The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals

The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals
by Richard Plant

The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals
List Price: $17.99
Our Price: $7.63
You Save: $10.36 (58%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.94 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Richard Plant
Edition: 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.

Nonfiction Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Nonfiction Books
Damned Whores & God's Police ImageDamned Whores & God's Police
by Anne Summers
Penguin Books Australia; Published: 2002-03-31; Paperback; Book
Being Homosexual: Gay Men and Their Development (Penguin Psychology) ImageBeing Homosexual: Gay Men and Their Development (Penguin Psychology)
by Richard Isay
Penguin Books Ltd; Published: 1993-04-29; Paperback; Book
It's a Queer World ImageIt's a Queer World
by Mark Simpson
Vintage; Published: 1996-04-04; Paperback; Book
Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945-1990 : An Oral History ImageMaking History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945-1990 : An Oral History
by Eric Marcus
Harpercollins; Published: 1992-06; Unknown Binding; Book
Best price: $7.66
Price in other shops: $25.00
The Lesbian Family Life Cycle ImageThe Lesbian Family Life Cycle
by Suzanne Slater
The Free Press; Published: 1995-01-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.57
Price in other shops: $25.00
Running as a Woman: Gender and Power in American Politics ImageRunning as a Woman: Gender and Power in American Politics
by Glenna Matthews, Linda Witt, Karen M. Paget
Free Press; Published: 1993-10-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.45
Price in other shops: $24.95
So Your Child is Gay ImageSo Your Child is Gay
by Jerald Dr. Bain, Phyllis Bruce Jerald Bain
HarperCollins Publishers; Published: 2000; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.10
Eminent Maricones: Arenas, Lorca, Puig, and Me (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiog) ImageEminent Maricones: Arenas, Lorca, Puig, and Me (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiog)
by Jaime Manrique
University of Wisconsin Press; Published: 1999-04-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $43.99
My Lives: An Autobiography ImageMy Lives: An Autobiography
by Edmund White
Ecco; Published: 2006-04-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops: $25.95
For Girls Only: Wise Words, Good Advice ImageFor Girls Only: Wise Words, Good Advice
by Carol Weston
HarperCollins; Published: 2004-06-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.48
Price in other shops: $8.99
Similar Books and other products
Bent ImageBent
BLUTEAU,LOTHAIRE; Release date: 2003-06-03; Published: 2003-06-01; DVD
Best price: $6.47
Price in other shops: $14.98
Paragraph 175 ImageParagraph 175
Release date: 2002-07-23; DVD
Best price: $119.84
Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present ImageOut of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present
by Neil Miller
Advocate Books; Published: 2008-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $79.98
Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 ImageGay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940
by George Chauncey
Basic Books; Published: 1995-05-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops: $24.00
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (Between Men--Between Women) ImageOdd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (Between Men--Between Women)
by Lillian Faderman
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1992-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.20
Price in other shops: $20.00
Transgender History (Seal Studies) ImageTransgender History (Seal Studies)
by Susan Stryker
Seal Press; Published: 2008-05-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.76
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Other Victims: First-Person Stories of Non-Jews Persecuted by the Nazis (Sandpiper) ImageThe Other Victims: First-Person Stories of Non-Jews Persecuted by the Nazis (Sandpiper)
by Ina R. Friedman
Sandpiper; Published: 1995-09-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.46
Price in other shops: $14.95
An Underground Life:  Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies) ImageAn Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies)
by Gad Beck, Frank Heibert
University of Wisconsin Press; Published: 2000-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.45
Price in other shops: $18.95
I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror ImageI, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror
by Pierre Seel
Basic Books; Published: 2011-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.14
Price in other shops: $15.99
The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps ImageThe Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps
by Heinz Heger
Alyson Books; Published: 1994-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops: $11.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories