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Michael Medved, Keeper of Historical Context:
Germany recently unveiled a memorial to what the press called “the Nazis’ long-ignored gay victims.” Across the road from Berlin’s monument to Jewish Holocaust victims, the new shrine features a pavilion-sized concrete slab with a window through which visitors view a video of two men kissing. This commemoration follows a longstanding, misleading attempt to depict homosexuals as prime targets of Hitler. In fact, even historical material released with the memorial noted only “an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 gay men deported to concentration camps” –and by no means all of them were killed. While homosexuals surely outnumbered the less-than-one-percent of the German population that was Jewish, Jewish victims of Nazi death camps outnumbered estimated gay victims by more than 500 to 1. Persecution of any group deserves condemnation and remembrance, but it’s wrong to exaggerate the extent of victimization for politically correct P.R. purposes.
So, for the ones who weren’t killed, the concentration camps were like a spa week in Palm Springs; a chance to get some exercise, lose some weight, tone up and and men! men! men!
In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist; And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; And then . . . And then . . .
they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak upthey came for the gays. Eh. No big deal…
A side-note that Medved probably wouldn’t find interesting:
Between 5,000 and 15,000 gay men were held in concentration camps by the Nazis as members of an "anti-social group."
Historians estimate that 60% of them died while incarcerated.
After the war gay men were not recognised as victims of the Holocaust and many were re-imprisoned by the authorities because of the sexuality.
They were denied the reparations and state pensions available to other groups. In 2002 the German government formally pardoned homosexuals imprisoned by the Nazis.
So, all in all, things worked pretty well for some of them, having that imprisonment time knocked off of their permanent record.
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Every time I think that clown has sunk as low as he can go, he manages to find that “down” button on the elevator wall.
only “an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 gay men deported to concentration camps”–and by no means all of them were killed.
…Just the ones who complained about the abysmal state of interior decor at the camps.
Medved is one of those people who almost makes me want to apologize for being Jewish.
This is all very interesting, but what’s the over/under for how many months until Medved is caught smoking some guy’s joint in a public restroom or park? I wanna get a bet down before the line starts moving.
Seriously folks, after the last couple of years, I automatically assume that if a conservative is writing about teh gay—he’s copping someone’s bone. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
What the hell is it with these conservatives suddenly going on about how the concentration camps really weren’t all that bad? I know they’ve probably thought for a while that the survivors were just playing the Holocaust victim card, but why are they all out in the open about it now? Do they really think the public is going to go with them on that one, or are they just really, really desperate?
Soon we’ll get the “You know, there are worse ways to die than being gassed… Like, um, using the bathroom after Michael Moore did. Because he’s fat! LOL! Zing! Boo-yah!”
only
What, I don’t have to use that word the way other people do, just ask my editor.
Pardoned? for being members of an “anti-social” group?
My dots do not connect.
Lucky gay duckies!
If you pointed out the obvious–that (aside from the likes of Ernst Roehm, of course) gays and lesbians in Nazi Germany avoided the camps by staying in the closet, then you might expect Medved to say, “Well, of course the Third Reich had its bad points, but then they did cure teh ghey, so…”
let’s take a look at the how the Nazis have evolved over the last few months in conservatardia.
A few months ago: Liberal Fascism Hitler was a man of the left. Ipso Fasto.
Later: Buchenwald was a holiday in the sun because it wasn’t Auschwitz like that Obama said. And it was only a “work” camp were a trifle 65K were killed. Slave labor is labor right? And what’s with the black guy having a white granddad?
And more: Plus, Nazis were barely anti-gay at all from a homicidal standpoint. Modern Germans are so PC.
Of course: And so what if Prescott Bush helped out those lefties in the Reichstag? Was there a law against it or something.
But then: Appeasement? You mean like Obama? I don’t know what it is, but if it’s pro-diplomacy, it’s Obama doing it! Except if it’s war profiteering. Then its capitalism. But of course, the Nazis were left-wingers.
Now: Hitler (despite not being in power and serving time in jail during the time frame this thinker cites) had a smart, far-sighted energy policy.
And: What we need is a dictator to help us overcome the threat terrorists pose to our liberties (Mike “Moses Wine is my Co-Pilot” Leeden in todays Wall St. Journal).