HannahR
New Member
Posts: 1
(5/26/01 5:43:01 pm)
Reply Heydrich's homosexuality?
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Has anyone else seen the research paper posted on the net which asserts that the leadership of the Third Reich was
ridden with homosexuals? This is a homophobic, right-wing
dissertation which attempts to prove that claims of a homosexual holocaust are exaggerated. The address is:
http://www.abidingtruth.com/pinkswastika/
In addition to an examination of Ernst Roehm's open homosexuality, there are the familiar arguments about Hitler's sexual orientation, but the authors also assert that Baldur von Schirach, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich and Wilhelm Canaris were also gay.
I doubt the validity of this argument in regard to Heydrich, Canaris and Himmler. Firstly, the authors entirely
disregard Heydrich's extensive heterosexual proclivities (documented by reliable sources such as Walter Schellenberg and Felix Kersten) and make no mention of Himmler's affair with his secretary Hedwig Potthast.
The evidence which supports these allegations is also dubious and insubstantive. For example, take this quotation concerning Himmler:
"Himmler may himself have been a homosexual. Filmmaker Walter Frenz, who worked closely with the Nazi elite (including a stint as Hitler’s private filmmaker), is reported to have traveled to the Eastern front with Himmler “whose pederastic proclivities he captured on film” "
There is no information provided as to the actual existence
of this footage, and the source from which the quotation was taken is dubious. Similarly, the only evidence the authors produce of Canaris' alleged homosexuality is a comment by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, a man whose acquaintance
with Canaris was superficial at best. The authors also
cite Canaris' friendship with Heydrich as further evidence, although Schellenberg, Hohne, MacDonald, Wykes and others point out that the relationship between these men was
largely one of political expediency, not genuine fondness.
Regarding Reinhard Heydrich, the only other information I have been able to find concerning Heydrich's alleged homosexuality is a reference in Alan Wyke's biography "Heydrich" refering to a brief homosexual affair that was supposedly contrived by Wilhlem Canaris while Heydrich was a naval cadet. Wykes says that Canaris contrived this dalliance in order to blackmail his protege,
but as head of the SD and Gestapo Heydrich was able to abscond the file.
The authors also state as evidence of homosexuality the fact that Heydrich defended Roehm in 1931. I don't know if this is true, but I do know that Roehm was the godfather of Heydrich's first child in 1933. However, the authors deliberately overlook the fact (substantiated by Schellenberg, Kersten and others)that Heydrich was a man who had no scruples about using his supposed 'friends' and
and that he would simply discard them once they had served their purpose. In the interests of his infant SD, it was in the best interests of Heydrich to cultivate Roehm's good graces. Furthermore, the Night of the Long Knives should attest to the fact of Heydrich's ruthlessness once former friends had served their purpose.
That Heydrich was a mysogenist and sadist (as evidenced by Kersten, Wykes and MacDonald)cannot be doubted, but mysogeny does not necessarily denote homosexuality.
If you have any further information concerning the issue of Reinhard Heydrich's sexuality, or any comments about the Pink Swastika paper, I would be interested in hearing them.
vladimirowich
New Member
Posts: 3
(5/27/01 1:12:21 am)
Reply Re: Heydrich's homosexuality?
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Hi Hannah,
in reply to your topic : I take it you're absolutely right, especially concerning Heydrich who was a 100 % heterosexual. There's lots of evidence on this matter.
But anyhow, why bother about people throwing mud to dead people especially if it concerns something as unimportant as they're sexual preferences.
If you have read the more serious works on this period or characters you'll surely know that their sexual preferences get very few attention.
sincerely,
V.
Scott Smith
Veteran Member
Posts: 610
(5/27/01 1:37:25 am)
Reply Re: Heydrich's homosexuality?
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Hi Hannah,
I think the Pink Swastika site is pure bunk. It seems to appeal to ultraconservative Christians and Jews who already see the Nazis as the paragon of evil in the history of the world and seek an explanation in homosexuality, which they also do not like.
As far as the Gay Holocaust, I do think the case is overstated because Homosexual conduct was illegal in all countries and still is in many places—just not usually enforced like the Nazis or some fundamentalist theocracy would. The same goes for military law.
I think we need more than innuendo to show that Heydrich was even bisexual, such as a police report from before 1933 or something similar. Remember that Heydrich’s Navy career was ruined because of a sex scandal with a senior officer’s wife or daughter or whatever. If that seems harsh, it is typical of military law, a lot of it created in the “interest” of Army wives, but nowadays proving a particularly double-edged sword for women in the military, e.g., the Lt. Flynn case a few years ago. She had an affair with an enlisted woman’s husband and it ruined her Air Force career, a bit unfairly in my opinion. I’ve never really been too partial to the “nonfraternization” policy between officers and enlisted men/women, myself. And Field Marshal von Blomberg lost his career for marrying a former prostitute of all things.
Anyway, I do think that Heydrich was one of those “type-A personalities,” who while zealously enforcing the rules, just as easily feel that these do not apply to them. I wouldn’t be surprised if Heydrich was experienced with more than senior officer’s wives myself but that is pure speculation.
It would be a big mistake to project present attitudes on things to the past. Not every bachelor, like General Fritsch or J. Edgar Hoover, is necessarily a latent homosexual.
Whether Heydrich was a misogynist or not, I don’t know. I don’t recall anything to that effect.
Best Regards,
Scott
Edited by: Scott Smith at: 5/30/01 7:53:09 am
tovarich2
Member
Posts: 18
(5/30/01 6:12:00 am)
Reply Not Reds but Pinks
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Scott's first paragraph is pretty right on. I've looked at this site and it seems to be more politics than history they put two and two together and come up with 500.
It's motivations seem to be pretty clearly coming from an US ultra-conservative perspective and they wish to remove the Nazi's as killers of Homosexuals and say that they were in fact Homosexuals themselves. The same stunt is pulled with the 'communist' issue.
sure, the Nazis killed Communists, but really Nazism and Communism are the same thing. - bunk.
Lots of politics - very little history - and some real long reaching.
somewhere on the web I think there is even a 'rebuttal' post.
Heydrich's homosexuality?
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