story would be part of an effort to remember the Holocaust’s other victims, who include not only gays but also the handicapped, Gypsies, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Since there was so little testimony from the victims or the survivors, the museum built the exhibition around disturbingly meticulous Nazi records. Photographs, cartoons and art from the era show that stamping out homosexuality became a priority for the Nazis even though an openly gay Ernst Röhm, chief of the storm troopers, helped bring Hitler to power. When he was murdered in 1934, barriers to pursuing gays were swept away, and homosexuality was equated with treason.

In a country where bonding began early in all-male youth groups, the Nazis publicly campaigned to stamp out "indecent" acts. Yet "a considerable number of cases of homosexual activity were found in just about every part of the Nazi apparatus, from the storm troopers to the Hitler Youth movement," said Geoffrey Giles, a University of Florida historian, who contributed some of his research to the exhibition. While "deviant" acts were a convenient tool of denunciation in the Hitler Youth, where homosexuality was cited for 25 percent of those expelled, there was also a fear that such behavior was learned and could spread through the corps.

Such behavior had to be righted, the Nazis argued, because homosexuals were jeopardizing Germany’s future generations by failing to have children. Lesbians, by contrast, were often spared, because they could be re-educated to assume roles as wives and mothers.

In the Weimar Republic, courts restricted the 1871 law, which carried a sentence of two years’ imprisonment, to acts of physical contact. About 400 people were convicted until the start of the Nazi era; then the number of convictions rose tenfold.

By 1936 the Gestapo leader Heinrich Himmler had established the Central Office to Combat Homosexuality and Abortion, and surveillance of gays was legalized. Over all, as many as 100,000 men were arrested and charged with homosexual acts. About half were convicted and imprisoned. Up to 15,000 were interned in concentration camps, where pink triangles—like the yellow star of David that Jews had to wear—were sewn on their uniforms. Some prisoners wore both.

Despite Nazi zeal, no law prevented homosexuals from serving in the German military. The Nazi Party feared that an exemption "could exclude as many as three million men," said Mr. Giles, who is writing a book about homosexuals and the party. When World War II began, accused and convicted "175ers" could legally mingle in the ranks. About 7,000 were convicted but were forced to return to military service, where they were sometimes used in suicide missions on the front lines.

The Nazis distinguished between offenders who had "learned" their behavior from others and the "incorrigibles," who actively sought partners. The so-called incorrigibles were sent to concentration camps, and by 1943 camp commanders were given authority to castrate homosexuals. The exhibition includes a photograph of an operating table.

"They believed that homosexuality could be corrected," said Edward J. Phillips, the exhibition’s curator. "That included hormone treatments among other experiments. Also, there was a notion that homosexuality was developmental and those forced to work in disciplined hard labor could overcome it."

Mr. Odeman’s case was unusual, according to historians, because some of the songs and poems he wrote in the concentration camp showed that he was part of a supportive gay circle. One theory about why gays were treated so badly in the camps was that they were isolated by fear of associating with each other and so were easier prey for camp guards, Mr. Giles said.

Why where the Nazis so diligently anti-homosexual? There have been claims that Hitler was gay, but Mr. Giles believes the Nazi focus on gays stemmed from close relationships among German men in wartime trenches.

"The defining relationship for the older Nazis was World War I, and they set out in the 1920’s to reproduce that feeling of comradeship," Mr. Giles said. "But those relationships could stray into the homoerotic area, and that’s what they feared."

:( Sad that this occured and yet it's good that they including this as part of the Holocaust Museum to inform and educate us all.......Thanks for sharing.
Deb

It is an unfortunate part of our world history and an unfortunate part of our American history that there have not been previous efforts to ackowledge [on a significant level] that these events took place.

I would venture to say that while Schools are willing to discuss the Holocaust and teach their lessons to students. Few, if any students are taught about the devistation laid upon those called the 175ers.

Chris

I'm agreeing with you 100% Chris. I never had it even at the college level in World Civ----and we certainly discussed the Holocaust.....

Deb

I think there are several rationalizations to this occurring, the first is that to discuss such events would be to also acknowledge that gay men and women are persecuted for their sexuality. Because one cannot merely discuss past events without also correlating them to present day events and the similarities involved. Yet, because homosexuality is, to the largest extent, considered to be "deivant" and an "abomination of God". The computation becomes: silence + indifference = non-existence.

Secondly, because there are not a great number of records pertaining to these events, such as the number of gay victims, people responsible for war crimes against gay people and so forth. It is not entirely easy to lay out an appropriate educational tribute to the 175ers. Yet, like many things in our history... if indifference did not exist, perhaps more would be willing to come forward with the missing documentation.

