Much like the Roma, homosexual victims and survivors of the German Holocaust have been, until recently, a mere footnote of the historical record. Not in any way diminishing the nearly six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazi regime, homosexuals also fell victim to Hitler's twisted desires for the creation of a Master Race. These men, branded with a pink triangle, were relegated to the lowest rung of the concentration camp's social strata. Often beaten, raped, and openly mocked, these prisoners faced terrible physical and psychological odds.What is so interesting about the governmental persecution of homosexuals in Nazi controlled Europe is that there is not much precedent for it. Germany, and to a greater extent France, was historically very tolerant of homosexuality. In fact, homosexuality was legal in France up until 1940 when the German controlled Vichy government outlawed it. This crackdown stemed from a newly revised section of the penal code known as Paragraph 175, which facilitated apprehension and prosecution of those men who harbor gay tendencies. This eventually spread to all areas occupied by Nazi Germany.
Behind this backdrop we meet Pierre Seel, a young eighteen year old gay man. Because he had reported to the police that his watch was stolen at a popular homosexual gathering area, he was arrested by the Gestapo on May 1, 1941. After being tortured for ten days, he was send to Schirmeck-Vorbruck, the only German concentration camp on French soil. While there he was "tortured, beaten, sodomized and raped" and was forced to build the gigantic furnaces used to cremate the murdered. After six months he was released and forced to join the Nazi army. After the war he settled down, and never spoke a word of his tribulations to anyone. He married and had three children, but later divorced.
Pierre Seel wrote or contributed to several works including Liberation Was for Others: Memoirs of a Gay Survivor of the Nazi Holocaust (April 1997), and Moi, Pierre Seel, déporté homosexuel (1994) as pictured above. Seel was interviewed by Rob Epstein for his 2000 documentary film Paragraph 175, highlighting the Nazi campaign against homosexuals. Seel died on November 25, 2005.
There are very few (less than ten) gay Holocaust survivors still alive today.
Information and References:
National Public Radio remembers Pierre Seel:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5036618
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hsx/
The Washington Post - "Pierre Seel Dies; Bore Witness to Nazi Torture of Gays."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/01/AR2005120101637.html
Wikipedia - Pierre Seel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Seel
3 comments:
Nick:
Nice job. I was astounded to learn that there are only 10 gay survivors left. It seems like we have an urgent need to record as much as we can from these people so that our future children will not forget what happen. And, it seems like this particular group of people were discriminated against two-fold-once for being Jewish, and another for being Gay. I understand now why the pink triangle has so much meaning.
Yes, an interesting account - and as you note, one that has remained a footnote until recently.
Thanks for the book suggestions as well.
Oops. I read this post after I commented on your other entry.
This is such an interesting topic, I think, because while it still relates to the Holocaust, its a from a point of view that is often silenced or non-existent, as there are so few gay survivors.
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