Life Through a Queer Lens

EP72: Triangle of Terror, Symbol of Strength: The Pink Triangle

• Jenene & Kit • Season 2 • Episode 72

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The pink triangle evolved from a symbol of Nazi persecution to an emblem of queer liberation and activism. This episode traces its journey from concentration camps through the AIDS crisis to modern Pride celebrations, revealing how it was reclaimed by the queer community as a powerful symbol of resistance.

• Nazi Germany used color-coded triangle badges to identify prisoner groups in concentration camps, with gay men forced to wear pink triangles
• An estimated 65% of gay men in concentration camps died, and survivors were often transferred to prison after "liberation" as homosexuality remained illegal
• Allied forces deliberately left anti-gay Nazi laws intact when denazifying Germany
• Germany didn't fully repeal its anti-homosexuality laws until 1994
• Joseph Kohut's memoir "The Men with the Pink Triangle" (1972) was one of the first accounts from an LGBTQ+ concentration camp survivor
• Germany's first gay rights organization reclaimed the pink triangle in 1973 as a symbol of liberation
• The Silence = Death poster adopted the pink triangle a year before ACT UP was formed
• The symbol now appears in memorials and Pride events worldwide

Join us next episode as we explore monuments and memorials that use the pink triangle in their design, honoring victims of both the Holocaust and the AIDS crisis.


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Speaker 1:

Hey y'all, welcome back to another solo cast with me, Kit. Today we are going to discuss a broad history of the symbol, the pink triangle. So we're going to discuss its origins and how it was reclaimed and transformed into a symbol of queer liberation and queer rights from what it once was, which was a symbol of oppression and extermination via national socialism. We're going to give you, guys, the broad strokes of the history of that symbol so that when you see it, whether it be on a fellow queer person's battle jacket or pants, or in a store on a piece of clothing, or on a queer owned business's website on some buttons, or even on ACT UP's website, because the pink triangle is still the symbol for the organization ACT UP You'll understand the context behind that symbol, at least in broader terms. In past episodes and future episodes we've also brushed on the pink triangle because of how intrinsic it is to a lot of aspects of queer history. But, yeah, stay tuned with us and you'll continue to learn about this symbol because it will come up again. But these are just the broad strokes. And count how many times I say broad strokes in this episode of Challenge. If you're of age, take a drink every time I say it no, you'll die. Don't do that. I'm kidding, let's jump into it, shall we? We're gonna start pretty early. We're gonna start prior to the inception of the symbol and we're gonna we're gonna go into its creation and such and things. I should have done this forever ago, but we're finally going to do it now. There we go, wow, spent the first five minutes of this episode with just the camera pointed at the ceiling, practically as if I don't already look short, as if I'm not already short. I'm trying to make myself look even shorter just with the positioning of my camera. That's cruel. Why would I do that to myself? All right, so let's dive in. So while homosexuality was already illegal in Germany as of 1871, so in 1871, they made homosexuality illegal in the country of Germany. They rarely actually did anything with that law. It was rarely enforced until the Nazi party rose to power in 1933. Actually, real quick, before I dive into this, trigger warnings just for where we're going to be discussing Nazi persecution. We're going to be discussing homophobia and extermination and the violent persecution of our community throughout Nazi Germany. Not in too much detail. I'm not trying to horrify y'all, but like just if you're feeling a little, if you're feeling a little rough today, if you're feeling like maybe today's not the day, come back to this one, we'll be here, we're okay with waiting for you. Like, go go do something nice. Go drink a cup of tea, go for a walk, go be in nature, go do something fun and nice and come back to us. We'll be here when you feel better. Okay, and if you're not really feeling a hundy, maybe save this one for a little bit later. If you're feeling up for this, let's go.

Speaker 1:

Persecution of LGBTQIA plus people, specifically gay men, by the Nazi party spanned from 1933 to 1945. Many of these men started out serving prison sentences for homosexuality, only to be sent to concentration camps when their sentences ended. So that's how a lot of these gay men ended up in concentration camps. They started out with being arrested around 1933 and getting sentenced to prison terms, and then, when those prison terms were up, rather than being released, they were put on a train and sent to the concentration camps that have been built. It was done very purposefully and very systematically to already have these men in their clutches so that when these death camps were ready, they already had them to send there. You know what I mean. Like it was. It was done, it was a machine, it was a death machine. It was like procedural slaughter, procedural mass slaughter. So, yeah, that the it it was. It's sickening how efficient it because, again, they already had these men arrested. They didn't have to go looking for a lot of these men, they were already in prison. Rather than releasing them, they just sent them. It's insidious. Truly Everything about the Nazi party is insidious, obviously, but I do find it important to highlight certain aspects of these histories that I know, at least. I was not taught in public school, and I'm sure damn well most people weren't taught in public school when we learned about World War II and the Holocaust.

