The Enduring Persecution of Queerness in Germany from Hilter to Adenauer

Abstract

In The Enduring Persecution of Queerness in Germany from Hitler to Adenauer, Parker Manek etches a disturbing picture of the 20th-century landscape in which gay Germans lived and died. Manek explains how the disasters and political drama of these years first opened a space for queer life to flourish, and then slammed that space shut with often-rabid violence. He writes with an admirably philosophical style, analyzing the community of victims into various categories and identifying fascinating exceptions, intersections, and ironies. Manek also takes the time to reflect thoughtfully on how gay individuals have, or have not, added to the chorus of the voices of Holocaust survivors, and what it means for them to return in this way to that inhuman era. –Austin Scheller