Paragraph 175 (1999)

Sad but True
Anyone interested in hate and intolerance issues around the globe today, or wants to educate others, will need to watch this DVD.This dark period of history can be repeated and is being done now in parts of our world where minorities and people who are different are marginalized and threatened.

Personal freedom
This excellent documentary will make fascinating viewing for anyone interested in gay history, the history of the Nazi period, or human rights. Apart from the human interest side, Paragraph 175 is a salutary lesson in just how fragile many of our personal liberties really are. The film reminds us how changed, even tolerant, German society seemed to have become by the early 1930's, and how quickly, and completely, that was undone by the Nazis. Even in an apparently highly civilized society, human rights should never be taken for granted, nor should their protection be left to others - we all need to be vigilant. Someone else's fate today may well be ours tomorrow.

Half a history, not the truth about Nazism and Gays....
This flick is made by politically left-wing and liberals gays for other politically liberal and leftist gays and lesbians who want rationalizations for their political beliefs. This movie reflects the "Identity Politics" so popular among the Liberal/Left. Unfortunately, this sort of overt political agenda which chokes scholarship and destroys rational dialogue about what same sex love is all about.

Truth is the Nazi Party was anti-Christian, attacked Judeo-Christian sexual norms in favor of a twisted form of paganism. In this atmosphere of anti-religion, homosexuality was not only tolerated, but was widely practiced by many top Party leaders and members.

The book doesn't really explore the history of notorious homosexual Ernst Rohlm who was the head of the SA. No mention of the long tradition of homosexuality among the German aristocracy and the military. No mention of the Vandervogel Movement, or Adolph Brand and his publication Der Eigene, which celebrated same sex love in the "Greek" tradition. Amazingly, the strongest evidence for widespread homosexual practices among the Nazi Party was SA leader Henrich Himmler himself, who detailed these accusations in his famous speech to the SA Leadership in 1936 in which he demanded a purge of these behaviors from the SS. Adolph Hitler himself was the subject of much suspicion of engaging in same sex relationships in his youth.

Nothing about any of this is mentioned in this so-called "documentary". Truth is that same sex love in Central Europe followed the historical model of Ancient "Greek Love" and Japanese "nanshoku". Same sex physical and emotionaly intimacy in Germany and Central Europe was practiced by those with the social or economic position to be able to ignore prevailing sexual norms: the aristocracy, urban sophisticates, intellectuals, and certain elements of the military. Personally, I believe that the resentment of some many people of power bribing or corrupting working class young men and boys into sexual activity is the root of much middle class and working class bias toward same sex love that even continues to the modern era.

Even the name of the movie is misleading. In fact, it was "Paragraph 175-A" passed in the 1935 which was the problem. In 1935, the original Paragraph 175--which dated back to 1871--was modified to criminalize any type of behavior that could be interpreted as indicating a homosexual inclination or desire. Under the expanded defination of illegal behavior under Paragraph "175A", the Nazi Party was provided a very powerful political weapon to get rid of their enemies. Under the new defination all sorts of perfectly non-sexual intimacy could be construed as criminal behavior. While there is no doubt many gay men were persecuted by the Nazi Party, there is contradictory evidence that Gay men continued to serve in the military, the government and the Nazi Party, as long as they were socially discrete and politically reliable.

Contrary to this movie's message, the documented incidence of gay men among the concentration camps population was so tiny a fraction of the number of practicing gays that we might expect from a geographic area as large as Germany that there may be doubt that there was a Gay "holocaust" in the sense of the term as applied to Jews, the physically or mentally disabled, or certain other ethnic groups such as Gypsies. And no doubt, many so-called gay "victims" in the concentration camps were in fact not gay at all, but were merely opponents of the regime or personal enemies of influential citizens.

True students of gay history and culture will find a lot of problems with this movie.