The Men with the Pink Triangle

[Peter_Martin]

I have just finished re-reading 'The Men with the Pink Triangle' by Heinz Heger. It is the account of a concentration camp survivor who was imprisoned in 1939 after it was discovered that he was gay. I find the whole book shocking and I am affected by it for a while after reading it each time. I really cannot understand how a civilised nation such as Germany could get carried away by such a evil and deranged political outlook.

Has anyone else read this book? If so how has it affected you? if you have not read it then I can recommend it for anyone who wishes to read an account of the concentration camps.

[kathyv]

I haven't read the book but I don't believe you can hold modern Germans accountable for the actions taken 60 and 70 years ago by a political group that basically took over the country!

I am sure that modern day Germany, like every other country in the world, has it's prejudiced people but they no longer have a policy that throws anyone in a concentration camp for whatever reason the despot in control comes up with!

Blaming today's Germany for it's past is like blaming modern day South Carolina for starting the American Civil War!

[Peter_Martin]

I do not blame the Germany of 2005. To confirm I was actually wondering how the people of a civilised country in 1933 to 1945 could support such a regime. I think it is a valid thing to wonder and I am not sure that it really has been contemplated.

I think to become sensitive to this talk will allow it to be swept under the carpet as people will not want to talk about that period as it might offend Germans of today. If we don't talk about it will be forgotten and maybe even happen all over again somewhere.

The programme The Nazis a Warning from History' pointed out that the Gestapo could not have been as effective if ordinary Germans had not been willing to report their neighbours. The network of spys "a Gestapo member on every street' could simply not exist. They interviewed a woman who had actually of her own free will reported a female neighbour for Lesbianism. When confronted with her signed statement she freely admitted that she had signed it, read it and had not been forced to do so. However, she could not remember what she had actually told the Gestapo to get this neighbour removed and presumably killed as she was never seen again.

Yes the Nazis did seize power by changing the constitution to keep them in power. However, they were put in power in the first place not by a military takeover but by the votes of a good proportion of ordinary Germans at that time. In any event if there is such a thing as collective guilt it does not attach to those who were too young to do anything or those not even born.

[kathyv]

I imagine those who did the turning in did so out of ignorance and suspicion. Many modern cultures seem to have gone through a period of belief that if you are different then you are perceved to be dangerous. I think blame for that has to be accepted on both parts. Not only those acting on misunderstanding but those who don't try to educate others about thier differences. Maybe they don't speak up out of shame or fear but if you live differently than those around you and try to keep it hidden, someone will find out and act on their suspicion. (even today we all know where the drug houses are and who runs them) Add a sick political party in control of your country stirring the pot on suspicion and you may well decide to involve yourself on the part you perceve as 'right' even if in hindsight you learn that you were wrong, just to keep yourself and family 'safe'.

Americans endured the McCarthy area where people were happy to submit names of supposed communists; their neighbors, coworkers and even relatives. Some did this out of a false sense of Americanism, others out of fear that if they didn't give names to the committee they would be in trouble for harboring. . . again, ignoracnce and suspicion gone out of control.

Hopefully we are past that sort of behavior in this modern world but when I hear news reports from the world's current trouble spots I wonder if it's just the same old wolf in different clothing.

I think I need to read this book, I have read many other WWII period books, (The Hiding Place for one) and am appaled and sickened by what went on. T. Davis Bunn has written some simple to read books on affects of the war on descendants of Europeans, and they show modern people whose lives have changed because of what happened to their parents and grandparents. And not just the descendants/family of those who were persecuted but of other Europeans as well as Germans who went along with the party policy.

[Peter_Martin]

"The Men with the Pink Triangle" claims that what you read are actually the memories of an anonymous survivor as told to Heinz Heger and translated into English by David Fernbach. I think the North American editions of the book have a subtitle that does not appear in the UK edition something like Life and Death in the Nazi Death Camps.

I have just being doing some research on the internet to see if the the surivor's identity had been discovered. What I have found out is that that the survivor was called Josef Kohout 1915-1994. He decided to write his memories under the false name of Heinz Heger. He published the book just before his native Austria decriminalised male homosexuality in 1971. England and Wales's criminal law changed in 1967, Scotland's in 1980 and Northern Ireland in 1982.

Yes I can agree with your comments as to why the neighbour might have done what she did. I suppose I would like to think that if I was in the same situation I would have the courage not to do such a thing.

[kathyv]

This sounds like a very interesting book. I shall look for it. Josef Kohout sounds to have been a brave man.


I, too, would hope that I would also have the courage to not speak out against my neighbor but suppose you add to the whole mix the other neighbor who knows that you know about the situation and they decide to turn everyone in, the ones for a lifestyle or religion, you and your family for not turning in when you knew about it. . . it just seems to me to have been a no win situation for all. Truly an evil and terrifying setting for everyone who lived through it and for the descendants of those involved.

[Peter_Martin]

I am nudging this thread up to see if it is possible to inject some life into this particular part of the forum. Recent discussions here seem to either be started here in error or else they grind to a halt because they are felt not to be relevant by someone.