G9348712%NMSUVM1.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU (G a b r i e l) (02/05/90)
I can hear Bill Pincheon nodding: Once again, gays and minorities are
mentioned as if there were no overlap. Yes, homosexuals were killed in
the Holocaust. The vast majority of homosexuals killed by the Nazis in
World War II were killed because they were Jewish. (Let's assume that
1 in 10 was the ratio -- or even, to be conservative, 1 in 20. Then
300,000 Jewish homosexuals were killed by the Nazis.) Likewise, a large
number of homosexuals were killed then because they happened to be
anti-Nazi, partisans (current term is freedom fighter) during WWII,
socialist, etc. The only people forced to wear the pink triangle were
apolitical aryan Germans -- the ideology then called for 'overlaps' to
wear both (or more) symbols, but the impresion I have from reading is
that this was never carried out. I think that the number of pink triangle
deaths is usually given as 15,000 to 25,000. Not to be ignored, nor made
a centerpiece.
* G a b r i e l *