In 'Great Freedom,' a man is eed om the Nazis, and re-imprisoned for beg gay : NPR

Contents:

• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• NETFLIX EXPOS THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS
• ‘GREAT FREEDOM’ AND THE LONG SHADOW OF AN ANTI-GAY LAW GERMANY
• THE HORRIFIC NAZI TREATMENT OF GAYS — THE SAD STORY OF PK MEN“THE NAZIS STUCK 25 CENTIMETERS OF WOOD UP MY ASS”PETER PRKAR·FOLLOWPUBLISHED LSONS OM HISTORY·5 M READ·JUL 22, 2021--4SHAREGAY PRISONERS A NAZI NCENTRATN MP, WEARG A PK TRIANGLE (IMAGE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS NAZI NCENTRATN MPS WAS CEL AND DISGTG. YET, THERE WAS A STE OF PRISONERS WHO WERE NSIRED THE LOWT OF THE LOW BY THE MP GUARDS AND EVEN BY THE FELLOW PRISONERS — GAY MEN.THE TREATMENT OF THE GAYS THE NAZI NCENTRATN MPS WAS TLY HORRIFIC. GAY MEN WERE ED FOR MEDIL EXPERIMENTS AND AS SHOOTG TARGETS. THE GUARDS WOULD AIM FOR THE PK TRIANGL ON THEIR CHTS THAT SYMBOLIZED THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATN.THEY WERE TORTURED, EXPERIMENTED ON, AND RIDICULED. THEY WERE BEATEN TO ATH BY THEIR FELLOW PRISONERS. THEY RECEIVED THE MOST DANGERO TASK THE MP’S STONE QUARRI AND FACTORI.“THE NAZIS STUCK 25 CENTIMETERS OF WOOD UP MY ASS.”— PIERRE SEEL, A GAY HOLOT SURVIVORTHE NOTOR PARAGRAPH 175
• NEO-NAZI WHO TORTURED GAY PEOPLE VIRAL VIOS DI PRISON OF SUICI
• ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI
• ‘ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE NAZIS’: THE FILM ABOUT GERMANY’S POSTWAR PERSECUTN OF GAY MEN
• IN 'GREAT FREEDOM,' A MAN IS EED OM THE NAZIS, AND RE-IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY
• THE NAZI DOCTOR WHO EXPERIMENTED ON GAY PEOPLE – AND BRA HELPED TO PE JTICE
• KG LIL JAY SLAMS GAY MORS AFTER VIO OF MAT KISSG PROMPTS TROLLS’ RPONSE

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

It is unclear how many of the men publicly or privately intified as gay or were part of gay muni and works that had been tablished Germany before the Nazi rise to power. However, the Nazi mpaign agast homosexualy and the regime’s zealo enforcement of Paragraph 175 ma life Nazi Germany dangero for gay men.

The latter term dated to 1869, when a pamphlet advotg for crimalizatn of sexual relatns between men ed the term “Homosexualät” (“homosexualy”). The newer slang word “schwul” (often translated to English as “gay”) was also creasgly popular among certa groups.

In ntrast, the work of gay men that veloped around thor Adolf Brand and his anizatn Gemeschaft r Eigenen (The Communy of Kdred Spirs) took a different approach. It was the relatively eeg atmosphere of the Weimar Republic that gay muni and works grew and veloped unprecented ways.

NETFLIX EXPOS THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY

Some joed “iendship leagu” (Frndschaftsverbän), groups that polilly and socially anized gay men, lbian women, and others. Gay newspapers and journals, such as Die Frndschaft (Friendship) and Der Eigene (translated varly, but this ntext implyg “his own man”), ntributed to the growth of gay works. They actively tried to build a sense of muny among gay men, and clud personal ads and rmatn about gay meetg plac.

Part of this nmnatn was a rejectn of the era’s open exprsns of sexualy, cludg the visibily of gay muni. However, Röhm’s posn the Nazi learship did not temper the movement’s nmnatn of homosexualy and gay muni.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS

Shortly thereafter, they sought to dismantle the visible gay cultur and works that had veloped durg the Weimar Republic.

However, ci like Berl and Hamburg, some tablished gay bars were able to rema open until the mid-1930s. Nohels, the Nazi closur and creased police surveillance ma far more difficult for gay men to nnect wh each other.

Another early actn unrtaken by the Nazi regime was the elimatn of gay newspapers, journals, and publishg ho. In a further latn, the Nazis ed new laws and police practic to arrt and ta whout trial a limed number of gay men begng late 1933 and early 1934.

‘GREAT FREEDOM’ AND THE LONG SHADOW OF AN ANTI-GAY LAW GERMANY

Three events the years 1934–1936 radilized the Nazi regime’s mpaign agast homosexualy and led to more systematic opprsn of gay men.

