***{Below is Page: 77 }***
Chapter Four
The Founding and Early Years of the Nazi Party
What was to become the Nazi Party began as an outgrowth of
the Thule Society in late 1918. It started as a nationalist discus-
sion group called the Political Workers Circle whose goal was to
"extend the appeal of the Thule's nationalist ideology for the
working classes" (Goodrick-Clarke: 150). The discussion group
developed the idea of forming a political party in December of
1918, and did so on January 5, 1919, at the Furstenfelder Hof
tavern in Munich. Adolf Hitler became a member of the German
Worker's Party in September of that year. Shirer writes,
There were two members of this insignificant party
who deserve mention at this point; both were to
prove important in the rise of Hitler..Captain Ernst
Roehm...had joined the party before Hitler... A
tough, ruthless driving man -- albeit, like so many
of the early Nazis, a homosexual -- he helped or-
ganie the first Nazi strong-arm squads which grew
into the SA... Deitrich {sic} Eckart... often called the spiri-
tual founder of National Socialism...became a close
advisor to [Hitler]...introducing him to such fu-
ture aides as Rudolf Hess (Shirer:64f.).
***{Below is Page: 78 }***
{See Comment 78-1}
In a very short time Hitler and Roehm began to wrest control
of the small group from its founders. Within a few months they
had forced the resignation of its Chairman, Karl Harrar {sic}, and be-
gun to turn the group away from its origins as a secret society and
toward a new identity as "a mass party" (Fest, 1975:120). On
April 1, 1920, they changed the name of the party to the National
Socialist German Workers Party Historian Joachim Fest describes
the process Hitler and Roehm used in these earliest days of Na-
zism:
At the beginning [Hitler] went at things according
to a sensible plan. His first task was a personal
one, to break out of anonymity, to emerge from
the welter of small-time nationalist-racist parties
with an unmistakable image... making a name for
himself -- by unceasing activity, by brawls, scan-
dals, and riots, even by terrorism if that would bring
him to the forefront... [but] Ernst Rohm did more
for the NSDAP than anyone else. He held the rank
of captain as a political advisor on the staff of
Colonel Epp and was the real brain of the disguised
military regime in Bavaria. Rohm provided the
young National Socialist Party with followers,
arms, and finds (Fest, 1975:126f).
By August of 1921, Hitler and Roehm had completed their
takeover of the party. On the third of that month they founded
the SA and began to assemble the cadre of sexual deviants who
would form the core of Nazi leadership for years to come. A
pamphlet circulated by disgruntled Nazi members prior to the Hitler
takeover shows that the homosexuality of his supporters was no
secret. Speaking of Hitler they said, "It grows more and more
clear that his purpose is simply to use the National Socialist Party
as a springboard for his immoral purposes" (Igra:70f). Hitler
contemporary, Otto Strasser reports that
*** {start comment 78-1}
The idea of Hitler and Roehm conspiring
together to gain control of the party is a
fabrication not mentioned in Fest. Fest mentions
that Hitler was at odds with Harrer (page 120) but
doesn't even introduce Roehm until page 127. It
must also be remembered that these were the very
early days of the party, 1919-21, and that Roehm
was not aware of any homosexual inclinations at
that time, for his homosexuality was not awakened
until 1924, after Hitler's Putsch and
imprisonment. So it's incorrect to speak of a
homosexual founding of the party.
*** {end comment 78-1}
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***{Below is Page: 79 }***
Hitler did three things to popularize the party and
quiet the threatening clash of wounded vanities.
He shortened the name from Nationalsozialistische
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei to the letters NSDAP; he
adopted the brown shirt of Lieutenant Rossbach's
veteran organization for the entire party; and he
assumed the all-too-familiar swastika from
Erhardt's group (Strasser, 1943:34).
{See Comment 79-1}
Hitler's Clique of Pederasts
As we will see, almost all of the new leadership of the party
were sexual deviants. But this fact raises a question that is foun-
dational to our understanding of the Nazis. Who chose these men
as Nazi leaders? Roehm, with whose lifestyle we are now quite
familiar, was to some historians the true power behind Hitler's
throne. As noted above it was primarily Roehm who organized,
funded and armed the terrorist military arm of the party, choosing
only homosexuals as officers. And it is true that the party met
frequently in the Bratwurstglockl (Fest, 1975:135f.), a homo-
sexual bar where Roehm kept a reserved table.
*** {start comment 79-1}
Fest is not a reference for the above
material. He only says "Noisy and attentive, these
men surrounded Hitler all the time. Evenings after
meetings the troop would drop in at the Ostara
Bavaria or the Bratwurstgloeckel near the
Frauenkirche, or talk for hours over coffee and
cake at the Cafe heck on Galeriestrasse, where a
table was permanently reserved for Hitler…." He
says nothing at this place about anything else in
the above paragraph.
*** {end comment 79-1}
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Yet, despite Roehm's importance to the party, Adolf Hitler
himself was the central figure of Nazism and increasingly it was
he who determined the fate of every member of the party. De-
spite suggestions to the contrary, Hitler was not anti-homosexual.
