The Pink Triangle defies anyone to deny history. It was used by the Nazis to signify homosexuals. Although, homosexuals were only one of the groups targeted for extermination, it is unfortunately, the group that history often excludes.
In 1935 Hitler revised the German Law, Paragraph 175, prohibiting homosexuality, by including kissing, embracing, and gay fantasies as well as sexual acts. Convicted offenders- an estimated 25,000 from 1937 to 1939, were sent to prison and later transferred to concentration camps. They were to be sterilized, most often by castration. Hitler changed his policy on homosexuality to include death in 1942.
Concentration camp prisoners were designated into groups by colored inverted triangles. Which set up a social hierarchy among prisoners. A green triangle marked the wearer as a regular criminal.; a red triangle denoted a political prisoner. Two yellow overlapping triangles forming a Star of David denotes Jewish prisoners. The Pink Triangle was for homosexuals. A yellow Star of David under a superimposed Pink Triangle represented Gay Jewish prisoners- by the social hierarchy, the lowest of all prisoners.
The Pink Triangle was later reclaimed by many Gay rights groups in the 1970s because it draws attention to the oppression and persecution- then and now. |