Fally, 1936 SS lear and Chief of the German Police Herich Himmler tablished the Reich Central Office for the Combatg of Homosexualy and Abortn (Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung r Homosexualät und r Abtreibung). The notorly homophobic Himmler saw both homosexualy and abortn as threats to the German birth rate and th to the fate of the German people.

THE HORRIFIC NAZI TREATMENT OF GAYS — THE SAD STORY OF PK MEN“THE NAZIS STUCK 25 CENTIMETERS OF WOOD UP MY ASS”PETER PRKAR·FOLLOWPUBLISHED LSONS OM HISTORY·5 M READ·JUL 22, 2021--4SHAREGAY PRISONERS A NAZI NCENTRATN MP, WEARG A PK TRIANGLE (IMAGE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS NAZI NCENTRATN MPS WAS CEL AND DISGTG. YET, THERE WAS A STE OF PRISONERS WHO WERE NSIRED THE LOWT OF THE LOW BY THE MP GUARDS AND EVEN BY THE FELLOW PRISONERS — GAY MEN.THE TREATMENT OF THE GAYS THE NAZI NCENTRATN MPS WAS TLY HORRIFIC. GAY MEN WERE ED FOR MEDIL EXPERIMENTS AND AS SHOOTG TARGETS. THE GUARDS WOULD AIM FOR THE PK TRIANGL ON THEIR CHTS THAT SYMBOLIZED THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATN.THEY WERE TORTURED, EXPERIMENTED ON, AND RIDICULED. THEY WERE BEATEN TO ATH BY THEIR FELLOW PRISONERS. THEY RECEIVED THE MOST DANGERO TASK THE MP’S STONE QUARRI AND FACTORI.“THE NAZIS STUCK 25 CENTIMETERS OF WOOD UP MY ASS.”— PIERRE SEEL, A GAY HOLOT SURVIVORTHE NOTOR PARAGRAPH 175

In the Nazis’ unrstandg, the men were “homosexual” (“homosexuell”) offenrs and th crimals and enemi of the state. In the mid- to late 1930s, the police raid bars and other meetg plac that they believed to be popular wh gay men. The language people ed nunciatns mak clear that the Germans tend to agree wh Nazi attus towards homosexualy.

In rarer s, the Kripo or the Gtapo would send a man directly to a ncentratn mp as a “homosexual” (“homosexuell”) offenr.

For example, gay men tegorized by the Nazi regime as Aryan had far more optns than those tegorized as Jews or Roma (Gypsi). But the end of the war and the feat of the Nazi regime did not necsarily brg a sense of liberatn for gay men. Unverg the histori of gay men durg the Nazi era was difficult for much of the twentieth century bee of ntued prejudice agast same-sex sexualy and the ongog enforcement of Paragraph 175.

NEO-NAZI WHO TORTURED GAY PEOPLE VIRAL VIOS DI PRISON OF SUICI

The efforts of scholars and German gay rights anizatns have helped to brg the persecutn of gay men unr the Nazis to the public eye. In the 1990s, the German ernment acknowledged “persecuted homosexuals” (“verfolgten Homosexuellen”) as victims of the Nazi regime. For the first time, gay men who had suffered at the hands of the Nazis beme eligible for moary pensatn om the German ernment for jtic perpetrated agast them.

A few years later, May 2008, the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted unr Nazism (Denkmal für die im Natnalsozialism verfolgten Homosexuellen) was unveiled nearby Tiergarten park central Berl.

ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI

Which didn’t stop burly Hler nfidante and head of the Nazi SA paraary wg Ernst Röhm, a not-terribly-closeted gay man, om equentg the tablishment. As the film explas, the SA had a strong homoerotic element, a disgt wh women and femy they somehow ed to jtify homosexualy – for a time, anyway. At a certa pot, Röhm’s iendship wh Hler uld only take him so far a Nazi regime creasgly set on eraditg homosexualy.

Röhm is but one player this ncise, ftly told doc that the Eldorado as a lnchg pad to a broar story about beg gay Nazi Germany.

‘ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE NAZIS’: THE FILM ABOUT GERMANY’S POSTWAR PERSECUTN OF GAY MEN

The film never out and yells , but is also a remr of the Fal Solutn tenor that still acpani much anti-gay and anti-trans rhetoric and, creasgly, policy. He was also a bohemian spir who had a passnate homosexual relatnship wh Manasse Herbst, a Galician Jewish actor who fled Germany 1936.

Hirschfeld, a groundbreakg sexologist, both gay and Jewish and therefore a prime target of Nazi Germany, was thankfully not prent when his stute was ransacked by mardg Nazi youth (here aga, there are photos). Here we experience the nce that thrived before the fall, at a hiaway for those whose differenc would soon mark them for prison, exile, or, many s, ath ( is timated that between 5, 000 and 15, 000 gay people died the ncentratn mps for vlatg Paragraph 175).

