Reviewed by: Sanje Woodsorrel (authors page)(back to index page)
Summary and Review
In the gay and lesbian
history book Out of the Past, Neil Miller quotes Heinrich Himmler's plans
for the homosexuals of Germany: “These people will obviously be publicly degraded
and dismissed and handed over to the court. After…they will be…taken
into a concentration camp and in the camp they will be shot while escaping”(1). This is an overall description of
the fate of the homosexuals in Nazi Germany. In Frank Rector’s book
Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals, he discusses the events of the Nazi
persecution of homosexuals. It was written like a history textbook,
which meant that it was very informative in terms of dates and events, but
also was able to analyze it from a personal point of view. He discussed
thoroughly his frustration with the lack of information about the homosexual
victims, the events surrounding Ernst Rohm’s murder, as well as how the Nazis
used propaganda against gays.
As is discussed on the introductory page, there are
many factors which contribute to the lack of information about the Nazi persecution
of homosexuals. Another factor that Rector expresses great frustration
with is that, still today, homosexuality is a “dirty” word. Although
this society has come far in its acceptance of gays and lesbians, a majority
of Americans are still closed-minded and therefore the following isn’t too
surprising. There are two sections of photographs in this book which
illustrate some of the events Rector talks about. One of those photographs
is a U.S. Army photo showing a distinguished group of American journalists
standing over some of the prisoners’ bodies in liberated Auschwitz. The
caption explains that these people were slave laborers who were deliberately
worked to death, many of them homosexuals, “a fact that was common knowledge
at the time in Dachau and elsewhere but mentioned only as a “footnote,” or
not mentioned at all, by that distinguished group of journalists,”(2).
Rector blames this on the world’s bias against homosexuality.
Similar to this, the Danish King who allegedly wore the Star of David
to show his support for the Jewish victims willingly sent off his homosexuals.
This was yet another sign of the world’s opinion of gays.
Although it was clear the Nazi party viewed homosexuals
negatively, as was evident from the destruction of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute
of Sexual Science in Berlin, “some gays [in the SS] may have been reconciled
by the knowledge that Hitler’s right hand man, Ernst Rohm, was a homosexual,”(3).
However, after the June 30, 1934 murder of Rohm and many of those faithful
to him, including many SS gays, their worries were brought to life. Although
it seems that Hitler’s reasoning for having Rohm killed is based on political
competition, Hitler used Rohm’s sexuality to discredit him to the nation.
Hitler decided “it was far more effective to defame Rohm as a homosexual--everyone
knew about that--than it was to try and discredit him as a traitor to the
Movement”(4). In retaliation to
the Blood Purge, 155 SS men who were involved in the killing were murdered
by surviving SS homosexuals and by straights loyal to Rohm’s ideals.
Hitler’s use of Rohm’s sexuality as propaganda against
him was typical of the Nazis’ propaganda against gays. The party’s campaign
against gays began in 1933 using similar tactics as those they were using
against the Jews. “Propaganda films were distributed…, youth leaders
were supplied with prepared speeches on the subject, decrees were issued,
and repressive measures were taken by the Party,”(5). In a speech in Munich,
the party used the idea of survival and procreation to denounce homosexuals:
“It is not necessary that you and I live, but it is necessary that the German
people live…therefore we reject you, as we reject anything which hurts our
own people,”(3). Since homosexual lovers cannot procreate, they were seen
as of no use. The sensitivity of the weakened state Germany was left
in after WWI and the depression is used later in the speech: “Let’s see to
it that we once again become strong!”(3). These, along with Rohm’s death,
were ways in which the Nazis used propaganda to create support for their actions
against homosexuals.
Although a large book, these three topics were shown
to be of great importance to Rector due to the amount of time he spent discussing
them.
Webpages
Rector later
focused a good amount of time on Martin Sherman’s 1979 play, Bent and
the subsequent film. This play, featuring Richard Gere, was released
at a time when most people knew nothing about the homosexual victims of the
Holocaust. Interestingly, “in the succeeding years, plaques commemorating
the deaths of these Nazi victims were finally placed at various camps, often
after much dissension”(1). Eighteen years later, Sean Mathias made a
film about the play, which was selected as one of the top ten gay and lesbian
films of 1997. A review of this film, with a little bit of history,
is located at:
http://www.planetout.com/pno/popcornq/db/getfilm.html?2218
In December 1997 Brandon Judell interviewed Sean Mathias and Martin Sherman
for IndieWire. He also discusses how the play and the film brought to
light information not known to most people. Judell has some intriguing
reasons why he thought homosexual victims were fairly unknown: “[Until now]
historians either didn't believe the subject merited their attention or they
were afraid to tackle the matter…[Also] survivors felt that if homosexuals
were said to have also been victimized by the Nazis, that would devalue the
memory of their own loved ones who'd died”(6). This fascinating interview
can be found at:
http://www.indiewire.com/people/int_Mathias_Sherm_1_971209.html
Footnotes:
1
Judell, Brandon. PlanetOut. Dec. 1997. 12 Nov. 2003. <http://www.planetout.com/pno/popcornq/db/getfilm.html?2218>
2 Rector, Frank. Nazi Extermination
of Homosexuals. New York: Stein and Day, 1981. Photo
page
3 Rector, Frank. Nazi Extermination
of Homosexuals. New York: Stein and Day, 1981. Pg. 105
4 Rector, Frank. Nazi Extermination
of Homosexuals. New York: Stein and Day, 1981. Pg. 107
5 Rector, Frank. Nazi Extermination
of Homosexuals. New York: Stein and Day, 1981. Pg. 106
6 Judell, Brandon. IndieWire.
9 Dec. 1997. 12 Nov. 2003 <http://www.indiewire.com/people/int_Mathias_Sherm_1_971209.html>