Pink triangle

Homosexual concentration camps Sachsenhausen with pink triangles on his chest.

In the late 1930s, the Nazi German government launched a program to “cleanse” German society of “undesirable elements”. Mass arrests of representatives of various groups began and their sending without trial or investigation to concentration camps under the so-called protective arrest , where a special label system for prisoners was developed. Patches were made on the shape of the prisoners in the form of an equilateral triangle ("winkel"), the color of which served to indicate the "category". Political prisoners wore a red triangle, yellow (or David's yellow star ) - Jews, green - criminals, brown - gypsies, black - “asocial elements”, ^[3] purple - religious minorities, ^[4] blue - people who tried to illegally emigrate from countries, and pink is homosexual men. ^[five]

Memo for the SS. Marking prisoners in concentration camps .

The criminal prosecution of homosexuals in Germany was not a Nazi invention, however, if paragraph 175 proclaimed primarily responsible for anal sex until 1935, after the reform of the Criminal Code all men who were suspected of homosexual relations because of kisses, hugs or even some then hints. ^{[1] [6]}

Between 1933 and 1944, under the 175th paragraph in the Third Reich, about 50 thousand men were convicted ^[7] (including about four thousand teenagers), ^[8] many of whom were sent to prisons. Also, from 5 to 15 thousand men were deported to concentration camps. It is not known exactly how many homosexuals died, but according to the German historian and sociologist Rudiger Lautmann , the death rate of convicts under the 175th paragraph in the camps was the highest and reached sixty percent (for comparison: among political prisoners - 41%). ^[7] Pink triangles were placed on the form of homosexual men, this marking distinguished them in one of the lowest groups in the hierarchy of the camp social system: not only the guards and the administration, but also other prisoners, were cruel to them. ^[one]

Lesbians were not subjected to systematic harassment by the Nazis, because, according to the Nazis, they did not pose a serious threat to society. Women could not be convicted under paragraph 175, but it is known that some of them were sent to concentration camps as “asocial” and wore black triangles. ^[9]

Repression of gays and lesbians in Nazi Germany is considered part of the Holocaust . However, the law by which gays were condemned lasted for many years after the victory over Hitler . With minor changes, it remained valid after the war ended for another 19 years in the GDR and for 20 years in the FRG (see Paragraph 175 ). Rudolf Brazda , the last known gay survivor of Nazi concentration camps, died in his sleep on August 3, 2011, at the age of 98. ^[10] The persecution of homosexuals in the Third Reich is reflected in the permanent exhibition of the Berlin Museum of Homosexuality .

History

In the early 1970s, human rights organizations for LGBT people in the USA and Germany launched a campaign to popularize the pink triangle as a symbol of movement.

So, in 1973, the West German gay liberation organization Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin (HAW) urged gays to wear a pink triangle in memory of victims of the past and in protest of ongoing discrimination , warning however that this could make them a target of homophobic aggression. Two years later, the HAW-Info gay magazine reiterated this manifesto. In 1976, the film “Pink Triangle? It was such a long time ago ... ”( German Rosa Winkel? Das ist doch schon lange vorbei ) directed by Peter Recht, Detlef Stoffel and Christiana Schmerl, who again raised this issue and also documented the persecution of homosexual men. In 1980, the gay magazine Rosa Flieder wrote that the pink triangle is not only a memory of the extermination of gays in the past, but also a reminder of the continued oppression and discrimination against them, since paragraph 175 still existed in the Federal Criminal Code. In the next issue, the magazine noted that the police in some regions of Germany still compile lists of homosexual citizens. ^{[1] [2]}

1970s gay American activists also used the pink triangle as a symbol of memory. Gay Sunshine Magazines (in 1973) in San Francisco and The Body Politic in Toronto (in 1974) published material on the use of the pink triangle in Nazi concentration camps and urged the use of this symbol in memory of those who were persecuted. ^{[1] The} pink triangle became actively used in the gay liberation movement. Thanks to this, when any public figures called for restricting the rights of homosexuals, they risked being compared with the Nazis. For example, the pink triangle acquired particular political significance in New York in 1974 during a public discussion around a bill protecting human rights against homosexuals. Orthodox Jewish groups opposed the decree. Gay activists staged a picket, the participants of which put on armbands with a pink triangle as a sign that homosexual men along with the Jews were victims of Nazi concentration camps. The following year, in an editorial on The New York Times, the head of the New York Civil Liberties Union Ira Glasser called on all readers to wear the pink triangle in order to express support for the upcoming bill, which was designed to end discrimination against homosexuals in the areas of employment, housing and public institutions. Touching on the question of the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany, Glasser wrote: “Many people know about the yellow star , but the pink triangle is still buried as a kind of historical secret.” ^[2]

In the early 1980s, many individual gay men and groups began to use the pink triangle symbol in its modern perception - as a sign of belonging to the LGBT community. Since this symbol was not universally known, the triangle began to play the role of a kind of secret mark, by which it was possible to recognize other gays and lesbians when they placed it on the bumper of the car or in the form of a breastplate. The triangle served as a reminder of past and current oppression, a tribute to those who died in the camps, and those who died from a new disease - AIDS . ^{[1] [2]}

