The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals
by Richard Plant
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Book Summary Information
Author: Richard PlantEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1988-02-15
ISBN: 0805006001
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Book Reviews of The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals
Book Review: The Ignored Nazi Genocide
Summary: 4 Stars
Until fairly recently, the homosexual men who suffered under the National Socialist regime have been ignored as a victim group. Part of the reason for this is obviously due to the suffering of the Jewish people, the scale of which dwarfed other targets of Nazi hatred. But it must also be viewed as the result of an odious attitude prevailing after the war that while the persecution of Jews, gypsies and other groups may have been appalling, the homosexuals pretty much deserved it. Due to the perceived taboo nature into the subject, research into the suffering of this group only began to emerge with increasingly liberal attitudes towards homosexuality and support for the gay rights movement. Richard Plant was one of the first scholars to seriously investigate the Nazi campaign against homosexuals, and set the standard for others to follow with the publication of `The Pink Triangle'. Drawing on his experience as a gay German refugee, he details the appalling brutality that was afflicted on those suspected of homosexuality, and describes the sadistic ruthlessness employed in seeking to hunt out gay men.
Aside from the sheer magnitude of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals, what makes Germany interesting is that homosexuality was relatively tolerated in advanced urban areas. Gay bars existed, and attempts to legalise homosexuality were seriously fought by respected politicians. The Nazi Party was certainly not immune to this relaxed attitude, as Plant describes on a chapter of the openly gay Ernst Roehm, chief of the extremely homoerotic SA. While I feel Plant over-emphasises the tolerant nature of pre-Nazi urban Germany, he does point out that such sentiments did not extend across the whole nation. Far from it. The desire to root out homosexuals was one of many obsessions in the bizarre mind of Hedrick Himmler, and such sentiments were to be echoed by the majority of the nation. A chapter is devoted to Himmler's insistence that homosexuals were an unnatural breed, and constantly posing a threat to the soul and future of the Aryan people. Unlike the Jews, homosexuals were still considered to be Aryans, albeit extremely defective. Thus, whilst saved from the fate of the gas chamber, they were nonetheless viewed as the lowest of the low in terms of non-Jewish prisoners. Marked out by a distinctive pink triangle, they were routinely given the most strenuous and hazardous jobs in an attempt to `straighten them out'. Few made it to see the liberation of the camps. Those that did survive the back-breaking labour, disease, beatings, pseudo-medical experiments, forced castration and an endless of list of other unfathomable cruelty often found themselves locked up by unsympathetic liberators, inclined to view the infamous Paragraph 175 as being legitimate.
While much has been written on the nature of Germany's concentration camps, Plant gives us a unique insight into the suffering of the gay men who died within their fences. Unfortunately, such suffering has not been consigned to history. Hatred of homosexuals still exists within Western society. And the shocking behaviour of the Nazis continues within the law in backward states across the globe. Many feel that no lessons should be learned from the Nazi war against homosexuals. The reader of `The Pink Triangle' will hopefully disagree.
Summary of The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals
This is the first comprehensive book in English on the fate of the homosexuals in Nazi Germany. The author, a German refugee, examines the climate and conditions that gave rise to a vicious campaign against Germany?s gays, as directed by Himmler and his SS--persecution that resulted in tens of thousands of arrests and thousands of deaths.
In this Nazi crusade, homosexual prisoners were confined to death camps where, forced to wear pink triangles, they constituted the lowest rung in the camp hierarchy. The horror of camp life is described through diaries, previously untranslated documents, and interviews with and letters from survivors, revealing how the anti-homosexual campaign was conducted, the crackpot homophobic fantasies that fueled it, the men who made it possible, and those who were its victims, this chilling book sheds light on a corner of twentieth-century history that has been hidden in the shadows much too long.
In this Nazi crusade, homosexual prisoners were confined to death camps where, forced to wear pink triangles, they constituted the lowest rung in the camp hierarchy. The horror of camp life is described through diaries, previously untranslated documents, and interviews with and letters from survivors, revealing how the anti-homosexual campaign was conducted, the crackpot homophobic fantasies that fueled it, the men who made it possible, and those who were its victims, this chilling book sheds light on a corner of twentieth-century history that has been hidden in the shadows much too long.
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