Speaker 1:

This is quoted directly from the Holocaust Memorial Museum's website. Quote beginning in 1937 through 1938, the SS created a system of marking prisoners in concentration camps. Sewn onto uniforms, the color-coded badges identified the reason for an individual's incarceration, with some variation among camps, so for certain camps the symbols looked a little bit different. In general they were all pretty similar, if not the same, and they were devised around 1937 to 1938 as a way of organizing prisoners within concentration camps Victims within concentration camps, I should say, aside from Jewish prisoners, who were identified by a yellow star. Again quoted from the Holocaust Museum's website, a quote perversion of the Jewish Star of David symbol. End quote.

Speaker 1:

Other symbols mainly consisted of different colored inverted triangles. Yeah, I don't need to go deeper into that, that speaks for itself. Some of these symbols and their targeted groups are for the red inverted triangle was political opponents, communists, social democrats and trade unions. The green inverted triangle was used for unions. The green inverted triangle was used for criminals. The black inverted triangle was used for asocials, including Romani people, non-conformists, unhoused people, lesbians and the mentally ill or physically disabled. So black triangles were just very all-encompassing. Blue inverted triangles for immigrants, purple inverted triangles for Jehovah's Witnesses and pink inverted triangles for gay men.

Speaker 1:

I do think it's important to acknowledge and state in these times none of these concentration camps were in Germany. They were in other countries. They would take people from their country and send them to a camp somewhere else where they could never be released. Does that remind you of anything? Okay, moving on, the Nazi party claimed that homosexuality was a destructive vice that would lead to the ruin of the German people. So that was very much how they propagandized against German society, in the very same way that they described the ways in which other victims' societal groups, would ruin German society. You know what I mean. They used a very similar tactic for all of their victims, against all of their victims, which propagandize their people. You know, and if we look at the modern day news and the ways in which certain groups of people are being discussed by certain stations and certain parties, perhaps we can draw some parallels. I'm not just talking about history for the sake of it, I'm not doing this shit for my health. I do this because it's important. We are in the process of repeating it. We're a couple fucking lines into that poem and it's a pretty short poem.

Speaker 1:

Throughout the Nazi regime, many methods were used in an attempt to keep LGBTQIA plus people out of German life, while trying to cure or subdue homosexuality, such as castration, sterilization, imprisonment, deportation to concentration camps, bringing gay men to brothels and forcing them to engage in straight sex, and many others. That is just. That is a very, very, very short, nowhere near delving into the horrors in which victims of Nazi Germany were subjected, as quoted from a History Channel website titled the Pink Triangle from Nazi Label to Symbol of Gay Pride quote at the camps, gay men were treated especially harshly by guards and fellow prisoners alike. Beginning of another quote within this history article quote there is no solidarity for the homosexual prisoners. They belonged to the lowest caste. Pierre Seale, a gay Holocaust survivor, wrote in his memoir I, pierre Seale Deported Homosexual a memoir of Nazi terror. So yeah, it's estimated that between 1933 and 1945, 65% of gay men in concentration camps would die, and even after 1945, their torment was rarely over.

Speaker 1:

Both East and West Germany upheld the country's anti-LGBTQIA plus laws, meaning many of those who were freed from concentration camps would go right back to prison. Homosexuality was not decriminalized until the early 1970s, meaning many of these men were not released until the early 1970s. If they lived that long, let that sink in. The allies did not free gay men, they just sent them to fucking prison. Gay men did not get restitution, did not get peace, did not get restitution, did not get peace, did not get fucking any. They got sent to prison to finish out their sentences for love, for love. After going through all that surviving the Holocaust they were sent to prison to finish out their sentences. Not enough people know that. More people need to know that 1970s it was not decriminalized until, and even then it wasn't completely legal. It just was decriminalized, which means you don't go to prison for it, you just get a fine. It wasn't until 1994, two years before I was born that Germany repealed these laws altogether.