In fact, like Roehm, Hitler seemed to prefer homosexual compan-
ions and co-workers. In addition to Roehm and Hess, two of his
closest friends, Hitler apparently chose homosexuals and other
80{See Comment 80-1}
sexual deviants to fill key positions nearest to himself. Rector
attempts to dismiss sources that attribute homosexuality to lead-
ing Nazis, but nevertheless lists them in some detail:
Reportedly, Hitler Youth leader, Baldur von
Schirach was bisexual; Hitler's private attorney,
Reich Legal Director, Minister of Justice, butcher {sic}
***{Below is Page: 80 }***
Governor-General of Poland, and public gay-hater
Hans Frank was said to be a homosexual; Hitler's
adjutant Wilhelm Bruckner was said to be
bisexual;... Walther Funk, Reich Minister of Eco-
nomics [and Hitler's personal financial advisor] has
frequently been called a "notorious"
homosexual... or as a jealous predecessor in Funk's
post, Hjalmar Schacht, contemptuously claimed,
Funk was a "harmless homosexual and
alcoholic;".. [Hitler's second in command]
Hermann Goering liked to dress up in drag and
wear campy make-up; and so on and so forth (Rec-
tor:57).
*** {start comment 80-1}
The Pink Swastika authors note that Rector
"attempts to dismiss sources that attribute
homosexuality to leading Nazis," but they omit
Rector's text on that point, thus setting a trap
for the unwary reader who will put too much faith
in Rector's list given in the above quote.
Here's the text that precedes the above:
"Of course, the SA was not the only place
where Nazi gays were to be found. However, except
for unquestionable cases of a person's
heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality,
one must be skeptical or at the least circumspect
about taking as fact what some writers say about
certain individuals' sexual orientation and/or
sexual activities.
"Depending on what writer one happens to be
reading at any given moment, 'some Nazis were
sexual perverts,' 'a number of Nazis were sexual
perverts,' 'many Nazis were sexual perverts,'
'most Nazis were sexual perverts,' 'all Nazis were
sexual perverts.' Reportedly Baldur von...."
So in this passage Rector is not asserting
that any of the men listed were homosexuals, he's
merely giving examples of the unreliable
assertions of various authors. While the Pink
Swastika authors do acknowledge that, Rector's
point should be emphasized.
*** {end comment 80-1}
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Igra, who confidently asserts that the above men were homo-
sexuals, cites still other Hitler aides and close friends who were
known homosexuals. He states that Hitler's chauffeur and one-
time personal secretary, Emile Maurice, for example, was homo-
sexual, as well as the pornographer, Julius Streicher, whom Hitler
appointed Gauleiter of Nuremberg. Igra writes,
Julius Streicher, the notorious Jew-baiter, was
originally a school teacher, but was dismissed by
the Nuremberg School Authorities, following nu-
merous charges of pederasty brought against
him.. His paper, Der Stuermer, was frequently con-
fiscated by the police, even at the height of the
Nazi regime, because of the sexual obscenities dis-
played in the drawings and described in the text"
(Igra: 72f).
The evidence for homosexual leanings in another leading Nazi,
Joseph Goebbels, is rather thin, but adds further insight to the
inner workings of the group. Goebbels, Reich propaganda leader
and close aide to the Fuehrer, is reported to have had a party in
1936 that degenerated into a violent homosexual orgy. The party
***{Below is Page: 81 }***
featured "torch-bearing page boys in tight fitting white breeches,
white satin blouses with lace cuffs and powdered rococo wigs"
(Grunberger: 70). Grunberger writes that Nazi roughnecks "were
so affected by the rococo setting that they hurled themselves upon
the bewigged page boys and pulled them into the bushes. Tables
collapsed, torches were dimmed, and in the ensuing fracas a num-
ber of Party old fighters and their comely victims had to be res-
cued from drowning" (ibid:70). Goebbels may not have partici-
pated in the revelry himself, though Klaus Theweleit writes that
there is a significant moment in Rossbach's account where he
contests the rights of Goebbels 'of all people' to act as a moral
arbiter'" apparently assuming that his meaning is "common knowl-
edge' on the internal grapevine" (Theweleit, Vol 2:327).
{Picture}
{Hitler and Streicher seated on a sofa}
A rare 1925 photo of Adolf Hitler with close friend Julius Streicher
from Streicher's private collection. THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE
{Picture caption}
{See Comment 82-1}
Langer writes that "[even today Hitler derives sexual plea-
sure from looking at men's bodies and associating with homo-
sexuals" (Langer: 179). He adds that Hitler's personal body-guard
***{Below is Page: 82 }***
was "almost always 100% homosexuals" (ibid.:179). Remember
also the fact that Hitler's greatest hero was Frederick the Great, a
well known homosexual (Garde:44). Clearly, Adolf Hitler was
not anti-homosexual, at least not in his personal lifestyle. Indeed,
the evidence of Hitler's apparent preference for homosexuals is
so overwhelming that, as have many historians before us, we natu-
rally ask the question, "Was Hitler a homosexual?"
*** {start comment 82-1}
The Langer quote appears on page 196 of the
1972 Basic Books edition. Langer was not an
historian, but a psychoanalyst who tried to draw a
psychological picture of Hitler for the OSS
(Office of Strategic Services) during World War II
so that the allies could plan the war in a way
that might take Hitler's psychology into account.
Things that Langer says have to be regarded
as sometimes being psychological speculation
rather than fact. Langer is, however, careful to
give sources and enough cues so that his opinions
can be sorted out from what others have said, and
from what is fact. That Hitler derives "sexual"
pleasure from looking at men's bodies is the
speculation of a psychoanalyst, for Langer offers
no evidence to support the assertion -- he just
relies on psychoanalytic theory that men who watch
body builders somehow are motivated by inner
homosexuality.
