Gay History: Nazis Pt. 1

By Charles Alexander

Parting Glances

A BBC documentary DVD, "Hitler's Body Guards," claims there were 40 attempts on his life. Two came close. None succeeded.

For shockers, a just-published book, "Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler" provides newly uncovered documentation that Hitler with his mistress, later wife, Eva Braun managed at war's end in 1945 to abscond to South America (as did the notorious 'Angel of Death' Dr. Josef Mengele, who sent tens of thousands to their concentration camp death).

Hitler as Fuhrer - leader - was responsible for the murders of 55 million people, six million of whom were Jews who perished in gas chambers. He came to power in 1933.

Hitler claimed repeatedly that Destiny (he was Catholic by birth) had chosen him to lead the Third Reich, a fascist state that would last for "a thousand years." It lasted 12, but in the early years of World War II, Hitler conquered France, Belgium, Amsterdam, Norway, Finland, Latvia, Romania, Poland. England barely held on.

In 1934, the Nazi government established two watchdog organizations, one for the suppression of abortion; the other, for elimination of homosexuality. (The rationale was that Germany had lost over 3 million men during the previous World War I.)

As for homosexuality (lesbianism was for the most part ignored) sexual activity of any kind was punishable by prison sentence under Paragraph 175 of the penal code. (Following World War I and under Germany's fledgling Weimar Republic, 1920 - 1933, gay bars flourished in Berlin. About 40 were immediately closed by Hitler.)

Homosexuals were among the first "antisocials" to be sent to concentration camps to be worked to death. It's estimated that the number who were murdered, designated as such by the wearing of pink triangles on prisoner concentration camp tunics, is about 15,000.

Among the egregious lies being circulated these days by right-wing religious fundamentalist, Tea party antigay strategists, is that members of Germany's S.S. brown shirts were mostly gay, and responsible for initiating pogroms against Jews and in important ways abetting the Holocaust.

These salacious homophobes insist that Hitler was homosexual. He wasn't. Among those who were close to him at headquarters - adjutants, secretaries, diplomats, staff - the consensus later documented is that he was straight. (His sex life with mistress Eva Braun was certainly complicated by the fact he had an undescended testicle, bad breath, and, near the war's end, he suffered from Parkinson's disease.)

In spite of his funny Charlie Chaplin mustache and his penchant for haranguing guests with his opinions for hours, he had a svengali-like affect on women. They swooned over him; wept in his presence from sheer adulation, and three of his female devotees committed suicide over him, including wealthy English socialite Jessica Mitford.

Hitler wasn't gay, but the leader of the several-million-strong Brown Shirts, a street-brawler bully brigade, Captain Ernest Rohm, was. Rohm's immediate staff included a sex-swapping gay clique. Hitler tolerated this until what is known as "The Night of the Long Knives," June 6, 1934, when he had them murdered. He ordered Rohm to commit suicide, which Rohm did, shooting himself with a craven, "Heil Hitler!" (Continued next BTL issue.)
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