Homosexuality in Nazi Germany Trivia Quiz

Answer: Yes

In the 1920s Berlin was considered a progressive, liberal city with residents who tolerated diversity. Gay people may not have been as accepted and as liberated in Berlin back in the 1920s as they are in the city now (modern Germany being very gay friendly) but there was a general attitude of tolerance.

The economy of the Weimar Republic is fascinating but it was very dependent on borrowing from the USA. Gustav Stresemann, German Chancellor (briefly) and Foreign Minister (1923-1929), was gifted with foresight and this quotation of his sums up his understanding of the economic situation perfectly: "The German economy is doing well only on the surface. Germany is in fact dancing on a volcano. If the short-term loans are called in by America, most of our economy will collapse." Gustav Stresemann's candour and foresight elevate him to the ranks of the best European leaders of all time; his traits rarely seen in today's politicians.

Stresemann succeeded in greatly improving relations between Germany and France, and in 1926 he and Aristide Briand were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Answer: Sturmabteilung (SA)

Immediated before the book burnings, the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for the Study of Sexuality) was vandalized and its extensive library was destroyed.
The Nazi book burnings of 1933, coordinated by the SA, were in hindsight an indication of what the Nazi party under Hitler planned for the supposed 1000-year Reich. Any document that didn't fit in with Nazi ideology (often masquerading as 'the German spirit', whatever they may be), whether it was academic writings about homosexuality or scientific writings by Jews such as Albert Einstein, would be burned. The author Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) wrote that, "...where they burn books they will eventually burn people." Heine would turn out to be absolutely correct about a despotic political regime that only came into being well after his death.

Incredible as it may sound, nationalistic German *university students* played a key part in the book burnings of May 1933.

Answer: Ernst Roehm

Ernst Roehm was the leader of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and he was involved in a power struggle with Heinrich Himmler who was at the top of the Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Eventually the SS would prevail and become perhaps the most important, and later most infamous, ministry of the entire Third Reich. Adolf Hitler began to lose trust in Ernst Roehm and the Fuehrer, possibly demonstrating paranoia or maybe working on some form of intelligence, believed that Roehm had leadership ambitions of his own. Moreover, Roehm had cause monumental offence to the Reichswehr by proposing that the army should be merged with the SA. Hitler was well aware that the army enjoyed unconditional support from President Hindenburg.

Thus in the Night of the Long Knives, the SA leader was executed in the mass purge and the excuse given was that Roehm and other top SA officials took part in homosexual acts. Many historians suggest that this is 'spin' and that it was all to do with the mechanics of politics in the Third Reich.

Answer: Abortion

It could be suggested that the reason behind conflating homosexuality and abortion was to increase the population of the 'Master Race'. In the view of Heinrich Himmler and many other leading Nazis, homosexuals were "defilers of German blood" and that was sufficient to justify sending them to concentration camps.

Answer: "Extermination through labour"

Even though all four of these possibilities are true in terms of how inmates were treated in the concentration camps, the correct answer is "extermination through labour" which is a translation from the original German, "Vernichtung durch Arbeit". Concentration camp inmates, including homosexuals, were treated as slaves and would often die of exhaustion, disease or starvation as a result of the most horrendous conditions imaginable.

The economics of slave labour did not go unnoticed by some of the financial leaders of the Third Reich and the economic benefits were one of the main reasons for the incessant nature of the work regime enforced upon prisoners. That being said, in many other instances the exhausting tasks required to be completed by prisoners were so pointless that nothing except great suffering on the part of the incarcerated would result. It is perhaps this facet of camp life that is the most upsetting and cruel of all.

Answer: Pierre Seel

The full title of Seel's enlightening book is, 'Moi, Pierre Seel, déporté homosexuel' which translates into English as 'I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual'. His life story is fascinating, from his incarceration and ill treatment to his involvement in the German war machine; from the hostile reception he received in the 1980s when first speaking of his experiences to his standing ovation at a German film festival in 2000.

Answer: Pink

The pink triangle, now reclaimed by the gay population as a symbol of unity and pride, was worn by any man in the concentration camp who had been "convicted" of same-sex relations. 'Bent', an extraordinary film from 1997, documents the lives of two fictional homosexuals and in particular how they fall in love with each other in the seemingly impossible situation they found themselves.

The pink triangle was not exclusively reserved for gay men, however, as it was also used to identify, among others, rapists and paedophiles.

It would therefore be fair to suggest that the pink triangle was used to identify those men whom the Nazi authorities believed were 'sexual criminals'.

Answer: Black

This is still quite a controversial issue and perhaps that is to be expected of an aspect of Nazi history that has only relatively recently made itself known. There is little in the way of documentation to say that lesbians were classified with the "anti-social" inmates but that being said, there is very little mention of lesbians at all. The black triangle has since become a symbol for lesbian pride.

The black triangle was also bestowed upon other "anti-social" groups of people within the Nazi regime; quite incredibly pacifists were assigned this badge as, too, were the mentally ill and prostitutes.

Answer: True

Some estimates have put the death rate of homosexuals in the camps at an extraordinary 60% and this is considered by academics, such as Lautmann, to be so high due in part to the persecution at the hands of other inmates. This little known part of the Holocaust (just like the treatment of the women forced into prostitution) is one of the most recent examples of the appalling situation that everybody in the camps found themselves in to come to light.

Answer: Montevideo

As well as the people of Montevideo, Uruguay, paying their respects there were monuments designed for the homosexual victims of the Holocaust in Berlin, San Francisco and in one of the most liberal cities in the world, Amsterdam. It was only in 2002 that the German government issued an official apology for the suffering and persecution experienced by gay people during the Holocaust.

There is no doubt that that would have been welcomed but it does raise the interesting question of whether incumbent governments should have to apologise for irresponsible and inhumane predecessors.