Langer does not ."add that Hitler's personal
body-guard was 'almost always 100% homosexual.'"
Langer very clearly states that Otto Strasser said
that. Strasser is not a particularly trustworthy
source. He and his brother Gregor were early
supporters of the Nazis because of its socialist
platform. They had disagreements with Hitler over
this and a deep rift developed. Gregor was
murdered in 1934 and Otto narrowly escaped Germany
with his life. Otto wrote several books during
World War II that are understandably
propagandistic, and the charge of homosexuality in
Hitler's bodyguard might well be nothing more than
demonization of the enemy, as is so often done in
wartime propaganda.
Nothing can be drawn, of course, from the
alleged homosexuality of Frederick the Great. He
was a hero to Hitler because of his
accomplishments, which made him a hero to most
people in Germany, and he was Hitler's hero long
before Adolf knew of the allegations of
homosexuality.
*** {end comment 82-1}
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Was Adolf Hitler a Homosexual?
{See Comment 83-1}
The short answer to this question is "probably not." Hitler
was certainly not an exclusive homosexual in any case. There are
at least four women, including his own niece, with whom Hitler
had sexual relationships, although these relationships were not
normal. Both Waite and Langer write that Hitler was a coprophile
(a person who is sexually aroused by human excrement) and sug-
gest that his sexual encounters with women included expressions
of this perversion as well as other extremely degrading forms of
masochism. It is interesting to note that all four women attempted
suicide after becoming sexually involved with Hitler. Two suc-
ceeded (Langer: 175f). Hitler contemporary Otto Strasser writes
of an encounter he had with Hitler's niece Gely:
Next day Gely came to see me. She was red eyed,
her round little face was wan, and she had the ter-
rifled look of a hunted beast. "He locked me up,
she sobbed. "He locks me up every time I say
no!" She did not need much questioning. With
anger, horror and disgust she told me of the strange
propositions with which her uncle pestered her. I
knew all about Hitler's abnormality. Like all the
others in the know, I had heard all about the ec-
centric practices to which Fraulein Hofmann was
alleged to have lent herself, but I had genuinely
believed that the photographer's daughter was a
***{Below is Page: 83 }***
little hysteric who told lies for the sheer fun of it.
But Gely, who was completely ignorant of this
other affair of her uncle's, confirmed point by point
a story scarcely credible to a healthy-minded man
(Strasser, 1940:72).
*** {start comment 83-1}
Waite says (p 239) "{O}f the seven women who,
we can be reasonably sure, had intimate relations
with Hitler, six committed suicide or seriously
attempted to. Yet Waite doesn't mention Hitler's
first affair with Henny Hoffmann, daughter of his
photographer, nor the possible affair with Leni
Riefenstahl, who frequently visited him late at
night, leaving early in the morning (Langer
mentions these two). All in all, the differences
in the numbers of Waite and Langer suggest that
information is questionable on this subject.
One further thing is indicated, namely that
the author of The Pink Swastika has not done his
research. Had he read Waite thoroughly he surely
would have mentioned six suicide attempts instead
of merely four.
On the charge of coprophilia and other
perversion, at the time Langer's psychological
"reconstruction" of Hitler was released (1972), H.
R. Trevor-Roper, Regius Professor of History at
Oxford, wrote "There is not a shred of evidence on
any of these matters." -- cited in Waite, page
237.
Langer's "evidence" likely was oral testimony
Otto Strasser gave the OSS (mentioned in Waite)
that elaborates the "strange propositions" of the
above quote as having her urinate on him. As Waite
says, "One might well raise questions about the
reliability of Otto Strasser's testimony on
anything. In particular, one might well wonder
whether Geli would be likely to confide in him
over such intimate matters." Waite points out that
others reportedly testified similarly, though
Langer did not name them.
Other "evidence" Waite offers comes from
Konrad Heiden, another Hitler enemy (a Munich
journalist, and Jewish) who fled Germany. Heiden
gives no sources for his tale of a purloined
letter Hitler allegedly wrote Geli two years
before her death, supposedly proposing this sort
of sex. Heiden wrote about this letter in his
wartime (1944) biography of Hitler. In his 1936
biography of Hitler, Heiden alludes to
"documentary evidence" but says "Considerations of
every kind make it impossible to describe in more
detail either this disposition {Hitler's alleged
perversion} or the above-mentioned documentary
evidence."
As Trevor-Roper said, there is no evidence,
only rumor from Hitler's enemies who fled Germany
when he came to power.
This particular issue has been treated at so
much length, not to defend Hitler's non-existent
reputation, but to illustrate that while it is
easy to select quotes from multiple authors
(Langer and Waite) to make an impressive case,
actually digging back toward the original sources
can paint quite a difference picture of the
situation. That applies to most of The Pink
Swastika.
*** {end comment 83-1}
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Langer suggests that Hitler may very well have engaged in
homosexual behavior, saying "persons suffering from his perver-
sion sometimes do indulge in homosexual practices in the hope
that they might find some sexual gratification. Even this perver-
sion would be more acceptable to them than the one with which
they are afflicted." He reports, for example on the testimony of
Hermann Rauschning, a former Hitler confidante who fled Ger-
many in 1935 (Wistrich:240). Langer writes,
Rauschning reports that he has met two boys who
claimed that they were Hitler's homosexual part-
ners, but their testimony can hardly be taken at
its face value. More condemning would be the re-
marks dropped by [Albert] Foerster, the Danzig
gauleiter, in conversation with Rauschning. Even
here, however, the remarks deal only with Hitler's
impotence as far as heterosexual relationships go
without actually implying that he indulges in ho-
{See Comment 84-1}
mosexuality. it is probably true that Hitler calls
Foerster "Bubi," which is a common nickname
employed by homosexuals in addressing their part-
ners. This alone is not adequate proof that he has
actually indulged in homosexual practices with
Foerster, who is known to be a homosexual
(Langer: 178).
