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

Contents:

• WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?
• 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
• 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 MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

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

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.

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

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:. 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. “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.

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

As part of their missn to racially and culturally “purify” Germany, the Nazis arrted thoands of LGBT dividuals, mostly gay men, whom they viewed as Uned Stat Holot Memorial Mm timat 100, 000 gay men were arrted and between 5, 000 and 15, 000 were placed ncentratn mps. “There was no solidary for the homosexual prisoners; they belonged to the lowt ste, ” Pierre Seel, a gay Holot survivor, wrote his memoir I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, timated 65 percent of gay men ncentratn mps died between 1933 and 1945.

The next year, post-war Germany’s first gay rights anizatn, Homosexuelle Aktn Wtberl (HAW), reclaimed the pk triangle as a symbol of liberatn.

Horac Villalobos/Corbis/Getty ImagMemorial plaqu for homosexuals, Jehovah's Wns and Wehrmacht serters are placed where once stood one of the molished barracks Buchenwald ncentratn mp near Weimar, Germany. In 1986, six New York Cy activists created a poster wh the words SILENCE = DEATH and a bright pk upward-facg triangle, meant to ll attentn to the AIDs crisis that was cimatg populatns of gay men across the untry. Due to limed rearch fundg, the high ath rate of gay men the mps, and the stigma attached to homosexualy, the victims are often fotten by the world.

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

This clud more than 100 gay and lbian bars and f, songs and films, and Magn Hirschfeld’s Instut für Sexualwissenschaft (the Instute for Sexual Science), which ntaed thoands of books and journals on sexualy and genr. Dpe Paragraph 175, which crimalised male homosexualy the German crimal , LGBTQ+ people tend to be observed and monored rather than persecuted.

Some Nazis believed that the majory of, if not all, homosexuals were Jewish bee many of the proment advot of gay rights and equaly were (cludg Hirschfeld as well as progrsive psychiatrists, physicians, lawyers and jurists).

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

More than 100, 000 men intified as homosexual were arrted and many sent to ncentratn mps at Buchenwald, Dach, Sachsenhsen, Mthsen and Achwz, where between 5, 000 and 15, 000 of them died. Ttimony om Hez Heger, a gay Atrian ncentratn mp survivor (whose real name was Josef Kohout), provis sights to homosexual experienc the mps.

Heger relled that gay men had to sleep wh their hands above their blankets, and if they didn’t they were taken outsi and had buckets of water thrown at them. Comg out of the 1920’s which was a more open time for homosexuals the Weimar Republic, that gave way to the btaly of the 1930’s and the Holot to e.

Homosexualy and the Holot – BiblgraphyGays, the Holot, and the Pk Triangle“Crimals were marked wh green verted triangl, polil prisoners wh red, “asocials” (cludg Roma, nonnformists, vagrants, and other groups) wh black or— the se of Roma some mps—brown triangl.

…Very ltle has been wrten about the tens of thoands of homosexuals who were the damnest of the damned, the outsts among the outsts the ncentratn are really only timat of figur.

After the prison sentenc most homosexuals were tomatilly shipped to ncentratn 1935, a new law legalized the `pulsory sterilizatn (often fact stratn) of homosexuals.

Along wh epileptics, schizophrenics and other `generat’, they were beg homosexualy was still so wispread that 1942 the ath penalty was imposed for the army and the ncentratn mps, some pk triangl beme ncub of male Kapos or other men supervisory posns among the mat. They were seldom lled other nam than arse-hol, shty queers or were allowed to talk only to each other, they had to sleep wh the lights on and wh hands above their people were not child molters; those were nsired profsnal crimals, green men wh pk triangl were given the harst jobs and were beg nstantly abed for their admted sexual preference, nsirable numbers of `normal’ men engaged homosexual acts wh impuny _ that was an emergency double standard was an addnal psychologil burn for the pk SS nsired great sport to tnt and torture the mp manr at Flossenburg often orred them flogged; as the victims were screamg, he `was pantg wh excement, and masturbated wildly his troers until he me, ’ unperturbed by the hundreds of onlookers. A sixty-year-old gay prit was beaten over his sexual ans by the SS and told: `You randy old rat-bag, you n piss wh your arse-hole the future.