Since the 1980s went a long way for the LGBT community under the sign of the AIDS epidemic , which at first especially affected gays, many gay activists directed their efforts to combat the spread of the disease, including legislative and political changes. ACT UP, which was born in the New York City social gay center, began using the pink triangle in a modified form - with the top facing up - as a call for "active resistance, not passive submission to fate," as a symbol of the need to actively fight AIDS and ongoing oppression of LGBT people. The pink triangle often appeared over the motto “Silence = Death”. In their manifesto, activists drew parallels between the Nazi period and the AIDS crisis, stating that "the silence about oppressing and destroying gays then and now must be broken for our survival." The slogan thus protested against the taboo on discussing safe sex and the unwillingness of some to confront social injustice and the indifference of the Reagan government. ^{[2] [11]}

In Russia, the pink triangle in the 1990s. He gave the name to the Triangle Center, one of the first organizations of gays, lesbians and bisexuals, whose leaders included Yevgeniya Debryanskaya and Masha Gessen . ^[12]

Contradictions

The pink triangle has a bright and festive appearance, as a result of which it soon began to be used to mark affiliation with the LGBT community in a very wide range: its images are placed on cufflinks, earrings, badges, key rings, posters. The pink color itself began to be associated with homosexuality. In terms of popularity as a symbol of homosexuality, he competes only with the rainbow flag .

However, some gays and lesbians, especially those of Jewish origin, question the usefulness of such a widespread use of the Nazi mark. Others believe that using the pink triangle as a symbol of pride devalues ​​the memory of the suffering of homosexuals during the time of Nazism, in opposition to which opponents appeal to the ongoing struggle against hatred of gays and lesbians, against discriminatory laws against them, to the indifference of the Reagan government during the AIDS epidemic . ^{[1] [2]} As the historian Eric N. Jensen noted, “the pink triangle performed many tasks: it united a diverse community of homosexual men and women, mobilized its political activity and served as an interpreting basis for modern events.” ^[13] Some researchers note the political nature of the symbol, contrasting it with the concept of the rainbow flag that is indistinct from their point of view, and attribute the decline in its popularity to increasingly commercialized gay events. ^[14]

Options

Many lesbians perceived the pink triangle as a symbol not organic enough for themselves, since in Nazi camps it was a sign only for homosexual men; lesbianism itself was not criminally prosecuted in the Reich, but lesbians often qualified as “asocial elements” and wore a black triangle . Therefore, some lesbian activists in the 1980s began to use a black triangle instead of a pink one, wanting to emphasize the often underestimated role of women in the gay movement. Similar patterns of bisexuals and transgenders were also created on the model of the pink triangle: the first is an incomplete overlap of pink and blue triangles, the second is a pink triangle with a special transgender symbol inscribed in it (a combination of the symbols of Mars and Venus, meaning male and female). ^[2]

In Culture

The pink triangle is the basis of the symbol of the International Day Against Homophobia , as well as other various logos of LGBT organizations and events.

The memorial significance of the pink triangle is reflected in various monuments of the LGBT community. This sign is depicted on plaques commemorating the Nazi genocide of gays and lesbians ( Mauthausen (1984), Neuengamme (1985), Dachau (1985), Nollendorfplatz in Berlin (1989), in Cesarini Park in Bologna (1990), Risiera di San Sabba (2005), Buchenwald (2006)). Also, the pink triangle is a central part of the sculpture of the Homonomonum in Amsterdam (1987), the Pink Triangle memorial in Cologne (1995), the Gay Lesbian Memorial in Sydney (2001), the San Francisco Memorial Park (2003), the Monument to Sexual Diversity in Montevideo (2005) ), a monument against homophobia in Sitges (2006), a monument to repressed LGBT people in Barcelona (2011), a monument to repressed LGBT people in Tel Aviv (2014).

• Warren Johansson. Pink Triangle // Encyclopedia of Homosexuality: [ eng. ] / Edited by Wayne Dynes. - N. Y .: Garland Publishing, 1990 .-- P. 996-997. - 1522 p. - ISBN 0-8240-6544-1 .
• Plant, Richard. The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals. - Owl Books, 1988 .-- 257 p. - ISBN 0-8050-0600-1 .
• Heinz Heger . Die Männer mit dem rosa Winkel - Hamburg 1972. Neuauflage 2001 - ISBN 3-87536-215-2
• Heinz Heger. Men With the Pink Triangle: The True, Life-And-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps. - Alyson Books, 1994 .-- ISBN 1555830064 .
• H ans-Georg Stümke, Rudi Finkler . Rosa Winkel, Rosa Listen - Homosexuelle und "Gesundes Volksempfinden" von Auschwitz bis heute - Rowohlt, Hamburg 1981 - ISBN 3-499-14827-7
• Rüdiger Lautmann, Winfried Grikschat, Egbert Schmidt, Der rosa Winkel in den nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslagern (S. 325 ff) in Rüdiger Lautmann. Seminar Gesellschaft und Homosexualität , Frankfurt am Main 1977
• Jensen, Erik N. "The Pink Triangle and Political Consciousness: Gays, Lesbians, and the Memory of Nazi Persecution." Journal of the History of Sexuality 11 (January / April 2002): 319-49.

•   Wikimedia Commons has media related to the Pink Triangle
• Men with the Pink Triangle (German)
• The History of Gays and Lesbians in World War II