Henry Gerber: "Hitlerism and Homosexuality," September 1934

Reaction to the then recent murders by Hitler of Ernst Roehm

Copyright (c) 2008 by Jonathan Ned Katz. All rights reserved. Reedited by Katz from Gay American History (1976).

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The September 1934 Chanticleer contains Gerber’s comments on "Hitlerism and Homosexuality," in which he discuses the reaction to the then recent murders by Hitler of Ernst Roehm, SA chief, and other SA officers, June 29 to July 1, 1934. In this essay, Gerber mistakenly credits Roehm with leading a group in opposition to Hitler's tyranny.

Gerber writes, in part:

A few weeks ago Herr Adolf Hitler in part justified the bloody murder of his intimate friends with the accusation that his Chief of Staff of Nazi storm troops and his clique had been guilty of the most revolting (to normal healthy people) sexual aberrations. It seems strange that Hitler should have found that out so late. After having been intimately associated with Roehm all his life, he must have been well acquainted with Roehm's inclinations. But such a little slip of memory does not bother the great corporal.

A short time ago an American journalist pointed out in the liberal "Nation" that the whole Hitler movement was based on the homosexual Greek attachments of men for each other, and the same Jewish author stated that it was another of the Hitler contradictions that the "Leader" should have acquiesced in the burning of the books of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, who had dedicated his life to the liberation of the enslaved homosexuals in all lands. Thus we get a glimpse of the insanity of the whole movement: A Jewish doctor working for the interests of homosexuals is persecuted by a heterosexual mob, led by homosexuals.

Of course, our American journalists who reap large profits from the publication of all the filthy details of heterosexual and homosexual perverts, especially among the "Pillars of Society" in Hollywood and New York alike, managed to get one of their reporters into the bedroom of Herr Roehm just before Hitler arrived to call his erstwhile bosom friend to face the muzzle of his own gun, and even such a conservative and "decent" paper as the New York Times (I was told) reported that while no evidence could be found in Roehm's boudoir, his chief of police was found in bed with a fair young man. The newspapers of. America were strangely compromised by this Hitler story. Should they praise the murderer Hitler for suppressing homosexuals, or should they give credit to Roehm and his homosexual camorra [society] for being the only men in Germany virile enough to attempt to wipe out the unspeakable Hitler? The newspapers condemned both and saved their faces.

Changing the subject, Gerber discusses the legal oppression of homosexuals.

Have you ever honestly asked yourself why homosexuals should be persecuted or punished by law? Of course, you know that in France, Spain, Belgium, Russia, Czecho-Slovakia, Mexico, South America, and even in our own Philippine Islands, homosexuals are not persecuted or punished unless they commit anti-social acts….

… Wonder no one thought of blaming our depression on homosexuality, If Hoover had only thought of it, he would have been reelected, for when it comes to persecute homosexuals, no lies and defamations are too stupid not to be believed….

No one has yet brought forth a plausible reason why homosexuals should be wiped out, except the age-old reasoning which is also applied to atheism and communism, that it is contrary to the welfare of the state (the profit and exploitation system of the capitalists). That is the real and only reason, and the churches have conveniently joined the chorus and labeled homosexuals "unnatural," “abnormal," and what not. With the waning of capitalism and organizes religion, the opposition of the governments to homosexuals will also wane, as has been seen by the example of Russia and Czccho-Slovakia. You cannot, therefore blame homosexuals, if they throw in their support with the communists and atheists.

As a matter of fact, when the German Reichstag Committee, chosen to revise the German Penal Code, voted, the socialists and communists outvoted the nationalist and clerical party, and brought about the repeal of the notorious paragraph 175 which punished homosexuals for their acts (but not female homosexuals), in 1927 [1929 is correct].

Roehm and his valiant men have been defeated, but the homosexuals will go on fighting to rid the world of tyranny.