As you may know I have become completely obsessed with Nazis
lately. Okay, gay Nazis. Well, Nazis that may or may not be gay and the
theories of social ethnic cleansing of a
people… and the men who loved them.
Now we know that ethnic cleansing is the widely accepted
scholarly term used to describe the systematic and violent removal of undesired
ethnic groups from a given group or society. And that the Nazis used massive
ass hat social policies that was based on the improvement of their made up “Aryan
race” through targeting groups who were deemed “unworthy of life, including
homosexuals.
The funny thing, and by “funny” I mean unimaginable, is that
gays were the first group to have their rights removed, yet historians seem
reluctant to approach the subject and quickly turn to the fate of other
minorities in Nazi Germany at the time. Homosexuals were subjected to the first
wave of cleansing of Germany, yet you will find very little about this in
history books.
What I have found a lot of lately is the massive amount of
Allied propaganda that still survives today. This misinformation was based
around the fact that the Hitler himself was a huge moe. This propaganda was used
in a schoolyard bully way to motivate the U.S. forces in demonizing
Hitler. Which, they didn’t need to
do as he was pretty much making his own case of being a horrible monster. This
propaganda did; however, begat the “homosexuals are Nazis” and was pretty much
the foundation for the books like The Pink Swastika, which right-wing AM radio nut job ass hats use to
spread their personal vendetta and hate against Gays and Lesbians.
Even though Homosexuals were the first group to be hauled
off and gassed, not to mention the thousands who were mutilated or dissected in
so-called medical experiments by Nazi doctors, who insisted that homosexuality
was a disease that could be “cured.” My thought is, if the Nazi Doctors,
with out any medical board regulations could not cure homosexuality… well I
guess it can’t be cured. And why is it that if gays were the first to die in
horrible ways, and used in massive slur campaigns why is it still being then
turned around and used to demonize homosexuals. Why don’t historians speak of
the sacrifice?
Wow, deep. You touched on a personal pet peeve of mine. Actually, "peeve" isn't strong enough... pet passionate objection is more like it.
ReplyDeleteWhen historical facts are so important, I find people who seek to rewrite history to fit a personal, political or religious agenda to be despicable low-life scum wads.
More despicable and lower-life scum wads than Nazis? Maybe not, but pretty damn close and they can't be allowed to go unchallenged.
I find Warren Throckmorton is a good resource for challenging these... people.
http://wthrockmorton.com/the-pink-swastika/
There are multiple reasons why gay history took very long to come out from the historical closet, especially as it relates to the question of Nazi Germany. Some have to do with the lack of organisation of gays and lesbians after the War, some have to do with the Cold War and the dichotomies it created (leaving very little space for gays and lesbians to exist, actually; the years after WWII were some of the worse for gays and lesbians.
ReplyDeleteThere are many issues that are related to this one... and have to do with how we have constructed our historical consciousness and are comforted by it. And memory is always selective.
As a professional historian (whose research does not focus exclusively on this question, however), I have always been intrigued (too feeble a word; dismayed, rather) by this situation, but the dearth of organised archives (especially compared to those of other groups that have been targeted by the Nazis) is now our major impediment.
Up until recently it was career suicide for academics to study LGBT history, since the selection committees were composed entirely of old straight white men. In the last 20 years this has changed, but the resulting historical research is still getting less coverage than the outrageous Scott Lively book.
ReplyDeleteI thnk this particular area of history is being moved forward now and actively studied.
ReplyDeleteGermany did the right thing by setting up the memorial to all those G&L's killed during WWII....
As a Jew I appreciate that we were given priority as a study subject due to the nature of the Nazi agenda, but I think finally more and more areas of the social strata are now being looked at.
Wow I think I learned something in this post
ReplyDeleteInformative post. Now my curiosity is piqued and I must go research.
ReplyDelete