We must also see that the military takes a significant role here, for in reflection the trials at Neurmberg (spelling?) did not include war crimes taken against the 175ers. Thus, by the military's out right refusal to confront the issues and bring forward not only the documentation. But also those responsible for the crimes. A great part of this history has been forever lost and justice thrown to the wind.

Chris

The Pink Triangle was used by the Nazis to signify homosexuals. Although, homosexuals were only one of the groups targeted for extermination, it is unfortunately, the group that history often excludes. The Pink Triangle defies anyone to deny history.

In 1935 Hitler revised the German Law, Paragraph 175, prohibiting homosexuality, by including kissing, embracing, and gay fantasies as well as sexual acts. Convicted offenders-- an estimated 25,000 from 1937 to 1939, were sent to prison and later transferred to concentration camps. They were to be sterilized, most often by castration. Hitler changed his policy on homosexuality to include death in 1942.

Concentration camp prisoners were designated into groups by colored inverted triangles. Which set up a social hierarchy among prisoners. A green triangle marked the wearer as a regular criminal.; a red triangle denoted a political prisoner. Two yellow overlapping triangles forming a Star of David denotes Jewish prisoners. The Pink Triangle was for homosexuals. A yellow Star of David under a superimposed Pink Triangle represented Gay Jewish prisoners-- by the social hierarchy, the lowest of all prisoners.

When the war was finally over, many homosexuals remained prisoners in the camps until 1969 when Paragraph 175 was repealed in West Germany.

In the 80s, ACT-UP (Aids Coalition To Unleash Power) started using a Pink Triangle that pointed up, to signify an active fight back , rather than a passive resignation to fate. Today , for many, the Pink Triangle represents Pride and Solidarity...Convicted offenders, an estimated 25,000.

In the mid-1980's the GLBT community adopted the "Rainbow Flag" in representation of not only the diversity within our culture and certainly our society. But also the diversity existing within the GLBT community as well. Moreover, that in its collective manner, the diversity existing could be united to form one entity of beauty.

The Rainbow Flag carrying a black stripe at the bottom, is to commerate those who have fallen to AIDS. Thus, while the "Red Ribbon" has been used to signify AIDS in a neutral manner, so as not to "claim status" in the concept that a person is either gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. The Rainbow Flag with the black stripe is specifically for those GLBT community members who wish to pay tribute to the fallen from an openly GLBT position.

I, being jewish, have seen many pictures in Many museums from NY to Wahington to Israel. I have actually seen these patches...The thing that bothered me the most was looking very closely at them...so close I could see each stich...I got sick to my stomach that some one actually sat there and sewed these things....
There are no a lot of pictures etc. of the homosexuals that were persecuted however, they were...I am evry gald that they have decided to have this exibit. Although I have read many many books and this subject has been taught to me from early days...may people are not aware that many others were persecuted. Althou, as you said, being a jew was the lowest thing you could be...you could also be homosexual, a gypsey, a twin, mentally retarded, deaf, blind, a child, a priest etc etc. I could go on and on. THe Nazi's killed 3 times as many jews as there vistors to that museum each year and as many as 1 million others...these people must also never be forgotten!

The Bear Pride flag was first displayed on June 18, 1995, at Spags, a Seattle bear bar. What is a Bear, you may ask? A Bear is a man that has an abundance of hair on their face, chest and body. The colors of the flag represent the Earth and the different bears that live between the sky and the ground. The Golden yellow paw shaped sun Represents the spirit and brotherhood of all bears. The blue stripe represents the sky; white for Polar bears; black for black bears; brown for brown bears and green for the Earth.

The Leather Pride flag represents the leather community. It is used by those into leather, sado-masochism, bondage and domination, uniforms, cowboys, rubber, and other fetishes. It was first displayed in Chicago at the 1989 Mr. Leather contest. Even though it is common in the Gay community, it is not a "Gay only" symbol.

And from all of this we have.... A History In The Making

Chris,

You said in a posting above that they remained in the camps until 1969. Until 1969 there were people in the concentration camps until this was repealed by Western Germany? Am I understanding this right?

Deb

Deb:

If I am understanding your question correctly, I would say yes, insofar as according to the Stonewall Society, which has gone to pain staking efforts to trace and document historical events taking place in the GLBT community, which includes the Holocaust.

Chris

Is there documentation on the internet or a book that I can access on this? I will include it in my Social Problems class the next time we cover the chapter on prejudice and I will inform our Western Civ professor.....Thanks a million....

Deb

Deb:

I will contact the Stonewall Society and inquire into such matters and see if we can't get you this information.. Please pm me with your email address.

