When Adolf Hitler was appointed German chancellor on January 30, 1933, the Nazi regime moved quickly to strip civil and human rights from Jews and others deemed enemies of the state. The first concentration camp, Dachau, opened near Munich. Among those arrested were not only Jews and political prisoners but also thousands of homosexual men, hunted down on the basis of denunciations from a public that described them as deviants.
Approximately 100,000 men were arrested, and more than 53,000 of them were convicted. Those sent to concentration camps ranked among the most exploited groups, often subjected not only to brutal torture and inhumane medical experiments but also to sexual abuse. Because of widespread homophobia, these prisoners rarely enjoyed solidarity from fellow inmates, who were full of prejudice, and they remained isolated and powerless even within the camp hierarchy.
During the Nazi era, between 5,000 and 15,000 men were imprisoned in concentration camps for the "crime" of homosexuality. Thousands of them died, and those who survived remained marked for the rest of their lives.
In the late 19th century, nascent and growing homosexual communities had emerged in Germany even though homosexuality was illegal at the time. Political and social conditions even allowed people to campaign publicly for the decriminalization of sexual relations between men and for the repeal of Paragraph 175, which had banned such relations since 1871.
Before coming to power, Adolf Hitler and many other Nazi leaders condemned Weimar culture as decadent and degenerate. During the Weimar Republic, from 1918 to 1933, Germany experienced a flowering of art and science as well as open expressions of sexuality, including the visibility of homosexual communities. Some prominent Nazis, such as Alfred Rosenberg and Heinrich Himmler, were openly homophobic. Hitler and other Nazi leaders, however, rarely spoke publicly about homosexuality, focusing instead on issues such as the creation of a Greater Germany, the Jews, and the economy.
On legal policy concerning the German criminal code, the Nazi Party opposed efforts to decriminalize sexual relations between men and to abolish Paragraph 175. During parliamentary debates, the Nazis claimed that sexual relations between men were a destructive vice that would lead to the decay of the German nation. The party condemned homosexuality as a deviation from normal behavior, contrary to its core idea of a purer Aryan population and proper family life. The Nazis saw the purpose of sexual relations as reproduction rather than pleasure and regarded homosexuality as a threat to the superior Aryan race, arguing that such relations should be punished even more severely than existing German law allowed.
Yet even within the Nazi movement there were known homosexuals, above all Ernst Röhm, who described himself as oriented toward the same sex. Röhm was commander of the SA, a paramilitary organization linked to the Nazi Party, also known as the Sturmabteilung and the Brownshirts because of the color of their uniforms. For Ernst Röhm, his sexuality was not in conflict with Nazi ideology and did not threaten his role as SA commander. His conception did not mean legalization of sexual relations between men, support for liberal democratic rights, or tolerance. Rather, he believed it meant overcoming mainstream morality. Röhm wrote that the prudishness of some of his Nazi colleagues did not strike him as revolutionary.
Röhm's sexuality was a public secret in the Nazi Party, one that turned into a public scandal in 1931 when left-wing newspapers reported on it. Despite the controversy, Hitler stood by his loyal adjutant and longtime friend and allowed him to remain at the head of the SA until 1934, when he ordered Röhm's execution. Hitler yielded to pressure from German army commanders whose support he would need if he were to assume presidential powers. He tasked the SS, led by Heinrich Himmler, with murdering not only Röhm but also 300 of his men, some of whom were also homosexual.
Even before Röhm's murder, his position in the Nazi leadership did nothing to soften the movement's stance toward homosexuality and homosexual communities. When the Nazis came to power on January 30, 1933, they sought to break up the existing homosexual culture and networks that had formed during the Weimar Republic, the years 1918 to 1933. One of the regime's first measures against gay communities was the closure of gay bars and other meeting places across Germany. In cities such as Berlin and Hamburg, however, some established venues were able to remain open until the mid-1930s, and underground meeting places stayed open even later. The closure of bars and increased police surveillance made it considerably harder for homosexuals to make contact with one another.
Another early action of the Nazi regime was the destruction of newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses for homosexuals. Newspapers had been one of the main means of communication in German gay communities. In addition, the regime forced the dissolution of homosexual associations.
In the next stage, from the turn of 1933 and 1934, the Nazis used new laws and police practices to arrest and detain a limited number of homosexuals without trial. This was part of a broader Nazi effort to reduce crime. The regime ordered police to arrest people previously convicted of sexual offenses, such as public exhibitionism, sexual intercourse with a minor, and incest. Among those arrested were a number of homosexuals, some of whom were imprisoned in the regime's first concentration camps.
The Nazi German judicial system also introduced castration into legal practice. From the end of 1933, courts could order compulsory castration for certain sexual offenders. At least initially, however, men arrested under Paragraph 175 could not be castrated without their consent, though sometimes voluntary castration could secure early release from prison.
One of these men was Friedrich Paul von Groszheim, one of 230 homosexual men arrested by the SS in January 1937. Von Groszheim was held for 10 months in a cell without heating, with very little food and no sanitary facilities. In 1938 he was arrested again and tortured. The Nazis eventually released him, but only on condition that he agree to castration. Friedrich Paul underwent the operation in 1943, was arrested a third time, and was placed in the Neuengamme concentration camp as a political prisoner. Von Groszheim survived the war and died in Hamburg in 2006 at the age of 99.
In the autumn of 1934, Reinhard Heydrich ordered police in all major cities to compile lists of known homosexuals. These lists became known as the "pink lists," although neither the Nazis nor the police called them that. At the end of 1934, the Gestapo, the official political police, raided gay bars and arrested homosexual men en masse. Most were not politically engaged. A number of them confessed to acts that were not punishable under Paragraph 175 and expected to be released. Instead, they were subjected to mistreatment and imprisonment in concentration camps such as Lichtenburg or Dachau.
These initial measures were only the beginning of the Nazi campaign against homosexuality. Three events between 1934 and 1936 radicalized the regime's campaign and led to more systematic oppression of gay people.
The first was the murder of Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders in June and July 1934. These killings changed the way Nazi propaganda spoke about homosexuality. Röhm and other SA leaders were murdered on Hitler's orders in a power struggle at the highest levels of the German government and the Nazi Party. After the purge, Nazi propaganda used Röhm's sexuality to justify the killings, aided by the prejudices of much of the German population toward people of homosexual orientation.
The second event was the June 1935 revision of Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code, which banned sexual relations between men. Under the new Nazi version of the law, a wide range of intimate and sexual behavior could be, and was, punished as criminal conduct. The Nazi revision also meant that far more people were convicted than before.
The third event was that in 1936, SS leader and German police chief Heinrich Himmler established the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion. The office was part of the Kripo, the criminal police, and worked closely with the Gestapo. Himmler, widely known for his homophobia, regarded both homosexuality and abortion as threats to Germany's birth rate and thus to the fate of the German nation.
In 1935 and 1936, the Nazi campaign against homosexuality intensified. From this period on, the regime focused less on closing places where homosexuals met. Instead, the Nazis prioritized arresting individuals under Paragraph 175. In the Nazi understanding, these men were homosexual offenders and therefore criminals and enemies of the state. Himmler believed that targeting these men was necessary to protect, strengthen, and expand the German nation. He ordered the criminal police and the Gestapo to campaign diligently against homosexuality, and they did.
These police forces used raids, denunciations, and harsh interrogation and torture methods to seek out and arrest men they believed had violated Paragraph 175. In the mid- and late 1930s, police conducted raids on bars and other places popular with homosexuals. They set up roadblocks around these places and questioned anyone who seemed suspicious. Some men caught in raids were released if no evidence was found against them. Those the police considered guilty were tried for violating Paragraph 175 or, in some cases, sent directly to a concentration camp.
Police raids were a public and conspicuous expression of the Nazi campaign against homosexuality. Through raids, police threatened and intimidated homosexual communities and individuals. Raids, however, were not particularly effective. The main means by which police sought men for alleged violations of Paragraph 175 were tips or denunciations from the public. A neighbor, acquaintance, colleague, friend, or family member could report their suspicion to the police. Many Germans tended to agree with the Nazi stance on homosexuality. Informers labeled those they denounced as effeminate, unmanly, and depraved.
Unlike raids, denunciations were a highly effective tool of repression and led to perhaps tens of thousands of arrests and convictions. The Gestapo and Kripo interrogated men caught in raids as well as those arrested on the basis of denunciations. During these often physically and psychologically brutal interrogations, police frequently insisted on a full confession. Under the pressure of harsh interrogation and torture methods, men were forced to name their sexual partners, which in turn helped police identify further men to arrest and interrogate. In this way, police broke up entire networks of homosexual men.
Homosexuals responded to Nazi persecution in various ways and made different choices. Not everyone had a choice. Gay men whom the Nazi regime classified as Aryans had far more options than those classified as Jews, Roma, or Sinti. Jewish and Roma gay men faced persecution primarily on racial grounds.
Some gay men, especially those with financial means, could try to hide their sexuality and outwardly conform. Some broke off contact with their circle of friends or withdrew from public life. Others moved to new cities, to the countryside, or even to other countries. Some entered marriages of convenience.
There were homosexuals who took risks and stood up to the Nazi state for political and personal reasons. Some helped hide Jews or joined illegal anti-Nazi groups. Such was the case of Willem Arondeus, a homosexual member of the Dutch resistance who took part in an attack on the Amsterdam population registry office on March 27, 1943, during the German occupation of the Netherlands. His group managed to destroy 800,000 identification files of Jews and others sought by the Nazis, 15 percent of the records. Soon after the attack, however, his unit was betrayed, and on April 1, 1943, the Nazis arrested Arondeus. He confessed and took full responsibility, which may have been why two young doctors were spared execution and instead given prison sentences. Before his execution, Arondeus made sure the public learned that he and two other men in the group were homosexual. Through a friend or lawyer, he sent the message: "Tell people that homosexuals too can be brave." Willem Arondeus was executed on July 1, 1943, at the age of 48.
Not all of the roughly 100,000 men arrested under Paragraph 175 during the Nazi regime met the same fate. Arrest usually led to a trial. A court either acquitted the accused or convicted and imposed a fixed prison sentence. The conviction rate was approximately 50 percent. Most convicted men were released after serving their sentences. In rarer cases, the Kripo or Gestapo sent men directly to a concentration camp as homosexual criminals. Usually, though not always, men sent to camps in this way had multiple types of charges against them.
Between 5,000 and 15,000 men were imprisoned in concentration camps for the "crime" of homosexuality. This group of prisoners usually had to wear a badge with a pink triangle sewn onto their camp clothing. These badges served the SS guards to identify the reason for imprisonment. The pink triangle marked this group of prisoners as a separate category within the camp system.
According to many survivor testimonies, prisoners with pink triangles were among the most abused groups in the camps. SS guards killed homosexual prisoners out of cruelty or during sadistic games. It is recorded that SS men used the pink triangles on men's chests as targets for practice shooting. In mid-1942, nearly all 200 homosexual prisoners were executed at Sachsenhausen.
Prisoners with pink triangles were often assigned the hardest and most demanding work in the camp labor system. In camps such as Mauthausen and Flossenbürg, it was common practice to work homosexual prisoners to death, which was then masked as natural causes. They were often subjected not only to physical but also to sexual abuse. Prisoners with pink triangles were raped. In addition, they were beaten and publicly humiliated.
In the Buchenwald concentration camp, homosexual prisoners underwent experimental typhus treatment. They were also subjected to inhumane medical experiments, for example when attempts were made to change their sexual orientation by implanting a pellet that released testosterone. Most of the victims died shortly afterward. Homosexual prisoners were also used to test opiates and methamphetamine, or had phosphorus burns experimentally treated at Sachsenhausen. From November 1942, concentration camp commanders officially had the right to order forced castration of prisoners with pink triangles.
