Holocaust:
Non-Jewish Victims

Newsletter: Volume 1, Issue 1 F
© 1999, 2008 Terese Pencak Schwartz

Homosexuals

Hitler Was the
Ultimate Racist

Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust · Five Million Often Forgotten · Homosexuals
The Holocaust is usually taught as the mass genocide of almost six million Jews in Europe during World War II. But, more than five million others were also persecuted, tortured, tattooed and killed. These five million included innocent citizens - men women and children. The survivors and the families of these five million often feel left out -- overshadowed by the Jewish casualties. Nonetheless, these people need to be recognized and memorialized. Many of these died for their race or their beliefs. Many of these died while helping their Jewish neighbors. They too deserve their place in history.

Because Hitler's plan for a great Master Race had no room for any homosexuals, many males from all nations, including Germany, were persecuted, tortured and executed. Hitler even searched his own men and found suspected homosexuals that were sent to concentration camps wearing their S.S. uniforms and medals. Homosexual inmates were forced to wear pink triangles on their clothes so they could be easily recognized and further humiliated inside the camps. Between 5,000 to 15,000 homosexuals died in concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Men With the Pink Triangle : The True, Life-And-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps by Heinz Heger, et al (Paperback - October 1994) Amazon.com $8.95 "In 1939, Heger, a Viennese university student, was arrested and sentenced to prison for being a "degenerate." Within weeks he was transported to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp in East Germany, and forced to wear a pink triangle to show that his crime was homosexuality. He remained there, under horrific conditions, until the end of the war in 1945. The power of The Men with the Pink Triangle comes from Heger's sparse prose and his ability to recall--and communicate--the smallest resonant details. The pain and squalor of everyday camp life--the constant filth, the continuous presence of death, and the unimaginable cruelty of those in command--are all here. But Heger's story would be unbearable were it not for the simple courage he and others used to survive and, having survived, that he bore witness. This book is harrowing but necessary reading for everyone concerned about gay history, human rights, or social justice." --Michael Bronski

International Association of Lesbian and Gay Children of Holocaust Survivors

Special permission is given to students and educators to print this page for classroom purposes.

This newsletter is published by the Holocaust Forgotten Memorial, 4607 Lakeview Canyon Rd, California 91361. E-mail: Terese Pencak Schwartz. Information for this newsletter was taken from various sources, including The Other Victims : First-Person Stories of Non-Jews Persecuted by the Nazis by Ina R. Friedman. Houghton Mifflin Company

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