Homosexuality and the Third Reich - Essay Example

HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE THIRD REICH Name: Course Title: Date: Introduction Heinrich Himmler was a military commander in the German Nazi party between the year 1900 and 1945. He was also a leading member of the party. From the year 1943, he served as the chief of the police in Germany and also a minister in the interior ministry. He was the person responsible for overseeing the concentration camps, the extermination camps and other task forces that operated with the role of murdering the Jews and also the communists among others who were occupants of the territories1. He was one of the most powerful men in the Nazi Germany. During his period, there were lots of crimes against humanity that took place. One of them was the crimes that were committed against the rights of the homosexuals in the country. This paper is an argument against Himmler’s speech on homosexuality that existed among the German public and its soldiers. Himmler’s fears on the impacts of homosexuality on the Third Reich Himmler had great fears for homosexuality and the homosexuals who existed in the country. He had the fears that homosexuality would have some unwanted impacts on the state of Germany. This led him to the use of the powers that he had to fight against homosexuality, which to him was a vice. One of the fears that he had was that homosexuality posed a danger to the existence of the races in Germany and that of the German people as a whole. He also had fears that it had negative impacts to the health policies of the country2. In his speech, he spoke of it as a threat to the existence of the nation by describing it as a cause of people not having many children. According to him, his fear was that having few children would lead the race of the German people to the grave since its continuity in the later years would have been hindered. Another fear that Himmler had on homosexuality was based on the demographic danger that according to him, it posed. In his view, there was the existence of millions of men who had engaged in homosexuality in the country. This had the impact of stunting the growth of the country’s population3. To him, this was a danger since it would have meant that there would have been fewer men who would be able to have sex with women and have the capability of siring children, which to him would have led to an imbalance in the population of the country, Germany. He also had the idea that the imbalance would lead to a catastrophe in the future of the country. According to him, this would have also meant the end of Germany as a state. Himmler was of the idea that the country required more people for it to have the capability of conquering the vital space of Switzerland. Solution to the homosexuality problem One of the solutions that Himmler came up to fight the inherent problem of homosexuality was in the formation of a special section of the police whose role was to increase arrests and prosecution of the homosexuals in the country. Their main job was to look for the homosexuals in the communities in Germany, arrest them and take them to court for them to be prosecuted4. According to the words of his speech, after the homosexuals had finished the jail terms that they were given by the courts, they would further be taken to incarceration camps. In these camps, they would be shot dead in case they attempted to escape. This was made possible by the fact that he headed the incarceration camps himself. This resulted to the arrest and prosecution of many people who were either homosexual by themselves or were perceived to be homosexuals. Another solution that he came up with to fight the rise of homosexuality in the nation was through coming up with a rule that made boys who were aged between fifteen and sixteen years to meet girls at occasions such as parties, dances among other social occasions. It was in his view that the boys who fall under that age bracket of between fifteen and sixteen are mostly unstable and would easily be lured or attracted to homosexuality if they lacked the exposure to women. It was his idea that the exposure of these young boys to girls at such occasions would encourage them to develop puppy love with the girls, which would lead them away from being homosexuals or getting attracted to homosexuality. He encouraged people to expose their children to sex early in their lives as he said would have impacts of getting boys attracted to women and have sex with them more than with their fellow men. There was also the promotion of the idea of making the men in the country become knights, where they would become champions to their wives and other women. Here, he promoted the warding off of the advantages that were associated with associations amongst men in the country. Himmler went ahead in taking a swipe on Bluher, who was linked with spreading the ideas of having men associating with other men as compared to associating with women. He went ahead and favored people to marry earlier in their lives, which he thought would get homosexuality to an end5. There was also the use of prostitutes and the opening up of public brothels that was used as a means of combating the problem of homosexuality. Himmler authorized the opening up of several brothels with the aim of making women ready to have sexual intercourse with men available to them. He also allowed people in the military to have sex with prostitutes. Here, the prostitutes were taken to the military camps for the people in the military to have easier access to them. He also saw the need to provide the German men with access to safe sex through the brothels, hence their opening and operations. This made him differ with the churches that were against this on the basis of morals. According to him, it was not possible to fight against homosexuality if the youth and the men in the country were not provided with alternatives. Therefore, the brothels and prostitutes would be the right alternatives for the men to avoid homosexuality6. Himmler’s rationalization on homosexuality was completely false. He was of the idea that homosexuality was a plaque that would plunge the country into danger in the future. The justification that the rationalization was false is in the fact that before becoming the leader of the SS in Germany, the former leader, Ernst Roehm was a homosexual, yet he was in most cases defended by Himmler. Roehm was known to be a homosexual for he attended meetings held by Homosexuals. This showed that Himmler did not have the same views that he had for homosexuals before and that his hate for them was baseless. On the other hand, he initially was a proponent of male associations where men were encouraged to have friends and at the same instance keep male company, but later began rebuking the same sentiments7. The solutions that Himmler came up with to fight against homosexuality were counter-productive. This is because there are no proven records to confirm that these solutions led to positive changes in the people who were homosexuals. In the words of Himmler, the people who were taken to the concentration camps were supposed to be shot if they tried to escape from the camps. This shows that the solutions were not meant to help the people change their traits but to exterminate them from the society. The strategies used also made some people hide their homosexual behaviors in order to avoid victimization. There was also the wide spread of sexually transmitted diseases in the country since people had unprotected sex with several partners. This meant that the country also faced the loss of populations through diseases hence there was no significant change in the population even after jailing many homosexuals and reducing the rates of homosexuality in the country8. Conclusion Despite the fact that Himmler was against homosexuality in Germany, there are several factors that indicate that his stance was on one hand not rational and on the other hand did not have any significant impact on the behaviors and trends of the homosexuals in the country. Other than the loss of lives of many people who had been arrested due to homosexuality, there were many other people who were unaccounted for. Although some people in the country were in support of the policies that Himmler came up with in terms of dealing with homosexuality, there are many others who did not like them. This was because these policies restricted the people’s rights and freedoms yet people ought to have basic freedoms, which were violated through such policies. Bibliography Austin S. B. Homosexuals and the Holocaust (2010) , accessed 3rd May, 2012. Herzog, D. Sexuality and Germany Fascism (New York: Berhgahn books, 2005). Mueller L. C. The Other Side of the Pink Triangle: Still a Pink Triangle (2011) , accessed 3rd May, 2012. Spurlin, W. Lost Intimacies: Rethinking Homosexuality under National Socialism (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2009). Tamagne, F. A History of Homosexuality in Europe: Berlin, London, Paris, 1319-1939 (New York: Algora Publishing, 2006). Read More