I think the extended stay in the camps cetered on the "criminality" aspects under the 175 law and the military's anti-gay position/mentality to recognize that these individuals were victims of war crimes and not of criminal acts. I mean, how can one be guilty of a true criminal act for having a fantacy about samesex sex? Thus, my research has produced no documentation to demonstrate any pro-active positions by the military to rescue these victims from their persecutions during or after the invasion of Germany and the end of WWII.

One of the most powerful true stories made that dealt with WWII was that of Schindler's List... And while its intent is to focus on the specific events taking place that involved Mr. Schindler and the Jewish people saved as a result of his list. The movie fails to mention the many others [and not just the homosexuals] who were also persecuted. Thus, for me personally, while it was a GREAT movie that carried profound messages, which all people need to listen to and learn from. I was discouraged that Hollywood again failed to note the many others who have been no less persecuted by the Hitler mentality.

Chris

pm sent. Thanks Chris....

Deb

The Persecution of homosexual men in Berlin from 1933 to 1945 An exhibition by the Gay Museum Berlin and the Sachsenhausen Memorial

by Friederike Wyrwich

Paul O'Montis was a well-known singer of the Berlin cabaret scene from the middle of the 1920s. He emigrated to Vienna in 1933 and eventually went to Prague. In 1939, the Germans had just occupied western Czechoslovakia - Paul O'Montis was arrested and, in June 1940, sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp - just an hour by car from the Berlin theatres in which he used to appear. O'Montis died at the camp within two months. In July 1940 he was forced by a Blockältester (eldest of prisoner's barrack) to kill himself because he was gay.

The persecution of homosexual men was kept silent for a long time in both post-war German states. Homophobic discrimination and persecution continued in west and east Germany after liberation from national socialism. Now, for the first time, exhibition has been dedicated to "the persecution of homosexual men in Berlin from 1933 to 1945" in Berlin and Oranienburg. The Gay Museum and the Sachsenhausen Memorial portray over 30 individual fates, the destruction of the Berlin gay and lesbian sub-culture and the situation of homosexual inmates in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

The decade-long suppression of the topic has made it considerably difficult for the exhibition's historians to find out about the persecution of homosexuals in the Third Reich. The survivors left relatively little and with their death many memories disappeared without ever having been listened to. "The persecuted gays" says Karl-Heinz Steinle, scientific collaborator of the Gay Museum, "were - unlike other victim groups - not encouraged to write down their experiences in the concentration camps. Therefore we have very few publications by survivors today. Interestingly, we found quite a lot of material with those homosexuals who married after the war. The wives and children kept their things more often than the family members of gays who got married."

The end of a liberal era
After the First World War, a rich gay sub-culture developed in Berlin - strong enough to attract homosexuals from abroad. Until 1933 there existed simultaneously over one hundred gay and lesbian pubs, and a variety of gay, lesbian and transsexual magazines were published. But the liberal climate of the 1920s found a sudden end with the coming to power of Hitler in 1933. From now on homosexual men were persecuted as "state enemies" and labelled as a "infection risk". The Nazis closed all the gay and lesbian pubs in February and March 1933. Two months later they dissolved the Institute for Sexual Science founded by Magnus Hirschfeld and burned the books from the institute's library on the Berlin Bebel square. The gay and lesbian clubs and organisations dissolved under the political pressure.

However, in the Third Reich homosexuals were not persecuted in a systematic way or just because of their sexual orientation. Fines of DM175 were handed out for sexual "deviancy", which included kisses, flirts and ambiguous touches among men. As long as gays were ready to give up their love lives or agree to a fictitious marriage they were relatively safe. Lesbian women - with the exception of Austria - were not prosecuted during the Nazi era. In the concentration camps they were - contrary to gays - not registered as a special group of prisoners and thus can only be identified from the records with difficulty.




Gay prisoners had a death rate above average
Seventeen-year-old Robert T. Odemann (photograph) got to know his first great love, the architectural student Martin Ulrich Eppendorf, called Muli, in 1922. For ten years, until the death of Muli, they shared a close relationship. At the beginning of the Third Reich, Robert Odemann worked as musical director at the Neues Theater in Hamburg. In 1935 he founded his own literary cabaret, closed by the police shortly after it came on the scene. After the arrest of a friend from whom the Gestapo was able to extract a confession about a homosexual relationship with Odemann, Odemann was arrested in June 1938 and subsequently sentenced by the Nazis. After his release in February 1940, Robert Odemann was ordered to report regularly to the police, and the Reichsmusikkammer - a Nazi-organ controlling German artists - banned him from pursuing his career. Only five months later, in July 1940, Heinrich Himmler gave the order to send convicted homosexuals into concentration camps directly after they had served their sentence. When, despite his engagement with a lesbian cabaret, artist Robert Odemann was rearrested in November 1942, this order became his fate. This time the Gestapo put him into Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

