The Pk Triangle: From Nazi Label to Symbol of Gay Pri | HISTORY

Contents:

• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• SERI: GAY MEN AND LBIANS UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS
• OPN: GAY HOLOT VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS ARE OFTEN FOTTEN – WE NEED TO TELL THEIR STORI
• THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI
• IN 'GREAT FREEDOM,' A MAN IS EED OM THE NAZIS, AND RE-IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY
• GAY PEOPLE
• FEATURE: BRA’S NCENTRATN MPS FOR GAY MEN

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”).

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. 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.

SERI: GAY MEN AND LBIANS UNR THE NAZI REGIME

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. 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).

WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?

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.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS

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. 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.

The Nazi regime harassed and targeted gay men and lbians by banng their anizatns, shutterg their prs, and raidg and closg their meetg plac. The post was acpanied by a picture of a pk triangle -- the symbol officials Nazi Germany ed to intify and ostracize gay ncentratn mp prisoners -- and a quote drawn om the webse for The Pk Triangle of San Francis, an annual event rememberg those victimized unr Nazi le:.

Between 1933 and 1945, an timated 100, 000 men were arrted for vlatg Nazi Germany's law agast homosexualy, and of the, approximately 50, 000 were sentenced to prison. The men arrted for beg gay were targeted unr a revised versn of a 19th century statute, Paragraph 175, which was expand to tegorize homosexualy as a crime of "cency.

OPN: GAY HOLOT VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS ARE OFTEN FOTTEN – WE NEED TO TELL THEIR STORI

And their alli feated the Nazi regime, the law remaed effect after World War II, as the Holot Memorial mm's exhib on the regime's anti-gay persecutn stat:. Unr the Allied occupatn, some homosexuals were forced to serve out their terms of imprisonment regardls of time served the ncentratn mps.

The Nazi versn of Paragraph 175 remaed on the books of the Feral Republic of Germany (Wt Germany) until the law was revised 1969 to crimalize homosexual relatns between men over the age of 21. On 22 March 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her bet approved a bill that overturned nvictns for gay men which had rried out unr Paragraph 175 between 1949 and 1969 and also provid pensatn for survivg victims. The pk triangle symbol has sce evolved to an important remr for the gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr muny of the ntug homophobia and humany agast them and other reprsed mori around the world.

Adolf Hler’s regime overturned all prev attempts Germany to crimalize same-sex acts, to challenge bigoted stereotyp about homosexualy, and to create tablishments where the men uld live and socialize openly.

THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI

Ernst Röhm, lear of the SA, the Nazi Party’s stormtroopers, had been openly gay, but Hler had only tolerated this until he beme too troublome. Although the Third Reich was one of the most heartlsly homophobic regim morn history, practilly no first-hand acunts of Nazi vlence agast gay men existed eher Wt or East Germany before the early 1970s.

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

As early as 1946, Eugen Kogon, the progrsive German Catholic journalist and survivor of Buchenwald, scribed the suatn for gay men the mps. ” That same year, the Soviet zone of occupatn (later the German Democratic Republic), Rudolf Klimmer appealed to the Organizatn of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime to offer regnn of gay men as victims of Natnal Socialist terror. Acrdg to Erik Jensen, gays and lbians “not only met silence the postwar perd regardg the Nazi persecutn of homosexuals, but they also faced the pernic myth that homosexuals themselv formed the backbone of the Nazi movement.

An attempt by the Hamburg-based Society for Human Rights to w regnn of gay ncentratn mp mat Wt Germany met the same fate as Klimmer’s enavor. Calls for gay and lbian liberatn the palist mocraci the late 1960s and early ‘70s did fally create a more open atmosphere for the history of the opprsn of gays and lbians the Third Reich to emerge. Two years later filmmaker Rosa von Prnheim released Nicht r Homosexuelle ist pervers, sonrn die Suatn, r er lebt (The Homosexual is not Perverse, But, Rather, the Suatn Which He Liv.

) Prnheim (born Holger Radke 1942) had actually taken the name “Rosa” (German for Pk) to draw attentn to the Pk Triangle, the intifitn badge assigned by the SS to homosexuals the ncentratn mps. Kohout went on to scribe the btal regime of forced labor and systematic vlence he and other gay men forced to wear the Pk Triangle experienced there. In unfettable chapters, Kohout munit attempts by the SS to “cure” people of homosexualy by “pulsory regular viss to the brothel” at Flossenbürg.

GAY PEOPLE

Kohout’s memoir ntributed so much to the subsequent wave of books, articl, documentari, and exhibs on the Nazi persecutn and murr of gay men. Long margalized, this history is more important than ever— Germany and beyond—as homophobia still pos a fundamental threat to human eedom and equaly.

We sat down wh Sir John Dermot Turg, Alan Turg’s nephew and thor of a new book on Bletchley Park, to discs his uncle’s role pivotal role puter science and his persecutn for beg gay the 1950s. On October 1, 1944, the first of two sets of medil experiments volvg stratn are performed on homosexuals at the Buchenwald ncentratn mp, near Weimar, Germany. Euthanasia was also performed regularly on Jews, Romani people and mentally ill MORE: The Pk Triangle: From Nazi Label to Symbol of Gay PriAmong the celt of Buchenwald’s overseers was the famo Ilsa Koch, wife of SS mandant Karl Koch and known as the “Wch of Buchenwald.

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 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. In the Fall of 1933, the first transport of homosexuals arrived at Fuhlsbüttel ncentratn mp Hamburg, Germany, a small Nazi mp that has an timated 500 victims.

FEATURE: BRA’S NCENTRATN MPS FOR GAY MEN

Some Amerin and Brish lawyers even mand that homosexuals nvicted unr Article 175 serve out their full sentenc after beg released om ncentratn mps and many were forced to do so. The Homomonument Amsterdam is, like many of the monuments, shaped like a large pk triangle wh the pots leadg to other plac to vis such as the Anne Frank hoe. In Berl, the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Unr Nazism ss across the street om the well-known Memorial to the Murred Jews of Europe.

When talkg about the cisn to make a vio, the artists explaed that as long as people are repulsed by gay people kissg somethg is missg, and that is the basis for vio wh the monument. New York self has a few LGBT monuments and landmarks such as the Stonewall Inn, the Gay Liberatn monument, and recently a newly missned monument to be stalled at Hudson River Park.

In this say, I would like to nsir the aims of the terror and ncentrate on the non-Jewish tegori of prisoners, g homosexuals as an example. No crence was placed a simple change of opn by homosexuals, such as was granted to Jehovah's Wns, who were not taken entirely serly, or even to polil prisoners.