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- Case Study: Albrecht Becker
Case Study: Albrecht Becker
Hitler and other leading Nazis had a plan for German society which valued same-ness, not diversity. Their goal was to make Germany an exclusively ‘Aryan’ nation and they had an ‘ideal’ picture of a German citizen – strong and healthy, fair skinned, blond haired and blue eyed. Propaganda films were made to show this ideal of young German men and women. Hitler was obsessive about same-ness and, for him, not all human beings were equal; some were even ‘untermenschen’ – subhuman. He feared and hated anyone who was different, including people who might look like this German ideal but think or act differently. For example, a person’s political or religious views might deviate from the Nazi’s concept of “normality”. Sexual orientation – whether someone was gay or straight – was also important to Hitler.
In the 1920’s, especially in Berlin, there had been a more open and tolerant view towards homosexuality. There was even a Scientific-Humanitarian Committee set up to defend the rights of gay and lesbian Germans. However, from the beginning the Nazi party made its opposition clear. The reason they gave for this was that all sexual relations had one major purpose – the birth of more Aryan German children to build up the nation or Volk.
