ABSTRACT
This chapter re-examines the narrative of the Reichstag fire of 1933 through a close analysis of The Brown Book of the Reichstag Fire and Hitler Terror and its role in an international campaign that ultimately convinced much of the world that the Nazis themselves had conspired to burn the Reichstag. Rabinbach documents how the young Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe, who was tried, convicted, and executed for his purported role in singularly setting the fire, was overwhelmingly portrayed by the authors of the book and other members of the left as a homosexual prostitute. Significantly, the narrative of the fire speaks to the larger issue of whether the Nazi seizure of power was either rooted in opportunism or a political crime, and additionally relates the left’s presumption of a connection between homosexuality and fascism.