Speaker 1:

This history is not ancient. I am 28 years old. You know people born in 94. You might have been born in 94. That's not fucking ancient history. That's not fucking ancient history. And to act like it is Is to spit on the graves Of every queer person who died to Nazi persecution and thereafter. Jesus Christ, I'm so tired. Ooh, sorry, I'll get off my soapbox, just let. This isn't that old, it's, and I see all these kids acting like it is. We have only had gay marriage rights for 10 years. We have had gay marriage rights since I was a freshman in college. This is not ancient history. This is not that long ago. We could very easily slide backwards as we presently are. Holy shit, I need a minute. Got me all pissed off. Sorry, if I pitched the audio, janine, I might have made you go deaf a little bit. That's my thing. Everything's fine, okay. That's my big. Everything's fine, okay.

Speaker 1:

This is quoted from Time Magazine's article how the Nazi regime's pink triangle symbol was repurposed for LGBTQ pride. Quote has pointed out, even as Allied powers carefully worked to scrub Nazism from Germany, they left that part alone, perhaps because they had anti-gay and anti-sodomy laws of their own. Let me say that again Allied forces, when trying to scrub Germany of everything related to Nazism, left the parts about homosexuality alone. Just left them alone, just said, oh, that's fine, yeah, we have our own of those, it's good. Left them alone. No wonder we don't learn about this when we learn about World War II, because that makes y'all look, that makes us look, fucking evil. What do you mean? We left that alone. No wonder why they're like oh, we don't need to teach those kids that, nah, they don't need to know that. They don't need to know that they don't need to know that we left all those gays in prison. They don't need to know that. That's crazy. I know I'm laughing, you know that like uncomfortable laughing. Because that's crazy. They got sent to prison.

Speaker 1:

The parts within German law that discussed homosexuality directly related to Nazism were left alone. Related to Nazism were left alone. I don't know, man, if that doesn't absolutely boggle your mind and break your heart. I'm going to need you to locate some compassion. That should absolutely break your heart. I read that over and over and over again and wept Because yeah, that's heartbreak. They were left to rot, they were not liberated. Queers were not liberated in the aftermath of the Holocaust. That matters With the 70s and the decriminalization of homosexuality and the repealing of not the repealing of these laws, but the decriminalizing of these laws.

Speaker 1:

So like with the decriminalization of weed rather than getting arrested for having weed, you just get it confiscated and you get a fine. It's not nothing, it's still illegal, but you're not going to prison, you're not getting charges. It's the same thing with the 70s. Homosexuality was decriminalized throughout Germany in the same way that weed is decriminalized here in PA in certain states. Making sense, making sense In the 70s, also brought the gay rights movements to Germany, which started gaining global attention thanks to the magnitude of the Stonewall Riots in June of 1969.

Speaker 1:

So like, truly, when people say that the Stonewall Riots affected queer rights on a massive scale, it affected it throughout the entire Western world. I wouldn't say necessarily globally, but specifically throughout the entire Western world. Like there were shockwaves. There was a reverberation throughout the entire Western world in which we recognized the ways in which we were looking at queer people was wrong. So the gay rights movement really started picking up pace in Germany as well around the 70s, which is pretty cool. Oh, that's fucking awesome. A couple queens in New York, dolls throwing bricks in New York City, got this shit done like. I love it, I love it. I love my community so fucking much.

Speaker 1:

In 1972 brought with it the first autobiography of a gay survivor of concentration camps, titled the Men with the Pink Triangle. It remains one of very few accounts for LGBTQIA plus survivors of Nazi persecution. When it was first published, it was done so under the pseudonym Hans Hager, whose real name was Joseph Kohut, who was born in 1917 and passed away in 1994, the same year that Germany repealed, finally, its laws against homosexuality that had been in place since 1871. It's kind of beautiful that he got to live to see it. I don't know what month he passed and what month these things occurred. I didn't go too deep into that but it's kind of nice to think that he got to live to see the laws that tortured him literally led to him being tortured. It's nice to think that he got to live to see those finally be repealed, to think that he got to live to see those finally be repealed. The book recounts the five years Kohut spent as a prisoner within the Nazi concentration camps Sachsenhausen, flossenburg and his journey to Dachau, during which he and other prisoners were liberated by Allied forces while en route in April of 1945. So he was one of few gay men who at that time were lucky enough to actually be liberated in 1945.

