The association which has become the International Committee for Holocaust Truth, came together in 1994 in response to a
"pilgrimage" to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, made by a small group of mostly American "gay rights"
political activists. Their purpose was to demand a place in the memorial for homosexual victims of the Nazis. They were met in
Jerusalem by a contingent of outraged Jewish Holocaust survivors. One heartfelt cry from the crowd captured the essence of
their grief; "My grandfather was killed for refusing to have sexual relations with the camp commandant," a man screamed,
"You are desecrating this place..." (The Jerusalem Post, May 30, 1994).
The Jerusalem attempt by "gay" activists to place themselves beside the Jewish people as equals in persecution was not the
first action of its kind. However, this single event served to crystalize an awareness in the minds of active and concerned
members of the Christian and Jewish communities that a historical revisionist movement of frightening proportions had risen in
the United States. A situation which had once been common knowledge, that Nazi sadism was intimately linked with
homosexuality (so much so that Hollywood movies of the 1950's frequently portrayed SS camp guards as homosexuals), was
now reversed. The villians had become the victims.
The founding members of the ICHT, some of whom had already begun investigating this phenomenon independantly,
determined that a comprehensive study of the "Gay Holocaust" revisionist movement was needed. It was already common
knowledge that the pink triangle patch (worn by some homosexuals and other prisoners in Nazi work camps) had been
adopted as the very symbol of so-called "gay rights." Research exposed the fact that exploitation of the Holocaust has
become a virtual industry of the American homosexual movement. A revisionist campaign, subtly conducted since the 1970's
(Adam:86), has convinced Americans that the sad experience of a relatively few homosexuals represents the general
experience of homosexuals in Nazi Germany. The central role of homosexuals in the creation and administration of the Third
Reich, widely documented during and after World War II, is now suppressed in publications by university academics and the
media.
THE "GAY" HOLOCAUST MYTH:
The concept of a "Gay Holocaust" is standard fare in homosexual publications. A recent Advocate article on the subject was
titled "Our Holocaust." A fim series at a Holocaust museum was described by another publication as "the first evening
program to deal with the subject of the Gay Holocaust" (Wisconsin Light, February 16, 1994).
The heart of the "Gay Holocaust" myth is the proposition that homosexuals and Jews share a common heritage of persecution
by the Nazis. As the story goes, "Gay" victims were roughly equivalent to Jewish victims, though fewer in number. In articles
and books on the "Gay Holocaust," homosexual activists have claimed that as many as 2,500,000 homosexuals were killed in
Nazi death camps (Outworld, July 1996). In most versions, Jews and "gays" in the concentration camps are portrayed as
virtually interchangeable as to their treatment by the guards, their use as guinea pigs in medical experiements, and the manner
in which they died. In some versions, such as that presented in the play Bent (infra), "gays" suffered worse than the Jews did.
The fact that homosexuals remained imprisoned when the Allies liberated the camps is often cited as evidence of their greater
suffering.
Like most effective lies, the "Gay Holocaust" myth contains some truth. At least some homosexuals were interned in Nazi
work camps. Jews wore a yellow star; "gays" wore a pink triangle. Nazi officials publicly condemned homosexuality. But the
reconstruction of history in which "gays" are equivalent to Jews in the Holocaust is completely fraudulent. As Jewish
researcher Kevin Abrams has noted, "[i]ronically, the record shows there was far more brutality, rape, torture and murder
committed against innocent people by Nazi deviants and homosexuals than there ever was against homosexuals" ("The Other
Side of the Pink Triangle," Lambda Report, August 1994).
First, Jews in Nazi-controlled Europe were systematically dehumanized and stripped of all rights and property. They were
forced to wear the yellow star in public for identification and once identified, they were continually harassed and beaten on the
streets. As the "Final Solution" unfolded, all Jews in Europe were first herded into ghettos and then shipped by cattle-car to
one of six death camps which had been designed specifically to facilitate their extinction. As many as six million Jews (roughly
85% of European Jewry) were brutally murdered by firing squads and in gas chambers. The exact number is contested but is
certainly in the millions.
Even by the reckoning of the enthusiastically pro-"gay" U.S. Holocaust Museum, no more than 5,000 to 15,000 pink triangle
prisoners (mostly homosexual) were ever held in concentration camps by the Nazis (Rose:40). Of this group an undetermined
number were political prisoners who had been falsely charged with homosexual offenses (Kogen:44). Pink triangle prisoners
were generally sent, not to death camps, but to some of the 10,000 labor camps which served as prison facilities for criminals
and political detainees. Homosexuals in Germany were never forced to wear the pink triangle except as an identification badge
in the camps. They did not lose civil rights or property. They were not subjected to public humiliation or harassment, nore
were they forced into ghettos. Heinrich Himmler had estimated that there were two million homosexuals in Germany alone
during the Third Reich. We can probably assume that at least as many more lived in German occupied territory. Thus, it is
reasonable to conclude that only a fraction of 1% of European homosexuals were ever jailed by the Nazis. Thus it is probable
that more than 99% of European homosexuals lived (relatively) peacefully, throughout the reign of the Nazis. In Germany,
since nearly all citizens were conscripted, over 90% of homosexuals would have actually served the Third Reich.
The Jews were the targets of widespread, continual and vicious propaganda designed to engender and inflame anti-Semitism
in the German people. Thousands of examples of this hate-filled propaganda (in print and on film) survived the defeat of the
Nazis. Hatred of Jews was the central theme of Hitler's Mein Kampf and of a great many Nazi publications.