Fearing accusations of complicity in homosexual conduct, even their already prejudiced fellow prisoners avoided them, leaving them isolated and powerless within the camp hierarchy. Homosexual prisoners rarely benefited from the solidarity of other prisoners, which for many camp inmates provided tools for survival such as access to food and clothing.
Josef Kohout, imprisoned under Paragraph 175, was 24 years old when he was arrested in March 1939, after his Christmas greeting to his lover was intercepted. After the war, he recalled how at Sachsenhausen, where he arrived in January 1940, homosexuals were not allowed to hold any position, to speak with prisoners from other blocks or with other designations, because they were thought to try to seduce other prisoners. Their block was occupied only by homosexuals, with about 250 men in each wing. At night it was so cold that a centimeter of ice formed on the window panes. Even so, these prisoners had to sleep in nightshirts with their hands above the blanket. This was meant to prevent masturbation. Several checks took place every night, and anyone caught without underwear or with hands under the blanket was taken outside, where several buckets of water were poured over him and he had to stand outside in the freezing cold for an hour. Only a few people survived this treatment. They were also forbidden to come closer than 5 meters to other blocks, and anyone caught doing so was whipped on a bench and given at least 15 to 20 lashes. Josef Kohout survived the war and in 1946 met his partner, with whom he stayed until his death in 1994. He was 79.
The fact that these prisoners were German-speaking gave them some protection in the concentration camps, because it could secure them access to less demanding work assignments, for example administrative positions. Some younger and more attractive men could gain advantages from a sexual relationship with a kapo or an SS guard. Typically, however, the isolated position of homosexual prisoners made survival considerably harder. It is estimated that at least 3,100 to 3,600 prisoners with pink triangles died in the camps.
Homosexuals could be imprisoned and persecuted in concentration camps for reasons other than their sexuality as well. Some homosexuals were sent to camps as political opponents, Jews, or members of other prisoner categories. In these cases their sexuality was usually a secondary reason for their imprisonment, and they wore the badge corresponding to their official prisoner category.
World War II began on September 1, 1939. Although arrests of men under Paragraph 175 continued throughout the war years, the number of arrests declined as the needs of total war took precedence over the Nazi campaign against homosexuality. Many men convicted under Paragraph 175 joined or were drafted into the German army. The army needed reinforcements and in most cases regarded a soldier's sexuality as secondary.
Such was the case of Albrecht Becker, a German set designer, photographer, and actor whom the Nazi regime imprisoned on charges of homosexuality under Paragraph 175. Toward the end of the war, when the German army needed more men, Becker was released so that he could serve on the Eastern Front, where he served until 1944. Albrecht Becker was among those who survived the war and died in 2002 in the German city of Hamburg at the age of 95.
At the end of the war, the Nazis destroyed a large number of records, including the archive of the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion. Experts estimate that during the Nazi regime there were approximately 100,000 arrests under Paragraph 175, and more than 53,000 of them ended in conviction.
In the spring of 1945, Allied soldiers liberated the concentration camps and freed all prisoners, including those who wore the pink triangle. The end of the war and the defeat of the Nazi regime, however, did not necessarily bring a sense of liberation for homosexually oriented men. Not only did they remain pushed to the margins of society, but sexual relations between them remained illegal in Germany for most of the 20th century. Many men convicted of alleged violations of Paragraph 175 remained in prison after the war, and tens of thousands more were convicted in the postwar period.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in East Germany in 1968 and in West Germany a year later. Only in the 1990s did the German government recognize persecuted homosexuals as victims of the Nazi regime. When the government annulled Nazi sentences under Paragraph 175 in 2002, homosexuals who had suffered at the hands of the Nazis gained, for the first time, the right to financial compensation from the German government for the injustice committed against them.
Because of persistent prejudices against same-sex sexuality and the continued enforcement of Paragraph 175 for most of the 20th century, many homosexuals were afraid to share their testimonies or write memoirs. We must never forget these men, who either died or survived and remained marked until the end of their lives. Their story and suffering must forever remind us of the dangers of discrimination, racism, and hatred toward one another, because history often repeats itself.