Lesbianism, Transvestitism, and the Nazi State: A Microhistory of a Gestapo Investigation, 1939–1943

Abstract

LAURIE MARHOEFERIN THE TIERGARTEN IN BERLIN, there is a memorial to the homosexual victims of Nazism. An ominous gray rectangular structure, it has a single small window set into its side, through which a viewer can watch a looped video. Initially the video showed two men kissing, to represent the thousands of gay men who were persecuted during the Third Reich. Because no women appeared in the footage, however, critics charged that the Nazis' lesbian victims had been forgotten. Since even before its dedication in 2008, this memorial has thus been at the center of a heated public debate: Should it include lesbians?Those who criticized the video's omission of women acknowledged that, unlike gay men, lesbians had not been the targets of an orchestrated campaign of police persecution under the Nazi state. Nevertheless, they argued, lesbians were denounced and sent to concentration camps. Moreover, the memorial is not just about the past-it is also a reminder of intolerance and violence against both gay men and lesbians in the present. 1 Prior to the dedication of the site, a compromise was reached. It stipulated that the video would eventually be replaced by one that included women. But the plan stalled when a group of historians, activists, and directors of other Holocaust memorial sites protested. In an open letter, they argued that it would be a "falsification" of history for the video to portray women. 2 The Nazi Thanks to the anonymous reviewers for the AHR,

Afterlives of Anders als die Andern and of Weimar

“…This, they argue, has implications for the present: societal prejudice continues even after repressive laws are eliminated. 107 Reinserting subaltern perspectives aims not just for completeness or restitution, but is necessary because past erasure amounts to present erasure.…”

Sexualitäten und Geschlechter

“…Marhoefers Analyse zeigt, wie Abweichungen von heteronormativen Vorstellungen und im Besonderen Gendernonkonformität zu einem generellen Verdachtsmoment und erhöhtem Risiko führten unter Beobachtung der Gestapo zu geraten (Marhoefer 2016). Das Konzept des Risikos eignet sich m.E.…”