Speaker 1:

There are many instances throughout Kohut's story in which historians have stated he was one of the lucky ones, not only to have survived, but his treatment in general. He got off relatively lucky in comparison to other men with pink triangles from that time period. You know what I mean and this is something that again I saw historians discussing that when it comes to his accounts versus other accounts, he got off pretty easy, not to say his experiences weren't horrifying. They were. They were horrifying and traumatizing and no human being should ever have to go through the things he went through. I want to make that very clear. But by comparison, his experiences were considered the lucky side of the court, the lucky side of a very, very, very shitty traumatizing that no one wants to be handed.

Speaker 1:

We cannot recommend highly enough that you all pick up and read this novel. It seems incredible. I plan on getting it Again. It's called the Men with the Pink Triangle. It was published under the name Heinz Hager, but his real name was Joseph Kohut, so you might be able to find it under either name. However, please keep in mind that it is a very graphic and detailed retelling of horrific traumas and experiences. Trigger warnings for everything. You know what I mean Like.

Speaker 1:

Go into this understanding that you are reading a memoir of a man who saw and had to experience things that no human being should have to go through. These are horrors. Their queer sester, their queer descendants, their descendants in love, have the humanity to witness it, to witness them and to say I see you, I know you, I remember you, I love you. You did not vanish to their hate. Our love lives on. Look like we do this for them. That's why all this matters. You know, we march on the streets that their bodies paved. Our protest cries are the same cries that they shouted at cops. Stonewall was a riot. Shouted at cops. Stonewall was a riot. These things, you are all that came before you, in every sense of the word. Your own family's history, queer history, the history of the intersectional identities that make you you. You are everything that came before you. I am everything that came before me. We are all everything that came before us. I am insufferable about history.

Speaker 1:

Ask my partner, as the Museum of World War II History states, quote read the men with the pink triangle with this statement by Kohut in mind. Quote what does it say about the world we live in if an adult man is told how and whom he should love and read this book with that in mind? The following year after the novel's publication, post-war Germany's first gay rights organization, called homosexual action west berlin haw, was created, and this translates to gay action west berlin. Like it's just that, but in german fuck, am I trying to pronounce that? And it began the reclamation of the pink triangle as a symbol of lgbtq plus liberation. So they were the ones who started that over there in Germany, being like, hey, this is our German history too. So it was more over there that that really started, and that was in 1973. So that was before ACT UP. That was before anything over here was happening with the pink triangle. Really, that was over there. So it's pretty cool too. I don't know.

Speaker 1:

It was like we were sharing with each other, like we had the stonewall riots over here and that kind of like sparked things over there and then they reclaimed the pink triangle through a german gay rights organization and then act up went oh hell, yeah, like I don't. I kind of love that. It's like queers across the ocean sharing history and culture and love and joy, and that's fucking beautiful. I love that. That makes my heart happy. So Peter Hennenstrom, one of the founders of HAW, said in 2014 on their use of the symbol quote at its core, the pink triangle represented a piece of our German history that still needed to be dealt with. End quote. That's exactly it. As I was saying, it's German history. It was like sharing across an ocean and looking at your history and honoring that history and remembering that history and bringing that history into the present and truly saying never again. And also, never again means never again for everyone. I don't understand how that lesson got lost. Holy shit, free palestine y'all. This is fucking ridiculous.

Speaker 1:

The pink triangle as a symbol of queer rights gained us recognition when what would become the silence equals death collective used the emblem on their now iconic street posters made to push the public into political and social action around the HIV AIDS crisis. The poster was conceived one year before ACT UP was created. However, in the years since, the poster's identity has become intrinsically wound up with the identity of ACT UP, with its use as a symbol on their campaigns and through their radical protests during the HIV AIDS crisis. So like, even though the pink triangle was connected to HIV AIDS prior to ACT UP's inception it was a year before that the Silence Equals Death Collective made that poster that used the pink triangle, and that was what really brought the pink triangle into the US public consciousness as more than just a symbol of Nazi persecution. And then, a year later, act UP was created. But because of the way that ACT UP adopted the Silence equals death emblem and the pink triangle symbol as part of their logo and their use of it at their radical protests, that literally changed how we do medical studies in the US. It became intrinsically wound with them, even if it wasn't their original creations. That make sense, like it didn't come from ACT UP. But it has become intrinsically wound with ACT UP's identity and history just because of the way they ended up making use of it, which is really interesting. I love that and that's why this history is so important.

