Reparation for Gays
Jay Anderson
In article <33c336a1...@news.wired2.net> ejkr...@hotmail.com_Z writes:
>PlanetOut: NewsPlanet
>Nazis Victims to Get Swiss $$
>NewsPlanet Staff
>Tuesday, July 8, 1997 / 07:18 PM
>Estimates of how many gay men died in Nazi concentration camps
>range as high as one million, but 10,000 is a more generally
>accepted figure. (The stringent anti-gay laws were targeted
>at men; those lesbians who were incarcerated were more likely
>to fall under the general label "social deviant.")
A range from 10,000 to one million is a large range. Anyone have any
better indications of how many victims there were, or if not that, any
knowledge of how the one million figure was obtained?
What I've read is that the Nazis didn't mind homosexuals among
"non-Aryans" since they assumed they would corrupt them all the more and
they wanted that. I thought it was mostly "Aryan" homosexuals who were
put into concentration camps for being homosexual and the "non-Aryan"
homosexuals who were in camps were there for other reasons (being
Jewish, being a gypsy, being Slavic, etc.).
Jay
Ezekiel Krahlin
In some of my diatribes, I stated that gay people should
demand reparation from the centuries of oppression by the
heterosexist majority. Looks like this wish is coming true.
For those who missed the article from PlanetOut, here it is in
text format:
--------------------------------------------------------------
PlanetOut: NewsPlanet
Nazis Victims to Get Swiss $$
NewsPlanet Staff
Tuesday, July 8, 1997 / 07:18 PM
SUMMARY: Gay holocaust survivors are eligible to receive
compensation from a Swiss fund for victims -- or they would be
if liberation had truly ended their persecution.
A private Swiss fund will move quickly to make its first
disbursement to compensate victims of the Nazi Holocaust,
including those interned for being gay. The fund's chair Rolf
Bloch announced July 7 that the executive board voted at its
first meeting to immediately give 17 million Swiss francs
($11.6 million US) -- 10% of its original capital -- to the
neediest victims. While most of the funds will go to Jewish
survivors, 2 million francs will go to gays and other
victimized groups. The memorial fund was donated by Swiss
banks and businesses in the wake of reports that they had
profited from Nazi looting and from holding the funds of Nazi
victims.
Although the Swiss have used the phrase "double victims" to
refer to Eastern European survivors who missed out on
compensation received by many of their Western counterparts
after the war, gay Holocaust survivors were literally double
victims in that they were still considered criminals in
post-war Germany. As a result, most gay survivors of
concentration camps -- and a smaller percentage of gays did
survive compared to other groups, it's believed -- tried to
hide their sexual orientation to avoid imprisonment after
their liberation. Only one has publicly identified himself
even now.
Nonetheless, the Berne-based gay and lesbian Pink Cross has
been actively lobbying for gay, bisexual, lesbian, and
transgendered Holocaust victims and their relatives to obtain
their fair share of Swiss reparations.
Estimates of how many gay men died in Nazi concentration camps
range as high as one million, but 10,000 is a more generally
accepted figure. (The stringent anti-gay laws were targeted
at men; those lesbians who were incarcerated were more likely
to fall under the general label "social deviant.")
---
My web site kicks (but never licks) butt!
http://www.wired2.net/ezekielk/
mailto:ezek...@hotmail.com
Arne Adolfsen
In article <andersonE...@netcom.com>,
Jay Anderson <ande...@netcom.com> wrote:
>A range from 10,000 to one million is a large range. Anyone have any
>better indications of how many victims there were, or if not that, any
>knowledge of how the one million figure was obtained?
Hysterical exaggeration by a Proud Queer Warrior. Historians who've
looked at the evidence generally agree that the number was around
10,000,
>What I've read is that the Nazis didn't mind homosexuals among
>"non-Aryans" since they assumed they would corrupt them all the more and
>they wanted that. I thought it was mostly "Aryan" homosexuals who were
>put into concentration camps for being homosexual and the "non-Aryan"
>homosexuals who were in camps were there for other reasons (being
>Jewish, being a gypsy, being Slavic, etc.).
Actually, it was only male homosexuals in the Reich -- Germans,
Austrians, and people in the Sudetenland -- who were subject to
incarceration in a concentration camp. Dutch, French, Polish,
Norwegian, Ukrainian and other fags were not singled out for rough
treatment on account of their sexuality.
--
-- Arne Adolfsen --------------- ar...@mtcc.com --- http://www.mtcc.com/~arne --
B. Hadleigh: A few names from the silver screen. Could you respond with one or
a few words--the first ones that come to mind? Bette Davis: Uh-oh. I'll try,
Boze, I'll _try_. BH: Joan Crawford. BD: Hollywood's first case of syphilis!
Mark Stapleton
On Thu, 10 Jul 1997 23:45:48 GMT, ar...@mtcc.com (Arne Adolfsen) wrote:
>Actually, it was only male homosexuals in the Reich -- Germans,
>Austrians, and people in the Sudetenland -- who were subject to
>incarceration in a concentration camp. Dutch, French, Polish,
>Norwegian, Ukrainian and other fags were not singled out for rough
>treatment on account of their sexuality.
Hehe. Reminds me of the story of how Denmark dealt with German
occupation.
When Denmark was occupied, Germany declared that Danes were the
"little brothers" and "comrades in arms" of the Germans, and that
Denmark would retain a favored status in the new Reich. However, when
the Nazis later demanded that Danish Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, etc.,
don the Nazi-required badges (Stars of David, the pink triangles,
etc.), the Danish king (Christian?) got on the radio and told Danes
that since no Dane was different than any other Dane, they should
*all* wear badges. The next business day, virtually every citizen in
Copenhagen was wearing a badge of some sort.
The next day the Nazis rescinded the order.
ObSocBi: the Houston Pride committee *finally* got smart and staged
the Pride Parade for nighttime this year. I guess some of the
organizing committee had finally walked the parade route the previous
year and realized what the midday heat in Houston could be like. Alas,
the organized bisexual turnout was, as usual, small.
--
Bring on the spammers--this ol' cowbow refuses to hide from 'em.
Mark (mst...@agammemnon.com)
XAOS
Mark Stapleton wrote:
> ObSocBi: the Houston Pride committee *finally* got smart and staged
> the Pride Parade for nighttime this year. I guess some of the
> organizing committee had finally walked the parade route the previous
> year and realized what the midday heat in Houston could be like. Alas,
> the organized bisexual turnout was, as usual, small.
On the other hand, the disorganized, (xaotic, if you will) bisexual
turnout was..? :)
- Steve
Mark Stapleton
Funny you should mention it. I am *always* astonished by the widely
varied reception we meet. A *lot* of people cheer and wave when the
bisexual folk march by. (Lots of whoops, hand-waving, and oo-oo-oos.)
And then there always seem to be a few who yell out such endearing
phrases as "It's just a phase!" and "Fuck bisexuals!"[1]. The former
are more vociferous than the latter, but the latter are still there.
[1] This would be a pleasant thing to say, I s'pose, under the proper
circumstances, but not where I'm hearing them.