Enlightenment and Nazi's Flashcards
How did the Enlightenment change views of homosexuality?
Crompton- age of reason began to regard the church doctrines as barbaric
Montesquie- linked homosexuality with heresy and witchcraft and thus the archaic thinking the church
degrades it to a minor social problem- akin to prostitution- not an irrefutable sin.
In 18th Century France- homosexuality thus became the philosophical sin
Marguis de Sades- offers a rational polemic- cities ancient Greek sources
Did the Enlightenment lead to more toleration for homosexuality?
Not consistently throughout Europe
No:
-Threat of death disappeared in France, but increased in England because of the association between homosexuality and the follies of the French Revolution
-In Austria the penal code of 1803 punished unnatural lust with a period of 6 months in prison, whereas in England and Wales- 55 men were hanged for the crime between 1805 and 1835- one seventh of the number executed for murder.
Yes:
-it did have a subculture from 1700 on-wards as H.G. Cocks identifies, though this could have been earlier ad just not as penalized
- saw laxer punishments for homosexuality in many places.
Who were the leading sexologists?
Information from Neil Miller (Pioneers of sexology)
Karl Heinrcih Ulrichs (1825- 1895)- came up with ideas of the ‘intermediate sex’ - a male homosexual was a essentially a female soul in a male’s body! Called homosexuality Uranism- Ursins were lesbians, urdings- male homosexuals. Believed that sex could be determined by hip size- male homosexuals had wider hips than male heterosexuals etc.
Richard Von Kraff Ebing- caused by degeneration.
Havelock Ellis- didn’t treat homosexuality as a disease or illness- said that homosexuality was not a sign of moral degeneracy - did case studies on many women etc.
Who was Magnus Hirschfeld?
(1868- 1935)
Leader of several psychological and medical organizations- founder of institute for the research of sexual research
Jew, homosexual and physician
Tried to get paragraph 175 repealed in 1897
In 1903- conducted some research and found that 2.2% of Germany’s males were homosexual
His scientific- humanitarian committee had around one thousand members in 1914.
Strongly influenced by the work of early sexologist Ulrich.
What was the situation like in Germany before WW1?
-Following unification of Germany in 1871- became one of the most dynamic countries known for its toleration of gays (Miller)- by 1914 supposed to be 40 gay bars in Berlin and two thousand prostitutes.
-Homosexual groups called the German friendship association established an activities center which sponsored dances and published a weekly newspaper- some 30 different gay publications through the 1920s
-Christopher Isherwood- ‘Berlin meant boys’
However, Hirschfeld was subjected to anti-Semitic attacks in 1921 and 1922, there was even an assassination attempt on his life in 1923.
-Plant argues that attitudes towards sexuality in Germany were widely liberal before the 1930s (thanks to the work of sexologists such as Hirschfeld)
- 704 arrests annually in Germany between 1919 and 1934- though this varied between the cities with bigger gay subcultures like Hamberg and Berlin- with more oppressive places such as Dresden and Munich.
How did the era of relative toleration change under Hitler?
- Nearly 100,000 homosexuals were put on file by different surveillance organisations between 1937- 1940- almost 92% were found guilty.
- June 1935- Paragraph 175 was extended to cover lusting after other men(?)
- July 1940- Himmler added an amendment to his 1938 directive- men arrested for homosexual activities must be transferred to a camp after they had served their prison sentences.
Why did Nazi’s persecute homosexuality?
-political reasons- scapegoating- Ernst Rohm, and in 1930s Werner Von Fritsch- when he wouldn’t comply with Nazi policies- accused of homosexuality! Plant argues this.
-Mannerbund- community of men- united in emotional attachment- fulfilled an important role for Nazi’s
-accusations that there was a presence of homosexuality in the SS
-Himmler- gays were sub-human and needed to be weeded out (Plant argues that he drove forwards persecution of homosexuals).
