Hitler's sexuality is HBO topic (Claim Hitler Was "Gay")

Yahoo News ^ | Thu Jan 9 2003 | Andrew Wallenstein

[Skooz]

Hitler's sexuality is HBO topic

Thu Jan 9, 3:22 AM ET

By Andrew Wallenstein

NEW YORK (The Hollywood Reporter) --- HBO is developing a documentary based on a controversial book that claims Adolf Hitler was gay.

Scheduled to air next year on either HBO or Cinemax, the documentary will draw from "The Hidden Hitler," a biography released in 2001 to heavy criticism from historians who disputed its allegations. One academic who reviewed the book for the Washington Post chastised the author, German history professor Lothar Machtan, for coming "perilously close to blaming the entire Holocaust on Hitler's alleged sexuality."

The documentary will be produced by Los Angeles-based World of Wonder, whose credits include "Monica in Black and White" for HBO and the upcoming theatrical release "Party Monster."

"The thrust of the documentary looks at the body of evidence that in his early life, Hitler was, in all possibility, gay," said Fenton Bailey, co-director of the program with Randy Barbato. Bailey and Barbato are co-founders of World of Wonder.

An abridged 49-minute version of the documentary aired on the United Kingdom's Channel 5 in November with the title "Is Hitler Gay?" The full 75 minutes are expected to air on HBO with either the new title "The Pink Fuhrer," the original British title or a combination of both.

The documentary features interviews with Machtan and other noted historians. The production, which took 10 months to complete, visits European cities where Hitler spent his early years, including his hometown of Linz, Austria.

"Hidden" recounts eyewitness testimony describing Hitler's sexual activity during and after World War I. The book also suggests that he murdered a high-ranking Nazi who attempted to blackmail him by threatening to disclose his homosexuality and persecuted hundreds of thousands of other gays and lesbians to "disguise his own true colors."

Depictions of Hitler's early life have become a bona fide trend in movies and television. "Max," an independent film currently in theaters, provides a fictional account of Hitler's short-lived career as an artist, while CBS is preparing a miniseries on his rise to power that will air later this year. Both projects have been criticized for humanizing Hitler.

When NBC's "Today" anchor Matt Lauer interviewed Machtan about the book in October 2001, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation blasted the program for failing to grill the author on the validity of his claims.

GLAAD news media director Cathy Renna has higher hopes for the documentary. "We would welcome a rigorous and fair examination of the book from all different sides, which it didn't get from the mainstream media when it first came out," she said.

Bailey defended his company's decision to explore Hitler's alleged homosexuality. "It's an absolutely uncomfortable subject, but you're in graver danger if you refuse to explore an idea in fear that someone might misinterpret it," he said.

World of Wonder has another gay-themed documentary coming to cable in the spring as part of MTV's "True Life" series. "Homo High" examines the lives of a group of students attending a private gay high school in Dallas.

[Guillermo]

The SA wasn't the only part of the Nazi apparatus that was full of queers.

[Mr. Mojo]

Adolf Hitler was gay.

Makes sense. Now I know how the Brownshirts got their brown shirts.

[ohioman]

That's true. But the SA had by far the highest concentration.

[TeleStraightShooter]

*chortal*
;^>

[Revolting cat!]

Hitler gay? I suspected all along that he was a good guy after all!

[BossLady]

WOW! Blast form the past! I have thought about that posting several times since I first read it. And, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The roots of Nazi Party was not about white race but about white men (and boys).

I wondered how long it would take HBO to jump on this. And...will they dilute the story???

[JohnGalt]

The personal accounts of Josepf Goebles, in his diaries, and among others, Waffen SS General, Sepp Deitrich, contradict those wishing to cash in on the latest Hitler revelation.

[xzins]

I wondered how long it would take HBO to jump on this. And...will they dilute the story???

HBO's 'gay handlers' hate that story. They'll try to do more than dilute it. I predict they'll try their best to destroy it.

[Hillary's Folly]

Liberace Wasn't Gay, Professor Claims

[Egg]

Well, Hitler and the gays have one thing in common: they've caused alot of suffering and cruel deaths in this world.

[WaveThatFlag]

Socrates, Plato, Alexander the Great, Leonardo Da Vinci, et al.

Actually the Renaissance artist the pillowbiters try to claim is Michangelo, not da Vinci.

[TBP]

Isn't this one of the jokes in "Springtime for Hitler," the deliberately terrible musical that Bialystock & Bloom put on in "The Producers"?

"Hi, my name'th Adolf. What'th yourth?"

All that really matters is that Hitler was a brutal murderer of 12-13 million human beings. His sex life is irrelevant.

[skeeter]

Someone should ask Leni Riefenstahl while she's still around. I always thought there was a homoerotic theme in her prewar work on Hitler's behalf.

[babylonian]

Hitler was a serious occultist. It's no much of a stretch to believe he was involved in homosexual activity.

[aristeides]

He hated cigarettes. Was a Vegan.

Also a teetotaler.

[headsonpikes]

Hitler was just very neat, that's all.

Not everyone who folds his underwear is gay.

Geez...they're just smearing the guy!

;^)

[SkyPilot]

In the book Hitler, 1189-1936 Hubris by Ian Keller, he describes him as:

- "Hitler avoided contact with women, "

- "Hitler's disturbed sexuality, his recoiling from physical contact, his fear of women, his inability to forge relationships and emptiness in human relations presumably had their roots in childhood experiences of a troubled family life where Hitler had a distant, cold father and an oppressive mother...

- his strange friendship certain men, his male roomate in Vienna, his public outbursts against homosexuality (but his fascination with the topic) his narcissm...

I would agree with the above poster---homosexuals are quick to tag DaVinci and Alexander the Great as "one of them", but not a monster like Hitler (although the evidence is very strong).

It is like people who believe they lived a past life. Ever notice they always were: a famous artist, warrior, statesman, general, king, princess, lover, musician, etc. No one was ever a rice picker. In the same way, the homosexual community has dragged heros in history to be their own, and ignored obvious homosexuals like Hitler.

[Helms]

FYI: Nietzsche was gay, however I doubt Hitler was. More HBO liberties taken? Hollywood takes them all the time.