The Nazis Tolerated Gays. Then Everythg Changed - Holot Remembrance Day

Contents:

• ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI
• NETFLIX EXPOS THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY
• THE NAZIS TOLERATED GAYS. THEN EVERYTHG CHANGED
• WHY THE MYTH OF THE “GAY NAZI” IS BACK CIRCULATN
• GAY MEN
• THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI

ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI

A man  make-up and pearls nmng transgenr people may seem untertuive, but Milo Yiannopoulos is hardly the first gay reactnary.

The se of Ernst Röhm, the hight-rankg gay Nazi, prents an tertg study the nstctn and ntament of masculy by the right. Röhm opposed his party’s stand on Paragraph 175 of the German penal , which ma male homosexual acts illegal. This ma some German homosexuals thk he might ultimately tone down the Nazi stance.

(Earlier, the Social Democrats, one of the few parti to mpaign for the repeal of Paragraph 175, showed self willg to gay-ba Röhm. As Eleanor Hanck explas, Röhm, his face srred om war wounds, strsed a hyper-masculy to unteract ntemporary views of homosexualy as feme.

NETFLIX EXPOS THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY

” This aligned wh Nazi views of the homosocial Männerbund. Röhm suggted that the le between homosocial and homosexual, however, was potentially fluid. Hanck says that Röhm “challenged the privilegg of heterosexual over homosexual masculi.

His open homosexualy may have threatened the psychologil secury of some other Natnal Socialists, creatg a form of ‘male homosexual panic. '” She go further, wonrg if “the purge of the SA and the killg of Röhm reprented the leral objective rrelative for the supprsn and reprsn of the homosexual sir their own Nazism?

Even before Ernst Röhm was murred, the Nazis had begun crackg down on homosexualy, banng anizatns, burng books, and arrtg the first of some 100, 000. Around 15, 000 gay people were sent to ncentratn mps, where some were experimented upon bizarre efforts to fd a “cure” for sexual orientatn, a forhadowg of Amerin psychologil and later fundamentalist efforts to try the same thg. 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.

THE NAZIS TOLERATED GAYS. THEN EVERYTHG CHANGED

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.

WHY THE MYTH OF THE “GAY NAZI” IS BACK CIRCULATN

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. 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). Wh an openly gay man at the helm of the SA, homosexuals saw a perd of relative tolerance before beg persecuted the Third Reich.

GAY MEN

Here's how the two are lked“One n anize the qutn of female prostutn, which by parison wh this qutn [of male homosexualy] prciple is pletely harmls, a way that is acceptable for a civilized people. (New York Jewish Week) — Some 50, 000 gay men and women were imprisoned by Nazis durg the Holot. This dynamic is why wrer, director and actor Alan Palmer first learned about Nazi persecutn of homosexuals pletely by chance.

In Augt 2016, Palmer — who is bt known for his off-Broadway show “Fabulo Divas of Broadway” and his role on the “Mighty Morph Power Rangers” — was performg at Edburgh Frge Ftival when he stumbled upon an article about the specific targetg of gay men and women unr Hler. There, he vised some ncentratn mps and saw pictur of the gay men who were imprisoned there. “I found the betiful photos of the people who were Jewish and trans” and gay], Palmer said.

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

The play relat the story of Werner, a gay man 1930s Berl who assum the inty of his landlady, a German woman who had died unexpectedly, orr to avoid persecutn and imprisonment. And some of those people were gay — but you don’t hear about them much, ” Palmer said. Palmer plays Werner, a gay man 1930s Berl who assum the inty of his landlady to pe Nazi persecutn.

You n’t have theater whout Jewish people or gay people!

As “Chantse” unfolds, Werner, like so many gay men durg that time, isn’t able to pe the long arm of the Nazi regime for long. “Even though the Jewish people are another mp on the other si of the wall, there are still a small number of gay Jews on this si. On Friday evengs, the gay Jewish men pray, ” he relat, a touchg monologue toward the end of the scene.