Speaker 1:

We look at the symbol of the pink triangle when it comes to HIV AIDS and immediately you think, oh yeah, act UP did that. No, they didn't. Act UP didn't even exist when the pink triangle was being used for silence equals death. That was a different organization, known as the silence equals death collective. That matters. Those are two different organizations with two different people, with completely different people involved in different histories and, yes, they intersected a lot lot, but they're different organizations and that's cool to know. It's cool to know that we had and have so many of these pieces of this huge painting. It's like the painting made up of a billion dots. We are all our own little dots out there, but you have to step back and you see that's a whole painting. But it's also important to kind of take a look at some of those dots and realize that they also matter. Without them, the painting wouldn't exist. It's just so cool to me. I love it. History's awesome.

Speaker 1:

Presently, you'll find the pink triangle at pride events and protests across the globe, with memorials for both the Holocaust and the HIV AIDS crisis, using the symbols scattered throughout many different countries and continents Something we could, actually, something we're going to. It's the next episode. We're doing an entire episode about those monuments themselves. So we're going to do an entire episode about the memorials and monuments that utilize the pink triangle within their iconography, and we're going to talk about what they're for. They're talking about if they're for the Holocaust, if they're for HIV, aids, if they're just for all the above, if it's just for, like, persecution against LGBTQIA plus people in general, which a lot of these are, and yeah, it just that's going to be a fun one. So stay tuned for next week, because that one's going to be coming right down the pipeline pretty soon. And if y'all have any episode ideas, episode suggestions that you guys want to see, head down to the second link in our link tree and you can send those our way. Just be kind. You know I'm soft boy, be kind.

Speaker 1:

And yeah, let's jump into our interesting fact. I hope you all enjoyed it was a little bit of a heavier one, but it's very necessary to understand this history and to know where this symbol comes from and to know the importance of it. I mean, a couple years ago I think it was like 2018 nike used the pink triangle on a pair of their shoes and didn't even really mention hiv, aids or the holocaust or anything, just kind of mentioned act up. And even act up was like you didn't talk about this with us. This is not okay. And made them edit their website. Not made them, but like basically said, hey, this isn't cool with us and if you want it to be, you should edit this. And they were like, yeah, sorry, rv, we'll edit that, but like it's important to know this history because corporations are using it against us without even fucking knowing it, and that matters. It against us without even fucking knowing it, and that matters Especially when they turn around and donate the same money that we just spent on those fucking pieces of clothing and shoes and shit, and they turn around and they donate it to laws that go against us and politicians that go against us. That's not, that's not cool, that's not it. That's very worsty behavior. Don't give them your money.

Speaker 1:

Shop from clear-owned businesses. In fact, I have a queer-owned business and I'll be doing pop-ups in the town of Milford, pennsylvania, throughout the month of June on Broad Street. So if you guys are in the Milford area and you're walking around, you might see me out there selling my jewelry on the street. Stop by, say hi, let me know that you're a listener and maybe get some queer jewelry from a queer-owned business, because I'm not going to be donating anything to a homophobic senator. I'm going to be using it to buy cat food.

Speaker 1:

Okay, let's jump into our interesting fact. One of the artists who helped design the iconic Silence Equals Death poster and a founder of the Silence Equ equals death collective, abraham Finkelstein, dubbed the equation they had to come up with new math for the age of AIDS. Abraham would go on to write the book after silence a history of AIDS through its images, and about his and other artists work during the early years of the HIV AIDS pandemic and how they were created. So, yeah, I just think that's very interesting. He dubbed the equation they had to come up with the silence equals death equation the new math for the age of AIDS. And that's so interesting to me. I don't know. I read that and I was like huh, that's fascinating.

Speaker 1:

And, yeah, he has his own book, after Silence, a History of AIDS Through Its Images, which I definitely recommend you guys checking out. It seems like a very interesting novel and it goes through a lot of these different creations that we know of from and about the HIV AIDS epidemic, a lot of these different pieces of art, and it goes into the artists and the history of it, how it was made and why it was made and the way that a lot of this was just like a bunch of gutter punks trying to figure it out and save themselves and save each other. I think that's something that nowadays we could all take something from is being a little gutter punk trying to save yourself and save everyone else at the same time.