Treatment of homosexuals in Nazi Germany

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    There were too few lesbians compared to male h*m*sexuals to make separate laws. According to prevailing doctrine (not just in Third Reich), h*m*sexuality was spread by "grooming". Basically, older h*m*sexuals would find younger victims, not fully developed in sexual meaning, and molest them until they were mentally broken and change their sexual preference. Victims were usually teenage boys, sometimes even younger. And when they grow up, they would repeat the vicious circle, from victims they would become predators.

     For lesbians, there were very few opportunities to enact this cycle. You could say there were two basic classes of lesbians in those days. First were extreme feminists that used to wear male clothes, male haircut and generally tried to behave like men. Such persons were naturally not allowed to communicate with young girls, and being usually involved with communists, anarchists and other leftists groups, Third Reich had other mechanisms to deal with them. Second class of lesbians were actually bi-sexual prostitutes. They didn't have any ideological attachment and would basically sleep with anyone for money. Again, Third Reich had other legal mechanism to cope with them, so no separate laws were enacted.

    Worth to mention that even in Weimar Republic (or anywhere else in the world at that time), h*m*sexual lobby didn't have access to mass media (either press or radio) , so they didn't spread their worldview to general public like today .

EDIT: Added sources about lesbians in Third Reich and general attitude of German leadership about h*m*sexuals.

This article, although with heavy political POV, confirms there were not many lesbians recognized as such by Third Reich authorities, and confirms that although some of them were persecuted it was usually because of their political activity .

This is a complete Himmler speech about h*m*sexuality. It is hosted on some ultra-right site, but I could not find full version elsewhere. It confirms that Third Reich officially considered grooming as a method for spreading male h*m*sexuality. Relevant quote

But the moment when the hustlers are not there – I am not going to lock up the h*m*sexuals – then there is a risk that the millions of h*m*sexuals will seek new victims for themselves.

Upvote:0

One possible explanation may be found in the conflict between the nazis and the Berliners.

Berlin in the 1920's was actually a very left leaning city. Goebbels described it as 'the reddest city in Europe after Moscow'. Homosexuality was not uncommon, and was practiced more openly in Berlin than the rest of Germany at that time.

Even after the rise of the nazis, Berliners retained their attitudes, albeit in a greatly masked form to avoid persecution. Ironically, Berliners probably suffered the most from the consequences of the nazis they held in such disregard.

And, in general, conservative hetero men tend to view male h*m*sexuality with more disfavor than lesbianism. Why that is, can be argued ad infinitum...

So, the nazis persecuting male h*m*sexuality more than female, may have been a combination of a dislike of the libertarian nature of Berlin, and a dislike of the male h*m*sexual acts. Why they didn't target lesbians... possibly because it didn't affect them personally.

Side note: During the early years, Hitler's direct competition was Ernst Roehm, who headed up the Brownshirts. Roehm was a h*m*sexual, although he kept it well hidden. When Hitler's henchmen came to get Roehm on the Night of the Long Knives, they found him in bed with his boyfriend, and dispatched both.

Upvote:1

I understand this should be a comment but I dont have the reputation unfortunately and I apologise about this. There is SOME evidence and I stress this in the most minimal degree possible that logically rs.29 may have a basis for the arguement.

The Nazis based themselves very heavily around the Roman Empire which also based itself around the Athenian and Greek states. In both Rome and Greece pederasty (the act of older males taking on younger boys in a psuedo-h*m*sexual relationship in order to relay experience in a protegee/master relationship) was commonplace. This leads to phrases like Gibbons' "Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct" implying he was the only one to not take men or boys as lovers.

So the idea that h*m*sexuality was a grooming practice does have a logical consistancy (at least in the mind of a member of the Nazi party). Combine this with the fact that according to a 1939 census after the annexation of Catholic Austria into Germany indicates approx 94% of them were Christian (in some form) and 3.5% identified as believers in god.

As is common through out history when one idealogy replaces another its very common to replace and substitute common beliefs and practices. Think of Christmas as an example.

Either way it would be logically consistant to keep hold of Christian beliefs in h*m*sexuality being wrong whilst still holding onto the idea of pederasty and then combining the idea of the aryan race being a series of genetic traits you would want to de-associate the possibility of genetic h*m*sexuality with your so called "perfect people".

Examples of this may be found by Giles, Geoffrey J., "The Denial of Homosexuality: Same-Sex Incidents in Himmler's SS", Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 11, No. 1/2, Special Issue: Sexuality and German Fascism (Jan. – Apr., 2002), pp. 256–290.

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