The homosexuals in the Nazi camps were marked with a pink triangle. The effect was that they were not only recognizable to the SS guards but also to all other detainees. Next to Jews and Soviet POWs, gays belonged to the lowest group in the inmates' hierarchy - the top of which was above all taken up by German political prisoners. The discrimination of homosexuals in society continued among the concentration camp prisoners who mostly despised and avoided gays. From 1938 onwards, the SS used the gays of Sachsenhausen concentration camp specifically for the most dangerous and exhausting works in the clinker factory for the production of bricks. The 1200 or so gay prisoners in Sachsenhausen had a death rate above average.

Robert T. Odemann was able to find work as a Blockschreiber (writer of his barrack) in Sachsenhausen - a job that increased his chances for survival considerably compared to the clinker factory. As a Blockschreiber, Odemann had access to the prisoner's files and was able to help others by letting "disappear" index cards from endangered inmates. He also performed as a cabaret artist in the camp and thus helped to strengthen the survival will of his fellow detainees. During the death march in order to evacuate the camp Sachsenhausen in Spring 1945 Robert Odemann was able to escape with two other friends and survived.

Homosexual survivors didn't receive compensation
In post-war west Germany, homosexuality was considered a punishable act until 1969. There were gay concentration camp survivors who were again sentenced several times to prison terms after 1945. In east Germany, actions "similar to sexual intercourse" among men were still illegal. After another change of law in 1968, only the "seduction" of minors was prohibited. Karl-Heinz Steinle points out that neither in East Germany nor in the West were homosexuals recognised as official victims of national socialism. The dominating opinion in both countries would rather have been that the persecution of gays had been justified in a certain way. For this reason they did not receive compensation as other victim groups did.

Phil

Thanks for that incredible article... it was really insightful and I enjoyed reading.

It is very regrettable that indifference [regardless of cultures] has caused a life time of harm to our community as a whole and the valuable history living within our community.

Deb:

I was thinking last night about your question... you may want to get the book called "The Pink Triangle"... it is, I am told, a book that deals with the presecution of gays during WWII. I have not had the opportunity to read the book, but then I live in a small town and its not likely to be on the shelves of the local five and dime. Anyway, this may help you get started in your research efforts and may have a listing of other books you can get as well.

informative, interesting, troubling, eye-opening. thank you.

Thanks Chris....I wrote down the title and I will check on it....

Deb

Hey Patch

I read your post and thought it was great info. I remember reading an article by a gay web site called 365Gay.com on this subject and thought I would include it here.


Hearing Set For Gay Holocaust Denier
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff


April 4, 2003


(St Paul, Minnesota) Minnesota state Rep Arlon Lindner will be hauled before a House ethics committee next week over his allegations that gays were not targeted in the Holocaust.

Democrats, gays, and Jewish groups have accused Lindner of "homophobic rewriting of history".

The committee has set aside next week to hear arguments for Lindner's censure.

The censure motion calls it "a case of Holocaust revisionism that brought disrepute to the legislative body."

During debate on two bills by the Republican representative that would repeal gay rights laws in the state, Lindner said gays and lesbians falsely attempt to portray themselves as victims in society. He then claimed that as an example gays were lying when they cited thousands of gays who were exterminated or sent to concentration camps by the Nazis.

"It never happened," Lindner told the House.

"I was a child during World War II, and I've read a lot about World War II," he said. "It's just been recently that anyone's come out with this idea that homosexuals were persecuted to this extent. There's been a lot of rewriting of history." (story)

Days later he angered HIV/AIDS patients and African Americans when he said: "If you want to sit around and wait until America becomes another African continent, you do that," Lindner said. "But I'm going to do something about that."

Lindner's legislation would remove the state human rights amendment that protects gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Minnesotans from discrimination in employment, housing, education and other areas. It also would remove sexual orientation as a protected class in hate crimes laws

At next week's censure hearing Democratic leaders are planning to supply both a Jewish Holocaust survivor who says she witnessed anti-gay attacks and a local university professor who has compiled an archive of documents outlining Nazi persecution against gays.

To date Lindner has refused to apologize for his remarks. His lawyer, James Anderson, has repeatedly insisted that Lindner is the victim of persecution against Christians.

"It is basically an attempt to muzzle a Christian, and, I think, at the bottom of it all is liberals today are not going be satisfied until every Christian is walking around wearing a muzzle."

Oh Gosh !!!!! What can be said ??? It's frightening to hear such statements nowadays !!!

Thanks for sharing Steve

Phil