A GERMAN IN GREECE, CA. 1960S, BY PARKER ROSSMAN

The following account by a German man of his sexual liaisons with boys in Greece presumably relates to the late 1950s or 1960s, since, on the one hand, he was still a boy himself just after the Second World War, and, on the other hand, by the time he told his story he had attended the wedding of a man whom he had loved as a boy of about thirteen to sixteen.  It was told to Yale divinity professor George Parker Rossman, who gathered such accounts over fifteen years for his book Sexual Experience Between Men and Boys (1976), from pp. 126-128 of which it is taken.

A German in Greece

South Italy, Sicily and Greece have been the playground of northern European pederasts since the eighteenth century, as we reported in the last chapter. One observer of the region[1] states that this popularity stems from a positive attitude toward sexual pleasure, which comes down from pre-Christian times; combined with the sensible attitude that all youngsters pass through a homosexual period in young adolescence which is normal, healthy and enjoyable, if treated naturally. Along with this, in many of the more impoverished communities, it is accepted that young persons use whatever talents they have to advance themselves, including their physical charms. For girls this has meant advantageous marriages, but for boys it has often meant finding a pederast patron or sponsor who, in exchange for sexual favors, would help a boy advance his career in ballet, the arts, business, or through aid for an education. Families not infrequently make contracts with wealthy patrons which are almost temporary marriages. For example, a non-pederast businessman went to a school in Athens to inquire about employing a boy as guide to help him find his way around the city for a few days. The principal pointedly asked the visitor if he was sexually interested in the boy. When the reply was negative, the principal relaxed and helped him find the right boy. When the youngster took the visitor to meet his mother, a day or so later, she suggested that the businessman take the boy to the hotel for the night: ‘It would save you time in the morning,’ she suggested. ‘And if you like him you might decide to take him to help him get a good education.’[2]

A German pederast explained: “When I was a boy, just after the war in the 1940’s, I had a happy sexual experience with a man who had been a Scout leader before Hitler. With him I had a beautiful relationship but, despite that, I was afraid to indulge my own pederast inclinations in Germany. I knew a teacher who went to Greece at every possible vacation, having been aroused to a fever pitch by working in an Italian junior school for boys. He would go to a rural pension, where the proprietor would let him sleep with one of his sons. This was not considered to be prostitution (a scandalous notion), but affectionate sex play between friends, plus an opportunity for the boy to improve himself by associating with Herr professor. I assumed that no such experience would be possible for me, since I spoke no Greek, but still I traveled with a sense of high adventure. On my first day in Athens I met a young Greek soldier in a park who asked me to buy him a drink. When I realized I was being propositioned, I told him that he was too old for me, so he said he would find two young boys and we would ‘take them to the mountain.’ That may have simply been a slang phrase for erotic pleasure, I wasn’t sure. It took only fifteen minutes for him to go and return with two schoolboys who seemed elated to be of our party. We took them to a movie, and the film had hardly started when the boy I was with put my raincoat over his lap and pulled down his pants. Instead of guiding my hand to play with him where I expected, he raised up to sit on my hand, so I could titillate him in an unexpected erotic zone. He then slipped his hand under me, in the same way, and I saw his other hand was under the other boy sitting beside him. The finger play, which was as far as it went, was a very erotic experience, and I suppose it is one of the sixty-nine pederast games mentioned in a medieval book.

“On another day I went to a small factory on business and at lunchtime I talked with a dozen apprentices, aged twelve to fifteen. After I bought them drinks they grew very friendly, and I played with my dictionary in an effort to communicate with them. Finally, throwing caution to the winds, in light of my experience at the movies, I slipped my hand under the youngster sitting beside me and tried to ask if he would be interested in something like that. Two of the boys signaled for me to follow them to the men’s room, where they proceeded to play with each other sexually to ask if that was what I meant. When I said Yes, they went into a huddle. I didn’t know but what they were debating how best to deal with a deviant like me. But no, they were drawing straws. The winner, a bright-faced boy with a handsome smile, politely excused himself and departed on the run. I continued talking to the other boy until the first one came back with his father, who spoke a bit of English. He had gone to ask his father if it would be all right for him to take me to their apartment, since no one was there during the day. As the father gave me the key, he said the boy had to be back to work in an hour and a half, but that the others would cover for him if we had such a good time that he was late. I could tell that it was not the youngster’s first time, for he was very experienced. When I returned the key, the father asked me not to let his wife know, as she was very religious, and would feel it necessary for the boy to confess to a priest. However, he said, if I wanted to take the boy for a week end, he could arrange it. During the following three years I spent so much time with that Greek boy that he could speak good German by the time he was sixteen, which helped him to get a good job. We remained close friends, so I made a special trip to Greece for his wedding. Since then I’ve had a dozen other such experiences, each different, but even when disappointing they’ve been exciting enough to spur me on to hunt for more.”

[1] Roger Peyrefitte, Exile of Capri (Paris, 1959); Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi (New York, 1941), p. 185; Dana Faralla, Children of Lucifer (Philadelphia, 1963). [Author’s footnote 20; note that of these three books, the first and last are fiction, and the second a travel book fiction]

[2] Dennis Drew and Jonathan Drake, Boys for Sale (New York, 1969), p. 81; Sean O’Callaghan, The White Slave Trade (London, 1962) and others; Mark Oliver, The Wanton Boys [a novel] (Garden City, 1959), p. 119; Maxwell (1960) [this last not recognisable in the author’s bibliography]. [Author’s footnote 21].

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