IN 'GREAT FREEDOM,' A MAN IS EED OM THE NAZIS, AND RE-IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY

The Nazis posed as moral csars who wanted to stamp out the "vice" of homosexualy om Germany orr to help w the racial stggle. The Nazis posed as moral csars who wanted to stamp out what they labeled as the "vice" of homosexualy orr to help Germany w the racial stggle. They persecuted homosexuals as part of their so-lled moral csa to racially and culturally purify Germany.

The Nazi regime nsired homosexualy a moral vice that threatened the current and future strength of the German people. They rried out a mpaign agast male homosexualy that clud shuttg down gay and lbian meetg plac and arrtg men unr Paragraph 175, the statute of the German crimal that banned sexual relatns between men. ” Victor (Ge Friedrich) stammers disbelief, more to himself than to Hans (Franz Rogowski) fictnal character of Hans, liberated om a Nazi ncentratn mp at the end of World War II only to be sent directly to prison, is based on a chillg and often overlooked chapter German postwar is repeatedly arrted unr Paragraph 175, a law crimalizg sex between men that the Nazis expand jt a uple of years to their regime, and which was kept on the books for s law was ed, sometim wh elaborate stg operatns, to nvict up to 50, 000 gay men Wt Germany between 1945 and 1994 — roughly as many as were arrted durg the which the Nazis ed .

“For gay men, the Nazi era did not end 1945, ” said Peter Rehberg, the archivist of Schwul Mm, a gay cultural stutn Sebastian Meise, the director of “Great Freedom, ” read about the men who went om the ncentratn mps to prison bee of their sexualy, “really changed my unrstandg of history, ” he said a telephone terview om Vienna. But for many s, postwar Germany’s treatment of gay men was also neher liberal nor 1935, the Nazis strengthened Germany’s law crimalizg homosexualy, which was origally troduced the 1870s. This allowed the regime to crimalize not jt gay sex, but almost any behavr that uld be seen to n afoul of heterosexual norms, cludg lookg at another man.

THE NAZI DOCTOR WHO EXPERIMENTED ON GAY PEOPLE – AND BRA HELPED TO PE JTICE

Bermbach spent four weeks jail and was fed 5, 000 marks — a hefty sum at the he paid off the fe, he beme one of the thoands of gay and bisexual men who fled Paragraph 175. He moved to Paris 1960 search of more and his wrg partner Thomas Reir llected many stori om Bermbach’s generatn of gay men durg the six years they spent rearchg and wrg the script for “Great Freedom, ” visg the archiv at the Schwul Mm and the Magn Hirschfeld Foundatn, which llects terviews wh men affected by the, Paragraph 175 did not stop gay culture om evolvg Wtern Germany; the German tle of the film, “Grosse Freihe, ” is a nod to a venerable gay bar Berl where the penultimate scene tak place. He remembered Berl police pullg up large vans ont of bars known to be gay hot spots the late ’40s and ’50s.

KG LIL JAY SLAMS GAY MORS AFTER VIO OF MAT KISSG PROMPTS TROLLS’ RPONSE

A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn C, Page 3 of the New York edn wh the headle: The Long Shadow of Germany’s Anti-Gay Law. “The Nazis stuck 25 centimeters of wood up my ass”Gay prisoners a Nazi ncentratn mp, wearg a pk triangle (Image: Wikimedia Commons)The treatment of prisoners Nazi ncentratn mps was cel and disgtg. Yet, there was a ste of prisoners who were nsired the lowt of the low by the mp guards and even by the fellow prisoners — gay treatment of the gays the Nazi ncentratn mps was tly horrific.

”— Pierre Seel, a gay Holot survivorThe notor Paragraph 175Graphs wh the number of nvictns due to Paragraph 175 (Image: Wikimedia Commons)In 1871, the law known as Paragraph 175 me to force the German Empire. After World War I, the time of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), gay and lbian life Germany flourished.

In 1935, the Nazi ernment broaned Paragraph 175 to allow the arrt of men only on an accatn of homosexualy. Maxim Martskevich, the 36-year-old Neo-Nazi founr of Occupy Pedophilia, a Rsian vigilante group that tortured spected gay teenagers on vio, has reportedly mted suici while servg a 10-year prison sentence Siberia for an unrelated vlent offense, acrdg to the Mosw Tim. Through Format 18, he allegedly arranged the productn and sale of vios showg immigrants beg 2013, Martskevich beme famo amongst the Wtern LGBTQ muny for his vios associated wh Occupy Pedophilia, his group that ed social media to lure gay men wh promis of sex only to rerd their huiated and physil torment on mera.