William "Third Reich" Shirer-Homophobe?

Cafe Society
1

Inspired by this thread, this is a post I’ve been meaning to make for a long time but did not 'till I saw it.

In The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William Shirer several times harps on what in context is the hypocrisy of the Nazis who expound on moral purity while at the same time looking the other way at homosexuals in their midst or partaking of it themselves.

But he doesn’t even use such mild language. Instead he talks about them being “perverts” and such. I can’t remember the exact language but to my modern eyes it seems quite off-putting.

– Do you find that his homophobia in TRaFot3R affects your appreciation of his analysis of Intra-Nazi party politics? (I assume it doesnt affect your appreciation of the rest of his prose)

– Was this amount of homophobia standard for that time, and as such, does it still make you think less of Shirer’s character?

As for myself, I’m not sure about question number one. It’s distracting at least. But I don’t think that I am quite able to forgive him for such blatant homophobia even if it were common at the time, even if it only happens a handful of times in the book, and if the language is not as condemnatory as it could have been.

That said, my opinion of his character is not lessened by as much as it would have been if he would have written the same prose today.

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Your questions assume Shirer was writing in 2007. The attitude toward homosexuality – throughout almost all society – in 1960 (when it was published) was that homosexuality was a sexual perversion. And Shirer grew up in the 20s, when, outside of certain areas, the stigma was greater.

So to call him a homophobe tacitly assumes he has the same worldview as we do now. Clearly, he did not. For people of his age and his background there was no question homosexuality was considered perverse.

As for Shirer’s point, it’s quite valid. Hitler knew Ernst Rohm was homosexual, but let him have a position of responsibility anyway. When he purged Rohm, one excuse he gave was that he had discovered Rohm was homosexual. The joke in Germany at the time was “What will he do when he discovers Goebbels has a club foot?”

Hitler was willing to play the morality card when it suited him, and ignore it when it was politically expedient. Luckily, no politician would ever think to do anything like this today. :dubious: