In Holot Remembrance Day, we look back at the untold stori of the brave gay men who died Achwz.
Contents:
- THREE GAY HOLOT SURVIVORS REMEMBER
- MARGOT HMAN, WHO BORE WNS TO THE HOLOT AS A GAY WOMAN, DI AT 94
- THE NAZI WAR ON GAY PEOPLE: SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT
- WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?
- THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI
- LIST OF GERMAN GAY MEN PORTED TO ACHWZ. (ID: 33060)
- REMEMBERG THE FOTTEN GAY STORI OF ACHWZ
- LAST GAY JEWISH HOLOT SURVIVOR DI
THREE GAY HOLOT SURVIVORS REMEMBER
Tens of thoands of gay men and lbians were persecuted by the Nazis but stigma and a lack of rearch fundg has kept their history hidn. * holocaust gay survivors *
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. 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).
MARGOT HMAN, WHO BORE WNS TO THE HOLOT AS A GAY WOMAN, DI AT 94
An onle edy seri highlighted the fact that the end of the war did not mean the end of persecutn for many gay German men. * holocaust gay survivors *
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. They were, acrdg to ttimoni by straight and gay survivors, treated worse than other groups (except Jews) bee they were nsired viant.
This was bee many Nazis believed that hard labour – work gravel ps, cement plants and brickworks – uld “turn” gay men straight. 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.
THE NAZI WAR ON GAY PEOPLE: SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT
Pk triangl were origally ed ncentratn mps to intify gay men. * holocaust gay survivors *
Homosexualy was not crimalised Germany until 1967 East Germany and 1969 Wt Germany, and so a number of survivors end up back prison. While Jews, children, and polil prisoners uld apply for fancial and moral support om the new German ernments, homosexual men uld not. Though the opprsn of gay men durg the Holot may have fad om public memory, hate crim agast LGBTQ+ people around the world are still rife.
Between 1933 and 1945 when the Nazis me to power Germany an timated 100, 000 homosexual men were arrted, of whom 50, 000 were sentenced unr crimal law Paragraph 175. Rudolf Brazda, believed to be the last survivg person who was sent to a Nazi ncentratn mp bee of his homosexualy, died France Augt 2011, aged 98. Brazda, who settled France after the war, was 2010 award the Legn of Honour, for his varied rol speakg out about Nazi treatment of homosexuals and France’s shameful role portg s Jews and homosexuals.
WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?
* holocaust gay survivors *
Others bartered wh their female guards sex for food or safety, or sought timacy wh fellow prisoners though neher partner intified as gay. Hajkova said, homophobia was rampant the mps, spe the progrsive culture of Weimar Germany and the nascent prewar movement across Eastern Europe to crimalize homosexualy, which had been cut short by the rise of the Ms.
THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI
More about Penelope GreenA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 19 of the New York edn wh the headle: Margot Hman, 94, Who Bore Wns to the Holot as a Gay Woman, Di. They refute the mastream “neo-revisnist” history books and documentari about the Third Reich, which shockgly ignored or dismissed the Nazi war agast gay and bisexual men.
“We mt extermate the people (homosexuals) root and branch … We n’t perm such danger to the untry; the homosexual mt be entirely elimated”.
LIST OF GERMAN GAY MEN PORTED TO ACHWZ. (ID: 33060)
Together wh five others – and one lbian – he rells the homophobic wch-hunts of the Third Reich the gut-wrenchg film, Paragraph 175. The dignified, fiant ttimoni of the gay survivors refute the “neo-revisnism” of mastream holot histori that neglect the Nazi persecutn of homosexuals.
Stormtroopers ransacked the headquarters of the pro-gay rights anisatn, the Instute of Sexual Science, and publicly burned s vast library of “generate” books. Acrdg to Himmler: “Those who practice homosexualy prive Germany of the children they owe her … our natn will fall to piec bee of that plague”. The Nazis aga tensified the war agast what they lled “abnormal existence” 1935, broang the fn of homosexual behavur and the grounds for arrt.
REMEMBERG THE FOTTEN GAY STORI OF ACHWZ
Later, Himmler thorised a scientific programme for the eraditn of “this vice”, wh gay prisoners beg subjected to gome medil experiments – cludg hormone implants and stratn.
The Nazis set out to eradite all racial and geic “ferrs” – not jt Jews, but also gay, disabled, black, Slav, Roma and Sti people. Gay men rcerated Nazi ncentratn mps durg World War II were forced back to prison even after the Allied forc won that nflict.
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:.
LAST GAY JEWISH HOLOT SURVIVOR DI
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.