XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: gay.paedophiles@splc.org   
      
   While male homosexuality remained illegal in Weimar Germany   
   under Paragraph 175 of the criminal code, German homosexual-   
   rights activists became worldwide leaders in efforts to reform   
   societal attitudes that condemned homosexuality. Many in Germany   
   regarded the Weimar Republic's toleration of homosexuals as a   
   sign of Germany's decadence. The Nazis posed as moral crusaders   
   who wanted to stamp out the "vice" of homosexuality from Germany   
   in order to help win the racial struggle. Once they took power   
   in 1933, the Nazis intensified persecution of German male   
   homosexuals. Persecution ranged from the dissolution of   
   homosexual organizations to internment in concentration camps.   
      
   The Nazis believed that male homosexuals were weak, effeminate   
   men who could not fight for the German nation. They saw   
   homosexuals as unlikely to produce children and increase the   
   German birthrate. The Nazis held that inferior races produced   
   more children than "Aryans," so anything that diminished   
   Germany's reproductive potential was considered a racial danger.   
      
   SS chief Heinrich Himmler directed the increasing persecution of   
   homosexuals in the Third Reich. Lesbians were not regarded as a   
   threat to Nazi racial policies and were generally not targeted   
   for persecution. Similarly, the Nazis generally did not target   
   non-German homosexuals unless they were active with German   
   partners. In most cases, the Nazis were prepared to accept   
   former homosexuals into the "racial community" provided that   
   they became "racially conscious" and gave up their lifestyle.   
      
   On May 6, 1933, students led by Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilung;   
   SA) broke into the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin and   
   confiscated its unique library. Four days later, most of this   
   collection of over 12,000 books and 35,000 irreplaceable   
   pictures was destroyed along with thousands of other   
   "degenerate" works of literature in the book burning in Berlin's   
   city center. The remaining materials were never recovered.   
   Magnus Hirschfeld, the founder of the Institute and a pioneer in   
   the scientific study of human sexuality, was lecturing in France   
   at the time and chose not to return to Germany.   
      
   The destruction of the Institute was a first step toward   
   eradicating an openly gay or lesbian culture from Germany.   
   Police closed bars and clubs such as the "Eldorado" and banned   
   publications such as Die Freundschaft (Friendship). In this   
   early stage the Nazis drove homosexuals underground, destroying   
   their networks of support. In 1934, the Gestapo (secret state   
   police) instructed local police forces to keep lists of all men   
   engaged in homosexual activities. Police in many parts of   
   Germany had in fact been doing this for years. The Nazis used   
   these "pink lists" to hunt down individual homosexuals during   
   police actions.   
      
   On June 28, 1935, the Ministry of Justice revised Paragraph 175.   
   The revisions provided a legal basis for extending Nazi   
   persecution of homosexuals. Ministry officials expanded the   
   category of "criminally indecent activities between men" to   
   include any act that could be construed as homosexual. The   
   courts later decided that even intent or thought sufficed. On   
   October 26, 1936, Himmler formed within the Security Police the   
   Reich Central Office for Combating Abortion and Homosexuality.   
   Josef Meisinger, executed in 1947 for his brutality in occupied   
   Poland, led the new office. The police had powers to hold in   
   protective custody or preventive arrest those deemed dangerous   
   to Germany's moral fiber, jailing indefinitely--without trial--   
   anyone they chose. In addition, homosexual prisoners just   
   released from jail were immediately re-arrested and sent to   
   concentration camps if the police thought it likely that they   
   would continue to engage in homosexual acts.   
      
   >From 1937 to 1939, the peak years of the Nazi persecution of   
   homosexuals, the police increasingly raided homosexual meeting   
   places, seized address books, and created networks of informers   
   and undercover agents to identify and arrest suspected   
   homosexuals. On April 4, 1938, the Gestapo issued a directive   
   indicating that men convicted of homosexuality could be   
   incarcerated in concentration camps. Between 1933 and 1945 the   
   police arrested an estimated 100,000 men as homosexuals. Most of   
   the 50,000 men sentenced by the courts spent time in regular   
   prisons, and between 5,000 and 15,000 were interned in   
   concentration camps.   
      
   The Nazis interned some homosexuals in concentration camps   
   immediately after the seizure of power in January 1933. Those   
   interned came from all areas of German society, and often had   
   only the cause of their imprisonment in common. Some homosexuals   
   were interned under other categories by mistake, and the Nazis   
   purposefully miscategorized some political prisoners as   
   homosexuals.   
      
   Prisoners marked by pink triangles to signify homosexuality were   
   treated harshly in the camps. According to many survivor   
   accounts, homosexuals were among the most abused groups in the   
   camps.   
      
   Because some Nazis believed homosexuality was a sickness that   
   could be cured, they designed policies to "cure" homosexuals of   
   their "disease" through humiliation and hard work. Guards   
   ridiculed and beat homosexual prisoners upon arrival, often   
   separating them from other inmates. Rudolf Hoess, commandant of   
   Auschwitz, wrote in his memoirs that homosexuals were segregated   
   in order to prevent homosexuality from spreading to other   
   inmates and guards. Personnel in charge of work details in the   
   Dora-Mittelbau underground rocket factory or in the stone   
   quarries at Flossenbürg and Buchenwald often gave deadly   
   assignments to homosexuals.   
      
   Survival in camps took on many forms. Some homosexual inmates   
   secured administrative and clerical jobs. For other prisoners,   
   sexuality became a means of survival. In exchange for sexual   
   favors, some Kapos protected a chosen prisoner, usually of young   
   age, giving him extra food and shielding him from the abuses of   
   other prisoners. Homosexuals themselves very rarely became Kapos   
   due to the lack of a support network. Kapo guardianship was no   
   protection against the guards' brutality, of course. In any   
   case, the Kapo often tired of an individual, sometimes killing   
   him and finding another on the next transport. Though individual   
   homosexual inmates could secure a measure of protection in some   
   ways, as a group homosexual prisoners lacked the support network   
   common to other groups. Without this help in mitigating   
   brutality, homosexual prisoners were unlikely to survive long.   
      
   One avenue of survival available to some homosexuals was   
   castration, which some criminal justice officials advocated as a   
   way of "curing" sexual deviance. Homosexual defendants in   
   criminal cases or concentration camps could agree to castration   
   in exchange for lower sentences. Later, judges and SS camp   
   officials could order castration without the consent of a   
   homosexual prisoner.   
      
   Nazis interested in finding a "cure" for homosexuality expanded   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)