Waite concurs:
There is insufficient evidence to warrant the con-
clusion that Hitler was an overt homosexual. But
***{Below is Page: 84 }***
it seems clear that he had latent homosexual
tendencies... It is true that Hitler was closely asso-
ciated with Ernst Rohm and Rudolf Hess, two
homosexuals who were among the very few people
with whom he used the familiar du ["thou"]. But
one cannot conclude that he therefore shared his
friend's sexual tastes. Still, during the months he
was with Hess in Landsberg, their relationship must
have become very close. When Hitler left the
prison he fretted about his friend who languished
there, and spoke of him tenderly, using Austrian
diminutives: "Ach mein Rudy, mein Hesserl, isn't
it appalling to think that he's still there." One of
Hitler's valets, Schneider, made no explicit state-
ment about the relationship, but he did find it
strange that whenever Hitler got a present he liked
or drew an architectural sketch that particularly
pleased him, he would run to Hess -- who was
known in homosexual circles as "Fraulein Anna" -
- as a little boy would run to his mother to show
his prize to her.. Finally there is the nonconclusive
but interesting fact that one of Hitler's prized pos-
sessions was a handwritten love letter which King
Ludwig II had written to a manservant (Waite,
1977:283f).
*** {start comment 84-1}
"Bubi" is an affectionate diminutive of "boy"
that may be compared with the Yiddish "boychikl"
as a term of endearment not necessarily homosexual
in connotation. It's wrong to draw a homosexual
inference from its use.
The Waite passage is actually on pages 234-5
of his book. The 283 is actually the number of a
footnote that appears in Waite's text at that
point.
Waite is not the most reliable of
researchers, and his comment on Hess should not be
taken as definitive. He gives no reference for it,
nor a citation for where he got the "Fraulein
Anna" remark, and nowhere else in his book does he
refer to Hess as homosexual. On the contrary, on
page 45, where he mentions defects in Hitler's
closest followers, Hess is merely mentioned as
"mentally disturbed," not as homosexual, while
Roehm is mentioned as homosexual, Goebbels has a
club foot, Streicher was a sexual pervert, etc.
Waite does give a citation near this section
for the OSS (U.S. intelligence agency) report on
Hitler, which was made during World War II and
gathered every bit of information and testimony
from hostile witnesses. That suggests Walter
Langer's The Mind of Adolf Hitler as a source for
Waite's remarks, for Langer worked with the OSS
and based his psychiatric evaluation of Hitler on
their information. Indeed, on page 102 Langer
mentions the "Fraulein Anna" epithet, and on page
212 he says Hitler associated with "notorious
homosexuals, such as Hess and Roehm."
The trouble is that Langer was a
psychiatrist, not an historian, and was working
not to record history but to form a psychological
profile of Hitler. His raw material was largely
unverified hearsay from Hitler's enemies in exile.
It's a shame that Waite has apparently taken what
seems to have no more authority than gossip and
added his own endorsement to it.
Finally, a number of more reliable historians
have agreed with Konrad Heiden and various Nazis
that Roehm wasn't aware of his own homosexuality
until 1924, and broke with Hitler in early 1925,
so one can hardly say that Hitler associated with
a homosexual for the five years between 1919 and
1924.
*** {end comment 84-1}
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{See Comment 85-1}
According to Igra there exists documentary evidence that Hitler
"had been a male prostitute in Vienna at the time of his sojourn
there, from 1907 to 1912, and that he practiced the same calling
in Munich from 1912 to 1914" (Igra:67). Lending credence to
this is the fact that during several of those years Hitler "chose to
live in a Vienna flophouse known to be inhabited by many homo-
sexuals" (Langer: 192). Rector writes that, as a young man, Hitler
was often called "Der Schone Adolf" ("the handsome Adolf") and
that later his looks "were also to some extent helpful in gaining
***{Below is Page: 85 }***
big-money support from Ernst Rohm's circle of wealthy gay
friends" (Rector:52).
*** {start comment 85-1}
Rector (page 57) speaks about Igra's
allegations of documentation of Hitler'
prostitution: "Regardless of the assumed
authenticity of the allegations, in this case
there surely can be no question that the documents
concerning Hitler's homosexual hustling were false
-- if, indeed, such documents ever really
existed." The Pink Swastika author cites Rector
often, but ignores him on this.
There were also many Jews living in Hitler's
flophouse. Are we to conclude that Hitler was a
closet Jew, or a "Jewophile" because of that?
Actually, Langer used information such as that to
conclude that Hitler was not an anti-Semite in his
Vienna days, about 1910. Waite criticizes Langer
for this, pointing out that the memoirs of one of
Hitler's companions in Vienna state that Hitler
had joined an anti-Semitic group in 1908. Thus
triumphs historical archival research over
psychoanalysis. (Then again... "memoirs" of the
"Adolf-Hitler-was-a-friend-of-mine" genre have
proved in many cases to be extremely unreliable.)