Himmler wished create a Mannerstaadt- a state dedicated to the worship of masculinity and the community of men as ruling elite (Miller)l
-Nazi parties most explicit statement on homosexuality published May 1 1928 ‘It is not necessary that you and I live, but it is necessary that the German people live. and it can only live, it is can fight, for life means fighting. And it can only fight it maintains its masculinity. It can only maintain its masculinity if it exercises discipline, especially in matters of love. Free love and deviance are undisciplined’
- persecuting homosexuals- dependent on nation: state. Plant argues that they didn’t care as much about the poles and slavs engaging in these practices because they were going to be the slave race- whereas the Netherlands were going to be incorporated into the German race.
What was life like for homosexuals under the third Reich?
-50,000 homosexuals convicted for unnatural vice- only between 10-30% sent to concentration camps (Harry Oosterhuis)
-1940- all convicted homosexuals who had seduced more than one partner would be deported to concentration camp after served their prison sentence!
-Sachsenhausen- homosexual prisoners were restrictred to seperate barracks.
-Lautman- homosexual inmates were over 2/3 more likely to perish than their heterosexual associates.
-Rudolph Hoes- shown in 1959 that the Nazi’s had attempted to re-educate homosexuals- subjecting them to the harshest work details and making them visit male prostitutes
-only 3,976 of male teenagers out of 25,000 were prosecuted- small percentage as juvenilles made up about 2.4 million!
-Between 1939 and 1941- 293 nearly 15% of the Hitler Youth were expelled because of sexual crimes- this was embarrassing because it was a large percentage.
‘reasonably estimate the number of males convicted of homosexuality from 1933- 1944 at between 50,000 and 63,000, of which nearly 4,000 were juveniles (also on record- 6 lesbians- weird as wasn’t illegal).
-thought 53% of homosexuals in death camps died, compared with 40% political prisoners and 34.7% jehovah’s witnesses.
-Often segregated in the death camps so that they couldn’t spread their infection! Had to sleep with their hands out of the bed so many caught bronchitis!
Who was Richard Plant and what did he argue?
-wrote the Pink triangle published 1986
-deals with first hand personal experiences
-argued that is was Himmler that drove forward the persecution of homosexuals
-offsets the third Reich to the Weimar Republic- ‘the average gay man could live unnoticed and undisturbed’, and ‘the average lesbian enjoyed a kind of legal immunity’.
1987 Peter Burton Review-book is important because of when it was written- at a time when the threat of AIDS was increasing the risk of persecution to homosexuals!
Clifford Lovin in 1987 says that whilst it is a good book and is the first to reach a mass audience- doesn’t deal well with lesbians and often romanticizes the experiences of the first hand accounts.
How did women fit into the persecution of homosexuality under the Third Reich?
-Sexual acts between women were not illegal under paragraph 175.
Case study- lesbians into a camp Butzow was supposed to be for male POWs- guards came up with a cruel sport in which every women a prisoner penetrated, would earn a bottle of schnapps- Helen G was there, an account from a Luftewaffe assistant.
-‘women were therefore able to remain relatively unscathed as lesbians during this time’
(Information from Plant).
Why is there so little written about the persecution of homosexuals in the Holocaust?
Plant:
-‘persecution of homosexuals under the third Reich has remained very much in the shadows- most emphasis was put on the persecution of Jews’
-Anti-homosexual laws remained in place until 1969
-First full length report of a gay inmate did not appear until 1972- Heinz Hegel.
-‘documents that survived the war are often incomplete and untrustworthy’
David Fernbach
-6 million Jews perished- well placed to document atrocities.
-In east Germany- paragraph 175 omitted from constitution though remained in place until the 1960s.
-West Germany- anti-homosexual legislation remained in force for some 25 years - meant five years in prison.
-tarred by the brush of fascism- curtain of ignorance- they were that way themselves weren’t they? Became a symbol to Nazi hate groups- The Pink Swastika by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams(1995)
‘No doubt you will, at some time, be confronted with the myth of the persecution of homosexuals by the Nazi’s. Be ready with the facts’
-Jews worked to death in Sachenhausen- level three conditions.
Further reasons
- No hero stories- no Schindler’s list
-moon-walking bears- Jewish stories
- Fewer people were in the camps
-Less of a community when they came out.
