A Very Brief History Of Homosexuality In Nazi Germany

During World War II in Germany the Nazi Regime held strict consequences for any homosexual acts. Homosexuality was seen a disgusting way of life and often thought that after punishment for the “crime” that those who had committed it would then revert back to “normal” sexual behaviour. In this essay I will be discussing homosexuality during Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1945 . Before going forward, most of this essay will be discussing gay men as there were rarely any instances of prosecution of lesbians from the Nazi regime it is difficult to recount their histor. The Nazi’s forced gay men to wear a pink triangle to let others know their sexuality and shame them for it, Jensen discusses the pink triangle and its significance for the Nazi regime.

Giles writes about the reasons behind Himmler’s reactions towards homosexuality and how the time period and the culture impacted those decisions. Himmler was one of the many Nazi officers who saw homosexuality as an action that could be redacted. All four articles discuss homosexuality in Nazi Germany while arguing different and similar points of view of each historian.

The history of homosexuality has many gaps. The reason for these gaps is argued by Jensen in his article The Pink Triangle and Political Consciousness: Gays, Lesbians, and the Memory of Nazi Persecution. Jensen discusses the many reasons why the history of homosexuality in East and West Germany is slim to none, for example, during the Nazi Regime in Germany people were prosecuted for homosexual acts so it is to no surprise that there were little volunteers who were willing to disclose their sexuality which would lead to little literature on sexuality during that time period. Jensen discusses that gay men in concentration camps were forced to wear a pink triangle on their clothing to inform those of their homosexuality and to draw shame them. Another reason that Jensen argues for there being little collective memory is that almost all who were known homosexuals during that

The Nazi regime was obsessively controlling over any instances involving homosexual acts. Nazi’s aim was to create an Aryan race and by doing so their goal was to terminate all existing people who threatened that.During the Holocaust millions of Jews died but some gay men did not suffer the same fate. The Nazi’s believed that gay men were not defined by the homosexual act(s) they had been a part of, instead it was believed that after strict punishment and prosecution the men would revert to “normal” sexual behaviour. As we know now this is not true but the Nazi’s believed it because without their young male youth it was thought that the regime would fall apart. Heineman’s article discusses the obsession that some Nazi leaders had with homosexuality but also mentions that it was not all leaders who were more obsessive over homosexuals than the Jews, as Heineman mentions this meant that homosexuality might be punished to different degrees depending on the person accused. The need for literature of the history of homosexuality at this time is important because without the literature there would be even larger missing gaps in the history of sexuality during the Nazi Regime. Heineman argues that “Scholars and teachers who read carefully, however, can learn from the existing literature