XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: gay.paedophiles@splc.org   
      
   Homosexuals and Nazi Germany   
   Homosexuality was classed as a “degenerate form of behaviour” in   
   Nazi Germany that threatened the nation’s “disciplined   
   masculinity”. Under Nazi law, homosexuality was deemed non-Aryan   
   and as such homosexuals were far more persecuted in Nazi Germany   
   than under the Weimar regime. Ironically it had been the support   
   of Ernst Roehm, a known homosexual, and his SA followers that   
   had greatly helped Hitler gain power on January 30th 1933.   
      
   Under Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code sex between men   
   aged 21 and over was punishable by a prison sentence. Paragraph   
   175a dealt with those aged under 21 years. However, the law   
   stated that specific evidence was needed that sex had taken   
   place and this evidence was frequently very difficult to   
   acquire. As a result during the Weimar government and in the   
   first two years of Nazi rule, many charged with homosexual   
   behaviour were found not guilty and released. This changed in   
   June 1935.   
      
   In June 1935, Paragraph 175 was changed so that it referred to   
   “any unnatural sexual act” with “unnatural” ultimately being   
   determined by the Nazi courts. This change led to a major rise   
   in the number of men arrested. Many were charged with crimes   
   that had previously not been a criminal offence.   
      
   Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels made the party’s policy very   
   clear on the night of May 6th 1933:   
      
   “We must exterminate these people root and branch; the   
   homosexual must be eliminated.”   
      
   Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, estimated that there were 2   
   million homosexuals in Nazi Germany. In a speech given to SS men   
   in February 1937, he compared the campaign against homosexuals   
   to be no different from digging up weeds in a garden. During the   
   speech, Himmler made it clear that if any SS man was found to be   
   homosexual, he would be arrested, publicly humiliated, sent to a   
   concentration camp where he would be shot trying to escape:   
      
   “Following completion of the punishment imposed by the court,   
   they will be sent, by my order, to a concentration camp, and   
   they will be shot in the concentration camp, while attempting to   
   escape. I will make that known by order to the unit to which the   
   person so infected belonged.”   
      
   Between January 1933 and June 1935, 4,000 men were convicted   
   under the old Paragraph 175 – around 4 a day. From June 1935 to   
   June 1938, 40,000 men were convicted of an “unnatural sex act” –   
   around 54 men each day. Another 10,000 men were arrested from   
   June 1938 to June 1939. By the end of World War Two, it is   
   thought that 100,000 homosexual men had been arrested with   
   50,000 sent to prison. While figures are vague, it is thought   
   that between 5,000 and 15,000 were sent to concentration camps.   
      
   In June 1935 a new law was passed titled: ‘The Amendment to the   
   Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases”.   
   This law defined homosexuals as “asocial” and a threat to the   
   moral purity of the Third Reich. If someone was found guilty   
   under this law, a judge was given the right to order the   
   castration of that person. Anyone found guilty of “chronic   
   homosexuality” was sent to a concentration camp.   
      
   Under Nazi law the man arrested as a “seducer” was deemed more   
   guilty than the “seduced” and received a longer prison sentence.   
   Those sent to concentration camps had to wear a pink triangle on   
   their clothing. The “seduced”, it was believed by the Nazis,   
   could be won round by the use of ‘psychological therapy’. What   
   were called ‘Research Institutes’ were established for this   
   purpose.   
      
   A new law was introduced – called Paragraph 176 of the Criminal   
   Code – that dealt with homosexual behaviour involving members of   
   the Hitler Youth. Those in a position of authority in either the   
   Hitler Youth or the League of German Girls were deemed to have   
   committed a criminal offence if they were found guilty of using   
   their position to sexually exploit a subordinate. However, this   
   new piece of legislation did not it seems put paid to any   
   worries that the Nazi hierarchy had about homosexual behaviour   
   in its youth movements. In 1935 the Gestapo arrested a number of   
   Hitler Youth leaders and questioned them with regards to their   
   relationships with younger members. But from the party’s point   
   of view any hint of such behaviour within their youth movements   
   undermined the very principles that the party was trying to put   
   across. The party image was of the youth who would become a   
   warrior who would fight to the death for his country. Any   
   controversy within the Hitler Youth would have been very   
   embarrassing for the party and as a result it is known that any   
   rumours of homosexual behaviour or exploitation were covered up.   
   One mother who complained about her son being exploited by   
   Hitler Youth superiors was arrested and sent to a concentration   
   camp (Richard J Evans ‘The Third Reich in Power’.)   
      
   Trumped up charges of homosexual behaviour could also be used   
   against someone who had upset the Nazi Party hierarchy. This   
   happened against Helmut Bruckner who was a party regional leader   
   in Silesia. He complained about the activities of the SS in his   
   area, especially their brutality, and was promptly arrested on   
   the orders of Himmler, head of the SS, and charged with gross   
   indecency with an army officer. He was sacked from his post and   
   sentenced to 18 months in prison. The charge simply was not true   
   but no one challenged the veracity of it in the court.   
      
   On October 1st 1936 the Nazi Party introduced a new department –   
   the Reich Central Office for Combatting Homosexuality and   
   Abortion. The Gestapo was given the task of hunting out   
   homosexuals – a task it carried out with vigour - and an   
   assumption was made that homosexual behaviour equalled   
   dissidence and opposition to the Reich. Some senior Nazi leaders   
   also believed that homosexuality was contagious and could   
   undermine the Third Reich. Those not imprisoned were sent to   
   state-run mental institutions so that they could be “cured of   
   their illness”. Most arrested homosexuals were sent to prison   
   but between 5,000 and 15,000 were sent to concentration camps   
   where they faced a torrid time, more so, according to some   
   survivors, than other inmates. It is thought that proportionate   
   to their numbers in these camps, homosexuals suffered a higher   
   death rate than any other ‘small victim’ group – about 60%   
   according to scholar Rudiger Lautman. During the war,   
   homosexuals were part of the “Extermination Through Work” policy   
   and work camp survivors claim that homosexuals were frequently   
   given the most difficult and dangerous tasks by their SS guards.   
      
   During World War Two, experiments were conducted on homosexuals   
   arrested in Occupied Europe. These experiments tried to isolate   
   the “gay gene”, as the Nazis called it, in an attempt to find a   
   ‘cure’ for homosexual behaviour. Once these experiments were   
   finished, the victims were invariably castrated.   
      
   Lesbians were not widely persecuted by the Nazis as their   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)