January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Holocaust was an act of extreme genocide toward Jewish members of German and European society with an intent of perceiving an Aryan culture. While we know in history, Jewish people faced abhorrent violences through death camps, segregation and oppression in Germany and throughout the WWII European land, it is often forgotten or minimized that gay and queer folks (namely men), disabled folks, Black folks, Roma folks and even certain Christian sects like Jehovah's Witness faced horror and death as well. Oppression is never a contest. Where ever it exists, it is abhorrent. Whether it is the mass incarceration and police brutality faced by Black Americans, the killings of transgender Black women, the missing and murder Indigenous women, the Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism throughout the land or the gender pay gap, oppression must be addressed and eradicated at all costs. My saying Black trans women are the most likely to be a victim of a fatal hate crime doesn't negate that I could one day become a victim of a fatal crime. Just as well, Jewish victims were the most likely to be targeted and acknowledging that non-Jewish victims existed and deserve to be acknowledged doesn't change these facts.
I recall being "reemed out" by white Jewish members of a "intersectional feminist" group for declaring that if I had existed and lived in Nazi Germany, it is possible that I, too, would have landed victim in the Holocaust.
Acknowledging other victims doesn't take away from another's victimhood. And to this day, gay victims (pink triangle) of the Holocaust are still misunderstood and unheard about. The individual in the group informed me that non-Jewish gays were not included in these roundups, so I'd have been safe, but that is historically inaccurate. Rest assured, I have no desire to take anyone's place in oppression and the oppression Olympics yield no results that I've seen worthy of writing home about. As such, for this Holocaust Remembrance Day I will center the victims of the Pink Triangle. I can honor these victims, both queer Jews and queer non-Jews who faced victimization within the horrors of the Holocaust and continue to face victimization at the hand of Neo-Nazis today.
And if that makes someone upset, all I can say is "oh well". Hopefully they'll find a Neo-Nazi to take it out on.
Why were non-Jewish gay victims targeted? The theory was even Aryan gays were a threat to the Aryan nation because they would not be able to reproduce, thus threatening the growth of the "pure white bloodline." This theory still exists among Neo-Nazi groups. (And no, the existence of gay Neo-Nazis and white gay Nazi apologists doesn't change that fact.)
Below are some articles about the Pink Triangle and snippets of interest in relation to each article. These articles center specifically gay victims of the Holocaust, which could be Jewish or non-Jewish. It's important to know that other victims existed by virtue of who they were, as referenced above, but they won't be centered in the snippets, they may be referenced in the articles:
The Faces of Auschwitz: Non-Jewish Victims
"Under the Weimar government, centuries-old prohibitions against homosexuality had been overlooked, but this tolerance ended violently when the SA (Storm Troopers) began raiding gay bars in 1933. Homosexual intent became just cause for prosecution. The Nazis arrested German and Austrian male homosexuals—there was no systematic persecution of lesbians—and interned them in concentration camps, where they were forced to wear special yellow armbands and later pink triangles." -Yad Vesham
Jewish Virtual Library
"Because Hitler’s plan for a great Master Race had no room for any homosexuals, many males from all nations, including Germany, were persecuted, tortured and executed. Hitler even searched his own men and found suspected homosexuals that were sent to concentration camps wearing their SS uniforms and medals. The homosexual inmates were forced to wear pink triangles on their clothes so they could be easily recognized and further humiliated inside the camps. Between 5,000 to 15,000 homosexuals died in concentration camps during the Holocaust."-Holocaust Forgotten, Yad Vesham
Pink Triangles and Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals
"Even before it was built, Phillips says, USHMM made a conscious decision to remember all the victims of the Holocaust, a category that includes non-Jewish Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, the disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma and homosexuals in addition to Jews."
"In the eyes of the Nazis, homosexuality weakened the Aryan race, in part because gay men did not contribute to the effort to increase the Aryan birthrate, having "physically withdrawn their 'generative power' from society," reads another panel. They "feared [homosexuality] as an 'infection' that could become an 'epidemic,' particularly among the nation's vulnerable youth." One Nazi diagram, for example, showed the "contagion" moving from one individual to another 28 people by means of "seduction."
"During the Nazi regime, Phillips says, roughly 100,000 men were arrested under section 175, and roughly half of those received prison sentences after appearing in court. Some men were institutionalized in mental hospitals and some, "perhaps hundreds—were castrated under court order or coercion."
Between 5,000 and 15,000 men were sent to concentration camps, which fell outside the legal system. There, they were made to don pink triangles to identify them as homosexuals. In German camps, where there were few Jews (most Jews were sent to camps in the eastern territories), gay men were at the bottom of the camp hierarchy and other prisoners feared association with them."
"Because homosexuality continued to be criminalized after the war in Germany and elsewhere and even when and where it was not considered criminal, stigma persisted, very few gay victims of Nazi persecution came forward to tell their stories. "That's a large reason why," says Phillips, "we know very little about the gay survivors." -Stav Ziv
The Pink Triangle
"WHEN I WENT to high school in the 1960s in New York City, history classes did not teach us that the Nazis persecuted gays. In fact, I remember being taught that the Nazis were homosexuals. I also remember seeing a U.S. government propaganda film, produced with the facilities of Hollywood during World War II and shown to American moviegoers, that included a description of the Nazis as homosexuals."
"THE EXHIBIT OPENS with a history of section 175 of the criminal code, imposed in 1871, that criminalized homosexual relations by men. (It was never illegal to be a lesbian). After World War I, many gay Germans gravitated to Berlin, where there was a prodigious underground gay community and culture. The most prominent figure of that time was Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a gay Jewish sexologist who was founder of the Institute of Sexual Science. The notorious Nazi book-burning of 1933 was started with Hirschfeld’s library and institute."
"The Nazis were concerned with the decreasing German birthrate as well as what they considered un-Aryan behavior of homosexuals. They also believed that while men might not be able to change their behavior, lesbians could still be forced to produce children for the Reich. "
" As the Nazis expanded their territory across Europe and Africa, they did not expand the persecution of gays outside ‘Greater Germany.’ As far as the Nazis were concerned if non-Aryans were homosexual, that meant less procreation for “inferior races.”
" While lesbians were not persecuted per se, they were forced into the closet in order to survive. There is only one known case of a lesbian sent to a concentration camp, and she was a madam in a prostitution ring, so was given the black triangle of the habitual criminal."
"AFTER THE WAR, the Allies repealed many laws promulgated by the Nazis. However, they left the Nazi version of Section 175 on the books in West Germany. So little is known about those persecuted, and so little ephemera exists, primarily because gays were still considered criminals. Some with the pink triangle were not released in 1945 and had to serve the remaining years of their sentence in prison. Most remained closeted for the rest of their lives and never told about their persecution by the Nazis.
AFTER THE WAR, the Allies repealed many laws promulgated by the Nazis. However, they left the Nazi version of Section 175 on the books in West Germany. So little is known about those persecuted, and so little ephemera exists, primarily because gays were still considered criminals. Some with the pink triangle were not released in 1945 and had to serve the remaining years of their sentence in prison. Most remained closeted for the rest of their lives and never told about their persecution by the Nazis."-Jeffrey Kassel
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