The quote about the flophouse appears to be
inaccurate. The Basic Books edition, which has
different pagination, says, on page 205 "Even in
these days he lived in a flophouse that was known
to be inhabited by men who lent themselves to
homosexual practices, and it was probably for this
reason that he was listed on the Vienna police
record as a 'sexual pervert.'" The correct quote
sheds interesting light on the matter. Instead of
"homosexuals" they were "men who lent themselves
to homosexual practices" -- quite likely this
refers to young heterosexual men who earned money
by having sex with better off homosexuals. (Most
probably by allowing those men to fellate them.)
Langer is not an historian and seems rather
gullible in accepting what "facts" -- such as the
interview with Otto Strasser over the Geli Raubal
affair and the spurious Vienna documents -- are
put on his plate. That's understandable, for a
psychoanalyst is used to hearing all sorts of
weird fantasies from his patients and then having
to concoct his analysis from their hidden inner
meanings without being able to investigate their
veracity in any detail.
The above quote from Rector appears in a
caption under a picture of Hitler at age 30.
Rector points out that "Der Schoene Adolf" was "a
descriptive and affectionate term used by girls
and women."
*** {end comment 85-1}
Read the Same Text Again Skip Forward Table of Contents
{See Comment 85-2}
Whether or not Hitler was personally involved in homosexual
relationships, the evidence is clear that he knowingly and inten-
tionally surrounded himself with practicing homosexuals from the
time he was a teenager. His later public pronouncements against
homosexuality never quite fit with the life-long intimacy -- sexual
or otherwise -- which he maintained with men he knew and ac-
cepted as homosexuals. Those who would suggest that Hitler
remained wholly or partly ignorant of the fact that the Nazi Party
was filled with homosexuals may themselves be blind to an essen-
tial character quality of Adolf Hitler. Hitler not only knew that
the Nazi Party was a virtual homosexual social club, it seems that
this was the way he wanted it.
*** {start comment 85-2}
To accuse a down-and-out teenager of
"knowingly and intentionally surrounding himself
with practicing homosexuals" because he lived in a
flophouse where some of them also lived, is, of
course, utterly ridiculous. The accusation
exemplifies the ridiculous nature of virtually
every assertion made by the author of The Pink
Swastika.
*** {end comment 85-2}
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Finally, in our look at Adolf Hitler, the man, we turn to Samuel
Igra, a Jew who fled Germany in 1939 after twenty years of ob-
serving Hitler and the Nazis:
For the purposes of the present investigations Hitler
is important for what he has represented...when
he embarked the German people on the policy that
brought about the world catastrophe. He was the
central figure around which a number of men
grouped themselves, from the 1920's onwards, in
a movement to gain supreme control of the Ger-
man people. As the movement developed they
were aided and abetted and supported financially
as well as politically by the industrial capitalists of
the Rhineland; but the initiative did not come from
the latter. It came from Hitler as the condottiere
[leader] of a band of evil men who were united
together by a common vice [homosexuality]
(Igra:26).
***{Below is Page: 86 }***
The Nazi Rise to Power
Hitler continued to capitalize on the political unrest of the
people to build the Nazi organization. The party's public image
was greatly enhanced by the recruitment of Hermann Goering, a
former World War I fighter ace who was revered as a war hero.
Goering was probably not a homosexual though he was said to
have been very fond of "painting his nails and putting rouge on his
cheeks" (Fuchs: 160). He joined the party after hearing a speech
by Hitler in which he vowed to rebuild Germany's military and
crush the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler immediately set him to the
task of training the SA as a military organization (Toland: 123), an
accomplishment that further increased Nazi power.
By the fall of 1922 Hitler had become the symbol of renewed
German nationalism to many in Germany, although the average
citizen had little knowledge of Hitler's personal life or the lives of
the Nazi leaders. At this point Hitler believed he would ultimately
assume power in Germany through military strength and was not
terribly concerned with portraying an image of morality. "The
Party newspaper, writes Edouard Calic, "explained that Hitler
wanted to organize the movement on a military basis to achieve
power, and that if it was necessary he would lead an uprising to
renounce the Versailles Treaty" (Calic:33). However, his attempt
to implement his plan in the infamous Beer Hall Putsch proved so
disastrous Hitler was forced to develop a different strategy.
A Change of Strategy
On November 8, 1923, Hitler attempted to take advantage of
a period of political turmoil to seize control of the government of
Bavaria. This ill-fated maneuver (later dubbed the Beer Hall
Putsch) not only failed militarily, it put Hitler in prison for nine
months, thus nearly ending the party. When he was finally re-
leased from Landsberg prison on December 20th, 1924, he an-
nounced that thereafter the Nazi Party would seek power through
***{Below is Page: 87 }***
legitimate political means (ibid:64), which meant competing for
seats in the German Parliament. This decision put the actions and
goals of the party to the test of public opinion. Immediately, Hitler
was confronted with this challenge. Shirer describes the internal
condition of the party:
...in those years when Hitler was shaping his party
to take over Germany's destiny he had his fill of
troubles with his chief lieutenants who constantly
quarreled not only among themselves but with him.
He, who was so monumentally intolerant by his
very nature, was strangely tolerant of one human
condition -- a man's morals. No other party in
Germany came near to attracting so many shady
characters... pimps, murderers, homosexuals...
Hitler did not care, as long as they were useful to
him. When he emerged from prison he found not
only that they were at each other's throats but there
was a demand from the more prim and respectable
leaders such as Rosenberg and Ludendorf that the
criminals and especially the perverts be expelled
from the movement. This Hitler frankly refused
to do. (Shirer: 173).
{See Comment 87-1}
By the next elections, however, Hitler learned that public opin-
ion was not with him in the matter of homosexuality, despite
Germany's international reputation as a haven for homosexuals.
Incriminating letters which had been stolen from Roehm by a male
prostitute (Plant:60) were leaked to the Social Democrat news-
papers, severely hurting the Nazi election bid. This, of course,
exacerbated the conflict between Hitler's lieutenants, and led Hitler
to initialize the first in a series of public relations efforts to hide
Nazi perversions from the German people. The greater part of
these conflicts, interestingly, were between the homosexuals them-
selves who, according to Shirer "quarreled and feuded as only
*** {start comment 87-1}
The Pink Swastika author seems to be
extraordinarily confused, and obviously doesn't
pay attention to the sources he quotes. As Plant
says, the incriminating letters about Roehm were
not published until 1932. What did happen in 1925
is that Roehm was involved in a lawsuit with the
male prostitute who had stolen them. Roehm
resigned from the party before the incident
because of disputes with Hitler over matters
having nothing to do with sex.
The issue of homosexuality didn't play a role
in any election. The major issues were the economy
and law and order. Hitler wasn't particularly
interested in politics until after his putsch
failed. Their first major national activity was
the 1928 election. That was three years after
Roehm scandal, and when Roehm was in South
America. The Nazis won only 2.6% of the votes in
the 1928 election. Roehm, the open homosexual,
came back to Germany in 1930 and served very
visibly as Hitler's liaison with the SA. In the
1930 elections the Nazis garnered 18.3% of the
vote. In 1932 someone leaked the sex letters from
Roehm's 1925 lawsuit to the Socialist newspapers,
who published them. In the two 1932 elections the
Nazis got 37.3% and 33.1% of the vote. Obviously
the Pink Swastika author is "all wet" in claiming
the letters "severely hurt" the Nazi election bid.
The deteriorating economy was the only factor in
their success.
As the election results show, it was the
Great Depression that began in 1929, an economic
issue, that voters cared about, not homosexuality.
*** {end comment 87-1}
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***{Below is Page: 88 }***
men of unnatural sexual inclinations, with their peculiar jealou-
{See Comment 88-1}
sies can (Shirer: 172). He writes,
By 1926.. .the charges and countercharges hurled
by the Nazi Chieftains at one another became so
embarrassing that Hitler set up a party court to
settle them and prevent his comrades from wash-
ing their dirty linen in public. This was known as
the USCHLA from Utersuchung {sic}-und-
Schlichtungs-Ausschuss -- Committee for Inves-
tigation and Settlement. Its first head was a former
general, Heinemann, but he was unable to grasp
the real purpose of the court, which was not to
pronounce judgment on those accused of common
crimes but to hush them up and see that they did
not disturb party discipline or the authority of the
Leader. So the general was replaced by... Major
Walther Buch, who was given two assistants. One
was Urichs Graf, the former butcher who had been
Hitler's bodyguard; the other was Hans Frank, a
young Nazi lawyer... This fine judicial triumvirate
performed to the complete satisfaction of the
Fuehrer. A party leader might be accused of the
most nefarious crime. Buch's answer was, "Well,
what of it?" (ibid.:174).
Obviously, assigning Graf and Frank to this intra-party "court,"
in itself made it a sham (at least in regard to homosexual crimes),
since both were homosexuals. Walther may also have been one
himself The only purpose of this and later efforts ostensibly de-
signed to address charges of sexual perversion among the Nazis
was to hide the truth from the public. Here is the root of Nazi
"anti-homosexual" policies.
*** {start comment 88-1}
No evidence has been presented that Graf or
Frank were homosexuals. Frank was married and his
two sons participated after the war in a series of
interviews with the children of high Nazi
officials. Walther Buch was at Hitler's side
during the 1934 Roehm purge and carried out his
orders. When Heines was found in bed with his
chauffeur, Buch received orders from Hitler for
"'ruthless eradication of this plague-spot,'" as
Konrad Heiden relates on page 372 of his 1936
biography of Hitler.
The Nazi court didn't have power to act on
crimes. The Weimar government didn't give law
enforcement over to private groups. Many sources
quoted by the Pink Swastika author are encumbered
with wartime propaganda or post-war revenge.
Looking back more calmly after 50 years of peace,
Conan Fischer writes that Uschla was formed by
Hitler not to cover up indiscretions, but to
strengthen his hold on the party after Gregor
Strasser and Josef Goebbels had challenged him.
Fischer writes on page 71: "Initially at
least, Hitler tolerated a greater degree of
pluralism in party affairs. Of the twenty-three
party regions only Munich-Upper Bavaria was
unreservedly under his control, while Gregor
Strasser was allowed considerable organisational
autonomy in northern Germany. This situation led
to difficulties, however, as Strasser exploited
his freedom of action to promote a new Nazi
programme developed in co-operation with his
brother Otto and the young radical, Joseph
Goebbels, which Hitler regarded as inopportune in
terms of its timing if not necessarily its
contents.
"He could not allow this implicit challenge
to his authority. Matters came to a head in
February 1926 at a meeting of party leaders in
Bamberg where he demanded unqualified loyalty from
Strasser and the other north German radicals such
as Goebbels. The meeting was dominated numerically
by south German delegates loyal to Hitler, but in
any case the north Germans proved compliant. In
return for this both Strasser and Goebbels were
given key party offices, the former becoming Chief
of the Propaganda Office on 16 September and the
latter Gauleiter of Berlin in November. Future
organisational difficulties were to be resolved
through an arbitration committee, the Uschla,
whose members were appointed by Hitler."
One of Uschla's functions may have been to
settle disputes between party members before the
issues had to be taken to court, but there's
nothing particularly sinister about a group trying
to protect its reputation by settling disputes
internally. In First Corinthians chapter five, St.
Paul castigates the Christians at Corinth for
suing each other in court in front of unbelievers
and tells them to settle their disputes among
themselves in private to avoid damaging the
reputation of the church.
*** {end comment 88-1}
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{See Comment 89-1}
As Nazi power grew, Hitler became increasingly dependent
on the support of the German population. And, understandably
enough, the German people were at the same time growing in-
***{Below is Page: 89 }***
creasingly disgusted with the debaucheries taking place in Ger-
man cities. This twofold influence on Hitler led him to take ever
more hard-line public stands against homosexuality in order to
cover up the truth about the party. The severity of his public
reactions to each new scandal (especially the later ones) mitigated
the impact of rumors which constantly circulated in German soci-
ety about Nazi leaders. Hitler's strategy regarding all moral is-
sues was to craft his rhetoric carefully "in order not to offend the
sensibilities of the people" (Mosse: 159).
*** {start comment 89-1}
The above is a misrepresentation of what
Mosse says. Mosse refers to the addition of the
words "in order not to offend the sensibilities of
the people" to government decrees that affected
morality. In the Weimar Republic, the President
was allowed to rule by issuing decrees without
requiring approval of the Reichstag in emergency
situations. In the turmoil preceding Hitler's
attainment of power the government had for a time
bypassed the Reichstag by having President
Hindenburg issue decrees. Hitler manipulated the
Reichstag into passing an enabling law allowing
him to rule be decree. Mosse doesn't say Hitler
"crafted his rhetoric," but that he simply added
those formulary words, which had been used in
Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany, to all decrees
involving morality.
*** {end comment 89-1}
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{See Comment 89-2}
Roehm, of course, presented a particularly difficult problem
for the Nazis because of his militant support for what we know
today as "gay rights." His SA men began to be referred to by the
anti-Nazis as the "Brown Fairies" (Rector: 56). Shortly after
Roehm's exposure in the German press he fled Germany to take a
post in the Bolivian Army for several years until things settled
down. It is unclear whether he made this move in response to a
personal sense of disgrace about the publicizing of his pederastic
activities, or whether Hitler had convinced him to get out of the
public eye for the good of the party. In any case, Roehm's ab-
sence was only temporary. Plant writes,
In 1929 a party squabble threatened to tear the SA
apart; a rebel group under Captain Walter Stennes
had started a mutiny. Stennes taunted Roehm's
stalwarts at a rally, dismissing them as "sissies in
frilly underwear who couldn't order their boys
around." As the rebellion grew more serious, Hitler
ordered his old friend to return to Germany.
Roehm did not hesitate to heed his Fuhrer's call
and his armed squads quickly and ruthlessly sup-
pressed the mutineers (Plant:60f.).
*** {start comment 89-2}
Roehm had quit his party posts before the
1925 scandal. After the 1923 Putsch, Hitler no
longer wanted the SA to be a secret military
group, but that's exactly what Roehm wanted, so
Roehm resigned his posts on May 1, 1925, as Konrad
Heiden relates in his 1936 biography of Hitler.
Roehm didn't "flee" to Bolivia because of the
letters or any other "exposure" in the press. He
went because he needed a job. He resigned from the
party in 1925, the scandal occurred in 1925, but
Roehm didn't go to Bolivia until 1928. Konrad
Heiden says on page 115 of A History of National
Socialism that "Roehm had been officially
reconciled to Hitler in 1927, and in the following
year had been compelled for financial reasons to
accept a commission in the Bolivian Army, to which
he is still theoretically attached." {Heiden wrote
the book before Roehm's death.} Heiden mentions in
his Hitler biography that in 1925 Roehm had been
convicted of a minor political crime and was
jailed because he couldn't raise 300 Marks to pay
his fine -- he had even advertised in the party
newspaper asking for financial help, but none was
given.
Plant's account of Roehm's return doesn't
agree with others, but then the matter's not
really a part of the major theme of his book. The
1929 rebellion was put down by Hitler himself by
levying a tax on party members and offering the
Berlin SA money. Hitler then fired the leader of
the SA, Pfeffer, and assumed the post himself. He
needed someone to do the actual running of the
group and someone who could restore discipline, so
he asked Roehm to come back. He didn't have any
authority to "order" Roehm back, but he could
offer him a job, which is why Roehm had left
Germany in the first place. After Roehm returned
and resumed effective leadership of the SA, the
Berlin group caused trouble again, in 1930. The
"ruthless" suppression was that much later, on
April 1, 1931, Stennes and his faction were
finally expelled from the party. {Heiden, op.cit.}
*** {end comment 89-2}
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{See Comment 90-1}
While Roehm was away, the Nazis had been fairly successful
at keeping their perversions out of sight. Most of the Nazis re-
mained "in the closet," or at least out of situations that their po-
litical enemies could use against them. This, of course, changed
***{Below is Page: 90 }***
when Roehm returned. Once again, stories of Roehm's exploits
were passed along the grapevine. It would be old news, however,
that hurt the Nazis again when Roehm's damaging letters were
published once more by the newspapers belonging to the Social
Democrats. These, along with articles on the homosexual prac-
tices of subordinate SA leaders, were published on the occasion
of Roehm's appointment to head the SA (Oosterhuis and
Kennedy:239n.). "Social Democrats and Communists," write
Oosterhuis and Kennedy, "suggested [in their newspapers] that
nepotism and abuse of power in the SA and the Hitler Youth had
contributed to making homosexuality an essential characteristic
of the fascist system" (ibid.:251). They were, of course, abso-
lutely correct.