Evidence of Nazi anti-homosexual propaganda is minimal at best. Official statements against homosexuality, made primarily by
Heinrich Himmler, appear when taken in context to be mere pandering to the German public and to conservative elements of
the military. (The Germans had become disgusted with homosexuality after observing "gay and lesbian" excesses during the
Weimar period of the 1920's). Himmler is quoted in an address to military leaders as saying that homosexuals should be
"drowned in bogs," but his actions were surprisingly pro-homosexual (infra). Mein Kampf does not target homosexuals at all.
In fact, Hitler dictated much of Mein Kampf to his private secretary, Rudolf Hess, while sharing a cell with him in Landsberg
prison in 1924. Hess was a homosexual known alternately as "Fraulein Anna" and "Black Bertha" in the "gay" subculture of
Munich (Waite:284, Costello and Tsarev:xix).
The Nazis had no legitimate legal basis for imprisoning the Jews, yet, with hardly any exceptions, Jews who were arrested
were sent to camps to be killed. They had virtually no possibility of release. While interned, some were subjected to horrific
medical experiments. They were injected with disease, tortured in "endurance" tests and used as guinea pigs for biological and
other weapons. The result of most procedures was death. Outside the camps, harboring Jews was a capital offense.
In contrast, most pink triangle prisoners were arrested legitimately for sex crimes under Paragraph 175 of the pre-Hitler
German legal code. Anti-sodomy laws were on the books before the Nazis came to power and remained in force long after
the defeat of the Third Reich. (Similar laws are still in force in many U.S. states.) Only 10% of those arrested under Paragraph
175 were interned in the camps. Once interned, "gays" had a fair chance of being released even before the end of their
sentences. Many were discharged to join the army (Katz:146). Others who convinced Nazi officials that they had reverted to
heterosexuality were also released. In 1937, after a brief period in which laws against homosexuality were strengthened, the
laws were greatly relaxed. Under the new policy only four-time repeat offenders were jailed (Katz:146). Harboring
homosexuals was never a crime. In fact, Himmler personally granted immunity from arrest to many homosexuals in the arts
community (Plant:116).
Homosexuals were subjected to medical experimentation mainly to "force" them to become heterosexual. This was consistent
with Nazi preoccupation with breeding children for the Fatherland. Some homosexuals were forced engage in sex with female
prostitutes. A few were surgically castrated. Others received a surgical implant designed to increase their testosterone level,
similar in some respects to the subcutaneous Norplant contraceptive device now used by some American women.
As a final point of difference, Jews as a group bear no culpability for the Holocaust or other Nazi atrocities. They had no part
in the creation or development of the Nazi party or its policies. They had no represenation in the leadership of the Third Reich
or among the guards in the concentration camps.
Homosexual, on the other had, figured importantly in the Nai Party from its inception to its eventual demise. Many
homosexuals were prominent in the government and military organizations of the Third Reich, and many of the concentration
camp guards and administrators were homosexual.
Appropriation of Holocaust symbolism by the "gay rights" movement began in the early days of homosexual militancy. The
movement, which had previously been defined as a peaceful struggle to gain a "right to privacy" for homosexuals, changed
character abruptly in 1969. The pivotal event was the Stonewall Riot in New York City. A police attempt to arrest a boy
prostitute at the Stonewall "gay bar" sparked a riot by bar patrons (Reeves in Pascal:47). They attacked the police, drove
them back into the bar and then set it on fire (Marotta:72). This event is annually commemorated as "Gay Pride Day."
It was at a 1970 meeting of "new militants" (homosexuals who favored an aggressive posture toward society) that an
agreement was reached "...calling for a memorialization of homosexuals killed in Nazi concentration camps" (Adam:82ff).
According to Outworld, a Sacramento, California based homosexual publication, the pink triangle had become "a widely used
political symbol" by the mid 1970's.
In 1975 Ira Glasser, a non-Gay Jew who now serves as the executive director of the ACLU, led a coalition of gay and
straight groups in New York City to pass a city-wide ban on anti-gay discrimination. The coalition chose the pink triangle as
its campaign symbol to emphasize the oppression to which homosexual men and women were and are subjected....The pink
triangle was a prominent feature in the play Bent. Gay activists used the pink triangle as their symbol in the fight against Anita
Bryant's crusade to `save our children'...The move was an attempt to appeal to Florida's large Jewish vote by highlighting the
shared persecution during the Nazi era (Outweek, July 1996).
The play Bent, a quasi-pornographic stage production which was successful in many U.S. cities, audaciously portrays
homosexuals as the most persecuted group in Nazi camps. "Max, the homosexual protagonist...covets the yellow star because
he believes he will receive better treatment by the guards at Dachau...The implication that Jewish inmates were coddled, if
only in comparison to homosexuals, enrages Jewish theatergoers" (The Arizona Republic, Feburary 21, 1996).
Hitler's plans for a "1000 Year Reich," is a "Homofascist" Conspiracy which still thrives today disguised as "gay" rights. Today's Holocaust memorial museums are being co-opted as part of a broader homosexualist strategy.
Reprinted with permission of:
Kevin E. Abrams
Director of International Development
The International Committee For Holocaust Truth &
Co-author with Scott Lively of The Pink Swastika
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