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==== Pro-Natalism ====

Prominent National Socialist lawyer Hans Frank warned the German people in 1935 that the “epidemic of homosexuality was threatening the new Reich.” <ref>Richard Plant, ''The Pink Triangle'' (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1986), 26.</ref> Expanding on Frank's premise, Heinrich Himmler made a speech to SS commanders on February 18, 1937 noting that the two million men lost during the Great War and the reported two million homosexual German men had detrimental effects on German society. Himmler concluded that since four million men were no longer procreating homosexuality was to become a state matter. He pronounced that “All things which take place in the sexual sphere are not the private affair of the individual, but signify the life and death of the nation.”<ref>Ben S. Austin, “Homosexuals and the Holocaust,” Middle Tennessee State University, http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/homobg.html (accessed December 2, 2011).</ref> With such a pronouncement, the SS and local police departments intensified their search for those members of society who they deemed detrimental to the regeneration of the Aryan family. The Reich believed producing pure German offspring was the key to the future success of Germany.

In the early and mid-1930’s, several laws were enacted to insure the preservation of pure and superior Aryan blood to provide for the future of the nation. In 1934, the Marriage Law was enacted which required couples to provide proof that their potential offspring were immune from any disabling diseases through heredity. The National Socialists were so concerned with the threat of a racially inferior German society, they rounded up and sterilized gypsies and homosexuals under the heading of "deviant asocials." Ironically, a decade prior to this program, homosexuals enjoyed an open and vibrant life in Berlin, which was arguably the most gay-friendly city in the world at the time.

==== Rohm and Himmler ====

Ernst Rohm, the leader of Hitler’s storm troopers known as the SA, was assassinated on June 30, 1934. Rohm was openly homosexual. June 28, 1934 marked the beginning of a five day event known as “The Night of Long Knives” or the “Blood Purge.” This hideous endeavor was sanctioned by Hitler after he received erroneous information from Heinrich Himmler that Rohm was trying to usurp power from the Fuhrer. Himmler, who was extremely homophobic, despised Rohm as he was his rival for Hitler’s esteem. Himmler also wanted to expand the fledgling SS and in order to do so had to dismantle to powerful SA. The only means by which to do this was for Rohm to be eliminated. As Rohm had long been Hitler’s closest ally and the Chancellor was indifferent to his homosexuality, Himmler had to concoct a scheme to enrage the Fuhrer. He manufactured evidence that supported his claim that Rohm was trying to undermine Hitler’s authority. This was the catalyst needed for Hitler to order Rohm’s assassination. Rohm, along with three hundred other men, was murdered in Munich in the summer of 1934; Himmler became the second most powerful man in Hitler's regime.<ref>Plant, ''The Pink Triangle'', 54-64. These pages contain Plant’s theory on political motivation along with a detailed description of the “Night of Long Knives.” It is important to understand that Rohm’s assassination was politically motivated and not due to his homosexuality.</ref>

Less than three weeks after orchestrating the murder of Rohm, Himmler held sole control of the newly independent SS. Also during that period, Hitler issued a directive that all homosexuals were to be expelled from the ranks of the SA and SS. He delivered a statement to the people of Germany stating that he would like “every mother to be able to offer her son to the SA, the Party, or the Hitler Youth without the fear that he might become morally or sexually depraved.”<ref>Geoffrey J. Giles, “The Institutionalization of Homosexual Panic in the Third Reich,” in ''Social Outsiders in N a z i Germany'', edited by Robert Gellately and Nathan Stoltzfus, 233-255. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 236.</ref> Prior to the Rohm assassination, Hitler had little to say about gays and lesbians, but with Himmler’s urging and the constant obsession of pro-natalistic thinking, the issue became more prevalent to the Fuhrer and heightened measures were taken to stamp out homosexuality.

[[File:buchenwald.jpg|thumbnail|300px|Buchenwald]]

At other camps, such as Dachau, they were worked to death. They were treated in camps as they were in ordinary society, thus had to endure the name calling and scrutiny at a greater level than other prisoners.<ref>Ruediger Lautmann, “Gay prisoners in Concentration Camps as Compared with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Political Prisoners,” Middle Tennessee State University, http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/lautmann.html/ (accessed December 2, 2011).</ref> While homosexuals had to avoid contact with other male prisoners, those incarcerated for criminal behavior or as political enemies engaged freely in homosexual activity on their specific blocks. Although these camps were said to be for the reeducation of homosexuals, the percentage of deaths among gay men was second only to that of Jewish prisoners. Throughout the entire system of concentration and extermination camps, the death rate among homosexuals was an astounding 53%; political prisoners had a death tally of over 40%, while Jehovah’s Witnesses suffered an almost 35% loss in the camps.<ref>Lautmann</ref>

==== Conclusion ====

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