*** {start comment 90-1}
The paragraph above is another
misrepresentation. The most notorious SA scandal,
that involving Heines and the Schilljugend, had
happened in 1927, two years after Roehm quit the
party. In fact, the paragraph is self-
contradictory. The Pink Swastika author states
that things were being kept "out of sight" while
Roehm was away, but that a flurry of scandalous
articles was published on the occasion of Roehm's
appointment to head the SA. All those scandals
didn't suddenly happen overnight. While the SA was
under the command of a heterosexual they simply
weren't significant news, but became newsworthy
when Roehm was given his post. What is more,
other, reliable sources say that the damaging
letters weren't published until 1932, whereas
Roehm was appointed in 1930.
*** {end comment 90-1}
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{See Comment 90-2}
Hitler, confronted with this threat to the Nazi image, responded
with a dual strategy. He first offered a limited defense of Roehm,
saying, "His private life cannot be an object of scrutiny unless it
conflicts with basic principles of National Socialist ideology"
(Bluel {sic}:98). Hitler also attempted to draw a distinction between
the party and the SA by portraying Roehm's proclivities as an
aspect of military society. "[The SA] is not an institute for the
moral education of genteel young ladies, "said Hitler, "but a for-
mation of seasoned fighters" (Bluel {sic}:98). The implication seems
to have been that homosexuality was an odd quirk of military life
that should be overlooked in light of the value of these soldiers'
mission and experience. Furthermore, he promised expulsion from
the party for continued "tongue-wagging" and "letter-writing"
(Koehl:43).
*** {start comment 90-2}
Hitler did indeed say "The sole purpose of
any inquiry must be to ascertain whether or not
the SA officer...is performing his official
duties....His private life cannot be an object of
scrutiny unless it conflicts with the basic
principles of National Socialist ideology." {Plant
page 61} That's why heterosexual adultery and
sexual debauchery were overlooked and not acted
against unless they affected job performance.
*** {end comment 90-2}
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Secondly, Hitler strengthened his rhetoric against homosexu-
ality in German society at large. An article that appeared in the
official Nazi newspaper in 1930 went so far as to threaten homo-
sexuals with extermination. Once again this was purely theatri-
cal. Adolf Brand, whose openly homosexual magazine, Der
Eigene, was by this time widely read in Germany, responded to
the Nazi article with one of his own. Brand writes,
***{Below is Page: 91 }***
Men such as Captain Roehm, are, to our knowl-
edge, no rarity at all in the National Socialist Party.
It rather teems there with homosexuals of all kinds.
And the joy of man in man, which has been slan-
dered in their papers so often as an oriental vice
although the Edda frankly extols it as the highest
virtue of the Teutons, blossoms around their camp-
fires and is cultivated and fostered by them in a
way done in no other male union that is reared on
party politics. The threatened hanging on the gal-
lows, with which they allege they want to exter-
minate homosexuals, is therefore only a horrible
gesture that is supposed to make stupid people
believe that the Hitler people, in the matter of male-
to-male inclinations, are all as innocent as pigeons
and pure as angels, just like the pious members of
the Christian Society of the Virgin... The public
threat against the homosexuals has in the mean-
time not frightened any youth-friend or man-friend
into deserting this party. One knows perfectly well
that all those public threats are only paper masks
(Brand in Oosterhuis and Kennedy:236f.).
{See Comment 91-1}
Despite Brand's protestations Hitler's ruse was quite successful
in regard to the Nazis' political fortunes. The party fared well in
the elections of 1932, and on January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was
appointed Chancellor of Germany.
*** {start comment 91-1}
Once again, the asinine assertion that
elections were determined by the issue of
homosexuality. As noted above in comment 87-1,
where this assertion first occurred, it was the
Great Depression that caused voters to swing
toward the Nazis.
*** {end comment 91-1}
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{See Comment 91-2}
Not everyone in Germany, however, was pleased with Hitler's
ascension to power. Former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher gave
voice to an inner fear that foreshadowed his own death: "This
pack of scoundrels, these criminals, these filthy boy streetwalkers!
Well, they better not come near me" (Rector:64). Schleicher was
later killed in Munich by Hitler's murder gang during the Roehm
Purge (Fest, 1975:465).
*** {start comment 91-2}
Once again, a misleading use of a quotation.
Schleicher didn't say those words because Hitler
came to power. Rector says that he was overheard
to make the remark in a barber shop about the SA
homosexual faction. There's nothing to indicate
they were said in reaction to Hitler.
*** {end comment 91-2}
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***{Below is Page: 92 }***
{Picture}
{Hitler standing with Goering, both in
uniform}
Adolf Hitler with Herman Goering
YAD VASHEM
{Picture caption}
***{Below is Page: 93 }***
{Picture}
{Goebbels in suit -- head & shoulders}
Paul Joseph Goebbels
YAD VASHEM
{Picture caption}
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