While I was looking for information on homosexuals in the Holocaust in general, I was specifically interested in learning about lesbians in the Holocaust. As a member of the LGBT+ community and a history major, I felt that this topic was relevant and important to my life as well as my study of history. I recently read An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin by Gad Beck, and The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals by Richard Plant.
The main argument made by The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals is about Nazi treatment of homosexual people. This source explains that homosexuality, while not accepted, was treated indifferently prior to Hitler’s rule. Homosexual men did not typically get punished. As Plant describes, “The average gay man could live unnoticed and undisturbed unless he fell victim to police entrapment or blackmail.” There were other problems for people in Germany to be worrying about. They had just gotten out of World War I, had more dead soldiers than they had ever encountered, and had acquired a looming economic debt. The German people were not worried about homosexuality to the extent that they would be in the coming years.
The atmosphere began to change in Germany when a prejudice was placed on Jewish people. Germany was looking for a scapegoat after losing the war and Jewish people became just that. From these ideas, the SS and the Nazi party rose to power and Hitler became Führer. Hitler, as the text explained, did not particularly care about homosexuality. As long as his men were doing their jobs and were strong in their skills, he did not mind their private affairs. Hitler’s closest friend and colleague, Ernst Roehm, was actually a gay man. But, he was also a very strong military leader under Hitler. According to Plant, the Führer’s need for Roehm was so great that he steadily ignored every report of Roehm’s homosexual activities. This shows that Hitler was more worried about military capabilities that he was about the possible homosexual activities of his subordinates. This is one of the main points that this source makes. Plant makes it very clear that Hitler was not the one initiating the movement of hate against gay men, at least not at first.
The other point this source made is that Heinrich Himmler, who worked alongside Hitler and created the SS, was the main perpetrator of the actions that led to the deaths of many homosexual men in Nazi Germany. Plant discusses how Himmler was always obsessed with the immorality of homosexuality. According to some of his earlier diaries, “He apparently had always borne a deep loathing for ‘alien’ and ‘hostile’ people, and a conviction that they should be removed.”
The emerging ideal that Germany should be made up of a purely Aryan race also helped to place prejudice on gay people. Fully German, blonde haired, and blue eyed homosexuals were not procreating, the Nazi party saw this as hindering the master plan. They did not believe that Aryan sperm should go to waste because of homosexuality. The prejudices that Himmler had about homosexual men quickly spread throughout Germany.
Gay men had become another scapegoat for Germany. Even being accused of homosexual tendencies potentially meant death. Himmler opened the first concentration camp at Dachau, near Munich. The worst punishment for gay men was being sent here with the rest of the Jewish scapegoats.
While researching, I was wondering if I would find any information on lesbians in Nazi Germany. According to Plant, “The average lesbian enjoyed a kind of legal immunity. The Second German Empire and the Weimar Republic had never promulgated laws forbidding or punishing sexual acts between women.” The two main arguments made in this source are that Hitler was not concerned with homosexuality, but Heinrich Himmler was obsessed with eliminating homosexuals. The beliefs of Himmler would eventually harm gay men throughout Germany.