Nazi Germany and homosexuality
Moral decline prior to Nazi Germany, which spawned an increase in the acceptance of homosexuality in German society, occurred about 35 years before the Nazis took power and it paved the way for the Nazis to take power. The Nazis were rabid evolutionists who insisted that the "German master race" should dominate other so-called inferior races. Belief in evolution has been linked to a decline of morality.[1]
The American journalist H. R. Knickerbocker wrote about the homosexual Nazi leader Ernst Röhm: Röhm's "chiefs, men of the rank of Gruppenfuehrer or Obergruppenfuehrer, commanding units of several hundred thousand Storm Troopers, were almost without exception homosexuals. Indeed, unless a Storm Troop officer were homosexual, he had no chance of advancement."[2]
Ernst Röhm was the only Nazi leader to address Hitler by his first name "Adolf" rather than "mein Führer" which helped prompt rumors that Hitler was a homosexual. The sexuality of Hitler is a matter of scholarly debate and historians are divided on whether Hitler was heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual.
Later when Adolf Hitler came into power, he chose to persecute homosexuals in order to advance his notions of racial struggle.[3] Yet at the same time, Hitler retained some sexual deviants in positions of power within the Nazi leadership. For example, Hermann Goering was known to dress in drag, paint his nails and put rouge on his cheeks. Another example is the case of Max Bielas who "had a harem of little Jewish boys. He liked them young, no older than seventeen. He had a kind of parody of the shepherds of Arcadia, their role was to take care of the camp flock of geese. They were dressed like little princes...Bielas had a little barracks built for them that looked like a doll's house...Bielas sought in Treblinka only the satisfaction of his homosexual instincts (Steiner:117f)."[4]
See also
- Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality
- Homosexuality and pederasty
- Overcoming homosexuality
External links
Hitler's sexuality:
- Richard Bessel reviews the book by historian Lothar Machtan - The Hidden Hitler - History Today
- Gay-Dolf Hitler: Fussy Fascist Dragged out of Closet - NY Post
- Was Hitler's Homosexuality Nazism's Best-Kept Secret? - Insight Magazine
