The persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis under National Socialism during the Second World War has historically been ignored and almost completely erased. However, within the past two and a half decades a significant number of historical, academic, sociological, and literary inquiries and works have uncovered this once forgotten past. Because of these investigations, the anti-homosexual actions inflicted upon gay men by the Third Reich have the ability to impact the continual creation of a queer collective memory and consciousness. Unfortunately, many queers do not know the historic connotations and denotation of the pink trianglea symbol worn by homosexual males within the concentration campsnow so readily used by the queer community today as a representation of pride. By analyzing the history, testimonies, fictional account of gay persecution, and attempts of reestablishment in the usage of the pink triangle, this thesis seeks to establish the history of persecution of gay men as a solidifying piece of the queer collective consciousness. Such a collective consciousness will not only remember and commemorate those gay lives lost during the Holocaust, but it will also allow the queer community to have a viable political and social past and future that will allow such atrocities to occur never again.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-05142008-150238 |
| Date | 06 August 2008 |
| Creators | Vestal, Paul D. |
| Contributors | Casey Charles, Katie Kane, Bryan Cochran |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05142008-150238/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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